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Chapter III: Part XII

Part III: The Lion’s Den

Part XII


August 7, 1936

At this hour, the Berlin offices of the Völkischer Beobachter would normally be deserted as the staff dispersed for lunch, but today the second floor was in an almost delirious frenzy of activity that had lasted since the day before. Just after noon on the sixth, over-editor Bauer had burst onto the second floor shouting raggedly. The British government had fallen. There was precious little information, but no shortage of hope and conjecture. The junior staff was all certain: within a month, there would be peace. The joy of the thought was intoxicating. Over-editor Sassen had been skeptical. For more than an hour, he worked the phones, trying to figure out what was going on. A food inspector in Richard Walther Darré’s office had it from his brother in the SD that there had been a communist uprising in London. VB editor-in-chief Wilhelm Weiss didn’t know any more than Sassen did, but said he had been getting reports that there had been a fleet mutiny at Scapa Flow. One of Goebbels’ assistants denied reports of insurrection but believed that the House of Commons had passed a motion of no confidence. One of the staff photographers brought in several bottles of champagne, which were rapidly consumed. And then, the flash from Weiss in Munich. It was definitive: the government had not fallen. It seemed that there had indeed been a motion of no confidence, but the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin had narrowly survived.

“Numbers?” Ernst Trommler had asked Sassen across the room. The over-editor had not understood him over the din of editors working frantically to learn what had happened. “How close was the vote?”

“We don’t know yet. No matter what, we’ll write that it was very close.”

They had worked late into the night and returned early the next morning. Bit by bit, more information had come together. It appeared that the Labour Party, Britain’s primary opposition party, had initiated the motion following a piece in the Times highly critical of Prime Minister Baldwin’s prosecution of the war. Based on the best sources available, it seemed that the vote had indeed been close, perhaps as little as two dozen votes, following widespread rebellion in Baldwin’s own party.

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British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin found his government nearly ousted in a vote on August 6.



Now, Trommler was sifting through a file of names of contacts to select nine or ten for Sassen to call by telephone. Someone at the other end of the room was calling out names of British politicians who had voted against the government. None of the names meant anything to him. He returned to his work. Appel, Erika. Appel, Gerd. Arbe, Karl. The first two were brother and sister Professors, not well connected. Arbe, Trommler remembered, was a lawyer for the Foreign Ministry. He was likely the best they would get from the diplomats -- von Neurath, they were told, had gone home early, and none of his direct subordinates would talk without his permission. He copied down the telephone number for Sassen’s later use. In fact... Trommler remembered with a ripple of insight that he had accompanied Sassen to a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in which Arbe had telephoned von Neurath at his home. He would have the number that the over-editor needed. He picked up the paper on which he had written the number and marched to Sassen’s besieged office. He forced his way through the crowd and found the his boss sitting up straight in his chair, reading a several-page document which he had slipped out of a manila folder.

After several minutes, after having finished, Sassen nodded appraisingly. “Trommler, tell the others to be quiet and come closer.”

Clapping his hands, Trommler was able to call for silence. About a dozen editors crowded around the desk of Sassen, who now stood.

“The British Prime Minister gave a speech to their parliament less than two hours ago. I have here the text of the speech. A translated version will be forthcoming from the Foreign Ministry this afternoon. I shall read the original text first, then recapitulate its main points in German for those who need it.”

Trommler’s English left much to be desired, but his experience dealing with the British press made his comprehension rather good. He would imagine Baldwin's stuffy, highbrow voice delivering the speech, not Sassen's oily one.

“Although the failure of yesterday’s vote means that I am not compelled to answer the charges which were brought up in the course of that vote by the Opposition, the severity of their charges against the Government, and the importance of national solidarity in wartime, compel me to address those charges. I propose to make answer to two of these charges, those which I find most intolerable, made by the Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, and also, if I may, to answer one of the charges made during the same debate by the Honorable Member for South Shields.

“First, I should like to address this last point, because it is possible to do so most quickly. The question has been raised in the newspapers for some time, and in the debate yesterday by the Honorable Member for South Shields, whether the replacement of Lord Monsell as First Lord of the Admiralty was politically motivated. Allow me to state to this House in the most unequivocal terms: it was not. It was said in the press that because of public criticisms made against me by Lord Monsell with regard to the disposition of the Fleet prior to the Pact of May the Eleventh and the entry of the Italians into the war, and because of Monsell’s support for public criticisms of same by Admiral Chatfield, that I had him sacked. This is untrue. Lord Monsell’s performance in his position and his prosecution of the naval aspect of the war were the only considerations taken into account. After consultation with the Cabinet, an agreement was reached that better leadership was required in the Admiralty. There was a consensus that in mind of the prescient perception of the threat from Germany by Monsell’s predecessor, Chamberlain, that we should bring him back if he would accept. I offered, and he accepted. If I were the proud and petty sort of man who would sack Lord Monsell for political reasons, I surely would not replace him with a man who in his own turn had criticized me just as harshly.

“I would like to next address the first charge by the Leader of the Opposition, the Right Honorable Member for Limehouse. Mr. Attlee has contended that my incompetence is responsible for the destruction of lives and property lost to German bombers. He brought before this House a copy, neatly typed, of my speech four years ago in which I now famously warned that ‘The bomber will always get through.’ He spent some time on the point that had I only not caused the nation to despair of stopping hostile aeroplanes, we would now be in a position to shoot them out of the sky at will. There is this notion, and Attlee is not the only one to speak of it in this House, that had I only kept my mouth shut, we would naturally have developed the means to destroy any hostile aircraft we wish. This notion holds that we were making brilliant advances in that area until 1932, until I said those six words and all work came to a halt. The first, and I believe most obvious, reply to this, is that at the time I delivered that speech Attlee agreed with me. Before I gave that speech I consulted numerous military experts, all of whom concluded that what I was saying was the soundest thing -- and after I gave the speech almost everyone in the Commons seemed to find it perfectly sensible. Where were Mr. Attlee’s objections then? Or is it simply that he wishes to lash out in hindsight for personal gain?

“It is curious that only now he criticizes me for lacking Cassandra’s foresight. Do not forget that it was Mr. Attlee’s Labour which denounced rearmament even as German soldiers were crossing the bridges into the Rhineland. Do not forget that it was Mr. Attlee’s Labour which opposed the ordering of new battleships when the Germans launched the most modern one in the world. Do not forget that it was Mr. Attlee’s Labour which called for the reduction of our Mediterranean Fleet so as not to provoke war with the Italians. The Italians, Mr. Lansbury assured the Commons, had no ambitions against us in North Africa. I regret to say that the Italians were wishing us ill all along, so let us not talk of foresight!

“The second reply is that, to be plain, Mr. Attlee is wrong about the present situation. We are no more losing the air war than we are the war at sea; victories at every turn. In fact I must state humbly that throughout this year I was more right on the matter of the air war than I have been given credit for. At the start of the war, the General Staff was of the opinion that German air raids would cause mass hysteria among the people of Britain. On April eighth, a report was placed on my desk which estimated that within four months, casualties from air bombardment would have reached five million. Although they were the military experts, I replied that their figure was too high. It has now been four months, almost to the day, and through the valiant fight put up by our Royal Air Force, fewer than two thousand Britons have lost their lives.

“Make no mistake: the German attack has been blunted. Even now, hundreds of aeroplanes from around the Empire are being assembled for the further defense of the Home Islands. Within twenty miles of this chamber, dozens of planes are being built ‘round-the-clock, and when they are built we will work ‘round-the-clock to build dozens more. And they will join countless like them, old and new, to go back on the offensive, defeat the Germans, and drive them back, never again to maraud over the skies of England. Far more than simply to say that I am not responsible for the disasters in our skies, as Mr. Attlee suggests, I say that there have not been disasters in our skies, but rather laudable victories which he ought to give our armed forces credit for.

“Yet it is Mr. Attlee’s final claim, one echoed, I am pleased to say, by commendably few members of the Opposition, that I must answer most vigorously. Yesterday he said, quote: ‘He has prosecuted the war as one would were one only doing so to satisfy a diplomatic pledge, rather than serve a military necessity.’ What the Right Honorable Gentleman implies is that it is my intention only to fight this war insofar as it is useful to me politically. If that is so, then I have the blood of six thousand soldiers on my hands. Is that what he really means? If not, then it is a contemptible innuendo to suggest such a thing in the way he has. For he criticizes me for somehow not prosecuting the war aggressively enough, if I am to take that meaning from his statement to this House, or not being rash enough in our war conduct. The position of my opponents is self contradictory: I am first accused of stirring up a war where there ought be none, and then denounced for not prosecuting it wantonly enough.

“Let it be made plain that there are some members of this House, Mr. Attlee included, that were thundering just this past spring for a peace settlement. When in April I promised the French President the assistance of our Army and Navy, a member of this House called me a ‘self-interested warmonger’. Dear Mr. Orwell quipped to the press that my handling of the crisis did not even rise to the level of an uninspiring stuffed shirt, but that I am, rather, just a ‘hole in the air’. The central claim of these people is that I should have done more to send British soldiers to France, or even to Belgium, and that I am therefore responsible for the fall of those countries.

“In that matter I must with utmost sincerity recuse myself of any responsibility. The French generals were criticized even by their own government for acting irresolutely. They were overcautious and retreated before inferior German forces. As a result, the continuous front collapsed before an expeditionary force could be readied. Following the collapse of the front and the faltering of the French government’s will to make the whole of France into a battlefield, I was advised that precipitous landings in France would only endanger hundreds of thousands of soldiers, as well as our future capacity to carry on the war. Unless Mr. Attlee would have me ignore the counsel of our generals and take action based on my own insoluble sense of what is politically right -- which I believe is the very sort of thing he is at the same time accusing me of -- I was bound to accept their professional judgment. Again, it was through their own indecision that the French brought about this dismal repeat of the disasters of 1870. I was never in a position to reverse the situation myself.

“Yet that is as it is. Let us return for a moment to my speech which Mr. Attlee so eagerly quoted from yesterday. For he seems to have omitted another phrase, just as widely quoted at the time at which the speech was given. ‘The only defense,’ I said, ‘lies in offense.’ With most of France now under German occupation, it will fall to Britain to restore Europe. At this very hour, French and British soldiers are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the Italians in the sands of North Africa. Although they are more numerous than we are, our soldiers are superior in training and leadership. Some day, we shall drive them out of Africa. Then, some number of months or perhaps a year from now, French and British soldiers will return to France and drive the Germans out, marching all the way to Berlin if necessary. This is my pledge.

“In the mean time, our island is safe. Our people are strong. Our will is intact. My foremost interest, in this hour of renewed European war, is the successful conclusion of that war. Never have I placed any interest above that of Country, and with God’s help I will not waver in the months ahead. I ask the continued faith of the Commons in this endeavor, and that of the British people, whose faith I have never doubted.”

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Baldwin’s speech, although generally well-received in the Commons, was criticized in the British press for being blustery and overly defensive.

There was enthusiastic applause -- probably more for Sassen’s reading than Baldwin’s oratory, Trommler realized.

Over-editor Bauer spread his hands out before him, visualizing a headline. “British Government Nearly Collapses. Defensive Premier denies ‘all responsibility’.”

Lorenz Sassen seemed less than pleased. “‘Nearly collapses,’ ahm, ‘nearly collapses,” he buzzed. “No, no, no. That’s no good. That tells readers that although it came close to collapsing, it will not collapse. You need a stronger phrase that keeps the focus on ‘collapse’.”

“On the brink of collapse?” piped Trommler.

“Yes, much better. British Government on the Brink of Collapse. And something tells me that the translation from the Foreign Minister’s office might be a little bit too sympathetic to the British. Someone must take a second look at that. And Baldwin’s remarks are to have as little context as possible, yes?”

The editors gathered around Sassen’s desk voiced their agreement.

“No time to lose then. The Lion is wounded.”
 
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I am looking forward to seeing this lot spinning away when (if?) something goes wrong for Germany.

Can they deploy their formidable propaganda skills and spineless servitude to the state when things aren't going so well? Or, as I suspect, will we never get a chance to find out. ;)
 
Heh. British government on the brink of collapse. I wonder how VB will react when/if Churchill is brought in to clean up the mess.
 
Heh. British government on the brink of collapse.

Isn#t that the usual practice when the Frogs get their customary shoeing?
 
Isn#t that the usual practice when the Frogs get their customary shoeing?

Hmmm. Lemme check the wiki...

Gladstone managed to stick around until 1874, Asquith managed to hold a coalition together until the end of 1916... Any earlier than that and it's the British applying the shoe, so why bother?
 
dublish (1) - That remains to be seen, but at least Churchill knew how to dish it right back out in equal measure.

trekaddict - I think three times counts as usual :D.

dublish (2) - Go much further back and we're into the era where Britons didn't even bother with voting their leaders out and just executed them :rofl:.
 
Hello to you all, just wanted to say that I have started reading this AAR a few days ago, and it really captivated me. I haven`t read all that many AAR`s but I`m quite sure this is one of the best out there.

Congratulations Mr. TheHyphenated1 for your amazing writing style and all the hard work you put in this. I registered just to be able to say this as I could not stop reading Weltkriegschaft for the last few days.

Now I am going to wait the next update as it will surely be great.
 
AlexRo - I very much appreciate your taking the time to register so you could post your praise and encouragement. One of the best things about AARland is not being able to decide whether it's more satisfying to get comments from first-time readers or the trusted old veterans -- so far the answer is both! Being relatively new to these forums myself, I can especially identify with new readers such as yourself. Well welcome aboard and I look forward to hearing from you more!
 
What about the German resistance? Are they still alive?
 
What about the German resistance? Are they still alive?

Last I remember, they were caught off-guard by the suspension of the Berlin Olympics and are trying to regroup and plan another assassination attempt.

I could be wrong, though.
 
Kurt_Steiner, dublish - dublish remembers correctly. The surviving remnants of the Reinickendorf Circle, the most significant being Kappel and von Yorck are dispirited and trying to figure out their next move. Discontent with the regime is presently quite low, so their best hope (though they don't know about it yet) is a disastrous Loewengrube. It's possible that the Officer Corps might become very dissatisfied if they feel an invasion of England is guaranteed to fail, but even at that, many of them would rather be defeated on the beaches rather than snatched out of their homes and brought before Freisler and the Volksgerichtshof on suspicion of having conspired with traitors.
 
Nice update....now finish the bloke off....

KLorberau
 
Enewald - They're trying, but it's no easy matter, to say the least ;).

KLorberau - Thanks! Next installment coming along nicely.
 
Chapter III: Part XIII

Chapter III: The Lion’s Den

Part XIII


August 20, 1936

In Adolf Hitler’s favored conference room in the Reichschancellery, a small conclave of the Reich’s leaders had just sealed the fate of a nation of eight million people. Cristoph Scholl dutifully took the minutes as the Führer hashed over his latest war plan with Canaris, Göring, von Fritsch and the young general staffer who had been sent in Bayerlein’s place.

Hitler’s spymaster had given the first presentation. Although the leader of the Abwehr team in Utrecht had been arrested, Canaris had said, the other agents had been able to successfully smuggle Dirk Jan de Geer’s body back to Germany for testing. The records of the Dutch autopsy, photographed and studied in Berlin, had shown no indication of foul play. The exhaustive German testing of the body had been inconclusive -- tissues showed signs of hypoxic damage consistent with some types of poisoning, but this could also be found in many victims of normal strokes and embolisms.

Preliminary intelligence suggested that the coffin supposedly carrying the former prime minister’s body had been buried without incident, but Canaris was guarded about his level of certainty. He expressed more confidence, though, that the Abwehr agent who had been captured would not divulge any aspect of the operation. Unless the Dutch uncharacteristically handed him over to the British SIS, there would be little real danger.

Having already heard from Canaris everything he wanted to hear in a private meeting the day before, Hitler had promptly informed his lieutenants that in spite of any doubts he intended to take action against the Netherlands. Again and again he had reiterated his fear that the Dutch were on the brink of being pulled into the Allied camp. In such a case, he envisioned, an Anglo-French expeditionary force landing in Holland and securing its defensive ring of forts an stop lines. The Allied command could then mass a large army at its leisure -- nearly a million men, Hitler guessed -- before attacking with overwhelming force the following spring. The Warlord knew that such a loss of initiative could prove ultimately fatal to the Reich, and stated his desire to avert it at all costs. German success lay in keeping enemy soldiers from even setting foot on the Continent.

Now it was the turn of the general staffer, a young lieutenant-colonel with horn-rimmed glasses who, like Bayerlein, was a Bavarian. Also like Bayerlein, he had a reputation for personal courage, punctuated by the famed Pour le Mérite which hung from his neck.

“This,” Hitler said, “is Oberstleutnant Schörner. He has been sent in Bayerlein’s place today.”

“Thank you very much, Mein Führer. I have here the latest draft of the General Staff’s -- well, HKK’s -- war plan.” Schörner opened his briefcase and set a stack of documents on the table but did not look at them.

“Go on,” Hiter said, furrowing his brow.

“The general plan of Operation Gewürz is something of a pincer. Two large armies will pour across the border simultaneously -- one from the north and one from the south. The Dutch divisions caught in the middle will either be shattered or forced to fall back across their final defensive line. This is the Old Water Line, which they recently abandoned in favor of a new one farther to the east, but are now refortifying. At the same time they have begun work on a line further to the north and east called the Grebbe Line, which runs all the way to the IJsselmeer.

“We will enter the country with two armies, the second and the third, totaling just in excess of 420,000 men. As General von Fritsch has been informed, he will work closely with HKK to determine who will command each army and its subunits.”

“Who have you been thinking of?” Hitler broke in. “Tell us what their strengths and weaknesses are, skills, perhaps.”

“Perhaps,” Canaris said, “we can have a separate meeting just to discuss that. Pray let Oberstleutnant Schörner continue.”

The Führer nodded.

“The -- the General Staff estimates that in such force we can move through the north of the country rather rapidly. In the country between the border and the IJsselmeer, the obstacles are primarily natural ones. Within perhaps no more than five or six days, 2. Armee can secure the entire eastern part of the country.

“The situation in the south is far more complex. For although the Dutch do not have any major permanent fortifications along their border with Belgium, there are many water obstacles, in addition to further areas which can be flooded in the event of war. Additionally, the Dutch have just now begun the construction of a series of fortifications just back from the old Belgian border. Although the larger works will not be completed in time for Gewürz, they already have quite a few pillboxes and artillery emplacements ready and operational. And so, 3. Armee will have to take its time grinding through these obstacles. Perhaps three days from the start of operations, it can have reached the fortifications along the Old Water Line. At this point it will wait for some sixty hours to reorganize and link up with 2. Armee, which will be driving from the the east. Together, they will launch a massive assault on Holland proper. The major cities of the country are all in this area, and it is very densely populated. The overwhelming force of the two combined armies will turn this area into a killing zone, leaving the Dutch field armies with nowhere to go but into the sea.

“Meanwhile, Luftwaffe bombers will pummel the rail network and the strategic areas. Fighters will then strafe the roads and highways. The Dutch defensive strategy entails a defense in depth, which means that they must fall back from one defensive line to another. The movement that this necessitates leaves their units vulnerable on clogged roads. As we saw in France, this rear-area confusion and chaos is integral to the success of our battle plan.

“Thus, within no more than 180 hours, the entire nation will be in German hands. We have calculated potential British reaction times to this, even allowing for quick-witted and decisive action from them, which is unlikely. It would take at least five days for the British to mobilize all their regular divisions in England. This is the time it would take for these five divisions to have all their men called up, equipment stockpiled, and so on. Simultaneous with the five days would be the six to eight days which it would take them to gather enough operational troop transport ships to carry these five divisions from all over the Empire, and mass them on the east coast of England. Using the figure six days, it will take a further two days to embark all the troops and half a day sailing. Thus, even if the British begin preparations to invade the Netherlands the moment that Operation Gewürz has begun, they could not land in force sooner than 216 hours later.”

Canaris looked dubious. “If as you fear, Mein Führer, the British have been planning this invasion themselves, it would seem that they would be much more ready than this calculus allows. If they truly are planning to invade the Netherlands with these same troops, then mobilization might require only two or three days, at the end of which sufficient shipping could be assembled if commercial vessels are pressed into service by the Royal Navy. In fact, the spies in Ireland -- the cell called George -- report increasing military transport shipping in the Irish Sea. Given the best extrapolations of ship positions, the Abwehr believes it entirely reasonable for all the required vessels to be in place by the time the expeditionary force is mobilized. Getting them onto the ships could take as little as a day, plus sailing for half a day makes, what? 84 hours? By which time, 3. Armee will be lucky to have reached the Old Water Line, behind which both Dutch and British troops could now mass with impunity.”

“And if they did!” Göring puffed. “It is still only five divisions against our thirty-some! For the British to land an army even remotely comparable to our own would take... A long time.” The Lufwaffe chief looked at Schörner.

“At least six weeks, according to General Bayerlein.”

General von Fritsch, thus far unable to get a word in edgewise, despite not inconsiderably trying, found an opening. “The real question, I believe, is not what Bayerlein thinks he can prognosticate about what the British will do and when. His guess is certainly no better than mine, and I admit I cannot say with anything approaching certainty. The real question is how certainly we can overcome the Dutch themselves.”

“HKK believes that the force of the assault makes this virtually certain, and virtually certain to be quick,” Schörner said. “The Dutch army, the Koninklijke Landmacht, has about a quarter of a million men. Due to limited staff and equipment, however, they only amount to seven large divisions. Their armored vehicles number in the low dozens, and their air force is also small. To add some perspective, their common soldier is outfitted essentially as a Dutch soldier would have been in nineteen hundred and four. In the face of a rapid armored advance, close air support and behind-the-lines envelopment, they will be thrown into chaos.”

“Behind-the-lines envelopment?” Hitler asked.

von Fritsch set down his glass of mineral water firmly. “Following the successes of the glider-based operations early in the war, Bayerlein is pushing for a direct assault upon the Hague in the early hours of the war, with the aim of capturing the Dutch government in one fell swoop. The Luftwaffe and the Heer are quite hesitant, however. Oberst Student -- the architect of Eben-Emael -- believes that the assault pioneers have been too badly stretched. Although he is expanding the size of the glider-based force very rapidly, the training involved is very precise. It is simply impossible to throw them into battle before they are ready. With so many losses in France, Student believes that it would be foolish to risk further devastating losses in Holland in a campaign that is sure to be won anyway -- at the risk of having the Glider and Parachute Arm weakened and unprepared next year during the invasion of Britain, the success of which may decisively depend on its readiness.”

Scholl could see that Hitler was torn. von Fritsch was making -- with nods from both Canaris and Göring -- very sensible points, but the Führer’s strange trust in Bayerlein seemed usually transcendent. The Admiral appeared to just start to say something in support of von Fritsch when the bespectacled lieutenant colonel forcefully resumed his presentation.

“Furthermore, the population in Friesland can be expected to be far friendlier to Germany than that of the France-loving south. The invasion may in fact bring quite a few sympathizers into the open, and throughout Friesland and Groningen we can expect extensive assistance from the civilian population.”

Canaris cleared his throat. “If I may...”

“This will give us the advantage of excellent reconnaissance as well as an advantage in rooting out --”

“If I may...”

Hitler glanced in the admiral’s direction.

“Mein Führer, while the Oberstleutnant is correct that civilian sentiments in the north and east of the Netherlands are generally more favorable in this south, this is not the whole picture. While I acknowledge that it may well be possible to arouse very significant tensions between the Friesians and the Dutch, this would only be possible through a long and deliberate propaganda campaign. This would defeat our larger war aims of striking quickly and without warning. I assure you that when they see German warplanes streaking through their skies on some autumn morning, and find hundreds of thousands of foreign soldiers barreling their country without warning, the Friesians will be moved not by rousing pan-Germanic sentiment but by blind terror. The sudden terror of the invasion will leave the population ill-disposed to offer significant help. If there is any question of how best to assess this situation I will meet with Bayerlein personally tomorrow afternoon and see to it that he has the very best information from which to formulate his perspicacious insights.”

With an abrupt squeak, the Führer pushed his chair back and paced over to the window. Looking out over Berlin, he elevated his voice to carry back to the conference table. “What do I need to authorize for the invasion to go forward?”

“That depends, Mein Führer,” Schörner replied, “upon your desired target date for operations to begin.”

“What is the soonest you can be ready to launch the offensive?”

“No earlier than a month from now. This would, of course, necessitate an accelerated transfer of divisions northward -- both to guard France’s northern coastline, and to stage around the Dutch border.”

Hitler turned back from the window. “Accelerated compared to what?”

“The Chief of Operations,” Schörner said, pointing at von Fritsch, who bristled at the reference, “has urged a greater degree of slowness than HKK in transferring divisions.”

“Restraint, Mein Führer, restraint,” von Fritsch clarified. “I have consulted the field commanders and military administrators of French territory and they want more time to secure the countryside, and to not risk unnecessary casualties against the remaining French units.”

“What progress has this restraint achieved so far?” Hitler asked, walking back to the table and sitting down once more.

“In the past week, the last remaining French units in the Rhône valley have surrendered. Now the only significant holdouts are in the depths of the Black Forest, near the Swiss border -- the remnants of France’s Fourth Army. They have only the strength of several battalions, but they are well-entrenched and HGr.KdoA has decided it would be too costly to try to overrun them.”

Hitler rose from his seat and bent over the map. With two fingers he gently tapped the spot in Baden-Württemberg where the French remained. “This is an unacceptable delay. The French were beaten back in June. Yet for three months they have still offered resistance despite everything. Tomorrow von Küchler is to order a final all-out assault on the Fourth Army’s positions.

von Fritsch nodded without argument. “Yes, Mein Führer.”

“Furthermore,” the Warlord continued, “there is to be no glider-borne attack upon the Hague. At the same time, HKK may investigate the possibility of an amphibious landing near the Hague by troops embarked at Zeebrugge in Belgium.”

Schörner offered no more resistance than von Fritsch had.

“Scholl, have Fräulein Wolf get von Neurath in here later this afternoon. The pretext for war must naturally be that the British have been preparing to violate Dutch neutrality themselves. Everything must be neatly done in time. I should not like to wait longer than the end of September.”

Just before sitting down to his dinner, Adolf Hitler had signed Operation Gewürz into effect, setting into motion Germany’s plan to close the Allies' last potential foothold in Europe.
 
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So the Fuhrer chooses war again....as if he wasnt inclined to do so.....Let the battle begin........

KLorberau