Introductory
I was born in 1919, to a family of old Prussian landowners dispossessed by the Polish corridor. My family had filled positions in the army since the days of Frederick the Great and my father had achieved the rank of Oberst (colonel) in the Royal Army of Prussia. I was raised in an atmosphere of bitter resentment against the Versailles ‘Dictate’, and in poverty since the family estates had been sequestered without remuneration. My father got a monthly pension as a disabilitated soldier, but that was hardly enough for our large family to live on. One day my father came home glowing with pride. That was the first day he had heard Hitler. That was the day I heard about Hitler. That was the day that would change my life. Hitler not only changed my life, and that of my family, but the lives of billions of others, right up to the present day. Yet now, with the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if things might not have been better for the world if history had taken a different course. As I write these pages, quoting from the works of others, intermixing them with my own remarks, I wonder if you, the person who reads this, will feel the same way.
Chapter 1: Preparations
The Greatest War
Like many others of my generation I remember that first day of 1936 very well. The Declaration of Goodwill that Hitler gave that day was a masterpiece of the Propaganda Ministry.
He stood there under the great crane of the Germania Werft in Kiel and spoke of peace with honour and strength through wealth and wealth through trade. He spoke of the self determination of nations and the desire of all men to determine their own future. He spoke of the dignity of man and the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that he would do whatever lay within his power to give his people exactly those.
The German fleet would be reduced to the absolute minimum needed for the defence of the country. No submarines would be built by Germany, there would be an immediate halt to the production and development of artillery and German industry would be geared almost solely towards the construction of a merchant navy and the increase of industry and infrastructure. In exchange for this they would re occupy the Rhineland, taking control of their own economic destiny once more. Even the French had to grudgingly admit it sounded good.
After Hitler’s earlier belligerence, this seemed like a dream come true to many politicians. The speech was hailed as one of the greatest steps in world peace ever, a shining example to be followed by other nations of good will.
In hindsight it was the beginning of the end.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter, Library of Congress Publications, 1966.
Launch of the Admiral Graf Spee
Late in 1935 a letter arrived, carried by hand by a youthful member of the SS. It stated that a gentleman of some note would like to visit me in three days time, to discuss matters of importance to the state and nation, and if I would be at home to receive him. The messenger would wait to take my reply I agreed to be at home, wondering who the person might be, expecting a local flunky of the SS. I was much astonished when, three days later a car halted at my door, carrying the Führer himself. He greeted me most warmly, despite earlier altercations I had had with members of his party, and then apologized profusely for the actions of those members. I invited him into the study, where he sat in one of my large leather chairs and drank a glass of Sprüdel which I made for him at the side board. He looked less tired and more relaxed than he had been in a while. A tenseness that had been underlying had been removed. We spoke about general things, the economic slump, the infrastructural programs he had ordered, for a while, and then he asked me a question: would I accept an active commission as full general in the regular army, and would I be willing to undertake a possibly dangerous mission as commander. I was admittedly surprised by this offer, since the relationship between myself and the National Socialist Party could hardly be called cordial. So I was wary and asked him what mission he had in mind. He smiled at me, stating he thought it would be a mission I would not only find acceptable, but an honour. I must have looked at him somewhat sceptically, for he smiled more braodly, and then he leaned back in his chair and sipped his water, looking at me from hooded eyes. Then he told me I would be in command of the action to remilitarise the Rhineland. I must admit I was flabbergasted. The Führer seemed delighted at my shock. He stated that he was hoping the reoccupation could occur without military clashes, and that since the nation was not ready for a military confrontation the orders would be to withdraw if the occupying forces were to meet any military opposition. He told me that at such a time both of us would be finished, but at least I would have a pension of a full general. I had to laugh at that. He seemed to realise instinctively that I would accept both mission and commission: this was a service I had to undertake, to serve my Fatherland.
Then he leaned forward and asked me what I would do if our nation was occupied by foreign oppressors: would I strive for independence or would I continue to live in the squalor of subjugation? I answered I would fight of course. And he asked me if I did not want the same thing for my old comrades at arms. My astonishment this time must have been a sight to behold. He told me, then and there, that if it were ever within his power, all of former German East Africa would receive the protection of the Reich, with its full support but independent from it and a favoured nation trading position. Then he asked me again if I would serve in the army. I assented. He shook my hand and left. My commission to Generaloberst was in my hand that same evening, brought by special courier, as well as a letter stating I would receive back pay for the rank of Generalleutnant from the first of January 1921.
Field Marshall Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck,
Mein Leben, translated,
My life, BUV (Berliner Universitäts Verlag) 1950 (Translation J.C. Smuts)
The scrapping of the German Baltic fleet of two ships of force, the KMS Schleswig-Holstein and the KMS Schlesien, four destroyers as the light cruiser Emden was of course, a mere empty gesture, designed to placate foreign observers. Hitler had been convinced in late 1935 by senior officials at the Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine, most notably Vice admiral Alfred Saalwächter that the only way the German navy could seriously compete on the high seas was to build a high seas fleet. A demonstration on a Bavarian lake using a small plane and an old steel coal tug convinced the Führer that airplanes could be very effective in the destruction of naval vessels. Hitler’s own experiences as an airplane passenger during his electoral campaign confirmed this in his mind.
He ordered that naval construction and naval design be immediately geared towards the production of aircraft carriers and their support ships and that the Kriegsmarine implement plans to facilitate this. He also appointed Saalwächter to the new post of Chief Executive Admiral of the Navy and to the equally new position of Reichsmarineminister, an independent naval ministry no longer under the direct command of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.
Nor did the air arm of the navy fall under the Luftwaffe, a demand made by Goering.
KMS Schleswig-Holstein, on her way to being scrapped, entering Kiel harbour as onlookers wave her a fond farewell.
Much to the dismay of the Luftwaffe and the Heer (not to mention Himmler and his grandiose plans for the militarization of the SS) Hitler apportioned a great deal of the future income of the Reich to the navy. The hope they harboured in late 1935 that the mercurial Führer would change his mind was never fulfilled: once fully convinced of the power that carriers could project the Führer became almost obsessed with them, demanding daily updates of their progress and successes (and failures) later in the war.
His initial demand that the carriers be as modern as they could be led to an intensive period of planning and research into naval aviation which had no equal in the world. Großadmiral Saalwächter once told me that he had worried that Hitler’s seeming obsession with the most modern ships possible might lead to no ships at all, come the war we all knew would be needed to prove and re establish Germany’s superiority.
Baldur von Schirach,
Mein Führer und Ich, Translated
The Führer and Me, (W. Shirer, Nicolson Publications, 1965)
Hitler’s appointment of Hjalmar Schacht as Reichswirtschaftsminister and Reichsbankpräsident was inspired. Few others could have stimulated German production as the German-Danish genius. The preferment of the Reichsjustizminister Franz Gürtner over the Reichsinnernminister Wilhelm Frick caused a decrease in corruption and allowed a further expansion of the German economy by removing the excess grease from the wheels of commerce. Further changes in the cabinet were considered by the Führer, but he realised that too many changes at once might cause problems with the supporters of various wings within the Nazi party, or difficulties with the army. Upon the advice of his great favourite, admiral Saalwächter, Hitler held off on more new appointments.
Götz Aly,
Hitler’s Reichsministerien, Münich University Press, 1988
The re-occupation of the Rhineland was not a true military operation. Hitler was aware that the German army was ill prepared for all out war and did not want to exacerbate the situation by marching in under flags and trumpets thereby annoying France and England. The collapse of the Stresa pact due to the condemnation of the Italian actions in Ethiopia were an added bonus, as were the political situations in France and Britain. The British position was that the Rhineland belonged to Germany, probably most famously expressed by Lord Lothian that the Germans were strolling back into their own backyard.
The major annoyance in England was that the negotiated settlement that Sir Anthony Eden had wanted to achieve, thereby taming Hitler diplomatically, could not now be enacted. The fact of the matter was that there was no support for diplomatic or economic action to be undertaken against Germany among the British public, let alone support for a military intervention.
Added to this was the ratification in december 1935 of the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance. Even the British diplomats had to admit that with the existence of this treaty and the lack of integrated defence along the border Germany would be an easy target for any left wing attacks from France. And considering the fluidity of French politics and the uncertainty about the upcoming elections in France as well, the German desire to have solid positions held on the eastern banks of the Rhine was understandable.
The actual operation
Winterübing (Winter excercise) was fairly anticlimactic. Led by the famous Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck nineteen batallions of infantry, mostly mounted on bicycles and one battalion of cavalry entered the demilitirased zone and occupied positions formerly held by the French and English forces and the defensive positions on the Rhine. Von Lettow-Vorbeck contacted the Führer to report that French forces were massing on the opposite shore, but he was given assurance that the French would not cross. In his memoirs the Führer later noted that this was the moment in the history of the Reich when all could have fallen apart. Any opposition by the French would have caused the withdrawal of the German batallions, and the Fall of the Nazi government. As the Führer gleefully noted, „I have never been so glad of an election.“
David Howarth,
German Military Operations of the Second World War, 1955
The first battalion, first regiment of the Erste Schutzen-Kavallerie-Division enter Mainz under their newly appointed commander General-oberst Von Lettow-Vorbeck.
After a short period in early 1936 which the OKW ordered a large number of military supplies, allegedly for use in emergencies most of the German production was given over to expanding industry, especially maritime industry, with the projected growth of he merchant marine being such that it would outstrip the British merchant navy in some years time, and the automotive industry, with the intent of adapting the production capacity later for military use.
Research was steered towards industrial innovation as well as military applications. Hitler showed great interest in naval research and this fascination led to a great stimulus in the development of naval design.
Wolfgang Zorn
Ökonomische Vorbereitungen zum Größter Krieg. Goebbels, Schacht und Speer und der Vormundschaft der Deutschen Industrie. BUV (Berliner Universitäts Verlag) 1987