The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer

Author:William L. Shirer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781451651683
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1960-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

* Hitler’s proclamation to the Army announcing the opening of hostilities was broadcast over me German radio at 5:40 A.M., and the newspaper extras were on the street shortly after. See below, p. 599.

* The German operation to seize the Dirschau bridge over the Vistula before the Poles could blow it up had been planned early in the summer and appears constantly in the papers for “Case White.” It was specifically ordered in Hitler’s Directive No. 1 on August 31. Actually the operation failed, partly because early-morning fog hampered the dropping of paratroopers who were to seize the bridge. The Poles succeeded in blowing it up just in time.

* See above, pp. 566–67.

† See above, p. 588.

‡ Actually Mussolini’s decision was conveyed to Britain the night before. At 11:15 P.M. on August 31 the Foreign Office received a message from Sir Percy Loraine in Rome: “Decision of the Italian Government is taken. Italy will not fight against either England or France … This communication made to me by Ciano at 21:15 [9:15 P.M.] under seal of secrecy.”10

That evening the Italians had been given a scare by the British cutting off all telephone communication with Rome after 8 P.M. Ciano feared it might be the prelude to an Anglo–French attack.

* At 4:30 P.M., following a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Rome, the Italian radio broadcast the Council’s announcement “to the Italian people that Italy will take no initiative in the way of military operations.” Immediately afterward Hitler’s message to Mussolini releasing Italy from its obligations was broadcast.

* Twice during the afternoon of September 1, Bonnet instructed Noël, the French ambassador in Warsaw, to ask Beck if Poland would accept the Italian proposal for a conference. Later that evening he received his reply: “We are in the midst of war as the result of unprovoked aggression. It is no longer a question of a conference but of common action which the Allies should take to resist.” Bonnet’s messages and Beck’s reply are in the French Yellow Book.

The British government did not associate itself with Bonnet’s efforts. A Foreign Office memorandum signed by R. M. Makins notes that the British government “was neither consulted nor informed of this démarche.”15

† The previous afternoon, on instructions from Halifax, Henderson had burned his ciphers and confidential documents and officially requested the United States chargé d’affaires “to be good enough to take charge of British interests in the event of war.” (British Blue Book, p. 21.)

* Ciano claims that the note was sent as the result of “French pressure.” (Ciano Diaries, p. 136.) But this is surely misleading. Though Bonnet was doing all he could to get a conference, Mussolini was pushing the proposal even more desperately.

* The minutes of the meeting, drawn up by General Decamp, chief of Premier Daladier’s military cabinet, came to light at the Riom trial. The paper was never submitted to other members of the meeting for correction, and General Gamelin in his book, Servir, claims it was so abbreviated as to be misleading.

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