The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

by William L. Shirer

  Nevertheless he had to do something to prosecute the war against the British, now that the invasion of Britain had proved impossible. Hardly had the Fuehrer returned to Berlin before the need to act was further impressed upon him by the fiasco of the Duce’s armies in Greece. Within a week, the “victorious” Italian attack there had been turned into a rout. On November 4 Hitler called a war conference at the Chancellery in Berlin to which he summoned Brauchitsch and Halder from the Army and Keitel and Jodl from OKW. Thanks to Halder’s diary and a captured copy of Jodl’s report to the Navy on the conference, we know the warlord’s decisions, which were embodied in Directive No. 18 issued by Hitler on November 12, the text of which is among the Nuremberg records.48

  The German Navy’s influence on Hitler’s strategy became evident, as did the necessity for doing something about the faltering Italian ally. Halder noted the Fuehrer’s “lack of confidence” in Italian leadership. As a result it was decided not to send any German troops to Libya until Marshal Rodolfo Graziani’s army, which in September had advanced sixty miles into Egypt to Sidi Barrâni, had reached Mersa Matrûh, a further seventy-five miles along the coast, which was not expected before Christmas, if then. In the meantime plans were to be made to send a few dive bombers to Egypt to attack the British fleet in Alexandria and mine the Suez Canal.

  As for Greece, the Italian attack there, Hitler admitted to his generals, had been a “regrettable blunder” and unfortunately had endangered Germany’s position in the Balkans. The British by occupying Crete and Lemnos had achieved air bases from which they could easily bomb the Rumanian oil fields and by sending troops to the Greek mainland threatened the whole German position in the Balkans. To counter this danger Hitler ordered the Army to prepare immediately plans to invade Greece through Bulgaria with a force of at least ten divisions which would be sent first to Rumania. “It is anticipated,” he said, “that Russia will remain neutral.”

  But it was in regard to destroying Britain’s position in the western Mediterranean that most of the conference of November 4 and most of the ensuing Directive No. 18 was devoted.

  Gibraltar will be taken [said the directive] and the Straits closed.

  The British will be prevented from gaining a foothold at another point of the Iberian peninsula or the Atlantic islands.

  “Felix” was to be the code name for the taking of Gibraltar and the Spanish Canary Islands and the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands. The Navy was also to study the possibility of occupying Portugal’s Madeira and the Azores. Portugal itself might have to be occupied. “Operation Isabella” would be the cover name for that, and three German divisions would be assembled on the Spanish–Portuguese frontier to carry it out.

  Finally, units of the French fleet and some troops were to be released so that France could defend her possessions in Northwest Africa against the British and De Gaulle. “From this initial task,” Hitler said in his directive, “France’s participation in the war against England can develop fully.”

  Hitler’s new plans, as enunciated to the generals on November 4 and laid down in the directive a week later, went into considerable military detail—especially on how Gibraltar was to be taken by a daring German stroke—and apparently they impressed his Army chiefs as bold and shrewd. But in reality they were half measures which could not possibly achieve their objectives, and they were based partly on his deceiving his own generals. He assured them on November 4, Halder noted, that he had just received Franco’s renewed promise to join Germany in the war, but this, as we have seen, was not quite true. The objectives of driving the British out of the Mediterranean were sound, but the forces allotted to the task were quite insufficient, especially in view of Italy’s weaknesses.

  The Naval War Staff pointed this out in a toughly worded memorandum which Raeder gave Hitler on November 14.49 The Italian disaster in Greece—Mussolini’s troops had now been hurled back into Albania and were still retreating—had not only greatly improved Britain’s strategic position in the Mediterranean, the sailors pointed out, but enhanced British prestige throughout the world. As for the Italian attack on Egypt, the Navy told Hitler flatly: “Italy will never carry out the Egyptian offensive.* The Italian leadership is wretched. They have no understanding of the situation. The Italian armed forces have neither the leadership nor the military efficiency to carry the required operations in the Mediterranean area to a successful conclusion with the necessary speed and decision.”

  Therefore, the Navy concluded, this task must be carried out by Germany. The “fight for the African area,” it warned Hitler, is “the foremost strategic objective of German warfare as a whole … It is of decisive importance for the outcome of the war.”

  But the Nazi dictator was not convinced. He had never been able to envisage the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa as anything but secondary to his main objective. As Admiral Raeder elaborated to him the Navy’s strategic conceptions in their meeting on November 14, Hitler retorted that he was “still inclined toward a demonstration with Russia.”50 In fact, he was more inclined than ever, for Molotov had just departed Berlin that morning after so arousing the Fuehrer’s ire. When the Admiral next saw his chief a couple of days after Christmas to report on how the bus had been missed in the Mediterranean, Hitler was not unduly perturbed. To Raeder’s argument that the victory of Britain over the Italians in Egypt† and the increasing material aid which she was receiving from America necessitated the concentration of all German resources to bring the British down, and that Barbarossa ought to be postponed until “the overthrow of Britain,” Hitler turned an almost deaf ear.

  “In view of present political developments and especially Russia’s interference in Balkan affairs,” Hitler said, “it is necessary to eliminate at all costs the last enemy remaining on the Continent before coming to grips with Britain.” From now on to the bitter end he would stick fanatically to this fundamental strategy.

  As a sop to his naval chief, Hitler promised to “try once more to influence Franco” so that the attack against Gibraltar could be made and the Mediterranean closed to the British fleet. Actually, he had already dropped the whole idea. On December 11 he had quietly ordered, “Operation Felix will not be carried out as the political conditions no longer exist.” Nagged by his own Navy and by the Italians to keep after Franco, Hitler made one final effort, though it was painful to him. On February 6, 1941, he addressed a long letter to the Spanish dictator.

  … About one thing, Caudillo, there must be clarity: we are fighting a battle of life and death and cannot at this time make any gifts …

  The battle which Germany and Italy are fighting will determine the destiny of Spain as well. Only in the case of our victory will your present regime continue to exist.51

  Unfortunately for the Axis, the letter reached the Caudillo on the very day that Marshal Graziani’s last forces in Cyrenaica had been wiped out by the British south of Benghazi. Little wonder that when Franco got around to replying—on February 26, 1941—though protesting his “absolute loyalty” to the Axis, he reminded the Nazi leader that recent developments had left “the circumstances of October far behind” and that their understanding of that time had become “outmoded.”

  For one of the very few times in his stormy life, Adolf Hitler conceded defeat. “The long and short of the tedious Spanish rigmarole,” he wrote Mussolini, “is that Spain does not want to enter the war and will not enter it. This is extremely tiresome since it means that for the moment the possibility of striking at Britain in the simplest manner, in her Mediterranean possessions, is eliminated.”

  Italy, not Spain, however, was the key to defeating Britain in the Mediterranean, but the Duce’s creaky empire was not equal to the task of doing it alone and Hitler was not wise enough to give her the means, which he had, to accomplish it. The possibility of striking at Britain either directly across the Channel or indirectly across the broader Mediterranean, he now confessed, had been eliminated “for the moment.” Though this was frustrati
ng, the acknowledgment of it brought Hitler relief. He could now turn to matters nearer his heart and mind.

  On January 8–9, 1941, he held a council of war at the Berghof above Berchtesgaden, which now lay deep in the winter’s snow. The mountain air seems to have cleared his mind, and once more, as the lengthy confidential reports of the meeting by Admiral Raeder and General Halder52 disclose, his thoughts ranged far and wide as he outlined his grand strategy to his military chiefs. His optimism had returned.

  The Fuehrer [Raeder noted] is firmly convinced that the situation in Europe can no longer develop unfavorably for Germany even if we should lose the whole of North Africa. Our position in Europe is so firmly established that the outcome cannot possibly be to our disadvantage … The British can hope to win the war only by beating us on the Continent. The Fuehrer is convinced that this is impossible.

  It was true, he conceded, that the direct invasion of Britain was “not feasible unless she is crippled to a considerable degree and Germany has complete air superiority.” The Navy and Air Force, he said, must concentrate on attacking her shipping lanes and thereby cut off her supplies. Such attacks, he thought, “might lead to victory as early as July or August.” In the meantime, he said, “Germany must make herself so strong on the Continent that we can handle a further war against England (and America).” The parentheses are Halder’s and their enclosure is significant. This is the first mention in the captured German records that Hitler—at the beginning of 1941—is facing up to the possibility of the entry of the United States into the war against him.

  The Nazi warlord then took up the various strategic areas and problems and outlined what he intended to do about them.

  The Fuehrer is of the opinion [Raeder wrote] that it is vital for the outcome of the war that Italy does not collapse … He is determined to … prevent Italy from losing North Africa … It would mean a great loss of prestige to the Axis powers … He is [therefore] determined to give them support.

  At this point he cautioned his military leaders about divulging German plans.

  He does not wish to inform the Italians of our plans. There is great danger that the Royal Family is transmitting intelligence to Britain!!*

  Support for Italy, Hitler declared, would consist of antitank formations and some Luftwaffe squadrons for Libya. More important, he would dispatch an army corps of two and a half divisions to buck up the retreating Italians in Albania—into which the Greeks had now pushed them. In connection with this, “Operation Marita”† would be pushed. The transfer of troops from Rumania to Bulgaria, he ordered, must begin at once so that Marita could commence on March 26. Hitler also spoke at some length of the need to be ready to carry out “Operation Attila”—the German cover names seem almost endless—which he had outlined in a directive of December 10, 1940. This was a plan to occupy the rest of France and seize the French fleet at Toulon. He thought now it might have to be carried out soon. “If France becomes troublesome,” he declared, “she will have to be crushed completely.” This would have been a crude violation of the Compiègne armistice, but no general or admiral, so far as Halder and Raeder noted—or at least recorded—raised the question.

  It was at this war conference that Hitler described Stalin as “a cold-blooded blackmailer” and informed his commanders that Russia would have to be brought to her knees “as soon as possible.”

  If the U.S.A. and Russia should enter the war against Germany [Hitler said, and it was the second time he mentioned that possibility for America], the situation would become very complicated. Hence any possibility for such a threat to develop must be eliminated at the very beginning. If the Russian threat were removed, we could wage war on Britain indefinitely. If Russia collapsed, Japan would be greatly relieved: this in turn would mean increased danger to the U.S.A.

  Such were the thoughts of the German dictator on global strategy as 1941 got under way. Two days after the war council, on January 11, he embodied them in Directive No. 22. German reinforcements for Tripoli were to move under “Operation Sunflower”; those for Albania under “Operation Alpine Violets.”54

  “THE WORLD WILL HOLD ITS BREATH!”

  Mussolini was summoned by Hitler to the Berghof for January 19 and 20. Shaken and humiliated by the Italian debacles in Egypt and Greece, he had no stomach for this journey. Ciano found him “frowning and nervous” when he boarded his special train, fearful that Hitler, Ribbentrop and the German generals would be insultingly condescending. To make matters worse the Duce took along General Alfredo Guzzoni, Assistant Chief of Staff, whom Ciano in his diary described as a mediocre man with a big paunch and a little dyed wig and whom, he thought, it would be positively humiliating to present to the Germans.

  To his surprise and relief, Mussolini found Hitler, who came down to the snow-covered platform of the little station at Puch to greet him, both tactful and cordial and there were no reproaches for Italy’s sorry record on the battlefields. He also found his host, as Ciano noted in his diary, in a very anti-Russian mood. For more than two hours on the second day Hitler lectured his Italian guests and an assembly of generals from both countries, and a secret report on it prepared by General Jodl55 confirms that while the Fuehrer was anxious to be helpful to the Italians in Albania and Libya, his principal thoughts were on Russia.

  I don’t see great danger coming from America [Hitler said] even if she should enter the war. The much greater danger is the gigantic block of Russia. Though we have very favorable political and economic agreements with Russia, I prefer to rely on powerful means at my disposal.

  Though he hinted at what he intended to do with his “powerful means,” he did not disclose his plans to his partner. These, however, were sufficiently far along to enable the Chief of the Army General Staff, who was responsible for working out the details, to present them to the Supreme Commander at a meeting in Berlin a fortnight later.

  This war conference, attended by the top generals of OKW and of the Army High Command (OKH), lasted from noon until 6 P.M. on February 3. And though General Halder, who outlined the Army General Staff’s plans, contended later in his book56 that he and Brauchitsch raised doubts about their own assessment of Soviet military strength and in general opposed Barbarossa as an “adventure,” there is not a word in his own diary entry made the same evening or in the highly secret OKW memorandum of the meeting57 that supports this contention. Indeed, they disclose Halder to have made at first a businesslike estimate of the opposing forces, calculating that while the enemy would have approximately 155 divisions, German strength would be about the same and, as Halder reported, “far superior in quality.” Later, when catastrophe set in, Halder and his fellow generals realized that their intelligence on the Red Army had been fantastically faulty. But on February 3, 1941, they did not suspect that. In fact, so convincing was Halder’s report on respective strengths and on the strategy to be employed to annihilate the Red armies* that Hitler at the end not only expressed agreement “on the whole” but was so excited by the prospects which the General Staff Chief had raised that he exclaimed:

  “When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comment!”

  He could scarcely wait for it to commence. Impatiently he ordered the operation map and the plan of deployment of forces to be sent to him “as soon as possible.”

  BALKAN PRELUDE

  Before Barbarossa could get under way in the spring the southern flank, which lay in the Balkans, had to be secured and built up. By the third week in February 1941, the Germans had massed a formidable army of 680,000 troops in Rumania, which bordered the Ukraine for three hundred miles between the Polish border and the Black Sea.58 But to the south, Greece still held the Italians at bay and Berlin had reason to believe that British troops from Libya would soon be landed there. Hitler, as the minutes of his numerous conferences at this period make clear, feared that an Allied front above Salonika might be formed which would be more troublesome to Germany than a similar one had been in the First World War,
since it would give the British a base from which to bomb the Rumanian oil fields. Moreover, it would jeopardize Barbarossa. In fact, the danger had been foreseen as far back as December 1940, when the first directive for Operation Marita had been issued providing for a strong German attack on Greece through Bulgaria with troops assembled in Rumania.

  Bulgaria, whose wrong guess as to the victors in the first war had cost her dearly, now made a similar miscalculation. Believing Hitler’s assurances that he had already won the war and bedazzled by the prospect of obtaining Greek territory to the south which would give her access to the Aegean Sea, her government agreed to participate in Marita—at least to the extent of allowing passage of German troops. An agreement to this effect was made secretly on February 8, 1941, between Field Marshal List and the Bulgarian General Staff.59 On the night of February 28 German Army units crossed the Danube from Rumania and took up strategic positions in Bulgaria, which the next day joined the Tripartite Pact.

  The hardier Yugoslavs were not quite so accommodating. But their stubbornness only spurred on the Germans to bring them into camp too. On March 4–5, the Regent, Prince Paul, was summoned in great secrecy to the Berghof by the Fuehrer, given the usual threats and, in addition, offered the bribe of Salonika. On March 25, the Yugoslav Premier, Dragisha Cvetković, and Foreign Minister Aleksander Cincar-Marković, having slipped surreptitiously out of Belgrade the night before to avoid hostile demonstrations or even kidnaping, arrived at Vienna, where in the presence of Hitler and Ribbentrop they signed up Yugoslavia to the Tripartite Pact. Hitler was highly pleased and told Ciano that this would facilitate his attack on Greece. Before leaving Vienna the Yugoslav leaders were given two letters from Ribbentrop confirming Germany’s “determination” to respect “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia at all times” and promising that the Axis would not demand transit rights for its troops across Yugoslavia “during this war.”60 Both agreements were broken by Hitler in what even for him was record time.