After the expulsion of the British Armed Forces from the continental mainland and the Belgian capitulation at the end of May, the second phase of the Western Offensive, the ‘Battle for France’, began on 5 June. Once again it developed into a ‘Triumphal March’ which was without precedence.
In what appeared to be a seamless combination between tanks and dive bomber squadrons, they advanced in sickle-like, semi-circular movements, closing in on the enemy forces, until they were surrounded and beaten. The German concept of Blitzkrieg had been perfected in the western theatre of war. Co-ordination imperfections and other mishaps, which had happened in the Polish campaign, were improved to near perfect co-ordination between Army and Air Force. The demoralised French could do nothing to stop the powerful advance of the German Army. In less than two weeks, the German infantry marched by the ‘Arc de Triomphe’ in Paris, it having been declared an ‘open city’.
They had a daily march behind them of between 50—60 kilometres, in the dust and the heat of a strange land. (Napoleon’s troops in comparison, managed only half as much in a day). Only a few days later, Marshall Philippe Pétain, France’s national hero from the First World War, asked for Terms of Surrender, after the occupation of his land.
On 21 July 1940, Hitler and his high command, waited to receive the French Peace Delegation, in the forest of Compiegne. The negotiations took place and were sealed in the same fox-red, railway salon-wagon as had been used on 8 November 1918 for the Surrender Treaty of the German Empire. However, it was certainly no repeat performance of humiliation as had happened on that autumn day. Then, the German envoys were treated with abuse, and already as prisoners of war, by the French Marshal, Ferdinand Foch. However, in July 1940, Germany’s ‘brave opponents’ were treated with military honour, the negotiations were handled correctly, and with a view to the future.
Incidentally, it was the same Marshal Foch who had, after the signing of the Versailles Pact declared, “This is no peace, but a laying down of arms for twenty years”. He was right. War had begun again 1939, but now, the roles were reversed.
In a campaign which had taken no less than seven weeks, three countries had been defeated by the German Armed Forces. Europe’s coastline from the North Cape to the Pyrenees were now in German hands. However, that did not mean they had held the upper hand with a 3:1 superiority of strength in the west, which military experts had assessed to be the ultimate requirement. Germany had fought with 136 divisions against 144 of the Allies, and with 2,245 tanks against 3,063. Only in the air was Germany supreme, with approximately 4,000 planes in comparison to 3,400 enemy machines.
War was at an end in the west and the German people now hoped for peace. The fighting forces were rewarded with holidays and it was suggested that no less than 35 divisions be demobilised. The return of Hitler’s forces from the western battle-zone was celebrated with a triumphal parade through Berlin. Every bell in the city was rung and an indescribable cheering from the population accompanied the column of cars driving over a carpet of flowers, from the Anhalter Station to the new Chancellery. The German people were overjoyed. In the few weeks of the war, very few had fallen, in comparison with the awful years of First World War which had cost the lives of millions.
On 19 July 1940, Hitler tried once more for conciliatory negotiations with his British opponents, in order to avoid unnecessary suffering and misfortune. But Churchill remained resolute. The war moved into the next round, Churchill being determined to fight for a ‘knock-out’.
German submarines were having one success after another at sea. The Royal Navy suffered considerable damage and losses. In the first year it was at a rate of 10 to 1 to the Germans. Instead of concentrating their efforts at sea, Britain became active in the air.
The first bombing mission by the Royal Air Force took place on 4 September 1939, 24 hours after Britain’s declaration of war. From aerodromes in East Anglia, the target of 29 bombers was Wilhelmshaven and German warships, which they wanted to destroy. Weather conditions were far from ideal and ten of the planes returned to their base, not having found their target, because of rain and heavy clouds. Three other planes wanted, mistakenly, to attack British warships but recognised their signals and turned around. One plane jettisoned its load on the Danish town of Esbjerg, being 180 kilometres off target through a navigation failure. In the actual bombardment of Wilhelmshaven from the other fifteen machines, five Blenheims and two Wellingtons were destroyed, from a heavy anti-aircraft barrage. All in all, they had only produced the minimum of damage. In broad daylight, those bombing crews were faced with flying a distance of 430 kilometres, from the British coast, in order to find their targets, which half the bomber force had not managed to find. It was a very disappointing beginning, luckily without heavy loss of life, but Britain learned very quickly from those mistakes.
When Churchill came to power, the air-warfare escalated. Liddell Hart’s comment was, “the world has not seen such an uncivilised form of warfare from the War Office, since the devastation by the Mongols”.
The ‘Blitz’, i.e. the air raids on London, began only after Britain had continuously bombarded German cities for three months. The first German bombs fell on the Island Kingdom from the German Air Force in June 1940.
Pointless restraint was at an end. At the opening of the Organised Winter Relief on 4 September 1940, Hitler declared, “they come in the night, indiscriminately dropping their bombs on residential areas, and I have, after three months, not retaliated. I believed that such madness would be stopped. We are now answering night for night. If the British Air Force drops two, three or four tons of bombs, then we will in one night drop 150, 250 or 300 tons. If they declare that they will increase their attacks on our cities, then we will raze their cities to the ground”. He then secretly lifted the embargo on London.
In the aerial battle of Britain, the ‘Battle of Britain’, it very quickly became clear that the young German Air Force was not equipped for aerial warfare, particularly for bombing raids on a large scale. They just did not possess any large bomber-type aircraft similar to those of the British, or those that the Americans used later against Germany. The bomber squadrons were very quick to recognise that they had a problem. They and their accompanying fighters could only cope with a tenth of the range needed to reach Britain’s island territory, in which, almost undisturbed the production of planes continued, as well as the training of their pilots. The war, as far as the German Air Force was concerned, was ill-timed, its conception not having been completed. They really did not have a very good chance to fulfil all that was expected of them.
Despite this, the air raids in the late summer and autumn of 1940, caused fear and anxiety for the 7 million inhabitants on and around the Thames. London, as the nerve-centre of the War Office, the Royal Woolwich Arsenal and munitions factories, with the Battersea power station, commercial docks, warehouses and trade centres, was of a very high strategic importance. In the first attack, 306 Londoners were killed.
We boys often cycled to the neighbouring aerodrome in Soesterberg, from where the German squadrons flew their missions over the Channel. We wanted to take a look at those gigantic birds. We were just fascinated by both flying perfection and technique. There were no security measures as such and we were able to walk over the grass to the crews sitting in the shade playing ‘skat’, to while away the time, the sun shining on the glass cockpits of the He—111s. Somewhat amused, but always friendly, the crews talked to us, giving information for which we had a real thirst. Enthusiastic and just as relaxed as those heroes of the air, we listened intently, as they told their stories of the battles with the ‘Sons of Albion’.
With the extension of air warfare, the Royal Air Force began to attack the small aerodromes in the Netherlands, including that of Soesterberg. Gigantic searchlights, shooting fingers of light in the night sky, encircled heavy 8.8cm calibre anti-aircraft guns standing in the middle of our village, for our defence.
The ‘ack-ack’ went into action a
t the approach of the British planes, flashes of fire spitting from the muzzles over the darkened houses. We heard shrapnel hitting roofs and tarmac quite clearly and night was turned into day for minutes on end, from parachute flares, silently floating down from the enemy planes. We saw flashes of lightning in the distance from exploding high explosive bombs and when the nightmare ended, we boys returned quite happily to our beds. It did not however quite end there. The ‘God of War’ gave encores, with a devilish plan, in every sense of the word, for the next day. He had another iron in the fire with a delayed reaction. Phosphorous strips, dropped by the British, ignited in the rays of the hot sun, which set harvest and hay stacks alight and which was a positive danger for us living in our thatched roof houses.
The air battle over Britain was not decided with bombs, but with dog-fight duels between the fighters. In this, the British had a clear advantage. Although the German planes were quicker, they suffered from the handicap of only being able to operate for no longer than 75 minutes. As accompanying support, they could only operate for between five and fifteen minutes, even when over London, their primary target. This amount of time was definitely too short. There was no absence of death-defying courage on either side, the opponents proving to be equally matched in their mercilessness. Without doubt the brave Royal Air Force pilots in their Hurricanes and Spitfires were the saviours of their country. Churchill said, “Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many, to so few”.
CHAPTER 7
The European Volunteers
Very many Europeans, at the beginning of 1940, began to see a new National Socialist Europe, through Germany’s successes. It was an opinion being broadcast without restraint. The Bolshevik world revolution, but for some had been a binding element, had been suppressed. It corresponded with some people’s opinions and feelings. Such people hoped for, and imagined, a new Europe as another Commonwealth of equal partners, the most competent on the continent being the leader. It could just have easily been France or Britain but at that time it was Germany.
France had been beaten. The British had retreated to their island and now seemingly cared only for their own welfare. Apart from that, how should sovereignty be reinstated for those defeated lands, other than by a reconciliation with the Third Reich, and with those who were willing? The idea of a new Europe provided many alternatives and solutions at the same time, or so it seemed, and the younger generation was in agreement. The shock over the surprisingly quick defeat of their lands left them comparing one with another, producing a plus for Germany. The enduring chaotic political relations, unemployment and commercial misery in their homelands could not be ignored. They had been witness to it long enough and saw with jealousy the German State’s interest in the promotion of its own country’s youth. Meanwhile, other countries were showing only the slightest interest in the stimulation of their younger generation.
It was certainly not just a few who were gripped by Hitler’s eloquence and dynamism, many believed his frequent pledges for peace. Then there was also the personal experience with the German soldiers, with their correct behaviour in their occupied lands, which made an impression. “The perfect military machinery not only shocked but had fascinated many youths and adolescents in the German ruling sphere”. (Hans Werner Neulen, Europas Verratene Söhne).
For the majority of German soldiers, with their march into the western and north European lands, a new world had opened up. They found no hate from the Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgian or French. They regretted their show of arms, deep in their hearts, which they saw more or less as a war between brothers. As the relationship deepened between each land, the populations were astounded to find that the customs, style of living and feelings even, were very similar to those of the ‘victors’. The German soldier made efforts to give consideration to those who suffered from a damaged national pride, and in general wherever they could. The war with Britain was an unpopular theme with the majority.
A recruiting poster and page from a recruitment leaflet aimed at recruiting Dutch volunteers for the Waffen SS.
It was with the formation in the summer of 1940, of the Waffen SS Standarte ‘Westland’, ordered by Hider, that young Dutch and Flemish men had the chance to volunteer and show their willingness, by their actions, to fight for the new Europe. The call of the Waffen SS was not without an echo for Europe’s youth. I will now take this opportunity to explain to the reader a little more about the term ‘SS’, without the usual defamatory polemic. Today, decades after their disappearance, this ancient Germanic letter of the alphabet, this mysterious symbol is representative of everything evil and wicked. I will permit myself to give an even more objective explanation to this ‘myth’. For better or worse, the term ‘Waffen SS’ was, especially after the war, used as the slogan. Similarly, the title ‘Criminal Organisation’, was used to force into oblivion the enthusiasm with which Germany’s youth, in fact Europe’s youth, had ‘hurried to the flag’, to quote the résumé from an expert, Günter Drescher.
In the turbulent, political struggles of the 1920s and ‘30s, in which bloody terror ruled, the ‘Schutzstaffeln, i.e. SS, was formed. Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, Hitler’s personal bodyguard, became its commander. At the beginning, this small troop wore no uniform. Their highest military leader was none other than Hein rich Himmler. After the NSDAP came into power, this small troop was the ‘Elite of the Nation’. They enjoyed the title of ‘SS Honorary Leader’ this being the visiting card to High Society, such as ministers, high officials, managers of industry, and leading athletes of the time. Membership was on a par with a state award or medal.
To quote Helmut Treffner, from his book Geschichte der Waffen-SS:
In comparison with the SA, i.e. Sturm Abteilung, the Waffen SS impressed at first sight, in their black uniforms in sharp contrast to the unattractive brown garb of the SA. Far more important was their reputation, which appeared to be as an unquestioning, obedient élite of fanatics who, to Hitler’s admirers, also appeared to be a mysterious and terrifying band. The SS commanders in contrast, appeared to be of a superior intellectual class to their heavily-built and hooligan-like SA brethren. The SS were the ‘finer’ troop, their size denoting quality and not quantity, boasting only 50,000 men at the beginning of 1933, the SA having 3,000,000.
The troop budded and grew very quickly from this offshoot. They and the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ were joined by three regiments for special duties to the Reich, being known as the VT, i.e. Verfugungs Truppe, a troop de tailed for special assignments, namely the ‘Deutschland’, ‘Germania’, and ‘Der Führer’.
In 1940, non-German nationals were also allowed to join the Waffen SS, by which time the ‘Black Guard’ had changed the colour of their uniform to field-grey. Reputable Prussian officers, with a steel-hard apprenticeship behind them, had produced the former General Staff Officer from First World War and later General, Paul Hausser. In its formative stages, the military reformer and former Reichswehr officer, Major Felix Steiner, was also involved, training his soldiers almost to the level of top athletes, to think for themselves, to take decisions, and to be individual fighters with initiative. The very sharp cleft between soldier, non-commissioned officers, and officers, was evened out and with it a solid fighting unit was achieved.
In the first years of the war, the Waffen SS recruited only young men giving at first sight a good impression. If found to possess a first-class character, mental flexibility and very good physical condition then they were accepted. Those with a criminal record and hoping to avoid their sentences by joining the organisation were rejected, as were those with financial problems, unless they had been resolved. One’s ‘confession’ did not play a role, nor were political convictions explored, even the sons of former Social Democrats being accepted. The field-grey clad men of the SS did not want a political army and, for that reason, removed themselves from Himmler.
“They wanted professional soldiers and not those who viewed world politics”, according
to Helmut Treffner. However, at the same time some traditional Germanic convictions were present and approved, not only by Himmler but also by ‘Berlin dogmatism’. It was acceptable when being a cultural bridge from man to man, but it had to stay within certain limits. Hitler also rejected Himmler’s religious zealousness. He commented to Speer, his personal architect, on one occasion, “when we have almost achieved a day and age without mysticism, he, Himmler, starts it all over again!” (Quote from the French historian Jacques de Launay)
For the Waffen SS it was no problem, their very sober and professionally trained superiors taking care of this. “Much later, this cleft between the Waffen SS, constantly at the heart of heavy fighting on the front, and the inexperienced ‘home-guard’ could not have been greater”, to quote Felix Steiner, from his book Die Freiwilligen.
“Produce a fully functional motorised division to our present quality and in six months!” was the order received by General Steiner in 1940, in forming the ‘Wiking’ division, to be made up mostly from volunteers from west and northern Europe. “This duty was a novelty, the planning of which in face of the heavy psychological fundamentalism, being a venture in itself,” wrote Steiner later. That he was the right man, in the right place and time, was with the trust and devotion of his men proven, at a later date, with his military success.
The cadre of the new division was made up of non-commissioned officers and officers from peacetime and two campaigns. They cared for their westerly comrades in an almost brotherly fashion, without any signs of arrogance towards their men. On the contrary, frankness was nurtured and they moulded their young volunteers, who were willing ‘to go to hell and capture the devil’, into iron-hard soldiers, not only in a professional way but also as comrades.
In the Fire of the Eastern Front Page 6
