CLASH IN GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1941, Page 6

CLASH IN GERMANY

MILITARY AND HITLER’S GANG HUNDREDS OF OFFICERS ARRESTED. SIXTY RECENTLY SHOT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, July 30. Reliable neutral travellers from Germany say that, hundreds of officers in the German Army have been arrested, and of them sixty have recently been shot, as a result of the quarrel between the military and'Hitler’s entourage, reports the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent at Istanbul. The German military leaders arc reported to have advocated that Russia should be attacked before France, and now they are blaming Hitler’s friends for allowing Russia time to prepare her defences. The Germans are beginning to realise that the decimation of their crack divisions in Russia makes a German victory somewhat problematical. Hitler’s supporters are now urging the use of gas, but the military leaders oppose it, arguing that such methods would precipitate Germany’s ultimate defeat. Messages received in London, to which credence is given in official cu> des, report the deaths of General Udet, an ace airman of the last war, and K. Kaufmann, Gauleiter of Hamburg. The most sensational report concerns General Udet, who is a close friend of Marshal Goering. Udet was detained after he had vehemently protested against Hitler’s folly in invading Russia and was deprived of his command. The Nazis punished Udet with typical thoroughness and cruelty, under the surveillance of Himmler’s gunmen. It is known that Udet shot himself, leaving letters which the Gestapo immediately impounded.