EUROPE’S LANCER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1943, Page 4

EUROPE’S LANCER

STORY OF THE GERMAN ARMY HITLER AND THE GENERALS. OFFICER CORPS NOW LARGELY WIPED OUT. (By Professor 1. Zvavich, in “Soviet War News.”) The Nazi army was created according to the Prussian traditions which originated in the 18th century during the reign of Frederick 11, who regarded his soldiers as herds ol animals, ruled them with a rod of iron and exacted blind obedience. The officers were looked on as a superior race. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Germany spent nearly 70 years preparing for her battle for world supremacy. Milliards of the people’s money was expended in modernising the war machine and its equipment. Prussian barracks were crammed with thousands of men in a constant state of military preparedness. On the eve of the first World War, Germany had a very large army, and the German High Command was convinced that its machine would run like clockwork. But the Schlieffen plan, which was based on the expectation of a lightning victory in the West, collapsed because of the exceptional bravery of the Russian soldiers. German plans for the World War of 1914-18 overlooked several factors. The most important of these was Russia’s ability to render military assistance to France and Britain. Another was the possibility of a large American landing in Europe. A third factor was the fighting quality of the British soldiers at the end of the war. This came as a surprise to the German generals. They had not taken the British seriously as a fighting people. MEN TURNED INTO AUTOMATA Erich von Ludendorff, in the Reichstag, tried to blame British propaganda for the German defeat. He declared that, helped by British propaganda, the traitors within (the gates had dealt a blow at the German army from the rear. That was the origin of the stupid legend about a “stab in the back,” which is used by Nazi propaganda to this day. But both Ludendorff and the other German army leaders knew full well that the German war machine had been repeatedly beaten in the fighting on both the Western and the Eastern fronts, and had suffered its final defeat in 1918 in the Ukraine and in France. In preparing for its next war, German imperialism considered it essential not only to create and equip _ a powerful army, but also to turn its soldiers into machines. The German Army leaders regarded Hitler and his clique only as experienced demagogues able to cultivate in the soldiers hatred against mankind, racial hatred. The soldiers were given a zoological stimulus to fight for “Greater Germany,” to which the whole world must belong. The generals decided to make use of Hitler to turn their men into twolegged automata. But they never dreamt that Hitler would appoint himself the chief strategist, that he would dictate military policy to them. He imposed his autocratic control over the army when he seized power after Hindenburg's death. FRITSCH WAS HANGED. In 1934 he shot Schleicher. In 1938 Blomberg was dismissed. In 1939 von Fritsch was hanged by the Gestapo. Many generals—List, Reichnau, Keitel. Rommel—had to get Nazi Party cards in a hurry. Hitler organised special S.S. detachments within the army, gangs of trained hangmen to deal with unreliable elements inside the High Command. When Germany embarked on war in 1939 Hitler became officially comman-der-in-chief. But the actual command was in the hands of Brauchitsch and Keitel. Their tremendously superior military strength brought the Germans victory in Poland. Blackmail and Fifth Column treachery brought them easy victories in France and many other European countries. ] Then, giddy with success, Hitler sent his motorised hordes east against the Soviet Union. When his 1941 plan I for a lightning war was turned upside down near Moscow, he tried to put the responsibility for his failure on the generals,‘and at the beginning of 1942 carried out the first great purge of the High Command. He removed Brauchitsch and himself assumed the chief command. Many old, experienced generals like Reichenau and Todt were killed. General Halder was chief of staff. New commanders were put in charge on various sectors of the Soviet front. It is well known that Halder considered Hitler's plan for a summer campaign in the East as impracticable. Now Halder’s discharge is officially announced, and Zeitzler, a creature of the Gestapo, has replaced him. The British “News Chronicle” comments that Hitler’s intention is to see that those holding positions of power are people who agree with him, and that this reflects the internal weakness of the Nazi state. “LITTLE FUEHRERS” The German officer corps has now been largely wiped out. In the autumn of 1942 the Nazis established a “selection centre” for officers. Candidates had to comply with the following conditions: devotion to Hitler’s policy, suitable upbringing and character, and purity of Aryan blood. This was announced in the “Hamburger Fremdenblatt” of October 25, 1942. So any “little Fuehrer” can now become an officer. A Nazi writer has given the following verbal portrait of such a “little Fuehrer” (under-Fueh-rer): — V “His brain has gone hard. His way of walking, his movements, his manner of greeting are so precisely mannered that there is little scope for expressing individual characteristics. In the street, for instance, he does not react to the passers-by. His eye is attracted first of all by soldiers, and also by women who have reached sexual maturity. The soldier attracts him because every uniform, for him, deserves a greeting. And the sexually mature woman attracts his attention for the simple reason that he is always prepared to have relations with her.” That' is a self-portrait of the Nazi bandit, one of an army whose bestialities are the culmination of the entire history of human crime. PROGRESSIVE DETERIORATION Cruelty is fundamental to the German method of warfare. It is planned, conscious. Torture, the murder of

women and children, vilest sadism — these are as much a part of Germany’s war strategy as her artillery, planes, tanks and mines. The further Hitlerisation of the Geramn High Command, which is now taking place, brings with it a qualitative deterioration in the leadership and a still wider application of this atrocious method of warfare —if that is possible.

Portents of doom hang over the Nazi army at Stalingrad, in the Caucasus, on the central front. But Hitler will fight to the very limit of his .military strength. Stalin stated in his speech of November 7; 1942: “It is not our aim to destroy all organised military force in Germany, for every literate person will understand that it is not only impossible in regard to Geramny as it is in regard to Russia, but is also inexpedient from the point of view of the future. But Hitler’s army can and should be destroyed.”