Chapter 147 Chapter 24 "The Door to the Dark Room" (4)

This small crisis was soon drowned out by Mussolini's visit to the front line.The visit was widely publicized.The purpose of Mussolini's trip was to persuade Hitler to expand the strength of the Italian Expeditionary Force on the Russian battlefield in order to share some of the glory of crushing communism.However, when the Italian prime minister's train arrived at the "wolf's lair", Mussolini - who still grieves the recent loss of his son Bruno in a plane crash - was unable to match his allies' wits . Hitler greeted Mussolini at the small train station near the "Wolf's Lair".On that day, Hitler did not allow the Italian Prime Minister to speak at all.The Führer babbled on about impending victories in the East, French folly, and the criminal machinations of Roosevelt's Jewish clique.When his guest finally opened his mouth to mention the military expansion, he changed the subject again.In the next few days, he continued to monologue.It was only when Mussolini got tired of hearing about the glory and feats of Germany that he talked at length about the triumphs of ancient Rome and the deeds of the Roman emperor Tourégin who had fought in the area they were inspecting.

Later that day, in Uman, Ukraine, they inspected an Italian division.Mussolini flushed with joy as Italian soldiers with feathers fluttering from their helmets shouted "Leader!" and whizzed past him on motorcycles.But when they entered Uman, still smoking, and Hitler was cheered by his soldiers, Hitler was back in the limelight.After lunch, he left Mussolini behind while he went to the troops for a walk.The Italian prime minister felt humiliated, but avenged it on the return voyage.He ran to the front to talk to Bohr, Hitler's pilot.Pohl was delighted by Mussolini's zeal, especially when he asked him to fly the plane.Caught off guard, Hitler had to agree, only to regret it immediately.Hitler fidgeted as his former idol joyfully steered the plane like a child.

The victory was fleeting.During the long journey home, Mussolini kept his head down.Instead of getting permission to expand the military, he developed a disquieting sense that the war in the East would be a long, bloody one.When Mussolini learned about the visit that Ribbentrop had not issued an agreed communiqué and seemed to have placed the foreign minister's name after Keitel, his frustration turned to anger. This time, after Hitler gave in to Mussolini and told Ribbentrop to cooperate with him quickly and avenge his reputation, Mussolini's emotions ran high.He summoned Dino Alfieri, the Italian ambassador to Berlin, to report on their trip to the front. "Don't forget to mention this," he said, "that I was the one who flew the Führer's four-engine plane for a considerable part of the voyage."

At "Wolf's Lair", Hitler changed his mind and decided that the time had come to attack Moscow.As he drank tea with secretaries and lieutenants at the club, he stared intently at the large map on the wall. "We'll be in Moscow in a few weeks," he said in a rough, deep voice. "There is no doubt about it. I will raze the city to the ground, build an artificial lake there, and many central buildings. The place name Moscow will disappear forever." So, on the afternoon of September 5, he said to "Within eight to 10 days, the central front began to advance," Halder said. At dinner that night, he was lighthearted, almost joking.His words were all recorded by Werner Koppen, Rosenberg's liaison officer at the Führer's headquarters.From early July of that year, at Rosenberg's request, he carefully recorded the Führer's speeches at the dinner table.Cobain guessed that Hitler knew what he was doing, so he secretly wrote down the gist of the Führer's conversation on a napkin, and then immediately added what he clearly remembered.The original and carbon copies were sent to Berlin by courier.

What Cobain didn't know was that there was another Boswell (1740-1795, Scottish lawyer and writer, known for his biographies——Translator's Note) at the same table.Shortly after they came to the "Wolf's Lair", Bormann casually suggested to his adjutant Heinrich Heim that he secretly record the leader's conversation.In order not to let Hitler find out that his conversation had been stolen, Bormann told his adjutant to rely entirely on memory.However, for the sake of accuracy, Heim took it upon himself to write down the cards on his lap and made a large number of records.Borman was taken aback, but acquiesced to him continuing to record (later, some records were published in Britain, France and Germany in various editions. The title of the last one was "Hitler Conversations", edited by Henry Pick. 1942 He acted as a court reporter on behalf of Heim from March to July 1999. Heim was not consulted or asked to write reviews by any publisher, or given an opportunity to correct inaccurate references to their provenance. Although the published part sounds accurate, many important passages are not included. For example, in the Pickbook, only about one-sixth of the records are collected. Heim firmly believes that Hitler did not know his own The conversation at the dinner table was recorded. After the war, Schaub, Hitler's personal adjutant, confirmed this to him. Heim now lives in Munich, a stone's throw from Cobain's apartment, but Cobain did not know until recently that Heim Heim is also making notes. The two types of records they make complement each other. For the sake of secrecy, Heim deliberately omits the military part; aspect, it is valuable). "That's how it went," Haim recalls, "without any further instructions from Bowman, or any hope or anything. He was only secretly pleased that more data could be preserved. come down."

Heim was often faced with two problems: choosing the passages that made the most sense (sometimes what was recorded was less important than what came later) and keeping the Führer from discovering it.He can also sloppily conceal his activities during lunch or dinner.When it came time for tea, which was served in the bunker, he had to rely on memory.Occasionally, I will write down a word or two.With Heimschen (as he was nicknamed) unobtrusive (as was Cobain) and unassuming, Hitler continued to speak freely, spontaneously and ramblingly on a variety of topics. The records of Heim and Cobain provide insight into the major events that unfolded on the Eastern Front every day.For example, on September 17, Hitler spoke of resolve.Hitler said, "Determination means that you do not hesitate when some inner conviction orders you to act. Last year, when I resolved to attack Bolshevism, I needed great mental strength. I could not but foresee that Stalin might Launched the attack in 1941. Therefore, we did it sooner rather than later, so as not to allow the other side to strike first. This could not be achieved before June. Even in war, people have to be lucky. Looking back now, we were very lucky OK!" He said the major military operation now under development had been widely criticized as not feasible. "To force it through, I had to use all my authority and put everything on the line. I happened to notice that many victories were won by mistakes we dared to make."

He assured his rapt audience that world supremacy was determined after the capture of Russian lands. "In this way, Europe will be an indestructible fortress, unafraid of any threat of blockade. All these will bring good economic prospects to Europe, and one can hope that even the most liberal democrats in the West will flock to the new order. Currently , the most important thing is to conquer. After the conquest, the rest is purely a matter of organization." The Slavs, he said, were born slaves and felt that they needed a master.Germany played to Russia what Britain did to India, "and the British, we can rule the empire with a few men."

He talks at length about turning Ukraine into the breadbasket of all Europe, its conquered peoples happily wearing turbans and glass beads.He went on to confess that everyone was dreaming of a world peace conference, and he would rather fight for another ten years than be deceived by the spoils of war. Three days later, Kyiv fell.This brings joy to "Wolf's Lair".Hitler predicted that it would mean the early conquest of the whole of Ukraine, and it proved correct in his insistence on giving priority to the attack in the south. At lunch on September 21, Hitler told everyone that 145,000 enemy soldiers had been captured in the valley near Kyiv.The siege, he declared, was the greatest melee in the entire history of warfare.The Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse.

At the lunch table on September 25th, he revealed his fear of the "subhumans" in the headquarters!Europe is always in danger if these Asians are not driven behind the Ural Mountains. “They were beasts, and it made no difference whether it was Bolshevism or the Tsar—they were beasts of nature.” Late that night, he commented on battlefield morality, comparing a soldier’s first battle to a woman’s first. Sexual intercourse, consider every such behavior of a man as an aggression. "In a few days, the boy became a man. If I hadn't been trained in this way, I would not have been able to take on the huge task of rebuilding the empire by myself. In 1914, he went to the front with pure idealism." At that time, I saw thousands of soldiers fall beside me.Then I understood that life is a struggle.It serves no purpose other than to preserve the species. "

The conversation at the dinner table concerned almost exclusively the fighting on the Eastern Front, as there had been little fighting on the other front, the North African Front.British attempts to repel Rommel were met with disastrous defeat.When autumn came, both sides stood still and did not plan to launch another offensive.Both Hitler's and the Army's energies were focused on launching a general attack on Moscow.Field Marshal Bock warned that it was too late in the season.Why not live through the winter in reinforced concrete fortifications?Hitler's answer was a kind of irony: "Before I became Chancellor, I often thought that the General Staff was a bulldog, and I had to hold on to its collar tightly to prevent it from biting anyone." Not ferocious.It opposed rearmament, the occupation of the Rhineland, the invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia, and even the Polish war. "This bulldog often depends on me to stimulate."

He insisted on launching a massive attack on the Soviet capital.The battle, code-named "Typhoon", started on the last day of September, under the command of Bock.His task is to use a strong force of 69 divisions to destroy the Soviet Central Army and then march into Moscow. His basic strategy was to target Moscow, use tanks to attack from north to south, and double-clamp in the rear of the Red Army to meet at 80 miles. The General Command of the Soviet Union was caught off guard because it believed that it was the end of the year and it was impossible for the enemy to launch a large-scale offensive.Guderian's Second Mechanized Army broke into the Red Army's line within 24 hours of the first day, reaching a depth of 50 miles.German infantry rushed into the vacuum, mopping up small resistances that were crumbling. On October 2, Hitler had enough confidence to win and returned to Berlin by special train.He has not addressed the people for several months.So, the next afternoon, he strode into the gymnasium, originally to appeal to the people to support the "Wartime Winter Aid Program".However, he made an important announcement. "On the morning of June 22," his voice resounded through the loudspeakers throughout the empire, "the biggest battle in the world began." He said, everything went according to plan.Then he announced that the enemy was "defeated and cannot get up again!" and wild cheers erupted from the audience. He listed a series of figures to the audience: captured 2.5 million enemy troops, destroyed or captured 22,000 cannons, 18,000 tanks, and destroyed more than 14,500 enemy planes.The numbers continued to roll in: the German army had advanced 1,000 kilometers ("this is still according to direct statistics!"), and more than 25,000 kilometers of Russian railways have resumed operation, and most of them have been converted to German narrow gauge.Hitler, who said just now that the enemy had been defeated and would never get back up, was worried again.He conceded that the war in the east was a war of ideologies, and that now the best of Germany must be smelted into an indissoluble unity. "Only when the whole German people are united in a body willing to sacrifice themselves can we hope. God will be on our side, and the Almighty God will not bless the lazy nor help the cowardly." This is an excellent speech.On the one hand, it boasted of victory, and on the other hand, it called for a new sacrifice to avoid destruction.In the evening, news came that Guderian's tank troops had quickly captured Orel. People were immersed in the joy of victory. The passengers on the tram waved to people as if they were Russians; they were supposed to retreat to the Urals The main factory equipment of the country was also seized intact. The next day, Hitler returned to the "wolf's lair".According to Cobain's records, he was especially happy at dinner. At lunch on October 6, he was talking exclusively about Czechoslovakia, where there was considerable underground activity.His solution: deport all Jews "to the far east".This again reminded him that they should also deport the Jews from Berlin and Vienna to the same destination, since they were the source of information about the enemy. During the day, Guderian took Bryansk and completed the encirclement of the three Soviet armies.At dinner, Hitler was in a good mood, did not talk about politics, and made a wisecrack: Major Engel was bitten by a dog just now, and this is the reason for the rabies epidemic in the headquarters.The victories continued, and two days later reports from the front indicated that the Red Army "may generally be considered defeated."Since Moscow was just around the corner, Hitler ordered that not a single German should be allowed to enter the city."The city of Moscow will be destroyed, completely wiped off the face of the earth," he said. On October 9, after Hitler finished his military conference, he loudly said to Otto Dietrich that the latest battle situation can now be released to the public.Half an hour later, Hitler was striding up and down in his study, dictating a victory communiqué to Dietrich for delivery to the press.The next day, after Dietrich handed over the communiqué to the press for publication in Berlin, he raised his fist and shouted: "Gentlemen, I dare to use my journalistic reputation to vouch for this!" The reporters applauded and cheered," recalled Howard and K. Smith of The New York Times, "then stood up, stretched out their arms, and saluted Dietrich." That morning the German newspapers reported the great victory: two Soviet armies had been encircled.The public reaction was electrocuted.The pale face that had been frowning before was now radiant.In the beer halls, people rose to their feet when the radio broadcast "Holst Wessel Ballad" and "Germany Above All".In Berlin; rumors arose that Moscow had fallen. Significantly, on the same day, Field Marshal Rechnau, the first general to support National Socialism, issued an order to the Sixth Army to punish the partisans severely.This was no ordinary war, he said, but a battle of life and death between Germanic culture and Judeo-Bolshevism. "So the military must be fully aware of the need for severe and just compensation for the Jewish people who are not human." Other senior generals, such as Lunstedt and Manstein, issued similar orders. Hitler declared that the Soviet Union had been defeated and total victory was at hand.It wasn't just propaganda, to boost morale at home; but he believed what he said.However, he has not completely convinced his propaganda minister. On October 4, Joseph Goebbels addressed his subordinates with Dietrich's optimism: "Military, the outcome of this war has been decided. The rest, at home and abroad, is mainly political. business." Then, contradictoryly, he warned that the German people must be prepared to fight another ten years in the east.The task of the German newspapers was therefore to strengthen the "persistence" of the German people, and once this had been done, "the others would follow of themselves, so that, in the short term, no one would notice that peace had not been achieved at all." Hitler, if he had similar reservations, dispelled them when he heard that on October 15 the Moscow diplomatic corps had fled towards Kuibyshev, 600 miles to the east.The whole town was truly panicked.Some people said that two German trains had entered the suburbs, and the train station was crowded with people.Senior party and government officials, in cars, also joined the ranks of the panic-stricken fleeers, causing the largest traffic jam in the history of the Soviet Union.Pedestrians flocked to the stuck cars, extorting money from those inside, especially those thought to be Jewish. Crowds of fugitives and workers looted the shop because no police came to stop it.There were rumors that Lenin's body had been removed from Red Square for safekeeping; others that Stalin himself had fled.There were only a handful of people building barricades in the streets, ready to fight to the death not to let a single Nazi pass.Most of the Muscovites were demoralized, waiting for the Germans to enter the city with a mixture of hope and indifference.Many bought German-Russian dictionaries in order to greet them in the language of the conquerors. In Berlin, in the halls and halls of Wilhelmstrasse, it was said that Stalin had made peace with Germany through King Boris of Bulgaria.Fritz Hösse asked Ribbentrop if this was true.In absolute secrecy, Ribbentrop told him that Hitler had rejected the request, "clearly because he was convinced that he would stand the test and be victorious." Most of Hitler's generals shared the same confidence.Jodl, for example, has no doubts that the Soviet Union has exhausted its reserves. At dinner on the 17th, most of what Hitler talked about was related to a bright future.As far as he is concerned, the living space theory has become a fact. Two days after Hitler delivered a beautiful speech, Stalin, whom he admired and ridiculed, had recovered his composure.He reappeared in the Kremlin.He asked the chairman of the Moscow Soviet: "Should we defend Moscow?" Without waiting for an answer, he announced the measures under siege.Those who violate law and order will be dealt with immediately; spies, rebels, secret agents, and instigators will be shot and killed.Due to the firm instructions from above, the morale of the whole city began to improve again. Outside Moscow, the advance of the German vanguard, which had penetrated only 40 miles from the city, had slowed down under staunch Soviet resistance.Then, the weather suddenly changed and the autumn rain began.The German heavy Mark 1V tank was stuck in the mud and could not move; while the Soviet T-34 tank with better performance could continue to drive freely.In the past two years, Hitler's victory has been achieved by the high mobility and firepower advantages of the large-scale pincer offensive under the tactical cover of the air force.Now, below is the sea of ​​mud, and the tanks cannot move; above, due to the low visibility, the Luftwaffe, which has air superiority, is helpless.When mobility is lost, so is firepower -- and blitzkrieg.It should be noted that this is where Hitler's hope lies. It is only partially correct to say that the "typhoon" was blocked because of the mud, bone-chilling autumn rain, and the heroic resistance of the Red Army.The main reason for the defeat, according to most of Hitler's generals, was Hitler's refusal to start the campaign a month earlier.If he had heeded their advice, Moscow would have been in rubble and ruins, and the Soviet government and its army had been defeated.But Captain Pukammer believed that the main reason was the sabotage of the Führer's basic plans by Brauchitsch and Halder during his illness. By late October, the rain turns to snow and the mud freezes to ice.The conditions of the troops were almost unbearable.On the entire front, progress has been made in only a few places, and very little.At the end of the month, because the situation had become hopeless, the architect Gisler was ordered to stop the urban construction in Germany and immediately transport all workers, engineering and technical personnel, construction materials and machinery to the east for the construction of roads, railway tracks, stations and Engine garage etc. At the dinner table, Hitler was as confident as ever.At dinner on the eve of his departure for the annual celebrations commemorating the Munich Uprising, he kept the atmosphere alive with jokes and reminiscences.In Moscow, his admired enemy was giving a speech in the lobby of the Mayakovsky Metro Station—at the annual congress held on the eve of the October Revolution.The speech was an odd mixture of frustration and confidence.First of all, Stalin admitted that due to the war, socialist construction has been greatly hindered, and the number of casualties on the battlefield has almost reached 1.7 million.However, the so-called collapse of the Soviet regime preached by the Nazis is groundless. "On the contrary," he said, "the rear of the Soviets is stronger than ever. Another country, which had lost as much land as we have, would have collapsed." It must be admitted that the tasks before Russia were formidable , because Germany was fighting with many allies—Romania, Italy, and Hungary—but not a single British or American soldier was prepared to come to the aid of the Soviet Union. He excitedly listed Plekhanov and Lenin, Belinsky and Chernyshevsky, Pushkin and Tolstoy, Gorky and Chekhov, Glinka and Tchaikovsky, Szechenau The names of Suvorov and Pavlov, Suvorov and Kutuzov, etc., let everyone remember the national pride of Russia. "The German invaders are going to fight a war of extermination against the peoples of the Soviet Union. Very well! If they want to fight a war of extermination, let them fight it." The day after Stalin returned to command, on November 7, he addressed the troops assembled on Red Square with the same emotion.In the distance, guns rumble; in the sky, Soviet patrol planes fly overhead.He compared the current situation with the situation 23 years ago.Who can doubt that they can and must defeat the German invaders?He was clever, again using the names of historical figures—the Teutonic conquerors, the Tatars, the Poles and Napoleon—as a rallying cry for the people. "Let the heroes of our great ancestors, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Minin and Posarsky, Alexander Suvorov, Michel Kutuzov, etc., inspire You go on!" The next afternoon, Hitler came to Munich and delivered a moving speech to a conference of Reich and District Governors.Later, in another speech at the Rowan Blau Tavern, he gave President Roosevelt a warning: If an American warship dared to shoot at a German ship, "it would run the same risk itself." His Words of threat did not echo as strongly as Stalin's forceful speeches.In fact, the stalemate on the Eastern Front frustrated him.The next day, he reminded his men not to forget what happened to Napoleon's army in Russia. "If it is recognized that neither side can destroy the other by force," he predicted, "the two sides will make peace." However, Marshal von Bock opposed this pessimism and demanded that the offensive continue.The same goes for Brauchitsch and Halder. On November 12, Halder optimistically declared that, in his view, Russia was on the verge of collapse.Hitler was quite tempted, so three days later, the march to Moscow began again. At the beginning, the weather was fine, but it didn't last long, and soon the battlefield was full of ice, snow and mud.When General Oshima appeared at the Wolf's Lair—where he frequented—Hitler explained that winter was coming earlier than his weatherman had predicted. He then secretly told Oshima that it was doubtful whether Moscow would be taken within the year.The happy moments are gone forever.There were no more jokes to tell at the table; fewer people asked to sit at his table. God, it's getting colder and colder.There was fierce condemnation of Hitler's previous order banning the preparation of winter clothes. On November 21, Guderian called Halder and said that his troops could no longer survive.He goes to Bowker himself and asks to change the order he just received because he simply "couldn't carry it out".However, Marshal Bock did not listen to Guderian's request at all, because he was directly pressured by the Führer.He resumed the attack on Moscow.After brief, sporadic advances, the attack failed again.Bock personally took command, commanded a forward force, and ordered another attack on November 24.Although the German offensive was violent and abnormal, due to the heavy wind and snow and the desperate resistance of the Soviet army, the offensive failed again. Five days later, a crisis in the south echoed the failure in the center.Field Marshal von Runstedt was forced to evacuate Rostov, the gateway to the Caucasus, which had been captured a week earlier.The 30-mile retreat made Hitler very angry, and he telegraphed Runsted to stand by.Lunsted immediately called back and said: "Trying to hold on is madness. First, the troops cannot do this. Second, the troops will be wiped out if they don't retreat. I repeat, this order must be revoked or someone else will be replaced. The telegram was drafted by a junior officer, and the last sentence was added by Lunsted himself.That last sentence infuriated Hitler.He responded that evening as follows, without consulting the Army Commander-in-Chief: "I accept your request. Please surrender your command." After Field Marshal von Reichenau succeeded Rundstedt (Reichenau was one of the few who dared speak publicly to Hitler) the Führer flew to Melitopol to learn firsthand.He found an old comrade, Sepp Dietrich, one of the SS commanders.But Hitler was very angry when he heard that the officers of this elite force also agreed with Runsted that if they did not retreat, they would have been wiped out. After ordering Rechnau to complete his task of deposing Rundstedt for this purpose, Hitler summoned Rundstedt.Runsted was preparing to pack up and go home, expecting the Führer to offer him some kind of apology.Unexpectedly, the discussion between them turned into threats, and Hitler said that he would no longer allow anyone to submit a resignation. "Take me for example. I can't go to my superior, Almighty God, and say to him. 'I don't want to do it because I don't want to be responsible.'" The news that Rostov had been lost cast a shadow over Berlin, especially at the Ministry of Propaganda and the Foreign Office.Before long, however, this defeat was nothing compared to the disaster looming on the Central Front.The general attack on Moscow failed. In early December, an infantry reconnaissance party touched the edge of Moscow and spotted the Kremlin minaret, but they were dispersed by emergency troops of several Red Army tanks and factory workers.Marshal von Bock, who was suffering from a serious stomach problem, admitted to Brauchitsch on the phone that the entire offensive lacked depth and the troops were exhausted. On December 3, Bock called Halder.The call was more pessimistic.When Bock suggested a defensive position, the Chief of Staff tried to cheer him up with the usual advice of those far from the battle lines."The best defense is to stick to the offense," he said. The next day, Guderian reported that the temperature had dropped to minus 31 degrees.Because of the cold weather, the tank had to be fired under the engine to start, and the image in the telescope could not be seen clearly.To make matters worse, the winter coats and wool socks had not yet arrived, and the soldiers were miserable. On December 5, the temperature dropped another 5 degrees.Guderian not only suspended the attack, but also withdrew the front troops back to the line of defense. That same night, General Georgy Zhukov, the newly appointed commander of the central Soviet battlefield, launched a large-scale counter-offensive with 100 divisions on a 200-mile front.This infantry-tank joint counter-offensive caught the Germans by surprise.Not only had Hitler lost his dream of entering Moscow, but he seemed destined to meet Napoleon's fate in the Russian snow.Desperation and consternation swept through the German High Command.The Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchitsch, sick and discouraged, demanded his resignation. Hitler himself was confused.The Russian infantry fought badly in the Great War, and now they are tigers.How is this going? On December 6, a depressed Hitler admitted to Jodl that "victory can no longer be achieved".