Chapter 9 Chapter nine

English translator's foreword I never expected to translate a German military text.For many years, like many admirals, I intended to write about my personal experience in World War II.In the end, like most of them, I decided to drop the idea.It is said that the late five-star naval admiral Ernest King said that if he had his way, the communiqué on the Pacific War would have only one sentence: "We are victorious." My war memoirs can also be shortened to Like this: "I served in the military." After I retired from the Navy, I worked as a consultant for a marine engineering company.In 1965, during my last business trip to Germany, I found that no matter where I listed, there were piles of small books in the window of the bookstore. The title of the book was "The Lost World Empire". By General Von Roon.I vividly recall Admiral von Roon, whom I had known during my tenure as Naval Attaché at the American Embassy in Berlin.I've seen him, talked to him.I thought he might have been at one of the dinner parties my wife used to throw.He was then on the operational staff of the German Armed Forces.Like most German staff officers, he was cold and unapproachable.He was a stocky man with a large hooked nose, almost Jewish, and I am afraid he must have felt sad about it.Of course, his surname indicated that he was of pure Prussian descent.He was famous, and I always wanted to get to know him better, but never got the chance.At that time, I simply never thought that one day I would know him well through his writings.

Out of curiosity, I bought a copy of his book and found it so fascinating that I visited the publisher's offices in Munich to find out who had published it in America.I learned that this book has not yet been translated into English.When I was about to return to the United States, I persuaded the publisher to obtain the copyright of the English version.I'm planning to retire from the business world, and as such, I thought translating this book might alleviate some of the pain of having nothing to do. The Lost World Empire is a summary of a thick two-volume operational analysis of the war written by General von Roon in prison.He called the two volumes The Land, Sea, and Air Campaigns of World War II, and he had plenty of time to write because of the war crimes he was involved in on the Eastern Front.He was sentenced to twenty years in prison at Nuremberg.There is no English translation of this exhaustive technical work, and I doubt there will be any.

General von Roon always wrote a summary of the strategic and political background before describing each major battle.The publisher, after von Roon's death, plucked these short summaries and compiled them into The Lost World Empire (I doubt the general would have approved of such a dramatic title).So "The Lost Empire of the World" is not a solid military history, but a kind of opportunism of the publisher.It brings together in one small book all of von Roon's propositions on world politics, and omits the detailed military analysis that follows them.Regardless, I think it's a readable, interesting, and worthwhile book.

The value of this book is that it is relatively honest.Almost all German war literature whitewashes the Holocaust, responsibility for war, Hitler's dictatorship over troops and people, and so on.For all these difficult issues, von Roon wrote calmly and frankly.He intends not to have the book published until he is safely buried. (He did.) So unlike most German military writers, he neither wanted to save his head nor to comfort the victor.The result is a book that reveals what the Germans really thought, and probably still think, about the war Hitler started. So this is the best comment a German general can make.Von Roon was a talented writer who was greatly influenced by the best English and French military writers, especially de Gaulle and Churchill.His German was much easier to read than most of his compatriots who wrote on military subjects.I hope my translation can express at least part of this.My own style of writing has been formed by writing U.S. Navy reports all my life, and it is inevitable that there will be incomprehension everywhere, but I believe that it will not distort the original text in essence.In my opinion, this author describes the Germans under Hitler as they really are: a very stubborn and efficient fighting people, not a bunch of stupid sadists, and not a bunch of ridiculous ones as popular entertainment shows make it out to be the fool.For six full years, these people almost exhausted the entire world, and they also committed unprecedented crimes.Their stake is, to use a telling phrase from Shakespeare, "the great earth itself."What was going on in their heads seemed to me to be very important, which is why I translated von Roon's works.

His narration of some events is both expert and familiar, and we cannot take it at face value.He's a German through and through.Though I lived among them for several years, I never dared to say that I knew that strange and intelligent people, capable of so much, and capable of so much evil, but also famously dull. of.In general, I left General von Roon to describe the war in his own way, but I had to translate some passages without criticism, so I added occasional notes. Von Roon's first page, for example, begins exactly as all of Adolf Hitler's speeches begin: a denunciation of the Treaty of Versailles as an unjust treaty imposed on honorable and trustworthy Germany by the cruel Entente.He does not mention the vagaries of history, which German writers hardly ever mention.In 1917 Lenin overthrew Kerensky's government and demanded a separate peace on the Eastern Front.The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, drawn up by the Germans and signed more than a year before the Peace of Versailles, took from Russia a territory larger than that of Britain and Germany combined, almost sixty million inhabitants, and almost all heavy industries.This is even harsher than the Treaty of Versailles.

When I was in Berlin, I used to bring up this little fact whenever the Treaty of Versailles was mentioned.My German friends are always embarrassed by such comparisons, they don't think it makes sense.The Treaty of Versailles fell to them, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to someone else.Their reaction was genuine.This national quirk of the Germans is beyond me to explain, but it should not be left behind when reading The Lost World Empire. Victor Henry in Oakton, Virginia May 27, 1966 white scheme In writing this book on Hitler's duty, I have only one purpose: to preserve the honor of German soldiers.

There is no need to trace the rise of our leader in World War II, Adolf Hitler, here.The history of the twentieth century is nowhere clearer than this.When the victorious Allies created the insane Versailles Peace of 1919, they also created Hitler.In 1918, Germany believed the "Fourteen Points" of US President Wilson and honorably laid down its arms.The Allies regarded the "Fourteen Points" as a dead letter, drafted a treaty, carved up Germany, and created a political and economic madhouse in Europe. Having thus duped the naive American president and carved up the world, the politicians of Britain and France might have imagined that they would paralyze the German nation forever.This policy of contemptuousness is shooting itself in the foot.Winston Churchill himself described the decision at Versailles as a "sorrowful and complicated folly", the oppression of Versailles created a volcanic resentment in the heart of the vibrant German people, it burst out, and Adolf Hitler came to power just as the Spitfire was at its peak.The Nazi Party was a strange alliance between radicals and conservatives, rich and poor, united in the ideal of a revived Germany but, unfortunately, also in the turbulent political slogan of the European Middle Ages, "Against the Jews".A group of vulgar agitators, idealistic philosophers, fanatics, opportunists, thugs and adventurers, some of them capable and energetic, came to power with Hitler.Those of us on the General Staff, for the most part, watched these chaotic political events with disgust and foreboding.We owe our allegiance to our country, no matter who rules it, but we fear the tides of change that generally jeopardize society.Hitler surprised us, it is true.Swiftly and bloodlessly, this eminent and provocative statesman undid one injustice after another inflicted by Versailles.His methods are straightforward and tenacious.The Weimar regime1 had resorted to other methods, only to receive contempt from Britain and France.Hitler's methods paid off.

① The Weimar regime is the government established in Weimar in Germany in 1919. At home in Germany he was no less severe and cruel when necessary, and his methods were equally effective; and if historians now call his regime a period of terror, it must be admitted that it was a universal terror.Hitler brought prosperity to the country and rearmed us.He is a man on a mission.His fervent belief in himself and in his mission held the German masses, and though he had usurped much power, it was likely to give him it all. red scheme Naturally, Germany quickly revived under Hitler, causing furious terror among the Entente.War-weary, luxury-loving, and corrupted by socialism, France was less inclined to take effective action.Britain is another matter.Britain still rules the world with its global navy, its international financial system, its allies and its empire on five continents.Germany's ascent to dominance of Europe tipped the balance of power, and it challenged Britain once again for world supremacy.World War loomed again, and this showdown was inevitable, as Germany had surpassed Britain in population and factories by the early twentieth century.In this sense, Churchill rightly called the Second World War a continuation of the First World War, and the two wars together constituted "another Thirty Years' War".

① The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was originally a struggle between the old and new religions in Germany, and later almost all major countries in Western Europe, Central Europe, and Northern Europe were involved. We in the German General Staff understood that sooner or later Hitler's astonishing means of normalizing Europe would invite British intervention.The only question is when and under what circumstances to intervene?As early as 1917, we prepared a plan for a two-front war against Britain and Poland, called the "Red Plan".We have been constantly revising this formula as Adolf Hitler achieved one bloodless victory after another.While Britain and France contented themselves with their impotent denunciations and protests, our strategic position and military strength improved rapidly.We begin to hope that the powerful Führer can take advantage of the mistakes of the murderers at Versailles and truly bring about his new order in Europe without bloodshed.If so, he could launch the Great Crusade against the Soviet Union, fight on a single front, and find a place to operate in the East - which was his life's purpose.The course of history would be completely different.

But on March 31, 1939, a date the world will never forget, everything changed.British Prime Minister Chamberlain suddenly gave Poland a guarantee of unconditional military assistance!He had lost his temper on the pretext that Hitler had broken his promise not to occupy that small piece of Czechoslovakia.This piece of land was what was left after the division of the Munich Conference personally planned by Chamberlain.Like all statesmen's promises, Hitler's were of course no more than tactic and expedient.If Chamberlain thinks otherwise, he's just an ass himself. Regardless of the motivation for the pledge to Poland, it was a suicidal act of folly.It hardened the corrupt Polish military oligarchy against Germany's legitimate grievances with Danzig and the Polish corridor.It puts the leverage to start another world war in the hands of these backward militarists.There is no point other than that, because in the end it is impossible for Britain to give Poland real military assistance.Had Russia intervened, the assurance might still have meant something; in fact, it might have stopped Hitler halfway, because he feared fighting on two fronts more than anything else.The same goes for the General Staff.But the British gentleman-statesmen looked down on the Bolsheviks, and Poland completely refused to consider accepting the protection of the Russian army under any circumstances.So stupidity and weakness joined forces to provoke this catastrophe.

Chamberlain's provocative action, like a cornered rabbit resisting with weak paws, can only arouse the Führer's courage.The order arrived at the General Staff at lightning speed, asking us to draw up a battle plan for the autumn attack on Poland.We worked around the clock to prepare a plan based on the red scheme.On April 5, this plan was sent to the Führer under the new codename White Plan. irony of history The white plan to wipe out Poland was formed on the basis of several main and typical geographical facts. Poland is a plain: a large Belgium with few natural barriers and no real borders.The southern Carpathian Mountains are cut off by the Jablonka Pass, providing a ready access from Czechoslovakia to Krakow and the Vistula River.The Vistula, Narew, and San rivers are all problems, but in summer and early autumn, water levels are so low that cars and horses can wade through them in many places. Poland itself is a political freak, reflected in its shapeless geography.It has no permanent appearance, no continuous polity or national purpose.It disappeared from the map of Europe several times, and was carved up into provinces of great powers.Now he is not as good as a province of Russia.At the Yalta Conference, the heads of the Allied Powers moved this entire geographically rough quadrilateral called "Poland" some 200 kilometers further west, to the Oder-Nice line.This, of course, was done at the expense of Germany, giving Poland some of the cities, territories and inhabitants that had been Germany since ancient times, and causing millions of people to be tragically evicted from their homes and resettled.Such is war: the victor gets the spoils, the loser suffers.World War II broke out over the territorial integrity of Poland, but Poland has not returned to its 1939 borders and never will.As a result of a deal made between Hitler and Stalin, it lost a piece of territory to the Soviet Union.Britain went to war with us over those borders, and it dragged France and eventually the United States into the war.At Yalta, Britain and the United States gave the Soviets permanent Polish territories as a gift from Hitler.This is the irony of history. The strategic position of Poland in 1939 was extremely unfavorable. The entire country can be seen as a weak salient point inserted into Germany. It is a land occupied by Germany. It borders East Prussia in the north and Czechoslovakia in the south. The entire terrain is flat , it is easy for Germany to rush in from the west.Behind it, to the east, stood firmly the Soviet Union, newly linked to Germany through the non-aggression pact engineered by Ribbentrop. deadly treaty Not enough attention has been paid to the obvious fact that the treaty, hailed as a coup at the time, resulted in Germany's defeat in World War II before a single shot was fired.An alliance (whether temporary or strategic) with the Bolsheviks was, of course, a betrayal of the ideals of the dictator and at odds with the German ethos.This may be permissible if it proves to be of real strategic advantage.In politics, as in war, the important thing is to win, but this event did the opposite. The treaty gave Stalin the Baltic states and about half of Poland, bringing the Slavs two hundred kilometers closer to Germany.Two years later we paid the price.In December 1941, our Central Corps on the massive march to Moscow - the greatest march in the history of the world - stopped forty kilometers from its objective, while our advance reconnaissance Already deep enough to see the top of the Kremlin tower.Had the German army attacked from a front nearly 200 kilometers away from Moscow, they would have occupied the Russian capital before the first snowflakes fell on the Smolensk road, deposed Stalin, and won the battle.At that time, Britain will definitely ask for peace, and we will win this war. This treaty, which even our enemies considered a triumph of daring diplomatic action, contains these words between the lines: finis germaniae. ①There are not many such political coup de theaters in history; such catastrophic self-defeating is also rare.But in our staff department at that time, very few people dared to express doubts about such news, even if they only expressed mutual astonishment with their eyes. ①French: wonderful events. ②Latin: Destroy Germania. No one in the army, including Hitler's own Chief of Staff Keitel and Director of Operations Jodl, knew in advance of this secret agreement to give half of Poland to the Bolsheviks.It was only in the third week of the campaign that Stalin called Ribbentrop angrily and severely reprimanded our German Fourteenth Army for advancing to the southeast oil field area, did the armed forces receive a special secret order to stand in front of the Russians Withdrew, and they swaggered forward, without shedding a drop of their own blood or that of the Poles. It was I who, at midnight on September 16, received a startling telephone call from our military attache in Moscow at the High Command, who reported to me that the Russians were entering Poland in accordance with a secret agreement signed by Hitler in August.I immediately called General Yodl and told him that the Russians were on the move.He asked back, "Who is it for?" His voice was trembling, and he hardly looked like Alfred.It can be seen that the army is completely kept in the dark. In the last days of August, preparations for the White Plan were intensified, and Hitler intended to use Ribbentrop's political surprise to stage a comedy of peace negotiations.In the spring, when he was in a calmer mood, he said in his customary prophetic tone that the Western powers would no longer tolerate a bloodless victory, and that this time there would be war.We prepare the White Plan with a mix of emotions ranging from apprehension to a sense of impending doom, as our operational readiness is far below the level of a large-scale conflict.Take just one key project as an example.We were so short of tanks that in the white scheme we had to line up a large number of Czech tanks of limited value; the Navy had only fifty submarines ready for combat; and worst of all, even then the Führer hadn't even released The order to go into full wartime production, because he knew it was an unpopular move; in short, we were walking on thin ice. The staff gave up hope of peace talks.Hitler, however, was visibly fascinated by his own performance and by Ribbentrop's constant reassurances, as he acted out the planned play with Henderson.He began to believe that England might be intimidated again, and perhaps come to Munich with us again.In early September, everyone in the High Command noticed that when the news of the declaration of war on the Western Front came, the Führer was shocked and trembling.But now there is no other way but to implement the white plan. strategy The plan called for a simultaneous attack from the north and the south, with the goal of cutting off the Polish corridor and marching on Warsaw.The Poles spread their forces across the impenetrable frontier, and were soon divided, surrounded, and destroyed.They should deploy their main defenses on the three defense lines of the Vistula River-Narew River-Bug River, so that they can prolong the war and prompt Britain and France to attack our weak defenders in the west.This could be a devastating blow.Risky dictatorial leadership has pushed the German people into dire straits.But at this time God has mercy on us.The Poles proved themselves strategically inept despite being brave on the field, while the French sat in their barracks and fortifications, barely firing a shot. Today German commentators write of the French sit-down defense of September 1939 as a "miracle" that made possible the blitz against Poland.But it's hard to see where this "miracle" lies.The French military idea was one of defense and positional warfare, as it had been victorious in 1918.They are very superstitious about the theoretical ten-to-one advantage of defense in mechanized warfare.There is no doubt that in September France could have sent millions of well-trained troops, with more armored divisions than the German Armed Forces in Poland, to break through the Maginot Line, or take the northern plains, through Belgium, Holland , broke into our very weak western defenses, and went straight to Berlin.But its determination is not here.Adolf Hitler's political and military gamble at this juncture proved brilliant.Of all his opponents, he knew the French best, and struck them first. victory It took only about four days to break through the entire Polish defense line.The tactical surprise was completely successful because the hypocritical Polish statesmen kept giving false assurances to the people, despite knowing that the situation was dangerous.Almost a thousand aircraft of the Polish Air Force were destroyed on the ground.Since then, the Luftwaffe has been flying freely in the sky.Poland's ground resistance is also weak against strong. Our commanders on the battlefield cannot but admire the brave Polish cavalry charging towards the tank formation.Rumors that the Polish government told their cavalry that our tanks were paper fakes may be true.If so, they will soon come to their senses sadly.The superiority of mechanized warfare against classical military tactics has never been more shocking than in this ineffective charge of Polish cavalry on steel tanks. However, the German Armed Forces fought only with the thin blade of its fully mechanized armored forces.Our main ground advances were made by dismounted infantry groups, who took full advantage of the disruption of communications, the panic of the enemy, and the confusion of the front lines caused by the charge of a small number of armored forces.Although the air force played a strong supporting role, it was not aerial bombardment but the horse-drawn heavy artillery outside Warsaw that broke down Warsaw's resistance and brought it to its final surrender.Such reliance on horses exposed our serious lack of combat readiness for a world war. By September 21, Warsaw was surrounded by German troops.Word spread outside that tens of thousands of Polish soldiers had been captured, encirclements had been wiped out one by one, the front line had collapsed, and the Nationalist government had fled to Romania in fright.However, the city under the hail of bullets, with no food, no water and electricity, many buildings in ruins, and disease spreading, did not give up the useless hope of the West for last-minute assistance until September 27, and finally surrendered. Comment All the while, the Fuehrer and his propagandists have described the Polish campaign as Cheng was a localized police operation, a "special mission" of the German Armed Forces.Hitler himself ticked off many of the parts of the White Plan that dealt with the distribution of rations, the mobilization of troops, and transport, just to assuage the resistance of the German people.This political interference has had a considerable hampering effect on military operations, and precious months have passed without compensation for the damage.Here I say that because of the same interventions of the Nazi Party and the Führer - which never ceased - the war forces were never fully and properly organized by professional standards. Our radio station in Gleiwitz - on the night of August 21st, near the Polish border - concocted a disgraceful farce, falsely claiming that Polish soldiers crossed the border to attack the station and were repelled; The bloody political prisoners were wearing Polish military uniforms, and their bullet-riddled bodies lay near the radio station.This is a pretext for aggression, and the German armed forces are ignorant of these hoaxes.Seventy-two hours ago we irrevocably marched on Poland.Before the Nuremberg Trials (the veracity of this sentence is doubtful. - English translator's note), I was not aware of this incident myself, I was busy with some important business at the time, and Himmler may be responsible for it. Poland in 1939 was a backward, closed dictatorship run by reactionary soldiers and politicians with crazy territorial ambitions, a government that was cruel to minorities (especially Ukrainians and Jews) and unfair to its own people And hypocrisy; this government pounced on Czechoslovakia like a hyena during the Munich crisis and snatched a Czech province in danger; this government has clumsily played both sides with Germany and the Soviet Union for twenty years; talk and act like a major military power, while in reality it is as weak as a kitten.The democracies participated in the Second World War to support such a reactionary, deceitful and stubborn autocratic regime.This government soon crumbled ignominiously and was wiped out forever.But the war went on, and its causes were soon forgotten.The day will come when historians in their right mind will give proper emphasis to the paradoxes that led to one of the greatest wars in the world. The last absurd thing in a terrible global war so foolishly waged: Czechoslovakia, which was betrayed by Great Britain in 1938, did not fight and lost less than a hundred thousand people throughout the war; And Poland, backed by Britain in 1939, fought a war that killed 6 million people (although half of them were Jews).Both countries ended up as communist puppets under Soviet servitude.Which government, then, is the wiser, and which people are the luckier?In the event of disputes between big countries, it is best for small countries to bow their heads to the strong wind and fall to whichever side is stronger.And the Poles just forgot this. Translator's Note: Readers will gradually become familiar with the German habit of blaming other countries for allowing Germany to invade.Throughout the books of General von Roon, as in most of the military writings of the Germans, this tone recurs.Officers who had made their fortunes under the General Staff system had apparently lost the ability to think in other words.Von Roon's comments on the Polish government and on the pledges made to Great Britain are significant passages in his summary preceding the White programme.