Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

Sit-down battle (from "The Lost Empire of the World") "Fake" War The half-year lull between the fall of Warsaw and events in Norway has been dubbed in the West as a "sham" war, to quote an American lawmaker.We call it sitzkrieg or "sit-down warfare" and it's for blitzkrieg ①'s witticism.From the Anglo-French side, this statement may be appropriate.During this period of respite, they did not improve their military power at all, it is incredible, they just sat and predicted our defeat. ① German: Blitzkrieg. This delicate, dark period had just begun when the Führer addressed the Reichstag with his "hand for peace" speech.His speech, like his other political activities, was carefully planned.If the Allies had taken this speech with gullibility, we might well have launched the November Offensive which shocked the West.After the fall of Warsaw, Hitler had already made arrangements for this, and we are actively planning it.But now Western politicians have become somewhat wary of the head of state, and their reactions are disappointing.But this is not a big deal after all. Due to the bad weather and unresolved supply problems, the impatient head of state had to postpone the action date again and again.As a result, the plan to attack France has never been realized, but the date and strategy are constantly changing.In all, the date of the attack was postponed twenty-nine times, while preparations continued at an unprecedented pace.When we were drawing up the fall gelb (yellow plan to attack France), our staff favorites were long scholarly articles in French newspapers and military magazines that we were about to succumb to economic pressure.We find these articles ridiculous.In fact, for the first time our economy has really started to rise.Life in Paris, we were told, was livelier and more relaxed than it had been before the war.British Prime Minister Chamberlain echoed Western thinking when he said: "Hitler missed his golden moment." During this forced six-month delay, despite endless interruptions from the Führer's headquarters, German arms industry production began to rise, a well-established attack on France. The new strategic plan is finally out.

Unrest in Finland The Soviet attack on Finland temporarily enlivens the period of sit-down warfare. After Stalin negotiated and signed the agreement with Ribbentrop, his consistent policy was to do everything possible to expand the territory and consolidate his position while we were fighting the democratic forces, so as to have a final showdown with us.Hitler had already ceded to Stalin large swaths of the Baltic states and Poland in order to free his hand against the West.But Stalin was as greedy as the Russian tsar or other Bolshevik rulers.This is a good time for him to annex the Karelian Isthmus and control the Gulf of Finland.When his emissaries threatened the proud Finns with a failed attempt to seize the territory, Stalin decided to resort to force.Finnish sovereignty was of course violated.

But, to the astonishment of the world, the Soviet rulers were in trouble because the offensive went badly.The Red Army, which had been boasted so much, was humiliated. In Finland, it was exposed that they were originally a group of rabble with extremely poor equipment and training, and their command strength was also very weak. Even a well-trained but weak enemy could not defeat them.It could have been the result of Stalin's mass purges of officers in the thirties, or it could have been the traditional incompetence of the Russians combined with the pernicious influence of Bolshevism, or Stalin's deliberate use of the worst troops. Know.However, Finland did heroically repel the Slavic invaders from November 1939 to March 1940, and the Soviet Union was never able to defeat them militarily.In the end, the traditional Russian style of play was still used, and the few Finnish defenders were finally submerged in the powerful artillery fire and bathed in the sea of ​​blood shed by the Slavs.In this way, Stalin's wish came true, and he pushed our Finnish friends back to the Karelian Isthmus, forming the Leningrad Line.We must admit that this action actually saved Leningrad in 1941.

On Christmas, the Finnish army won a big victory. This is the famous Battle of Sumosami. The Finnish army killed about 900 people and caused about 30,000 Soviet troops to be annihilated or frozen to death.After this battle, it will no longer be possible for everyone to regard the Soviet Army as a powerful modern hostile force.Hermann Göring later called the Finnish campaign "the greatest decoy operation in history".This means that the Russians deliberately showed weakness in Finland in order to disguise their combat effectiveness.This also became a ridiculous excuse for the German Air Force's defeat in the East.In fact, in 1939 the military power of Stalin's Russia was weak.What happened from this point until our final collapse at the hands of the Soviets on the Eastern Front will be dealt with in later chapters, but their performance in Finland did lead us to wrong plans.

Sit-in battle over: Norway Western democracies have made a lot of publicity about attacking Finland, and are planning to give Finland military aid.But it turned out that no action was taken.But the opening of the Finnish front forced Hitler to face a strong threat from the north, and Britain attempted to occupy Norway. We have accurate intelligence on this.This British plan, unlike some of the plans and "conspiracies" charged against the German army at Nuremberg, did not actually exist.Winston Churchill wrote openly about this plan in his memoirs.He conceded that the British attack had been dated ahead of ours and was later cancelled.So we got into Norway first • by fluke, it was a matter of time.

The Soviet-Finnish war sharpened the Norwegian problem, because Britain and France could use "aid to Finland" as an excuse to land in Norway and advance to Scandinavia.This is very bad for us.British bases on both sides of the North Sea formed a blockade of our submarines and thus our main choke point at sea.What's more, the ships we bring in iron ore from Sweden must sail along the coast of Norway in winter.Without this iron ore resource, we cannot sustain a long war.When the High Command acknowledged the danger to Hitler, Hitler issued an order to carry out the "Weser Exercise" and occupy Norway, and the yellow plan was postponed again.

It is a pity that at the Nuremberg Tribunal Admiral Raeder was convicted of "conspiring to occupy neutral Norway," while Britain, which had drawn up the same plan, sat on trial.But this unreasonable phenomenon has prompted me to take my experience in Nuremberg with equanimity.I take that not as a personal insult, but as the inevitable political consequence of failure.What would happen to world opinion if the war turned out the other way around and we hanged Churchill for plotting to occupy Norway?It is only natural to treat a person in the same way. Our occupation of Norway was an astonishing naval operation under the actual fire of a very fine British fleet, and was achieved with great success; this success was not due to Hitler's command, but the result of the disregard of his command.We suffered heavy losses at sea, especially later when we planned to attack Britain, and there was a shortage of destroyers.But the price we paid was insignificant compared to what we gained.We pre-empted the British, opened up a wider coastline, smashed our blockade, and guaranteed the supply of Swedish iron ore throughout the war years.

mistake in norway Hitler's layman exposed badly in Norway.It happens again and again in each campaign, and it gets stronger and stronger.In every respect, it is the mark of the layman to panic at the face of difficulty.The mark of an expert is to be able to adapt to the situation at a critical moment, and the highest art of military use requires correct judgment when the clouds of battle are dense.Hitler's panic took two forms: he suddenly ordered troops to stop fighting while they were in motion, and he abruptly changed objectives in the middle of a campaign.Both of these weaknesses were on display during the Weser exercise.In my analysis of the Norwegian campaign, I described in detail Hitler's hysterical attacks throughout the day, insisting that we abandon Narvik, the real stronghold, and his sudden and crazy plan to use the "Bremen" cruise ship to capture the port of Trondheim, etc. .So why are we still able to successfully occupy Scandinavia?It was all because General Falkenhorst had worked efficiently and skilfully in Norway despite the Führer's interference, commanding a fine force and drawing up the right plan.

This occasional disturbance from above often affects the entire combat operation.Adolf Hitler used not only violence but also cunning political tricks to achieve the goal of controlling the army for many years.There is no doubt that this man's lust for power was insatiable, and it is a pity that the German people did not understand his true nature until it was too late.The background of this usurpation I shall give a rough account of, as it had a great influence on the whole course of the Six Years' War. How Hitler usurped military power In 1938, he and a group of his Nazi favorites were unscrupulous and fabricated charges against some well-known generals of the Supreme Command for disorderly conduct.On the one hand, they have also used several instances of errors of this nature, and the details of this will not be repeated here.The Nazis planned to use this charge to secretly kill a group of experienced generals.And Hitler himself became the Supreme Commander in one fell swoop!He compelled all members of the German Armed Forces to swear allegiance to himself.This action showed that he understood the loyal character of the Germans, and that once they had taken the oath they would remain faithful to that oath.

As a result of the personal attacks and fabricated charges against a number of our respected generals, our staff was gagged and disbanded, and there was no corresponding protest against this usurpation.The absolute independence of the German army, which has always been free from political control and which has made it a strong force in our country for so long, has now come to an end, and the command of one of the most powerful armies in the world, a year before the war begins , fell into the hands of an Austrian street agitator. In itself, it was not a catastrophic change.Hitler was not completely ignorant of the military.He had spent four years in the field as an infantryman, and there were worse ways to learn to fight than that.He voraciously read historical and military works.He has an extraordinary memory for historical events.More importantly, when encountering major problems, he is good at tracing the source.For the understanding of the essence of things, he even has the same intuitive sense as women.It is good command style in war if a statesman is constantly listening to his soldiers for orders to be carried out.A daring political adventurer, a Charles XII figure who rose from the common people to the dominant position to unite Germany into a staunch force, plus the best military command in the world, our General Staff has it all , we could have achieved ultimate success.

But Hitler didn't listen to anyone's opinion.This ruined him, and it ruined Germany.From the major strategic policy to the smallest details, he takes care of it all by himself.The only valid and overriding principle in our time of war is that Hitler commands everything.In November 1939, as we were trying to prevent a premature attack on France, Hitler gave a brusque speech to the General Staff, warning us that anyone who defied his will would be Strike relentlessly.Like many of his other threats, he did.By the end of the war, most of the General Staff had been removed from their posts.Many people were shot.If he hadn't gone mad and committed suicide later, we would all have died sooner or later. In this way, the strong people of the great Germany and the brave and fearless German soldiers were reduced to the royal tools under Hitler's layman command. Hitler and Churchill: A Comparison In his memoirs, Winston Churchill wrote of his ministers' due diligence, expressing his admiration for Hitler, saying that Hitler could carry out his decisions without interference and without convincing the short-sighted professional soldier.In fact, it was this that saved Britain and enabled Britain to win the war. Churchill, like Hitler, was a master of layman intervention in the military.Both rose to power from extreme political frustrations, and both relied primarily on their three-inch tongues to control the masses.Both of them reflected to some degree the interests of the people they represented, and so, in spite of all their mistakes, their failures and their misfortunes, had won their allegiance.Both love to talk big and know little about, let alone care about, the current state of the economy and logistics.Both of them refused to give in in the face of failure.What's more, both have striking personalities, enough to suppress legitimate objections raised during their speeches.I have a rich and painful personal experience with Hitler of this strange phenomenon.The big difference is that Churchill ended up having to listen to professional soldiers, while the Germans felt fated to serve the fuchrer prinzip ①. ① German: Führer criterion. If Churchill had had the power that Adolf Hitler stole, the Allied armies would surely have fought their way in 1944 when they marched on the formidable hilly, water-ridden Balkans, which Churchill called the "Axis of Tranquility." The army was wiped out.We'll annihilate them here.The Italian campaign is a proof of that.Only on the vast plains of Normandy could the American way of fighting, employing large quantities of poor-quality, cheaply equipped Ford products, be useful.In the Balkans there would be a renewed Battle of the Demobili Pass, won by the Balkans and lost by Churchill, and the defeat at Gallipoli would be nothing compared to it. ① An important seaport in southeastern Italy. During the First World War, Churchill attempted to capture this port and failed. ②The Thermopylae Pass is in Greece. In 480, the king of Sparta led 300 people to block the Persian army. Given his powers as head of state, Churchill would have acted rashly, trying to retake the Greek islands and raiding Rhodes, thus wasting the often-stretched supply of Allied landing craft.In 1944 he rattled Eisenhower and Roosevelt on this absurdly stupid move until they refused to talk to him about it. Churchill was a Hitler bound by democracy.If Germany makes a comeback one day, it should remember the different endings of these two men.I am not in favor of endless debate in Parliament.As far as faith is concerned, I have always supported a conservative monarchy.However, no matter what the political structure is, in the future we should entrust the military to well-trained generals, and the military department will firmly not allow people who engage in politics to intervene. English translator’s note: The nondescript and distorted comparison between Hitler and Churchill above, of course, omits the fundamental difference.Historians, even most German historians, agree that Hitler was an aggressive, predatory, brutal adventurer, while Churchill was a great defender of human freedom, dignity and the rule of law.Churchill did have a tendency to meddle in the military.People in politics will find it difficult to resist the temptation. Long's talk of the British landing in Norway was real.He wanted to conclude from this that the Nuremberg trials were totally discredited, which of course is another matter.Britain is the sole protector and hope of small neutral countries such as Norway and Denmark.The purpose of the British landing in Norway was to defend Norway, not to occupy and control it.In a war, due to strategic needs, the two warring parties may plan to attack the same neutral target, but this does not prove that both sides are equally guilty of aggression.I think Long is wrong on this point.However, I do not intend to persuade an officer of the German General Staff.