World War II: The Autobiography (4 page)

Then, of course, there was the Russian winter. Like Napoleon, another adventurer in Russia, Hitler was unable to comprehend the Russian winter, with its temperatures touching minus 40 degrees. The
Ostheer
was unequipped for winter fighting and troops resorted to stuffing newspaper in their uniforms. By early December 1941 the German Army had ground to a halt. Then the Russians counter-attacked. In summer 1942, the Germans would again go on the offensive but any real chance of delivering a KO blow to Russia had long since disappeared.

This was not only due to the Soviet Union’s tenacity, demography and geography. Its factories were beginning to outproduce Germany in war
materiel.
Additionally, Russia was also being supplied with armaments by Britain and, from December 1941, the Allies’ new partner, the United States.

The United States entered World War II on 7 December, when its naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese fighter-bombers. The attack wasn’t quite out of the blue, for the USA and Japan had rattled sabres following Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937. Determined to stop further Japanese expansion in the Pacific – which it saw as its sphere of interest – America imposed a trade embargo on Japan in July 1941. This embargo cut off nine-tenths of Japan’s oil supply.

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was not its only assault of 7 December. There were attacks too on Wake, Midway and Guam islands, Hong Kong, Malaya and the Philippines. Within three months the Japanese had conquered all these places (with the exception of Midway), plus the Dutch East Indies and were well on their way to subduing Burma. Yet Japan’s victories were flashy rather than substantial. Four US aircraft carriers escaped the “day of infamy” at Pearl Harbor. Japanese garrisoning of the new possessions was woefully thin.

In truth there was little or no prospect of Japan winning a war against the US, let alone the US and the British Empire. Wars, at base, are won by those with the big pockets. The US was the richest and most dynamic power in the world; ergo, it was likely to win any conflict in which it participated. In 1943, for example, the US produced 37.5 billion dollars worth of armaments. Japan produced 4.5 billion.

Japan was not the only country to feel the powerful effects of the US war economy for, in a fit of madness Hitler declared war on the US on 11 December 1941. By this act, what were essentially two wars – Hitler’s in Europe, Tojo’s in the Far East – became joined as one – with the Axis on the losing side. The intervention of the US in the conflict meant, in Churchill’s words, that the rest of the war was “merely the proper application of overwhelming force”. Unfortunately, the Axis powers, with the exception of Italy (which changed sides in 1943) either did not realize this or did not care. Indeed, all the war’s most ferocious battles came after December 1941: Stalingrad, Kursk, El Namein, D-Day, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Gassino. Despite being massively outnumbered, fighting on three fronts, the
Wehrmacht
of 1944 was still inflicting a superior casualty rate on its enemies; on the eastern Front it was killing five Russian soldiers for every one of its own lost. Japanese resistance was fanatical, buoyed by the belief that capitulation and defeat were slanders on a man’s character.

But Churchill was right. After December 1941 the end of the war was never seriously in doubt. American productive capabilities were simply overwhelming. In 1943 alone, the US produced 85,898 aircraft; Germany and Japan produced 42,300. And, of course, to the US side of the balance sheet was to be added the 65,863 aircraft produced by the the USSR and Britain.

The only possible salvation for the Axis side would have been the deployment of atomic weapons. That Germany in particular failed to develop atomic weaponry, given its general technological wizardry in World War II (Me 262 jets, V-l and V-2 rockets), is notable. And even ironic. For prominent among the brains behind the Manhattan project, the US’s atomic programme, were German Jewish scientists who had fled Hitler’s racial purging.

It hardly needs to be added that the Nazis’ failure to build the A-bomb was freedom’s salvation.

Part One

Blitzkrieg

The War in Europe, September 1939-October 1940

INTRODUCTION

The Second World War began at 04.45 hours on 1 September 1939, when German panzers rolled into Poland. Hitler’s previous annexations had met only with appeasement by the democracies of Europe, but Polish territorial integrity had been explicitly guaranteed by Britain and France. This time there was no climbdown and generalized hostilities commenced on 3 September.

Although units of the Polish army fought determinedly, they had small chance against a German army superior in numbers, equipment and military philosophy: the campaign in Poland was the Germans’ first proper demonstration of the coordinated air-armoured warfare they called ‘blitzkrieg’ (lightning war). As if this was not enough, Poland found itself stabbed in the back, or at least on its eastern frontier: the Soviet Union, by the terms of a secret treaty with Germany, invaded Poland on 17 September. By 6 October Polish resistance was finished. Not yet sated, the Soviet Union determined upon invasion of Finland, sending a million men into the “The Winter War”. For three months 170,000 Finnish soldiers resisted the Bear before Finland sued for peace. Their losses were 25,000 dead; the Soviet Union’s 200,000.

Aside from some skirmishing on the Franco-German border, elsewhere in Europe the war slipped into quiescence. People talked of the “Phoney War” and more propaganda leaflets were dropped than bombs. British troops sang a hit song, “We’re gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried line”. Yet, behind front lines the war was ticking away. In April 1940 it exploded. Deciding, after a spate of naval embarrassments, that the territorial waters of Norway should be denied to the Allies, Hitler invaded Norway and Denmark. The Norwegians, aided by British and French forces, resisted bitterly until late May 1940, when the Allies withdrew their troops through Narvik. By then the main show had started and these troops were needed at home: Germany had invaded Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. To the horror and dismay of the French, the
Wehrmacht
inconsiderately ignored their magnificent concrete Maginot Line and wheeled into Gaul via Belgium and the supposedly “impenetrable” Ardennes, and then sped towards the Channel ports. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French First Army became isolated in the north of France, and were evacuated in “the miracle of Dunkirk” between 29 May and 4 June. By 21 June France had fallen to the Stuka, the panzer and the
soldat
of Germany. The humbling of France had taken a mere six weeks.

Under Operation Sealion, Germany then embarked on the defeat of her last enemy: Britain. On 10 July, recognizing that invasion of Britain could not begin until the air over the Channel was under Nazi control, the
Luftwaffe
of Herman Goring began its campaign to crush Fighter Command. The ensuing Battle of Britain lasted until 30 October 1940, by when the
Luftwaffe
had been decisively beaten by “The Few”, the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of the RAF.

It was Hitler’s first check.

HITLER ORDERS WAR, 31 AUGUST 1939

Adolf Hitler

Most Secret

Directive No. 1 for the Conduct of War: 31 August

On the following morning, sixty-two German divisions (six of them armoured) crossed the border into Poland; the Poles had forty divisions (none of them armoured).

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS DISCUSSES WAR AND PEACE, LONDON, 2 SEPTEMBER 1939

Ralph Glyn, MP

Diary: September 3

Last night in London was one of the great times in modern history. The half-hour in the Commons – 7.30 to 8 – was perhaps the most decisive half-hour that we have known.

All through the day the House had been in a schoolboyish, almost hysterical mood; they were laughing and shuffling. There was a feeling that something fishy was happening in Downing Street. The Cabinet was still sitting. Ministers were telephoning Paris – and the Germans were bombing Poland.
Why
were we not at war?

At half-past seven we met again, this time subdued and tense. Chamberlain we knew would declare war. The Ambassadors were looking down; Count Edward Raczijnsky pale and worn. Chamberlain came in looking grey – a kind of whitish-grey – and glum, dour. Captain Margesson, the Secretary to the Treasury, came behind him, purple with anxiety. Chamberlain’s statement! ... In the house we thought he was only halfway through when – he sat down. There was a gasp, first of horror, then anger. His own back-benchers leaned forward to cry, “Munich, Munich!” The House seemed to rise to its feet with Mr Arthur Greenwood, the Labour leader.

Mr L.S. Amery, sitting very small near Anthony Eden, jumped up to shout at Greenwood – “Speak for England.” Others took up the cry. Chamberlain white and hunched. Margesson with sweat pouring down his face, Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary, punctiliously looking holy.

Greenwood spoke slowly and very simply. He spoke for England and what is more he saved Chamberlain by most skilfully suggesting that it was the French who were delaying. Then one or two back-benchers, Chamberlain’s own supporters, got up. It was not a joint Anglo-French pledge to Poland, they said, it was a
British
pledge – why were we not fulfilling it? The House swung against Chamberlain again. Winston Churchill, I saw, was getting whiter and grimmer. He turned round to look at Eden, who nodded as if to say, “You speak, I’ll follow.” I know that Churchill was about to move a vote of censure on the Government – which would have fallen. But Chamberlain looked across at Churchill: “I’m playing straight,” his glance seemed to say, “there really
are
reasons for delay.” Churchill sat back, relaxed, uneasy.

Then James Maxton, the pacifist, rose, gaunt, a Horseman from the Apocalypse, doom written across his face: “Don’t let’s talk of national honour: what do such phrases mean? The plain fact is that war means the slaughter of millions. If the Prime Minister can still maintain the peace he will have saved those lives, he mustn’t be rushed.” Again the House swung and was poised. We all thought in the curious hush: What if the gaunt figure of doom were right after all? Slaughter – misery – ruin – was he right? But the alternative: Hitler trading on our fears, Germany treading on freedom, Europe under terror. The whole House was swayed in unison with the drama which itself was living.

Another back-bencher spoke: “We must keep our pledge – Hitler must be stopped.” Once again we were swinging against Chamberlain, when Margesson, damp and shapeless, rose to move the adjournment. In a kind of daze it was carried.

We broke up, some feeling sick from the reaction – two members
were
sick – all were uneasy and ashamed. I went home, lay awake all night, slept a bit towards morning, and was awakened by the air-raid warning. Had the Germans read the feelings of the country? Were they attacking first?

BRITAIN DECLARES WAR ON GERMANY, 3 SEPTEMBER 1939

Neville Chamberlain

The text of the Prime Minister’s speech, broadcast on the fine late summer’s morning of 3 September.

I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10, Downing Street.

This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.

I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different that I could have done and that would have been more successful.

Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland, but Hitler would not have it. He had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened and although he now says he put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement.