The red road

to Arnhem

C. de Heij

First copy for criticism

1
To the remembrance of the countless victims:

They shall not grow old

as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Dedicated to:

– My parents, Jan de Heij and Wilhelmina Leijenaar

who learned me to respect our liberators who made it possible I now
live in freedom and have been able to write this.

– David Warden
the little, but in fact great Scotsman, who fought like a lion from North
Africa to Arnhem, but always remained modest.

– Ron Tidball
the Welshman who jumped without a weapon above Arnhem and as a
medic with a wheelbarrow saved many wounded under enemy fire
between Oosterbeek and Arnhem.

– George Fairs
the brave Royal Engineer who from France in 1940 to Norway in 1945
experienced almost every battle.

– and last but not least general Stanislaw Sosabowski

who had the illusion that his First Polish Independent Parachute
Brigade would be allowed to play an important role in the uprising of
the Polish people in Warsaw in August 1944 and by means of a
conniving letter from the British general Frederick Browning died in
poverty in Great Britain instead of his beloved Poland where he was
regarded as a traitor by the communist regime.

None of the above persons is still alive, but they are an example for my
daily life.

2
Foreword
On 17 September 1944 began operation Market Garden. Three airborne
divisions and a parachute brigade had to pave the way for the British
XXX Corps would advance north from Neerpelt in Belgium. The rest is
known. But was the operation really military or there were political and
economic interests? I try to prove the last options.
But before I begin the following: this publication is full of generals and
politicians. Human history only seems to be glorious and patriotic in
times of war. But there were also periods of peace and prosperity, but
there is hardly any attention for this.
Once someone said war is the impotence of the political. A true word.
It's the dirtiest thing that exists. Suddenly people are trained to
become a murderer. For which in peacetime are pronounced long
prison sentences decorations are given in wartime.
I know: was it all but so simple. Any normal thinking person is
essentially a pacifist and wants the best for himself, his children and
the community in which he lives. But that's an illusion. Every time
again there are idiots who feel entitled to attack others, to suppress, to
kill, and to impose their will. Therefore, it will unfortunately be
necessary that armies exist how much I would like to be a pacifist.
For years I have had contacts with many war veterans. Most of them
were British or Polish. Those were the survivors. Almost all of them had
a trauma by the horrific experiences they had. At first glance, cheerful,
but if they had some drinks the sad stories came loose. In their young
years they suppressed that but the older they became it came back in
the form of nightmares and another behavior pattern. Most also have
feelings of guilt: why do I live yet and my comrades not? Many saw
their relationship destroyed. They had become a totally different
person when they returned from the war.
In my publication 'the red road to Arnhem' I describe a piece of world
history to explain the long way to this tragedy. The rise of socialism
and communism will play an important role in this. For those who are
entered in the matter it will be wordy. But recently Dutch students
were asked the question who liberated in 1945 The Netherlands. Nearly
30% thought it was Germany. The historical knowledge is very sad
today. Therefore my extended historical description.
History is no dry description and facts. It is the result of human
communities where sometimes decisions were made with far-reaching
and unforeseen consequences. Some events had a huge impact on the
thinking of humanity. After the First World War in 1918 the German
Empire no longer existed just like the Austrian-Habsburg monarchy.
The Tsar of Russia was murdered with his family. The Turkish Ottoman
Empire was disintegrated. A world view that existed was gone and
caused a chaos in the minds of the citizens and politics. Old values no
longer existed, new borders were drawn. There was no clear
perspective to the future.
But the revolution in Russia made the deepest impression. There
communism came to power led by the agitator Lenin. That meant the
end of capitalism in Russia and the introduction of an economy created
by the state. In the whole world people were inspired by communism.
It was mostly the exploited working class, but also many intellectuals
saw in communism a way to better world.
Fortunate were afraid their capital would be confiscated. That
happened on a large scale in Russia. The industry, banking, transport
and agriculture were nationalized. Foreign companies and investors lost

3
everything. A well-known example are the Russian railway shares that
still regularly are for sale on collector fairs. It was a phenomenon that
in a short time created panic in the old established world. For me that
is that the red road in my publication. Again and again it will show up
and centuries-old enemies would fight it together of fear their
protected financial world would collapse. It was responsible for the
creation of far-right movements that would form the start of fascism.
About August 1944 it had a great influence on the tactical thinking of
the western allies and it created a devilish dilemma: defeat nazi
Germany or stop the advance of the Russians (read communism) to
western Europe with the help of the Germans.
I did not to use the words United States of America and Soviet Union
but just America and Russia to keep it simple.
Finally, as much as possible, I tried to give the people in my publication
a face. If there was a picture available then I have placed it. Often a
face says more than many words.

If you have comments, new information or whatsoever I am happy to

receive it from you. Please contact me.

© Cornelis de Heij, August 23, 2013

87-125 Osiek nad Wisla

Stajenczynki – 65A
mikulskadeheij@gmail.com

4
Introduction
I want to start with two gruesome executions that mark the beginning
and the end of the red road of my publication.

On 21 January 1793 was king Louis XVI of France killed. He died under
the guillotine. The beheading of kings and queens was not that special,
but until then this was done in the ‘old boys network'. For the first time
in history became a king was condemned by a people's court. His
kingship was taken from him and he was just "citizen Louis Capet"
(Capet was his family name). On the Place de la Révolution the
guillotine was drawn up, but before his execution he was driven around An execution with
for hours through the packed streets of Paris. In the coach was also his
the guillotine
confessor, but a conversation was hardly possible. He held himself
good to the circumstances. Arrived on the square he said "I believe the
time has come”.
Eyewitnesses stated that after his execution a boy took the head out of
the basket and showed it indifferent to the spectators.
In October of that year started the trial of his wife, Marie Antoinette,
daughter of the emperor of Austria. She was among other things
accused of plotting against the French Republic and incest with her son.
The queen was condemned and attempts of her brother Leopold II to
help her, failed. During her captivity in the Concièrgerie, waited the
queen, known as "Madame déficit ‘(Mrs national debt, widow Capet, or
popularly 'the bitch'), on her fate.
After the hair in her neck was cut off so the guillotine could do its job Louis XVI
unhindered, she was brought to the guillotine on 16 October. In order
to humiliate her even more, she was driven in an open box-cart to the
scaffold. In the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré was sitting on a balcony of
an upstairs apartment the famous painter Jacques-Louis David. He
sketched Marie-Antoinette in her last moments.
Near the scaffold, she was once again humiliated and mocked by the
Parisian people. The chief executioner Charles-Henri Sanson
commanded her on the scaffold. Marie Antoinette did this in a hurry.
She accidentally hit the foot of Sanson and made her excuses. When
her head was cut off many people hold their sleeves in her blood.
Marie Antoinette on
On 19 June 1953, the jewish couple Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were her last way to the
put to death on the electric chair in the New York Sing Sing prison. guillotine
The execution would happen in the early morning, but was postponed. (drawing by David)
It was the cause of many protests and demonstrations. But in the
evening it happened. Julius went first. A part of the head hair is clipped
to make place for a copper plate that sends a few thousand Volts of
electricity through the brain and body. With Julius it went 'reasonably
fast' (at least one minute, which is quite a long time when you sit
there).
His wife Ethel was a fragile small female and the copper plate was far
too big for her head. Minutes long it took. Blood came out of her ears,
nose and mouth.
Why? They were accused of spying for the Russians. They would have
given data for the building of the atomic bomb to the Russians. Julius
was a member of the communist party, but a 100% proof of espionage
is never been given. His wife Ethel has presumably never known about The electric chair, in
this and was a mother of two little children. From all over the world America called
were protests against this 'political murder'. ‘Old Sparky’

5
When the Americans used the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in August 1945 it was thought the secret on that matter was
for many years in their hands. But on August 29 1949 the Russians let
their first atomic bomb explode in Kazakhstan.
In America a true witch hunt began on communists and spies.
Organizer of all this was the Republican senator Joseph McCarthy of
Wisconsin.
Thousands were accused and convicted. Democratic senators, also
artists and dissidents were pursued. One of the most famous was the
actor Charly Chaplin who bitterly returned to his homeland France.
McCarthy's attacks went still further: there were in the Senate hearings
in which politicians of name and fame were accused. Soldiers and
officers underwent the same fate. Many people outside the hearings
were discredited. In the end, Mc Carthy was silenced in a hearing. This
man was totally possessed by the fear of communism, he was on that
moment the personification of many Americans that felt the same.
They had brought the decision in the Second World War and thought to
have world power with the atomic bomb for many years.

Then came the Korean war that would demand millions of victims. The
communist North Korea invaded the south, and in the beginning with
great success. The United States sent thousands of troops from Japan
that could stop the advance narrowly. Under General Douglas
Julius Rosenburg
MacArthur (more about him later) was in the middle of Korea a brilliant
amphibious landing, which forced the North Koreans to the retreat.
Finally Communist China came in the war and pushed the United
Nations troops then back again. Eventually it came to a truce which
continues until today.

The Soviet Union in its influence area tolerated no form of

independence. Rebellions in the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czecho-
Slovakia were brutally suppressed.
Ethel Rosenburg

Then arose the so called. 'domino theory': communism must be

brought to a halt immediately, otherwise it would spill over to other
regions. And so it came to the Vietnam war that would require
countless victims.
At the end of 1962 the world was on the edge of a nuclear war when
the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles on Cuba, under Fidel Castro a
communist state near the coast of America. That NATO in Italy and on
the border of Turkey and the Soviet Union did that for years was
conveniently forgotten. The American president John F. Kennedy Senator Joseph
started a blockade around Cuba and threatened to sink the Soviet McCarthy
cargo and naval vessels that transported the rockets. It was the
Russian president Nikita Chroetzjof who was the wisest and saved the
world for a devastating war: he pulled his ships back.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979, it
caused a bloody war with the local population and the Taliban. That
war would take almost 10 years and it became the Vietnam of Russia.
The Taliban was then warmly supported with state-of-the-art weapons
like the Stinger missile that could be fired from the shoulder and shot
down many Russian helicopters.

In this publication I try to proof that the fear of communism and in

particular the quickly advancing Russian army after the Normandy

6
landings on 6 June 1944 influenced the tactical thinking of the Western
Allies and that had everything to do with operation Market Garden: the
attack towards Arnhem. In August 1944 the question was not whether
Germany would be defeated, but when. And more important: how far
would the Russian troops advance to the west? The fascist enemy had
been defeated but the future communist enemy rattled at the gateway
of Western Europe.

7
The overture
The murder of the French king and queen by the people hit in the world
like a bomb. France was authoritarian ruled by means of a system
dictatorship like modes (this existed in the rest of the European
countries something similar). The first class was the nobility, the
second the moneyed middle class and the third the poor farmers and
workers.
Extreme poverty, high taxes (there was a tax on a basic need: salt, the
'Gabelle') and the favoring of the first two modes led to more and more
uprisings. In former times this exploitation was accepted as a natural
phenomenon: it was part of your life, like the weather. The church
made sure the authorities were seen as sent by God. The invention of
the printing press made it became possible to spread other opinions in Immanuel Kant
large numbers. Then came innovative philosophical thoughts with the
main 'the enlightenment' with as one of the greatest minds the German
Immanuel Kant. He lived in the East Prussian town Königsberg. For him
was the enlightenment: 'the way of mankind to leave of his humiliation
which is his own fault’. In other words, 'come into rebellion, otherwise
life never becomes better'.
The great example was the American revolution led by George
Washington. Under his leadership, America won its independence from
Great Britain. It was the first colony in the history of the world who
performed this.
In France, the guillotine's made overtime: many thousands died after a
mock trial before a people's court. The triumvirate Danton, Marat and The famous painting
Robespierre eventually underwent the same fate except Marat who was of David
murdered in the bath by his maid Charlotte Corday. She took revenge (called à Marat)
for her brother who died under the guillotine. Made after Marat
was murdered by
Out of that chaos came a little, ambitious young Corsican officer on the Charlotte Corday
surface: Napoleon Bonaparte. He was loved by his men. He ate and
drank what they ate and drank, he slept where they slept. He fought
unconventional for that time but was not asking impossible things of
his soldiers. He was the new leader of France. He defeated the
destructive Prussia, the military most powerful country in Europe, he
defeated the Austrians when he was well into the minority in a brilliant
maneuver.
The European royalty started to do it in their pants. Their thrones were
beginning to falter.
Napoleon introduced the law for everyone with the right to a lawyer
(the Code Napoléon, later the Code Civil) the civil status, the decimal
number system, the land registry, the compulsory schooling, houses
were given a house number (the most famous is number 4711 in Napoleon Bonaparte
Cologne where a perfume was made) and everyone had to carry a last
name. Of course this was no paradise on earth for the people, but one
felt that justice was done.
When the French invaded Netherlands there was almost no opposition.
That all is illustrative for the state of mind of the people at that time.
The unpopular Dutch William V fled soon to England. Only in the
province Achterhoek was by the French a countess executed who after
many warnings to her provocative behavior. She was the only casualty
of the invasion.
The British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet at
Trafalgar off the Spanish coast destructive. That meant the British
could block the European coastline. Netherlands got his first at that

8
time King: Louis (Louis) Napoleon. He was the brother of Napoleon
Bonaparte. He meant it well with The Netherlands. On phonetic way he
learned Dutch: 'dou vel ansi ni om; doe wel en zie niet om’. By the
British blockade there arose a huge smuggling trade with England,
where Netherlands only get better from. King Louis tolerated it and
won more and more in popularity.
Napoleon made the two big mistakes: he would be crowned emperor of
France in Rome by pope Pius VII. He took the crown from the hands of
the pope and crowned himself and not that he gave the crown received
from God. Today that's not such a big problem, but in that time you
could not better have the church against you. That he had already
strengthened its position against this Act and not defined. Until then he
had name of 'the people's boy' who had defeated the royal houses. Louis Napoleon,
Those same royal houses described him when as a 'parvenu'. first king of
The Netherlands,
Moreover, with the largest army force (the Grande Armée) that the
brother of Napoleon
world had ever seen he invaded Russia. In a bloody battle at the river
Bonaparte
the Borodino he defeated the Russians narrowly. He went to Moscow
and waited for the capitulation of the Tsar. But he had had a huge
country and did not need his capital: he was waiting for the Russian
winter. When that came was also the city on fire and Napoleon had to
accept the retreat. Thousands died in the freezing cold. That broke the
backbone of his army. At Leipzig in 1813, he was defeated. He was
exiled to the island of Elba at the Italian coast.
In Vienna was a conference held under the leadership of count Von
Metternich with the intention of reorganizing the European borders and
relationships. The motto was: everything should be back to the old
(ancien régime). There were then cartoons made with the title 'the
people is hungry, but the congress dances'. Admiral
In The Netherlands was the house of Orange by a triumvirate brought Horatio Nelson
back to power. In the power vacuum in authority had to as quickly as
possible, the son of William V (so William VI) from England to The
Netherlands. The shortest route to the Hague was via the beach of
Scheveningen. According to the history books the people stood
cheering on the beach when he arrived there from England. In reality,
people were taken by soldiers from their homes and forcibly sent to the
beach.
The Vienna Congress decided that a strong state north of France had to
come. The low countries (the former Southern Netherlands) became at
the Netherlands and William VI, as King William I was inaugurated. The
country had two capital cities, Amsterdam and Brussels where he had a
residence every six months. But the southern Netherlands did not The duke of
accept it and rebelled. They divorced themselves off and formed the Wellington
Kingdom of Belgium with King Leopold Von Sachsen Coburg.

But Napoleon Bonaparte threw another spanner in the works: in 1815

he landed with a battalion in South France. The troops who had to
arrest him choose his side. Eventually, he was back in Paris and in no
time, he had a large army again. The British general Wellington who
successfully fought the French in Spain and Portugal went with an
expeditionary force to the south Netherlands and the Prussians under
general Blücher marched in the same direction.
The old fox Napoleon realized he had to act quickly. He wanted to
defeat at first the British and then Prussia. Three days earlier than the
British had estimated the French army was at full strength near Count
Wellington. He started to become nervous, but could do no more the Von Metternich
make the best of it, waiting for the Prussian army. He positioned his
army in a hilly area near the village of Waterloo south of Brussels. It

9
was June 17, 1815. Then the weather was against Napoleon. In the
night the rain started pouring from the sky. His plan was to attack on
the 18th early on with a preliminary artillery bombardment. But the
guns could not be brought in contention in the oily mud. The same
thing happened with the infantrymen that went down almost to their
knees. He had to wait for hours. The British could prepare their defense
much better.
The French artillery eventually opened fire, but the explosions had
much less effect because they similarly drowned in the mud. The
infantry was then mowed down by the British. The French marshal
Michel Ney tried with an irresponsible cavalry attack where he led, in-
itself a breakthrough, but also failed. Eventually the Prussians under
Blücher arrived on the battlefield and the French began to withdraw.
This time no risk was taken with Napoleon. He was exiled to an
inhospitable island off the west coast of Africa: Saint Helena. He was
Stadtholder
accompanied by some confidants and guarded by a small British
William VI,
garrison that felt also banned. In 1821 there he died on 52-year-old inaugurated as
age, officially to cancer, but there is more and more evidence that he is king William I
slowly poisoned by one of his confidants who commissioned the French of The Netherlands
Government acted.
After his death, there are pieces of his hair cut. In it are traces of
poison found.

Gradually in Europe an agrarian community changed into an industrial

community. The invention of the steam engine made it possible quickly
to making products that were first made in a traditional way. That was
the kiss of death for the countless home workers. The Briton George
Stephenson introduced the first steam locomotive what meant a big
change in the transport of goods and people. Farming also became
ever wider which meant the demise of innumerable small family firms.
Many farming families left for the resulting large industrial centers to
find their luck there. They came to live in desolate areas, with far too George Stephenson
many people in small houses. The hygienic conditions were miserable:
there was no running water, sewers did not existed yet, child labor was
quite normal and medical care a large exception. The infant mortality
rate was enormous. The factory workers (if they had work) had no
rights and were completely extradited to the directorates.
In Ireland (which then was still part of Great Britain) the population
was brutally suppressed by the British landlords. When some years in
succession the potato harvests failed a famine that claimed thousands
of lives. Many Irish emigrated to America with the result that there are
more Irish people living abroad than in the country itself. For decades,
millions of the hopeless poverty would flee from Europe to find a better
future in America.
It went yeast in Europe: the population had learned of the French
Revolution and demanded more of freedoms.
Liberalism was a new political movement and demanded civil liberties.
In 1848 it came across Europe to riots and rebellions. That led to the
first reforms. The Dutch king William II was after 'a night's sleep'
changed from conservative to liberal, which led to a constitutional
monarchy. He lost much power, what happened by the leader of the
liberals Thorbecke. They would never be friends.

Friedrich Engels saw the fate of the workers. He came from a wealthy
family: his father owned textile factories in Germany and Great Britain.
After a first period in Berlin in before then to have pretty radical circles
wrong, he moved to Britain in early 1843. He believed that the working

10
class had organize themselves better. Trade unions were set up with a
fixed membership fee. There was also his Irish friend Mary Burns who
showed him the slums of Manchester and degrading conditions in which
the people had to live. He began to support the radical press and his
thinking was getting, in order for it partly as a result of the writings of
the Scottish theologian Thomas Carlyle who is best known for his
publication 'Past and Present', in which he described the French
Revolution as the beginning of the struggle of the working class.
In the Tsarist Russia were several revolutionary groups active. There
were social democrats led by Vladimir Iljitz Oeljanow, better known as
Lenin. His brother was executed after a failed attempt on the Tsar and
he was full of resentment against those in power. He was also strongly
influenced by the anarchist thinker count Michail Bakoenin who had Friedrich Engels
many supporters. Especially his theory that a centralized party
leadership is preferred became a favorite thought to Lenin.

In 1818 came in the German city of Trier in Karl Marx in the world: son
of a jewish lawyer who had a thriving practice, Hirschel Marx. Hirschel
Marx 'converted' to christianity for practical reasons: it gave full civil
rights and in addition he had a foresight. Anti-semitism existed for
centuries but began in Germany getting stronger. Karl did not want to
become a lawyer, but followed a study of philosophy, and became an
incorrigible revolutionair. After much opposition from her family, he
married in 1843 the aristocratic Jenny von Westphalen. His chance to
on the revolutionary site to appear he got as an editor at the
Rheinische Zeitung. Count Michail
In fierce articles he attacked the government and the opposition (which Bakoenin
he joined earlier, and according to him did not go far enough). Just like
English Marx was influenced by the philosophy of Hegel. He believed
social injustice cold disappear by a revolutionary society. Marx settled
in Paris. He was editor of the magazine Deutsch-Französiche
Jahrbücher that already after the first issue had to be stopped because
of lack of support from the French socialists. Marx left for Brussels.
And there a historical meeting took place: there he met Friedrich
Engels. Perhaps the history would be different without those two; we
will never know. Engels immediately became a great admirer of Marx.
He regarded him as a genius. He supported him in every way,
especially financially. Marx began to use the word 'communism' to
distinguish his thoughts from the social democracy. His brainchild Karl Marx
became the 'Communist Manifest' that was published in 1848. The
working class would no longer be bound to a nationality. In addition,
the privately owned banks, industry and transportation would be
nationalized, the abolition of the law of succession etc. Marx wrote in
1867 his work ‘Das Kapital’, what would become the bible of the
communist thinking.
Karl Marx remained throughout his life a lonely man. All his ideas were
accepted only by few. In 1883 he was buried in London. Only few
attended the ceremony. Friedrich Engels spoke the prophetic words:
'his name and his works will continue through eternity'. He was a
phenomenon that even today controls the political and military
agendas.

In that period there were new large colonial empires. The British had
them already, but after the battle of Trafalgar, they had the most
powerful Navy in the world and built their colonial empire around the
world forward. After the battle of Waterloo the Dutch lost the Cape
Colony (later South Africa) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to the British. But

11
the largest Islamic country in the world, the Dutch East Indies
(Indonesia) remained a Dutch colony.

The French began to colonize large parts of North and West Africa,
South-East Asia and island groups in the Pacific.

Belgium got in 1839 the new king: Leopold von Sachsen Coburg. For
his inauguration as king of the Belgians, he had the luxury to be able to
choose between the kingship of Greece and Belgium. He chose, after
clear guarantees of the Netherlands government, for Belgium. That
made him one of the richest men in the world. Belgium was the
Leopold von Sachsen
colonizer of Congo, a country rich in mineral resources like gold,
Coburg
diamonds and metals. The firm 'Union Minière' was founded which soon
founded giant dividends with the king as one of the largest
shareholders.

Along the Chinese coast were annexed large cities such as Hong Kong,
Guangzhou and Shanghai. In those cities were major European
enclaves which ruled until far into the Chinese Interior. It was the
domain of the so-called 'gun boat politics'; who did not agree naval
vessels fired upon them from the coast or river. Chinese products were
paid with opium. So one millions of will-less drug-addicts were created
who all did what was required of them. In short, it were the European
countries in the 19th century were the masters in the world.
The sometimes centuries long domination caused an attitude of
superiority. Totally was passed to cultures that were elevated far above
the European.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had a theory about the
man who could elevate himself to 'übermensch'. He meant that the Friedrich Nietzsche
man by itself could achieve that. That quickly became abused to create
two categories of people: 'the unter and the übermensch': the non-
whites and the whites (Europeans) and gradually became that the
Jews, Gypsies and Eastern Europeans.
The British writer Rudyard Kipling was the exponent of British
imperialism. He introduced the concept of 'the white man's burden'. A
stanza from one of his poems was: 'Oh east is east and west is west
and never the twain shall meet'. He meant the white man never will
understand the other man (colored) and so is condemned to continue
to support this man. Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in
Bombay, British India, the gigantic Asian semantic subcontinent, the
cradle of one of the largest world religions: Buddhism. He was a
studied and intelligent man, but yet he was convinced of his Rudyard Kipling
statements and ideas. It is typical for the thoughts of the 19th century.

In South America began under the leadership of Simon Bolivar a war to

achieve independence from Spain. Within a few years the countries
were independent as well as Portugal's Brazil.

Italy was a patchwork of states and city states. Cavour and Garibaldi
turned it into one country.

On the other side of the Atlantic in America around 1850 between the
southern and northern states an economic and political conflict was
born: the South was a relatively sparsely populated agricultural area
where tobacco and cotton were the main sources of income. In the
North grew a huge industrial power. In addition, there were also major
cultural differences arise: the first immigrants were in the 16th century

12
the 'Pilgrim Fathers'. It were British who emigrated to America for
religious reasons. They founded the state of Virginia named after the
English Queen Elisabeth who was called the "virgin queen". The state of
Louisiana is a remnant of French emigrants that named this area after
their king Louis, with the capital of New Orleans. But in the northern
states millions of European immigrants flowed in with the intention to
get a better life. Many found an existence in the rapidly growing
industry. The farmers among them, if they had a chance, to the
western areas to start a private farm.
In the southern states, where almost no immigrants came, there was
more and more the desire to separate themselves from the United
States: the economic and cultural differences were getting bigger. In
addition, there was an increasingly strong movement in the world to Jefferson Davis
abolish slavery. The cotton and tobacco plantations in the southern
States turned largely on slave labor, although even there the
mechanization needed fewer and fewer people. But slavery was not the
biggest breaking point.
The conflict escalated and the southern states dissociated themselves
from the Union under the name Confederate States of America with its
capital at Richmond in Virginia. Their president was a little forceful
figure: Jefferson Davis. President of the Union in the north was
Abraham Lincoln. The north refused to recognize the new country and
thus a civil war was inevitable. On April 12 1861 the southern artillery
opened fire on Fort Sumpter in South Carolina. The fort was a northern
enclave and was surrendered after a few days. President Lincoln
offered General Robert E. Lee the high command of the Northern army,
Abraham Lincoln
but he refused. He was an opponent of the secession but found that he
had to remain faithful to Virginia. He became the commander-in-chief
of the South and would eventually become one of the most famous
generals in world history. The first victories were for the South, that
although worse armed and less men counted, much bolder operated
under Lee and his excellent generals Jackson, Longstreet, Pickett and
the cavalry general Stuart. The North had in the beginning many
commanders who were too hesitant and even after a victory too quickly
gave the chance to Lee to consolidate and regroup.
The troops were armed with front loaders. The soldiers had a roll of
paper with the right amount of gunpowder. The soldier opened the
paper with his teeth and poured the gunpowder in the course. Then a
round lead ball was done in the course. The piece of paper came on top
and with a ramrod the whole down pounded and one was ready to fire.
A well trained soldier could fire about three times a minute. One did
that on the battlefield in battalion or company formations. One was
drawn up in three or four lines and while one line loaded shot the Robert E. Lee
other. That had a devastating effect. It was a tactic that was used for
centuries. Artillery fire and cavalry charges could support this.
But in this war were also used for the first time back loaders. Those
were rifles in which the pattern so as we know it was loaded in the
back and was fired. That went much faster and the rifles had a so
called. 'pulled barrel'. That's a long spiral that is pulled in the metal of
the barrel. The point-shaped bullit got thereby with a for that time
unprecedented energy. With very good luck you could with a front
loader at a distance of 300 meters, but the back loader still something
focused hit was in the hands of a good shooter up to 1000 meters
effectively. This weapon was not reserved for the regular infantry, but
scouts, cavalrymen and snipers were using it. Ulysses Grant
In 1861 a monster was invented by Richard Jordan Gatling: the Gatling
gun. It was a weapon with multiple barrels. A large pattern holder it

13
was posted and by turning to a pendulum could large amounts of
bullets being fired (nickname: coffee grinder). The Gatling gun was the
first machine gun and later generations would significantly change
warfare. It was such a new weapon that the both armies initially
wished to make no use of it: the first versions often failed. At the end
of the war a Union general bought for his own account three Gatling
guns and they had a devastating effect on a Confederate attack.
In the west fought a successful Union general: Ulysses Grant. He was
appointed as new commander-in-chief and had success. He exploited The Gatling gun
(along with General Sherman) out of the victories and the South was
further in the defensive. For the South the defeat came nearer. The
industrial supremacy of the North was getting larger. It was no matter
who would win the war, but when the North would win. The financial
resources were exhausted and the losses in previous battles with the
North could not be supplemented. By the blockade of the southern
ports could no more cotton be exported. That caused a huge
unemployment in the British textile industry. In 1863 in Richmond a
historic conference took place: general Lee presented a plan to invade
Pennsylvania and if that succeeded directly advance to Washington. It
would be a complete surprise, no one considered the South still able to
such an offensive. Thus was the war not won but abroad (especially in
Britain where many sympathizers) one would be able to put pressure
on president Lincoln to end it. The plan was approved. General Lee had
secretly already sent several army corpses on the march. In the small
town of Gettysburg was an army warehouse of shoes. The southern
army had a shortage of everything and general Longstreet was
commissioned through Gettysburg to advance to get hold of these
shoes. This advance was noticed by a Union cavalry colonel who struck
alarm. He saw opportunity to retain a strategic hill for the North and
reinforcements began to flow. On 3 July 1863 began the battle of
Gettysburg. After preliminary failed flank attacks general Lee took the
decision to attack the hill directly, even at the cost of big losses.
General Longstreet was against the attack, but Lee insisted: there
would be no second chance for a decisive breakthrough. After a giant
artillery shelling the army of Virginia attacked. The right wing managed
to enter the Northern objectives, but was quickly repulsed by the
alleged reserves. The south had lost the offensive and thus the war.
Lincoln saw his chance after Gettysburg to slavery as argument of the
conduct of the war. He made it a crusade to win support abroad. The
war still persisted almost 2 years but in the village of Appomattox in
Virginia on April 9, 1865 general Lee signed the capitulation.

From that moment on, the United States of America developed in about
40 years into the largest economical power of the world. That is an
unprecedented phenomenon in history, caused by the millions of
emigrants mostly from Europe, who, with their different cultures and
backgrounds, formed a melting pot in which new ideas and
craftsmanship formed the basis. While conflicts in Europe went with a
medieval background one could develop freely in America. There was
democracy, there were no royal houses who were protecting their own
interests. In addition, there was freedom of religion. They could have
their own communities found such as the Mormons who founded their
own community in Utah. To todays standards it was no paradise. Many
lived in extreme poverty, as in Europe, there is ever stated that most
slaves had a better life in the south that the workers in the factories in
the north. General Robert E. Lee was an opponent of slavery, while
some northern generals were slave owners. The former slaves marched

14
en masse to the north in the hope of a better life. Just like the
European emigrants they came up in the big cities where they had to
live in wretched conditions.
With the industrialization came a different kind of power on the political
stage: the top industrials. Rather, it were the bankers who stand
against usury interest held in the kings and emperors. In the Late
Middle Ages was the Fugger banking family of the financier of the
Habsburgs in many wars. In Europe, the first large industrialists were John D. Rockefeller
born: for example the families Krupp and Mannesmann in Prussia.
But especially in the United States after the civil war it were the top
industrials that became quickly to power. John D. Rockefeller went into
the oil industry and founded the Standard Oil Company. Already before
his 60th year he was the richest man in the world with assets of more
than three milliard dollars. In those days an enormous amount of
money. Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Steel Company which
would be the largest in America. In his later life he became a
philanthropist and build the Peace Palace in the Hague. That was in
1913. He had a foresight? A year later, World War I broke out.
Andrew Carnegy
John Pierpont Morgan was a banker and art collector. In 1892 he
arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thompson-Houston
Electric Company to the multinational company General Electric. After
he had financed the Federal Steel Company he merged that with
Carnegie Steel Company (this happened during a game of golf with
Andrew Carnegie where the price was agreed by a 'gentlemen's
agreement').
And there were more: they obtained their huge capitals in the steel
industry of Pittsburgh, in the slaughterhouses of Chicago, the oil
industry of Pennsylvania or the copper mines of Montana.
At the beginning of the 20th century the car was invented. It was
Henry Ford who produced his brainchild the T-Ford on the production
line, so the car became affordable for large groups in society. It would John Pierpont
be in the next world wars the mass-production of weapons, aircraft, Morgan
ships and vehicles that brought the decision. At the transition from the
19th to the 20th century America already had a better budget than
Europe. The children of the emigrants who out of desperation sought a
better future in America were not much better off than their family
living in Europe was, but they had something precious: democracy.
That meant a free press and freedom of expression. After more than a
century were in the former British and French colonies in North
America the ideas of the French Revolution largely accomplished.
That's not to say everything was in order, but Europe could still not say
goodbye to the 'ancien regime'.
In Europe originated in the 19th century an anti liberal thinking.
Henry Ford
Especially the ideas of the German philosopher Hegel fell into the taste.
Hegel's' philosophy trusted the power to the head of state and to no
one else; a return to absolutism.
In Germany (then from different principalities existed) slowly became
an urge to unification. One principality was already militarily and
economically the most important: Prussia. Its territories ranged in the
north of the present Ruhr area up to the Russian border. Prussia was
already from the 18th century a militaristic country in Europe. Within
the German area many were inspired by Italian unification by Cavour
and Garibaldi. It was expected from king Wilhelm I of Prussia that he
would take the initiative to make the German States into one country.
Alfred Krupp
He was an insecure person and admitted het was not very intelligent.
In Prussia was the gentry and especially the officer corps afraid of
further democratization. The king allowed himself to be led by the

15
defense minister Albrecht von Roon. He knew someone who could bring
the business on track. And so it could happen that a fossil from the
absolutism became the close associate of the Prussian king: Otto von
Bismarck, son of the Prussian gentry with extremely reactionary ideas
and a conspirator of the first order. He despised the liberals, the
protestants, catholics but especially the socialists.

On September 22, 1862, he was appointed as prime minister by the

king and as minister of foreign affairs. Within a week he did in the
Prussian parliament a historical pronunciation: 'Germany has her look Otto von Bismarck
not focused on democracy of Prussia, but on its power. The problems
are not solved by speeches in a parliament, but by blood and iron'. His
opinion about the Polish people he wrote in a letter: ‘Fight the Polish
merciless until they perish. I feel sorry for them. But we must continue.
What can we do else than destroy them. A wolf can do anything about
it, God has created him as such. But everyone shoots him when he
gets the chance'. And so Bismarck sets a way of thinking that other
sick minds gratefully took over.
Bismarck kept his promise: in the part of Poland that Russia dominated
rebellions broke out to achieve independence. Tsar Alexander was
willing to make concessions, all of Europe stood behind Poland, but
Bismarck was against. Within a week he made a secret agreement with
the tsar. The Russian and Prussian armies would have the right to cross
the border to chase the rebels (this looks very similar to the agreement
between Von Ribbentrop and Molotov in 1939). Because Bismarck by
preconceived indiscretion brought it out into the open, the European
states were more cautious. The Russians could now ruthlessly crush
the rebellion, but Bismarck explained that there was a chance that the
Russians had let Poland to Prussia: 'in that case we had Poland
germanised within three years'.
Bismarck needed a little exercise to find out how far he could go with
his conquest plans. The victim was the Danish province of Schleswig-
Holstein. Schleswig was Danish, Holstein German. The Danes saw the
war coming and suggested to give Holstein to Prussia. Led by a by
Bismarck created 'German outrage', because in the gray past Schleswig
and Holstein were regarded as indivisible. Supposedly, Adolf Hitler was
inspired by Bismarck to play the same game with the Rhineland and
the Sudetenland late thirties in the 20th century.
Bismarck even won the Austrians for his 'pan-German' thought. As
before, the whole of Europe let the Danes like Poland alone and after a
poor massacre was Schleswig-Holstein part of Prussia. Austria was no
longer necessary to Bismarck and he began an international intrigue to
start a war, what happened. Prussia conquered the country Hannover:
so Prussia was the lord and master north of the Main. The Prussian
army marched to Bohemia and defeated on 3 July 1866 the Austrian
army destructive at Königgratz (Sadowa). Bismarck began to put
pressure on the remaining German states: there had to come a
German confederation headed by the king of Prussia and at his side a
chancellor. Who else than himself.
The French, frightened of a great powerful state on the other side of
the Rhine, entered territorial demands. These were resolutely rejected
and the French did nothing about it. It meant there was a new power
factor on the continent: Germany. Bismarck began again to intrigue.
He saw his chance after a conflict over the Spanish throne, forged a
telegram of its king on that topic and let it leak out to the press. It
caused a wave of nationalism in Germany and France. Thus began the
French-German war in 1870. The French failed to mobilize enough

16
troops, the Germans enough and in time. The French under Emperor
Napoleon (family of the old emperor) suffered one defeat after another.
The final blow took place at Sedan, where marshal Mac-Mahon was
surrounded and together with 90,000 men and the Emperor had to
capitulate. After a bloody siege of Paris the French was rubbed extra
salt in the wounds because Bismarck thought it was necessary in
Versailles on French soil King Wilhelm of Prussia exclaim as emperor of
Germany, while emperor Napoleon was caught up in captivity. The
ingredients for World War I were served.

The new born countries Italy and Germany looked jealous to the Emperor Napoleon of
colonial empires of France and Great Britain. But this cake was largely France. He was the
divided. son of Louis
For Germany and Italy remained only crumbs. Germany got a few Napoleon (brother of
islands in the Pacific, a piece of New Guinea, Togo, a piece of East Napoleon
Africa and South West Africa which in reality was a desolate desert. Bonaparte), the first
Italy got a piece of Somaliland, Eritrea and Libya bordered to Ethiopia. king of The
Netherlands
And when mankind was looking to the 20th century the Boer War broke
out in 1899 in South Africa. The Cape Colony was of Dutch origin. In
the 17th century, it was founded by Jan van Riebeeck, a chief
merchant of the Dutch Eastern India Company (VOC). The Dutch East
India Company was the first multinational in history with its own navy
and money, that in practically the whole world was accepted. The Cape
Colony was used as a bunker station for the Dutch East India Company
fleets that went to and from the Far East. There was fresh food and
drinking water, there were nursed the sick and the return fleets took
the post with it. The British took over the colony after the defeat of
Napoleon, especially because of the strategic importance. The
population was largely of original Dutch; they speak a language closely King Wilhelm of
related to the Dutch: Afrikaans. But other nationalities: Germans found Prussia who became
their way to South Africa, but especially French Hugenots that in the emperor of Germany
17th century after the killings under Catherine de Medici fled for their
faith to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. They introduced
the wine culture in South Africa. The Dutch-speakers called themselves
'Boers' and when the British got the upper hand more and more
migrated to the north and founded two republics: Orange Free State
and Transvaal to the Orange River at the Vaal River. The British had
plans to annex these areas also, but the British liberal prime minister
Gladstone made an end to these plans.
Then were there in large quantities of gold and diamonds found. And
that changed the case. By now it was Cecil Rhodes, governor of the
Cape Province. He dreamed of a British Empire to the Congo River and
founded the British South African Company with the intention to find
also gold and diamonds north of Transvaal. They were not found. What
was left was the colony of Rhodesia. Meanwhile in the Boer Republics a Queen Victoria of
gold rush took place. It pulled thousands of adventurers. The Great Britain. She
extremely conservative Boers called them 'uitlanders' (foreigners) and
was also called
went to thwart them under president Paul Kruger more and more.
empress of India
Rhodes approached an admirer of him: dr. Jameson. He would launch
an attack with a small force. That would make the ‘uitlanders' to rebel
and the Boer republics would come into British hands. It would go
down in history as the 'Jameson raid' and caused an international
diplomatic row. The Boers got air of the case and acted fast: Jameson
was beaten back with heavy losses. The ‘uitlanders’ feared for their
trade and did nothing. It was widely reported in the international press
and the Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany sent a congratulatory telegram

17
to president Kruger (Kruger was of Prussian descent). The British were
kicked out on their soul. So if there were still differences between the
republics were Boers who then disappeared. The war was inevitable.
The British made a big mistake to underestimate the Boers. They were
excellent horsemen and riflemen. In the beginning they brought heavy
losses to the British under their famous generals Pieter Botha, Koos de
la Rey and Christiaan de Wet. This war caused an enormous
international outrage caused by press photography. In the American
civil war happened that even though, but those pictures are almost all
posed. The pictures showed for the first time the madness of war. So Paul Kruger,
was the later british Prime minister Winston Churchill reporter of the president of the Boer
Daily Telegraph and he was captured by the Boers. He escaped to Republic Transvaal
Moçambique and they put a high price on his head.
When the Boers could be difficult militarily defeated, they went over to
internment of their families who secretly supplied and supported them.
In the Cape Colony were the so-called 'concentration camps' set. It has
the British yielded the stigma being the inventors of the concentration
camps, but they miscalculated themselves altogether on the sanitary
and medical consequences. Bringing together ten-thousands of people
in small camps caused epidemics and high child mortality. The
international outrage increased further. Paul Kruger had to flee the
country in the meantime (his wife Gezina was too ill to go along) and
he was commissioned by Queen Wilhelmina with the cruiser Gelderland
to be evacuated to The Netherlands. There he was received like a hero
and welcomed. This act was indicative of the anti-British and pro- Christiaan de Wet,
German sentiments that existed in The Netherlands. Many street the famous Boer
names at the beginning of the 20th century were named after South general
African politicians and generals.
Eventually the Boers gave up the fight up and accepted the British
authority. Meanwhile, the Boers were also fairly popular in Britain. The
well-known generals made a tour there and by King Edward VII even
were offered a high decoration which they rejected politely. The Boer
states got a far-reaching self-government and the country developed
rapidly into a prosperous state (i.e. only for the white people's part). In
1910 it became an independent state under the name Union of South
Africa within the British Commonwealth.

Queen Wilhelmina of
The Netherlands

18
Towards the First World War
By the development of two new power factors within Europe (Germany
and Italy) the balance was gone. The British, French and Russians had
their mutual wars often fought in the area of the two new states; they
acted as a kind of expansion vessels. The Middle Aged fragmentation of
city-states in the course of centuries had given way to ever larger
states, where the language borders play an increasingly important role
went and thereby the nationalism.
Still, it was one in the transition to the 20th century, the French had
the even optimistic expression called 'la belle époche' (beautiful era).
The art reached highlights: for example by the impressionist painters
Czar Nicolas II
such as Gaugin, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir; in the music
composers such as Chopin, Tsjaikowski, Brahms, Franz Léhar and the of Russia
Strauss family; the cheerful architecture of the Art Nouveau; the great
medical progress such as vaccinating against the feared smallpox by
Robert Koch and Röntchen with the invention by the device; the
beginning of the psycho-analysis of Sigmund Freud; the rise of
motorized traffic and aviation; the telephone and electricity. Child labor
was prohibited in many countries, trade unions were allowed and the
working conditions became slowly but surely better. Free elections (not
yet for women) were introduced, in short, there was a better life to
come.
Due to the ever faster becoming connections by sea with the huge
passenger ships, radio stations with Morse (invented by Marconi) and
Emperor Franz Josef
telegraphy distances were getting shorter and the news came faster to
of Austria-Hungary
the people.
But still (we are now almost a century further after Waterloo) there
was hardly a desire in Europe to come closer together. The royal
houses were almost all family from each other, but the few who
insisted to reach a European rapprochement, were crying in the
wilderness. Yet the fact was: America started to outflank the
increasingly divided Europe economically and in the Far East, Japan
began to manifest itself as an economic and military power which
seriously had to be kept in mind. But in Europe they looked no further
than to their own back yard and remained looking at the past.
Really afraid of an armed conflict the generals were not: the great wars Emperor Wilhelm II
of the Napoleonic era were already nearly a century ago, the French- of Germany
German War of 1871 was short but fierce and less than ten years after
the American civil war (the German general Von Moltke called this a
war of stupid beginners). It was expected to be a quick and short war if
it would happen.
Thus around 1900, Europe was divided into two camps: Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy with on the other hand, the so-called 'Triple
Entente' which consisted of France, Great Britain and Russia. One does
not need to be great historian to see to the interests: the Germany
under Emperor Wilhelm and Italy felt misunderstood and Austria-
Hungary under Emperor Franz Josef felt threatened in the back by the
Russia of Czar Nicholas and sought support from the Germans. In
addition the Slavic peoples came gradually in rebellion against their
oppressors. The Polish, Czechs and Hungarians started to rebel and
demanded autonomy. France and Great Britain had large colonial
interests and feared after the French-German war the military might of
Germany. Russia had long borders with Austria-Hungary and felt
threatened and thereby again was also wrapped in a war with Japan to
the quarrying of Manchuria. And this great power blocks were linked

19
together with treaties. Instead of drawing lessons from the past and to
recognize Europe had to look for a future without wars it went straight
to the confrontation.
Even now we do not know why the First World War broke out. On June
28, 1914 in Serajewo were the Austrian heir to the throne Franz
Ferdinand and his wife countess Sophie Chotek murdered by the
Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Franz Ferdinands marriage for that
time was far below his level. He was a cousin of emperor Franz Joseph.
The crown prince Rudolf had committed suicide and thereby was the
only heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand. He had a cold and indifferent
character and walked overly solemn. Emperor Franz Joseph had a very Franz Ferdinand, heir
bad relationship with him and decided that the funeral had to have a of the Austrian-
very simple character. And this would be the cause of the outbreak of Hungarian throne
the First World War. with his wife Sophie
How drastic, it was an internal Austrian-Hungarian matter: Bosnia was Chotek and their
at that time a part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Princip and his children
associates (there were more on the street that day) wanted independence for
Serbia and had no interests or contacts with the ' Triple Entente '.
The German Emperor Wilhelm II was no scheming as Bismarck (whom
he had taken out of function) but thought his politics to be able to put
on-and had no eye for international relations. He was uniform sick and
showed himself in fancy Prussian uniforms. His great hobby was
hunting wild boar. He did that often together with the Austrian heir
Franz Ferdinand who had the same passion. He believed Germany had
to arm itself against the 'heir enemies' France and Great Britain and did
so on a large scale. Above all the German navy was expanded to an
enormous size, although it was no a maritime nation and in a peace
situation by its short coastline a small navy was enough. More and
more the Germans saw the British as their new opponents. Especially
Gavrilo Princip
the German navy was preparing mentally for on 'Der Tag'. This was the
shortly after his
decisive battle in which they finally would deal with the British Navy.
arrest. Three of his
The German poet Ernst Lissauer wrote especially for this occasion the associates had
following song: previously on the
Hate on the water day thrown a bomb
and hate on the country, into a car with
Hatred of the head Austrian officers. Yet
and hatred of the hand, decided Franz
Hatred of the hammer Ferdinand the
and hatred of the Crown, festive ride through
the city had to go
Hatred of seventy million.
on, Princip had not
We have if one person expected this,
love and hate as one person, was hungry and
We have only one enemy entered a lunch
and only him alone: room. To his
England. amazement the
More salient one cannot demonstrate the German frustrations. If they procession passed,
had wanted their future in their economic power instead of the military, and he fired the
then had the world is now would now be very different and even shots. The three
bombers were
peaceful.
hanged, but Princip
After the assassination in Serajewo Serbia was put under heavy was underage and
pressure by the German government. This angered the Russian became 20 years in
government that the Serbs saw as a brother people. The British foreign prison
secretary tried to mediate, but in vain. Supported by Germany Austria- Theresienstadt
Hungary could not be stopped and on 28 July 1914 declared the war to (the future nazi
Serbia. Even at this time, it was a local conflict that could have been concentration camp)
easily resolved if the Germans had become more careful. Russia began where he, after
several years, of
to mobilize and now emperor Wilhelm began to hesitate. He let Tsar
tuberculosis
would die.
20
Nicholas know he tried to find a compromise between Austria-Hungary
and the Serbs. Thereupon the Russians halved their mobilization.
When there was in fact nothing changed in the situation the Russians
resumed their general mobilization. On high tone the Germans
demanded that it had to stop. That did not happen and began to
mobilize on 31 July 1914 Germany and Russia declared war on the
same day.
Even then a war was easy to prevent, but France decided to join the
Russians and began to mobilize. Thereupon Germany declared war on
August 3. Great Britain had great hesitations, but when Belgium
Germany communicated on 2 August that it planned to attack France
General
through that country felt Great Britain itself bound to the treaty of
Von Schlieffen
London of 1839 in which Prussia and the other European powers after
the secession of Belgium Netherlands safety ensured. And Great Britain
declared Germany on August 4, the war.
The German foreign minister, Von Bethmann-Hollweg, stated the
British entered the war for a piece of paper. This he had better not
said, because this caused a storm of outrage in the other camp and
confirmed the image after the war that Germany was the main culprit.
It would have far-reaching consequences for the future.
Italy held itself outside the war initially, but when it closed repeatedly
looks at significant territorial expansion was Germany-Austria-Hungary
and joined. The same did the Ottoman Empire (later Turkey) in
November.
On both sides the enthusiasm for the war reached mass hysteria. It
was thought to be a quick short war. The Germans had to deal with a The German foreign
two-front war and wanted to decide the war in the west with a short minister Von
campaign, and then defeat the Russians. Bethman-Hollweg
At the end of the 19th century a member of the German general staff,
general Von Schlieffen devised a plan to attack France through
Luxembourg and Belgium over a wide front. The plan was no secret. It
existed for many years and was on the military academies as exercise
material used in many countries. In the east the Germans would bind
the French main defense and advance slowly; further to the west there
was lesser opposition expected and the advance would go faster. In the
beginning everything went according to plan. The German army quickly
advanced and threatened Paris. The French panicked and brought the
government to Bordeaux.
The British Maxim
That was for the German commander Von Moltke reason to withdraw
machine gun, the
six army corpses and to transfer them to the east against the Russians. successor of the
That had a reason: massively they attacked Galicia. They conquered American Gatling
the area around Lemberg (Lwow) and threatened to invade Hungary. gun.
But the army corpses were not needed and came too late. The generals All countries in the
Hindenburg and Ludendorff led their armies to a big victory at war had their own
Tannenburg in East Prussia. The Russian commander Samosonov version. The result
committed suicide. The Russians were advancing in large masses and was the same: mass
were mowed down by German machine guns and artillery. It was a advances of infantry
taste of what was going to happen on the western front. Here heroism became impossible.
became history: individual actions had only occasionally still result. The machine gun
In the west it went very wrong for the Germans. The two armies on the demanded millions of
extreme right flank, which had to advance the fastest, lost contact with lives.
each other. Because of that the German 1st Army under general Von
Kluck made the historical mistake to turn his army almost 90 degrees.
The French commander-in-Chief, General Joffre saw his chance and
sent a newly formed army from Paris lay into the resulting hole. On the
river Marne was a bloody battle fought. The German general staff
decided to what they saw as a temporary retreat to reorganize their

21
armies for a new decisive attack. Meanwhile, the British had an
expedition army in France and went along with the French in the
attack. The Germans tried to take the ports Calais and Boulogne to
prevent the British could bring in even more reinforcements. It failed.
Since 2 August the Germans were constantly in the attack, but now the
front came to a halt. It had a length of more than 500 km from the
river IJzer in Belgium (where the Belgians and the British throughout
the war fought a heroic battle) through northern France to the Swiss
border.
Because the front line along the entire length was quite narrow, it was
thought that it could be broken by means of a heavy artillery shelling
the enemy machine guns were destroyed and then with a frontal The German
infantry assault to break through the front. Even attacks on horseback commander in chief
by the cavalry as in the Napoleonic era were not shunned. Regiments Von Moltke who used
with their colonel at the head marched shoulder-to-shoulder forward. the Von Schlieffen
The infantry on the other side were getting better dig in and survived plan in a by him
the shelling of the artillery. The result was an unprecedented adapted way. He
slaughter-party. Thousands of victims a day were no exception. With resigned and died
great difficulty sometimes injured could be helped. Mainly under mentally broken in
pressure from the British commander Haig at the first battle of the 1916
Somme in 1916 huge quantities of French and British infantry were
deployed. The result of 12 km gain in ground asked 420.000 British
and 200,000 French victims. To break the front line both parties
started to use heavier means. The artillery became guns of a caliber
the world had never seen before. Huge grenades destroyed the
trenches and casemates. All that violence could move the front line
only marginally. It were the Germans who started using poisoned gas
for the first time. After some time all parties used it. Chlorine and
mustard gas were used by firing grenades or by spraying with
cylinders. Numerous died a horrible death or suffocation or became
blind by the chlorine gas. After some time the gas mask offered
reasonable protection. It was for four years in the trenches a true hell.
The smell of rotting corpses was unbearable. It caused millions of rats.
Entire country sites disappeared of the face of the earth. But even General
worse: almost a complete generation of young people died in the Paul von Hindenburg
trenches or were crippled or traumatized for the rest of their life.
New weapons were introduced: the airplane and the tank. The airplane
was initially used for reconnaissance purposes, but when the Dutch
aircraft builder Anthonie Fokker discovered how a machine gun could
shoot through the propeller, it was soon used as an assault weapon. It
could soon carry heavy bombs for attack support. Numerous air battles
have given rise later as if the air war a kind of 'chivalrous' character
had, but she was just as nasty and ruthless as that on the ground.
The British navy began a blockade of German ports. The Germans
responded with a new weapon: the U-boat. These could bypass the
blockade and torpedoed many trade ships. On 7 May 1915 a German
submarine commander made a big mistake: he torpedoed the British The French
passenger ship Lusitania. On board were many American passengers. commander in chief
Nearly 1,200 people died. It caused a wave of indignation in America Joffre
and public opinion turned against the Germans. The country came
gradually in the camp of the Entente. Some German cruisers destroyed
British merchant navy and naval vessels but were soon out of combat.
The German Navy was locked up in its own ports. She tried it once on
31 May 1916: they sailed off and the British came out of their Scottish
base Scapa Flow. Near the Danish Jutland was a massive sea battle.
The British Navy minister Winston Churchill had a foresight to change
the naval vessels on fuel oil conversion and were thereby much faster

22
and more agile than the German who still had coal fuel. By their
heavier guns and better armored grenades the Germans were initially
in favor, but the faster British ships threatened to encircle them. The
Germans retreated to their ports and would never come out again. And
this German fleet was one of the causes of the war.
The Germans lost all outside the European scene all their colonies to
the British and the French. With British support the Arabs defeated
their Turkish rulers and got Saudi Arabia back again.
The British, in cooperation with the Russians, launched an attack in the
area around Constantinople. The idea was of Winston Churchill. One The British
would attack in the 'soft underbelly' of Europe, and through the commander in chief
Balkans and the Danube valley the Germans attack in the back. It was Haig, thought as an
an idée fixe of Churchill. During his premiership in the Second World ancient cavalry man.
War he continued to believe in it. It failed by decisive action of the
He sent the British
Turks but above all by a poor preparation and poor leadership of the
and French infantry
commanders. It took many thousands of mainly Australian and New
into to German
Zealand soldiers their life.
artillery and machine
The Russians were in the defensive in Romania, that sympathized with
guns. Numerous
the Entente, and was now forced to supply grain and oil to the
victims were the
Germans. Churchill resigned as minister.
The Germans on the western front tried at the end of February 1916 at result
Verdun to force a breakthrough. More than 600,000 lives were asked,
but the French under General Pétain held. After the battle they retook
the lost ground again. Gradually the scale went in favor of the Entente.
The British ordered the conscription and huge amounts of war material
were supplied by America. In the summer of 1916 the Russians went
back into the attack and could be stopped by the Germans and
Austrians with great difficulty. In the West the British went in the
attack at the Somme, but also this offensive failed. The western front
contained millions of troops and yet there was no chance of a decisive
breakthrough for one of the parties. It would cost more than 2 million
man. With the wounded and prisoners of war the losses amounted to
more than 7 million. The young Winston
Under the new British Prime Minister Lloyd George the countries within Churchill as British
the Commonwealth were forced to deliver more and more men. minister of the Navy
Especially in Ireland that led that to large protests that were brutally
suppressed. The British Royal family changed its German name of
Saxen-Coburg-Gotha into the neutral 'Windsor'.
Austria-Hungary began to become war weary. The Czechs and Polish
started to uprise and joined the Russians. The Austrian foreign minister
count Czernin began secret peace negotiations with the Entente and
promised self-government of the Slavic peoples. When it transpired he
resigned to the emperor, who was also in the conspiracy, to cover him.
Under the leadership of president Woodrow Wilson America was further
involved in the war and gave large credits and supply of war material
to the Entente. But when the Germans also started an unlimited dive
boat war against American ships, American participation in the war was The later French
inevitable. In early 1917 the Germans offered in secret the Mexicans to commander in chief
help the recovery of areas that were annexed by the Americans in Pétain. We’ll meet
1840. It became known and America declared war in April 1917. him again in the
It was a turning point in world history: the children of the European Second World War as
emigrants who fled their country by social despair would play a decisive a collaborator
role in Europe. The Germans wanted to make a quick offensive to force
a decision soon before the Americans with their enormous industrial
potential would seriously interfere in the war. Such a chance came
indeed in the way of destroying Russia from the inside.

23
When the war broke out in 1914 the Russians were law-abiding: they
sacrificed their lives obediently for their tsar. Revolutionaries and
agitators like Lenin were deported to Siberia or fled abroad. The
recently installed Russian parliament the Duma, aspired to the
constitutional monarchy. But here came a conservative reaction: the
much-needed social and economic reforms were refused and not
carried out. Tsar Nicholas II and his wife were the driving forces behind
this.
After the defeats to 1915 the Tsar took without any military
understanding the high command to himself. The Duma demanded that
ministers would be appointed who had the confidence of the
population. It was flatly rejected. There were above all in St.
Petersburg (then the capital) too little food transports and the
population began to go hungry. In March 1917 there were large strikes.
More than 200,000 citizens attacked government buildings. Cossacks
and mounted police were given command to beat the rebellion down.
That happened mercilessly with swords and firearms. Hundreds were
killed. The rebellion was not carried by a political movement, but came
spontaneously from a general sentiment of impotence. One wished
democracy, had enough of the war and hunger broke out. The action
taken by the government had the opposite effect: the next day, there
were even more masses on the street. There were infantry battalions
from the environment in the city. They consisted largely of poorly
armed unmotivated soldiers from the countryside, who refused to shoot
at people with whom they felt connected. They fired on their own
officers and joined the protesters. The government no longer had the
situation in hand. The rebellious soldiers stormed the parliament
building and demanded to take over responsibility of the Duma; a
reasonable demand.
Then immediately got the interim government under the message that
a nobleman named Lwow reported a soviet = council government was
established which consisted of councils of workers and soldiers. That
had nothing to do with a communist system: it meant that the people
wished a form of democracy. The Tsar ordered his front generals to
restore order, but they also hesitated and saw the tsar not anymore as
a figure who knows everything: it would also mean the Germans and
Austrians would conquer again large areas. Only a few troops were
sent to the capital. The tsar was now forced to install a government
that was supported by the majority of the population, what he should
have done much earlier. He was by the Soviets pressured to abdicate
and his young son to succeed him. His brother would act as a regent,
but he refused. Alexander Kerenski
These were still moderate requirements. The tsar was seen as the
cause of the difficulties and yet the dynasty was given a new chance.
The head of government Alexander Kerenski expected the Soviets
would soon disappear, but outside of the big cities they took over more
and more power. Especially the farmers who for centuries had been
treated as body-appropriate started on a large scale to take over the
property of the landlords and the church. Still, it were the political
parties and trade unions that wished democracy to a western example,
but Kerenski made a historical mistake by appointing himself as
commander-in-chief. His offensive (he hoped by a victory to gain the
definitive power) was bloody repulsed and the Germans and Austrians
started again to advance. Kerenski reacted like a cat: he accused the
supreme commander Kornilow of high treason. The civil and
conservative groups did not accept this and thus the role of Kerenski
was over. There was now a dangerous power-vacuum. It was hoped

24
that the moderate forces could save the country yet, but there was no
one to take over the responsibility.
Of course these developments took the attention of the Germans and
Austrians. They saw a golden opportunity to quickly end the war in the
east and move all their troops from the eastern front to the west before
the Americans came into action. Their secret services ensured that a
number of agitators who lived in exile could return to Russia with false
papers and enough money and thus could provide even more unrest
and instability. One of them, the aforementioned Vladimir Iljits
Oeljanow (Lenin) was the most successful. He stayed in Switzerland in
1917 and had no problems to return to Russia with the help of the Vladimir Iljits
enemies of his own people. He did not hesitate and went straight into Oeljanow
the attack. On 9 April 1917, he made a speech on a Bolshevik (Lenin) on a picture
taken by the tsarist
congress. He was not an impressive figure: small of piece and with a
police about 1898.
brown beard. But he was a gifted orator. He could in short sentences
Soon after this he
make complex situations easily understandable and so managed to get fled to Switserland
the people behind his ideas. He suggested the war had to be stopped
at all costs and an international revolution of soldiers and workers
would take over the power.
The Bolshevik party was at that time only a small one: they
represented less than a quarter of the parliament. Lenin had no
problems with that. He only used the parliament to hold inflammatory
speeches, topics which one wishes to hear and what he wanted to
change. But the aim was above all to undermine the authority of the
state and to stop the war. And that was exactly what the Germans and
Austrians wished.
There came a new lead actor on the scene: the Georgian Josef
Vissarinovitsj Dzugasvili, better known by name Josef Stalin. Several
times he was arrested by the tsarist police and a similar number of
times escaped. He joined the Bolsheviks and became chief editor of
their newspaper: the 'Prawda' (the truth). He was an autodidact with a
huge amount of knowledge and had built up a large underground
network.
Lenin had to flee again: he was wanted by the secret police and went
to Finland. Josef Vissarinovitsj
There was yet another person active: Lev Davidowitz Bronstein, known Dzugasvili,
under the name of Trotsky. He was a man who could think (Stalin) in 1902
internationally and saw not only the Russian conditions. He was
therefore willing to make concessions. He also was for a long time in
exile. He could not accept the dictatorial party discipline by Lenin. He
expected most other parties would eventually cooperate with the
Bolshevik party. When this took him too long he spread the rumor the
government had plans to replace its seat from St. Petersburg to
Moscow. It caused great unrest in the country. Trotsky became military
commander of the garrisons in the major cities, and so laid the
foundation of the power of the Red Army that would play an important
part in history. It is known as the October Revolution, but there were
not many revolutionists, despite attempts by the provisional
government, practically without blood-shedding.
Lenin grabbed his chance and returned on the political scene and in no Lev Davidowitz
time, he was the man who pulled the strings. He soon found out he had Bronstein,
(Trotsky)
taken over a bankrupt czarist legacy:

25
 The German-Austrian and Ottoman (Turkish)
delegations at Brest-Litowsk in 1918

the banking, industry and agriculture had to be put back on track as

soon as possible. Lenin organized a 'Pan-Russian' party congress with
the intention to get the noses of the federal states in one direction. Still
the Bolsheviks were a minority. The right-wing forces were too afraid
and the social democrats thought to have earned a left-wing victory
and did not understand Lenin just wanted a dictatorial system.
His demands were met: the foreign debts would not be repaid, the
private property was abolished, the censorship was submitted and the
farmers and workers was promised the land would be divided among
them. It was decided to end the war as soon as possible. Trotsky
became the function of foreign minister and Stalin became minister of
non-Russian nationalities.
It meant a break with the Entente. By amortizing the debts were
around the world billions of losses, which caused a kind of economic
crisis and that during a war.

Nicolas and his family.

On 16 July 1918 they were murdered at
Jekatarinaburg

The Germans and Austrians started to get hope again in the course of
the war. Negotiations began In November 1917 in the town of Brest-
Litovsk (now Brest in Lithuania). Lenin stood fully behind it. On 3 March
1918 Russia renounced Poland, Lithuania and the southern Baltic
States. The Ukraine obtained independence. The loss of the Ukraine
was a real disaster for Russia: it lost most of its railway connections,
the steel and textile industry and especially agriculture.
It didn't bother Lenin: he expected that soldiers and workers by an
international revolution of the lost areas (including Finland, Poland and
the Baltic States) would soon return to Russia. In reality, a civil war
broke out.

26
The Entente now regarded Russia as a German-Austrian ally and sent
with American and Japanese support troops to Archangel and
Wladiwostok in East Siberia to recover their war supplies, but especially
the railway connections in that area. That also had everything to do
with the billions of losses by the depreciation and the Russian railway
shares were a substantial part of it. It was found so important that
French and British troops were withdrawn from the already weakened
western front and were transferred to the far Siberia.
The Russian peasants also had enough of the Bolsheviks who seized
their food to continue their attacks. They were supported by ± 30,000
Czechs coming from the Austrian-Hungarian army and had joined the
Tsarist army that, but did not trust the Bolsheviks. They feared their
country would be occupied.
It was Trotsky who as minister of defense reorganized the Bolshevik
troops and brought them slowly but surely to victory.
Czsar Nicholas and his family were murdered in Jekatarinaburg. The
news hit the world like a bomb. Over a century ago the same thing
happened with the French king Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette. But
this time the children were also killed. The fear of communism was
enormously strengthened. A centuries old dynasty disappeared from
the scene forever.

On the western front, in 1917, in particular the French soldiers were

sick and tired of the war. Three years they tried to break through with
intensive artillery shelling, heavy-poisoned gas and the deployment of
complete regiments, but the front had hardly moved since 1914.
Millions were killed, wounded or traumatized for life. Everyone on both
sides had lost family or friends. By the peace of Brest-Litowsk flowed
many German and Austrian troops to the western front. The French
former minister of marine, Augagneur, stated there was no way to win
the war without Russia and America came too late. Massive strikes In
France broke out and the trade unions insisted on what peace
whatsoever. The French government responded with lawsuits against
deserters and soldiers who refused for the umpteenth time to storm
into the grenades and machine-guns. Many of them were brought to
death to set an example to the front troops. In some cases, the French
artillery fired against its own troops.

5 October 1917 the Dutch Margaretha Zelle

(Mata Hari) was shot by a French firing squad
near the castle of Vincennes. Her body was
given to the science

So was there the Dutch striptease dancer Margaretha Zelle (Mata Hari).
In 1895 she was married to the Royal Dutch East Indies Army officer
lieutenant Rudolf Macleod, who fought in the Aceh war in Sumatra.
There she learned the oriental dances and gave that an extra erotic
touch. It was for that time a sensation. Thereby she came into contact
with all kinds of highly placed people and was therefore accused of
spying for the Germans and although there was a razor thin little

27
compelling evidence she was sentenced to death by a court martial.
Everything was needed to believe the war went not prosper by traitors
and spies. In reality, the bloody bill was presented by the industrial
war: there was attacked with old-fashioned massiveness and defended
with modern means.

Already during Christmas 1914 had at the Belgian front near Ypres a
Scottish and a German regiment contact with each other. The Germans
celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree and the Scots had never
heard of it, but they knew the same Christmas songs. They visited each
other and after Christmas a football match was held. The British high President Thomas
command intervened and sent replacement officers who took over the Woodrow Wilson
command and snipers killed some German soldiers. The war was old
fashioned again, but the Christmas tree became an international
symbol of the celebration. It also shows the madness of war: people
were killing each other that normally would have a drink together.

The Russian royal drama began in the west to worry the governments
and general staffs: would the revolution skip to the west?
In the meantime, America was in the war. President Thomas Woodrow
Wilson began with great reluctance. The war was not a far from my bed
show: the gruesome details every day were widely reported in
newspapers and the children of the European emigrants that the
political bankruptcy of their continent had fled for a better future,
would now have to go for the decision. Wilson was perfectly aware of
the position of the British and French that Germany was the cause of
the war. He was convinced that the war by the Entente along with the
General
Americans would be won, but had a foresight: he saw a new war in
Ferdinand Foch
Europe if Germany would be humiliated. Although America of origin is
an Anglo-Saxon country, there lived (and live) many with a European
descent that looked at the First World War with a different opinion,
such as ethnic Russians, Germans, Austrians and Polish. He had to take
them into account.
On 21 March 1918 the Germans began a huge offensive. They realized
it was the last chance. For the first time since the beginning of the war
the front came into movement especially between Ieperen and Reims.
The German infantry marched massively, but in scattered formations:
so the artillery and machine-guns had less influence on them. They
quickly conquered the British and French trenches and were advancing
to the Somme, the small river that the British had long defended for George Clemenceau
nearly four years. The British 5th Army was defeated. nick name
Between the British and French armies was a dangerous hole in the ‘the tiger’
direction of the Channel. The Entente decided to set up a joint supreme
command: it would be led by the French marshal Ferdinand Foch. He
had in previous campaigns proven to be capable of great armies of
different nationalities to merge into one and be successful. He changed
the strategy altogether. He was not looking for a decisive breakthrough
at one point, but attacked where it was possible to weaken the German
offensive. It was successful. The Germans were slowly but surely
pushed back and it hold.
The German commander-in-Chief Ludendorff knew the Americans were
on their way and the channel coast had to be conquered inclusive the
ports. On 14 April 1918 he launched a major attack on Calais. Also this
was initially successful, but the reserves of Foch managed in time to
reach the front. Ludendorff was at his end. He decided to a desperate General Pershing
offensive near Chémin des Dames less than a 100 kilometers from
Paris. It caused panic: the French government was considering to

28
evacuate. Behind the scenes was talked about a truce and it was sawn
to the legs of the chair of Foch. President George Clemenceau 'the
Tiger' thereupon spoke in harsh words to the parliament and referred
to the front soldiers who had to do the dirty work and could not be left
alone. It was make or break for the French government and the
Entente.
The German right wing was attacked and reduced and war-weariness
also arose in the German camp. The reinforcements from the eastern
front had initially had led to success but could not force the decision.
The Germans had not conquered the Channel ports and now flowed
American troops under General 'Black Jack' Pershing massively inside.
June 1918 there were 1,200,000 and that was the final blow for the
Germans.
The French started to use on large scale tanks. The tank was already
used by the British in 1915. Especially Winston Churchill was a great General Ludendorff
believer in its further development, but the general staff saw nothing in who would become a
it. Also the Germans had plans in that direction, but now it were the great admirer of ultra
French tanks that opened the front. The combination of attacking tanks right parties in the post
war Germany
followed by the infantry in a staggered front advancing slowly but
surely drove the Germans back towards Antwerp and the Meuse. But
they were still not defeated: the Entente-offensive from August until
the armistice in November demanded more than a million deaths and
serious injuries.
The cause of the German defeat should also be found in Germany
itself. The people suffered hunger. All the basic needs for life were
rationed in 1918 and reached a critical boundary that threatened the
public health. The blockade of the British Navy began her to bear fruit.
Potatoes were practically no longer available and were replaced by
swedes. Because of this the population was more and more weakened,
also increasingly from diseases such as tuberculosis.
With the arrival of the first American troops in Europe was also the
Spanish flu introduced. Where the disease has started exactly is not
clear. There is a theory it is a mutated swine flu virus which came from
Chinese rail-workers who worked in America. Another theory is that the
American soldiers were vaccinated against too many diseases at the
same time. It is thought the mutation of the flu virus is caused by this.
The first documented case is that of soldier Albert Mitchell, who
reported sick on 11 March 1918 in Fort Riley in the state of Kansas.
The disease spread at great speed across the world. From America to
the east and from there back to the western hemisphere. The First
World War was still going on and by the censorship little news came
out about the disease. Only in Spain, that was not involved in the war,
was in the press paid much attention to the epidemic. The disease was
therefore called the Spanish flu.
The flu began with high fever, coughing, muscle aches and sore
throats. Followed by extreme fatigue and unconsciousness. One lost so
much energy that one could no longer take food and drinks. The
breathing became increasingly difficult, followed by death. Many fake
medication came on the market, which promised to prevent the flu or
could be cured. An effective medication was not available. It is
estimated that more than half a milliard people have contracted the
disease. In India alone, 10 million people died of the Spanish flu. In
total between 20 and 40 million people died.
During a 'normal' flu it is mainly the elderly and others with a low
resistance who die of it. So not with the Spanish flu: it was above all
the people in the age group of 20 to 40 years who died. In the spring
of 1919 the disease died out.

29
Alone in The Netherlands died within months 27,000 people on the
Spanish flu. Most in the months of October (16.960), November (5506)
and December (5321) of 1918. One in 250 Dutchmen died of the
Spanish flu. Within a year died in the world twice as many people to
the flu than in four years of war.

When the 18-year-olds in Germany were called under guard the

resistance among the population was getting bigger. One wished peace
anyway. Ludendorff saw along with Hindenburg no longer a military
victory.
President Woodrow Wilson had in February 1918 the American
congress submitted a list of 14 points to which the world should keep
itself after the war. In summary the nations who would get their
independent were occupied (e.g. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary
and the Balkan nations that were occupied by the Turkish Ottoman The British prime
Empire). The world seas could be navigated by anyone who would. minister Wilson Lloyd
George
Problems of the population in the colonies would be judged impartially
and there would be a League of Nations established that would ensure
that also would be guaranteed the independence of the small countries.

It was Ludendorff who the German foreign minister requested through

diplomatic channels on the basis of Wilson's 14 points to start the
peace negotiations. The German government was divided and the hard
truth was not yet communicated to the parliament.
Austria-Hungary asked September 1918 openly for a separate peace.
This was rejected, but the relationship with Germany was sensitively
hurt. Ludendorff resigned because he would be stressing out. On 26
September 1918 the new commander was general Groener. Ludendorff
would play a questionable role in post-war Germany. President Wilson
Philip Scheidemann
was the negotiator: the German government negotiated with him and
dropped many demands. In this way they hoped Lloyd George and
Clemenceau would become more smoothly. Germany had to promise to
clear the occupied territories and to end the warfare. President Wilson
declared to have no confidence in emperor Wilhelm and saw no place
for him in a post-war Germany. Thereupon the emperor left Berlin and
went to the headquarters in Spa to stay under the protection of the
army. The government and political parties hesitated to stop with the
emperor.
The German admiralty ordered the fleet to sail from Kiel to break the
British blockade. It was amazing: the British fleet lay ready off the
coast and the German fleet would be massacred. Thereupon, the crews
started the rebellion. Officers were killed: it was a complete anarchy.
The sailors took off their uniforms and went home. They swarmed all Karl Liebknecht
over the country and the revolution was a fact. All pent up frustrations
were highlighted and everywhere in the country were according to the
Russian example workers and soldiers councils founded. Thereupon the
social democratic minister Philip Scheidemann called out the republic
and at the same time the leader of the independent socialists, Karl
Liebknecht. The high command could only support the social democrats
in the hope to stop the revolution. Now the Republic was recognized
and the role of the emperor played out.
General Groener had to find a country for the emperor that would
accept him. In the deepest secret the Dutch queen Wilhelmina sent her
representative Van Heutz to Belgium. Although The Netherlands had a
strict neutrality during the war, the queens husband prince Henry
visited several times the German headquarters. He did so in his
capacity as president of the Dutch Red Cross. He showed his

30
admiration for the German army. Wilhelmina visited during her youth
with her mother Princess Emma zu Waldeck und Pyrmunt several times
the emperor whom she called 'onkel Willie‘. The case was quickly
decided: the emperor reported himself with a small staff at the border
village Eysden. He went to live in an outdoor at Doorn until his death in
1941. Also there he was regularly visited by Prince Henry and later by
Prince Bernhard and his mother Princess Armgard.
It is typical of the pro-German mood in The Netherlands: first it was
the South African Boer-leader Paul Kruger who was helped and in 1918
the German emperor.

President Wilson asked the British and the French to their review of his
14 points with regard to a ceasefire. They went largely agree on
condition Germany would lose most of her military means, the Rhine-
bridges would be occupied and they would have the right to demand
financial reparations. Wilson had great difficulty with this last point:
Germany was designated as the great instigator of the war, which is
partially true. He saw major problems in the future about this and
would be more than right. But he was under a lot of pressure to put an
end to the war. The Americans also had large losses and public opinion
the war was more than fed up. In addition, he was also affected by the
Spanish flu and his endurance was only slight. He agreed with the
British and French requirements
Turkey capitulated on 31 October 1918 and Austria-Hungary did the
same on 4 November. Germany was alone and could only go to the
negotiating table. The German delegation was given a safe conduct and
near the village of Rhètondes in the forests of Compiegne was the
meeting for General Foch in the private salon car of the French railways
which he had at his disposal. The German negotiator Erzberger could
only accept the terms of Foch and the armistice was signed on 11
November 1918 (no capitulation).
In reality the war lasted another few days. One needed time to inform
the commanders and that gave some of them a final opportunity for a
last 'glorious' attack. As if it wasn't enough.
From the smoke and poison gas clouds came forth a broken Europe:
the Austrian-Hungarian empire no longer existed: Hungary became an
independent state, the same thing happened in the Balkans. Europe
was not been able to prevent this senseless mass murder and the
result was a rearrangement of the power relations in the world. From
1918 America was the most powerful country of the world. The colonial
territories of Europe started to demand independence.
The Russian Tsar and his family had been murdered and replaced by a
communist regime that out of fear would rule in next decades the
political agendas. The German emperor was in exile and his country
was in a state of anarchy and communism threatened to skip to
Western Europe. Especially in the Eastern European areas it were
heavily armed gangs that in large areas had more to tell than the local
administrators.

You can compare Europe late 1918 with a boxer who is beaten knock
out and when he comes back to the familiar world the image he had is
disappeared. The great royal houses were driven out or killed. Borders
were misguided again drawn on the basis of sentiments and new states
arose. Ethnic differences led to large refugee flows and so everything
was prepared for major conflicts in the future.

31
Pandora's box

The truce hit the German population like a bomb. The country itself
(with the exception of parts of East Prussia) was no war zone and did
not know a huge devastation such as in Belgium and northern France.
There was hunger, but when the German army returned home in large
numbers, there was bitterness. Were all those millions of deaths and
injured for nothing? The American commander Pershing had suggested
an immediately advance to Berlin to let the Germans feel that the war
really was lost. However, the British and French were so war weary
that they rejected the plan. A historical mistake with far-reaching
implications. Many German ex-generals started right away trumpeting
around the war was far from lost and thus was born the myth of the Friedrich Ebert
'stab in the back', which is opening the way for left-wing and right-wing
extremists who do not long have to fish to fill their nets.
Yet, in the town of Weimar in 1919 Friedrich Ebert with a democratic
Government started as first president of the Republic. He had great
powers and when there was great unrest, especially of left-wing side,
those were merciless suppressed. Karl Liebknecht, who had become a
communist and Rosa Luxembourg a leading woman of the movement,
were murdered in cold blood by officers.
According to the treaty of Versailles the German army should only
consist of 100,000 men without heavy weapons. Ex-General
Ludendorff took care of the creation of so called. 'Freikorps' that
existed from former soldiers. They were richly armed with stocks that
were returned from the war. Rosa Luxemburg
According to that treaty Germany had to pay 132 milliard gold mark as
reparations plus 6 milliard extra to Belgium plus 27% per annum of the
value of German exports. To our time this amount should be multiplied
by a factor of 12 and was more than the budget of the present
European Union. Especially the French government was behind this
because they wanted revenge for the defeat in 1871 and for the long
future Germany should be harmless. The British Government was
against it, but there was despondency, one wished peace and expected
the French Government would be reasonable, but they did not. They
wanted to humiliate Germany to the bone and that became the germ of
the Second World War.
It was grist to the mill of ultra right: secret societies were founded,
that fought with communists, social democrats and even christian
democrats. It was the time of so called secret ’veem‘ courts that people
kidnapped. They were given a mock trial and were then murdered.
Many struck this fate with the politicians as the known Mathias
Erzberger and Walter Rathenau.
In January 1923 in Germany got behind with the reparation payments.
Belgium and France answered with the occupation of the Ruhr area. It
caused a storm of outrage, also abroad. The Belgians and French took
over the management of the large companies in order to get the debt
to be recovered. That again caused big strikes. The already fragile
German economy collapsed completely. In the last year of the war was
this financed disposal to print unlimited amounts of money. During the
occupation it took giant forms. At the beginning of the occupation a

32
 German stamps that
illustrate the inflation
within two years:
from five pfennig to 50
milliard mark

US dollar was ± 10,000 German marks within a week, after three

weeks from 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, 1 million soon after and so it
went on. In the long run were 39 paper mills and 1200 printeries
needed to produce banknotes, stamps and other securities.
Mid November 1923, the rate of the United States dollar rose with
570% per second. The German government had to intervene at the
expense of savers and a so-called. 'Grund' debt of 3% on the German
possession of farmlands, shipping companies industry etc. The rate was
stabilized on a billion part of the old mark and a new interest was
introduced. All this was the brainchild of the banker Hjalmar Schacht. It
was a financial chameleon. He served as president of the German
Reichsbank and also during the Nazi period. He did not care. His Hjalmar Schacht
parents had lived for years in the United Sates and so he had many
American contacts. We will meet him later on.
But also the French franc came under pressure. France had created
during the war huge debts and when the German reparation payments
stopped a state bankruptcy threatened.
The British Government (which has always been against the high
reparations was) were looking for contact with the Americans. The
socialist and communist rebellions were passed, but now both Germany
and France threatened to go down financially the fear for new riots
(read communism) came. Led by the American Banker Charles G.
Dawes, a new restoration payment plan was created. Until 1929
Germany would pay annually 1 milliard gold mark rising to 3 milliard in
1929. But it should never be at the expense of the recovery of the Charles G. Dawes
economy. As collateral, would serve the railways and the import duties.
In addition Germany was allowed to borrow 900 million gold mark on
the capital market, which by the rapidly improving economy was easy.
Both in Germany and in France came new prime ministers in office who
sought rapprochement: Gustav Stresemann and Aristide Briand. At the
end of 1925 was that 'careful new friendship' sealed with the treaty of
Locarno where each other's borders were guaranteed and if there are
still differences of opinion, they would be resolved by an arbitration-
commission.
But why this sudden friendship between two ages-old enemies and
that, shortly after the bloodiest war of all time? According to the treaty
of Versailles president Wilson insisted on an independent Polish State.
It had ever existed, but the country was sandwiched between
Germany, Austria and Russia and was constantly occupied by both
states and suppressed. Actually, it's a miracle the Polish people still
could save its own language and culture. Both the Russians and the
Germans considered Poland as their 'back garden' and the residents as
bothersome.
The borders between Poland and Russia in the treaty of Versailles were
not clearly established and the Polish head of state, Józef Piiłsudski, in

33
view of the Polish history, saw the coming troubles and therefore
decided to conquer as much as former Polish possession. Especially
should be thought to the west of the Ukraine where millions lived and
still live ethnic Poles. It should also be mentioned it was an incredible
performance of the young Polish state to set up a new army in a short
time, equipped and trained that was capable of fighting against the Red
Army of Trotsky.
This can only be explained by the desire of the Polish people to become
an independent country once and for all.
In 1919 the Polish army had most of western Ukraine under control,
after a victory in the Polish-Ukrainian war. Thereupon the Russians
Gustav Stresemann
started to advance to the west. At the end of 1919 a front line was
formed. Small fights at the border resulted in an open war, after the
offensive of Piiłsudski in April 1920, in which the Polish went further
into the Ukraine. The Russians launched a counter attack, which
initially had much success. They pushed the Polish army back to
Warsaw. In the summer the fall of Warsaw seemed inevitable, but in
August the Polish Army started a desperate attack on the flanks of the
Russians. It was extremely cruel. Prisoners of war were not taken. The
Polish did not want to become slaves again and they won. The Russians
ran away in panic and on 18 March 1921, the peace of Riga was signed
in which the disputed areas (almost everything in the advantage of
Poland) were settled. Poland also wanted a language border and this
was established thanks to the British mediator lord Curzon. Lenin called
this his most terrible defeat ever.
That was the real reason of the French-German 'friendship' between Aristide Briand
Briand and Stresemann. Because what would have happened if the
Russians had won the war? Then they had at least advanced towards
the Oder and had conquered more area than they had lost in the treaty
of Brest-Litowsk. That was the purpose of Lenin: conquest of areas and
as much as possible through rebellions of soldiers and redistribute the
workers revolution. Between the Oder and the Rhine was only a light-
armed German army of 100,000 men. That could have given the
Russian army hardly any resistance. It was not a true friendship, just
the fear of an approaching communism towards Western Europe. And
this fear would last for decades to come.

On April 10, 1922 in Genoa (Italy) was a major conference held of all
the European countries. It happened on the initiative of the British
prime minister Lloyd George. He wanted to line up all capitalist states Józef Piłsudski
to reintroduce the capitalist system in Russia and thus stop the feared
communism. Although not openly pronounced, the Polish-Russian war
was the reason for the conference (see above). All countries were
represented by their presidents, prime ministers and at least by the
minister of foreign affairs. It was a first attempt to come to if you like,
to a kind of European Union. Only in 1971 there would be a comparably
large European conference.
Lloyd George did not like meeting agendas, he negotiated with small
like-minded groups or with countries only. Especially the French were
at first held outside the negotiations. They were almost against
everything and Lloyd George wanted to present at the end of the
conference a proposal to the French what the other countries agreed.
In that way the French would be completely isolated and had to accept
it. It meant the delegations had to wait in their hotel rooms for Lloyd
George. That led to false rumors. The German delegation felt (rightly)
already heavily punished and therefore had long toes. They got
indications Lloyd George did the Russians advantageous offers at the

34
expense of Germany. Late into the night the Germans were discussing.
They tried to contact Lloyd George, but it was impossible to reach him.
Then there was a phone call from the Russian foreign minister Georgi
Chicherin. He wanted to speak the German delegation the next
morning as soon as possible. And now followed the famous 'Pajamas
Conference' in the German hotel rooms. They had to take a decision
right away: waiting for the vague negotiations of Lloyd George or react
to the Russian proposal. Rathenau (minister of foreign affairs) wanted
contact with Lloyd George like some other delegation members but
chancellor Wirth chopped the decision: he wanted to talk the next day.
He had enough of the backroom politics of Lloyd George and took the
position 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'. Rathenau had Georgi Checherin
stipulated in any case to inform the British delegation. Different times it
was tried, but the phone was not answered.
The Russian delegation was a little further housed in the town of
Rapallo. The negotiations there were prosperous. Apparently the
Russians wanted a quick settlement. Lenin could not be present
because of his first brain hemorrhage but behind the scenes he held
the reins tight in hands. Already at five o'clock in the afternoon there
was consensus. In fact the peace of Brest-Litowsk of November 1918
was cancelled and instead came this new treaty:
– It was recognized each other's territory;
– One would enter diplomatic relations;
– One would stop reparations;
– Granted each other most-favored nation in economic cooperation and
Lenin about 1920
consultation when that cooperation international was needed.
That was all. There were no secret clauses and a cooperation between
the German and Russian army, which already existed on a small scale
(but even the most German delegation members knew nothing about
this) was not spoken.
When the news became known it struck in like a bomb. Lloyd George
was wildly: Russia and Germany that would again be admitted to the
European family had forged a conspiracy behind his back. The French
delegation left demonstrative (probably relieved) the conference. In the
newspapers was already speculated about a new war. But in reality it
was another masterstroke of Lenin: he had soaked off Germany from
the new European alliance and thus avoid becoming a great economic
block faced that would threaten his communist system. Chicherin
Benito Mussolini
qualified the treaty as: 'the merger of two international scapegoats',
and with it, he hit the nail on the head.
The treaty of Rapallo would last until the invasion of Germany in Russia
in June 1941.

The treaty was the cause of a jerk to the right in European politics:
communism became even more feared and distrusted.
It was in Italy where fascism for the first time would get solid ground
under the feet. The country was a member of the Entente and had,
especially in the mountains, fought hard against Austria. After the war,
the country received minor territorial expansions, which led to great
bitterness. In addition, the country, was in a deep economic depression
caused by a massive national debt. According to the line of Lenin the
workers factories started to occupy the factories which were threatened
with closure and established 'councils' that tried to continue the
production. That went well for some time, but eventually that did not
work out. The country had no real political leaders who could tackle the
problems. In that political vacuum jumped Benito Mussolini. He was
born in 1883. His father was a blacksmith and innkeeper, his mother a

35
school teacher. The idea was he would go in the education, but he went
a roaming existence. He was a fanatical socialist agitator. He came into
the party leadership and was editor-in-chief of the party newspaper
'Avanti'. It soon became apparent that he cared nothing about
consultation and democracy. In 1914 he was vehemently against the
Italian policy of neutrality. The party fired him as editor-in-chief, but he
started a new newspaper 'Popolo d'Italia'. For years he continued to
agitate and hammered on nationalism and revolution. On 23 March
1919, he founded in Milan his political organization ‘fascio di
combattimento’ which means: 'battle group'. The word fascio means
group, bundle and goes back to the Roman Empire times. Also the old
Roman greeting (the right arm up) dates from that time. At the
elections in 1919 came his party hardly to the bin, but when in 1920 a
mass unemployment came up his party quickly became a popular
movement. Then he turned against his old nest: he organized
commando groups, opposed to the socialist and communist
movements. It brought the country at the edge of a civil war. His
supporters worshipped him and he got the title 'Il Duce', the leader.
Eventually ± 50,000 man went on march to Rome to take over power.
Mussolini was allowed to form a new government, in which his party
formed a minority, but soon he took over the power. He founded a
corporate state in which business organizations and trade unions would
have much power. In reality 'Il Duce' was the sole ruler. It was the first
country in Europe that got a totalitarian fascist regime and was pretty
popular. The crime rate declined rapidly and for some reason one
appreciated him 'because the trains were on time'.

In Russia the situation became catastrophic. The economy was

completely collapsed and countless people died of starvation. Was that
also happened if the plan of Lloyd George had continued? Probably not.
The capitalist countries would have invested in Russia, only to get back
the lost milliards by the communist nationalizations and an attempt to
venture capitalism in Russia back again and of course a government
that was on their line.
But Lenin presented the 'new economic policy‘. It was a small return to
capitalism. The farmers were allowed to sell their surpluses on the
open market and also the industry (on a small scale) could do the
same. Secret capitals came on the market and this saved the economy
just narrowly. It formed the basis for a command economy and Joseph Stalin
building of a modern industrial state. In 1923 Russia got a new
constitution and a new name: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
USSR (for convenience I will continue to use the name Russia). The
Komitern was founded, an organization that kept contact with
Communist parties abroad. Any country, anywhere in the world, which
accepted the communist doctrine could join the USSR.
However, there was a big problem: Lenin wás the communist party in
Russia and had no successor of his qualities. He came first, then a
nothing all and only then the rest. That was a big historical mistake by
him. Trotsky he found too quirky. Presumably was Grigori Zinovjev his
favorite, but no one knows that for sure.
Physically he was not strong. He wanted to do everything alone and he
on several occasions by the gigantic work pressure was stricken by a Grigori Zinovjev
cerebral hemorrhage. In April 1923 he became paralyzed and could not
speak. He died on 21 January 1924. Real evidence is not there, but it
seems that Joseph Stalin has speeded up the death because Lenin in
his political testament had warned for him.

36
Trotsky was at that moment the most powerful man. Stalin, the party
secretary, had developed in the course of the years more and more
power, while he barely tried to establish himself. He was then known as
a colorless official. That would change quickly. Stalin allied with Grigori
Zinofjev and Lev Kamenjev who could drink the blood of Trotsky and
that was exactly what he needed. Through a smear campaign in the
party newspaper, where he had a strong say, Trotsky's views were
regarded as lies. On 1 January 1925 Trotsky was forced to resign as
defense minister. Within a year after Lenin's death Stalin had all the
power in his hands. Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata in Siberia. He fled
to Turkey, France and finally to Mexico, where he was murdered by an
agent of Stalin in 1946.
Stalin always lived a hidden life. Almost never, he performed in public
or delivered a speech. The few who have known him from near talk of Lev Kamenjev
a little man with brown hair who was completely unpredictable. In
public he used look-alikes who (according to him) had his ideal image.
He was paranoid: who he did not like was lucky if he was deported to a
camp in Siberia, usually that person was immediately killed.
Stalin began to turn the old feudal Russia into a modern industrial and
agricultural state. He did so in the form of five-year plans that had to
be met at all costs. In 1930 he opened the attack on the Kulaks. Those
were the 'gentlemen farmers '. Their fields and cattle were the spine of
the Russian food supply. The farms were family property for
generations and the Kulaks opposed violently. Millions of them were
deported to Siberia. Large cooperative farms came in place, the so-
called kolchoz farms'. Sergei Kirov
On 1 December 1934 the 'crown prince' of Stalin, Sergei Kirov was
killed in Leningrad. He was shot in the back. It has not been proven,
but everything suggests that Stalin was behind the murder. Now began
a period of relentless so-called ' political purifications '. Grigori Zinofjef
and Lev Kamenjev were the first victims. They were sentenced to
death. Millions underwent the same, mostly without a process. Almost
the complete military staff was killed including lower officer ranks.
Around 1938 the Bolshevik top from the time of Lenin was nearly
killed. When Stalin had the absolute power in 1939 police chief Nicolaj
Jesjof and his staff, who had done the dirty work, were arrested by the
new chief Lavrenti Beria. They were accused of abuse of power and put
to death.
Stalin brought the myth in the world he was a 'father of all Russians'
who in that enormous country could not know and see everything, but
if he knew, he punished the guilty persons. Today there are many who
still believe this.
Stalin achieved his goal: a modern plan controlled economy. But it was
at the expense of millions of deaths, not counting complete populations
who were deported to other parts of Russia and had to suffer a
miserable existence. The Russian army had no longer a capable
leadership, which in the beginning of the war with Germany would lead
to alarming losses.
Was that the communist utopia Karl Marx had in mind? I don't think so.
The result was that in response in capitalist countries more and more
dangerous far-right parties came up. The old Karl Marx would turn over
in his grave because this was not what he wanted and a new big
terrible storm was on the way.

After the war humanity was hoping for a better life. That, for example,
expressed in the music: from the operetta before the war to the jazz
music, the compositions of George Gershwin and the Charleston dance

37
or, for example, the satirical musicals of the German Berthold Brecht.
The painting art took more and more abstract forms. Paul Klee and
modern artists like Kandinsky and Picasso were the forerunners.
Humanity was searching for new forms to replace the horrors of war,
but above all to try something new. The old times had brought only
war and misery was the thought.
The American economy came stronger out of the war came and grew
explosive. In Europe there were only debts, especially by the loans that
the America had provided. America had a Republican president: John
Calvin Coolidge. The Republicans did and still do nothing for charity and
Coolidge not at all. He conducted high import duties in order to
strengthen the already superior American economy. Before the war,
John Calvin Coolidge
America had a debt of three milliard dollars to Europe, after the war,
Europe had a debt of 12 milliard dollars to America. Huge sums of
money for that time.
The American economy got overheated. The people bought everything
with loans: life was one big party. That period is entered into history
under the name 'roaring twenties'. It took such forms that the
government proclaimed a total ban on the sale of alcohol, the so-called
'dry laying'. That caused a huge illegal trade in liquor with the big mob
boss Al Capone as one of the major chiefs.
Share prices increased from day to day and from newspaper boy to old
grandma went almost everyone in that trade and almost always with
borrowed money. On Tuesday 29 October 1929 the bubble collapsed.
Shares were sold with an average loss of 40% of the regular rates. Al Capone
Total panic broke out and more and more shares were dumped.
Eventually the total loss was amounted to about 50 milliard dollars.
Converted to our time you must do so two zeros at five thousand
milliard dollars. The fragile European economies, which already had a
high debt were rushed in the fall. Many had to devalue their currencies.
A great economic crisis was the result with countless unemployed
people who had to live in deep poverty.
In Europe was already a beginning of social security. The minimum
benefits that were at very stringent conditions were provided, but it
was something. In America it almost did not exist. One was at the
mercy of charities. In 1932 there were presidential elections. The
incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover was eligible, but was
soundly defeated by the democratic candidate Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. The voters had enough of the republicans who did nothing Franklin Delano
to stop the crisis and promised only the storm would blow over by Roosevelt
itself. The person Roosevelt was appreciated by the people. Television
was not known yet, but contemporaries speak about the convincing
way in which he spoke by radio and the interviews in the newspapers
and magazines. Already in 1920 he was a candidate for the vice-
presidency, but the democrats then suffered a defeat. He was then
known as aloof and arrogant. But then he was struck by the disease
polio which he nearly survived. For some years he was paralyzed on
both legs. He had a charming wife Eleanor who encouraged him to
continue. In his later career, she was also known as 'the real vice
president‘. In 1928 he returned to the political arena as a total different
person. The heavy combat against the disease had made him realize
there were other values in life (he grew up in wealth). Immediately
after his election as president he went working expeditiously. He was Eleanor Roosevelt
advised by leading economists and thus was born the liberal plan the
"New Deal". It was a package of measures to get the economy going
again. With his distinctive voice he could get millions behind him when
spoke through the radio.

38
For example, the apple growers could not get rid of their fruit. He
called upon the population to buy it outside the auctions: 'buy those
apples and help this people!'. It was massively done and so many
thousands of fruit growers were saved from destruction. In America
came an unprecedented feeling of solidarity.
His next step was the introduction of the ‘National Industrial Recovery
Act' abbreviated as NRA. The long working hours were banned and
reduced to 8 hours. That created extra jobs. There was a minimum
wage introduced what increased the purchasing power and there came
minimum prices. Also for the agriculture, which was even harder hit
than the industry, came measures to stimulate it. It worked out The NRA shield which
wonderfully. The US economy crawled out of the deep economical marked the firms that
valley and with it the European. were member
Now the worst was over the American banks and the big industries,
started to protest. Much qualified personnel had run away to smaller
companies where working conditions were better. They also wanted to
stop the minimum wage. Roosevelt was portrayed as a
'socialist', which means in America the same as 'communist'. There
came pro-fascist groups who like to govern the country by cartels of
banks and industries. They were just as in Germany secretly supported
wholeheartedly by those same banks and industries. Therefore, in 1934
a smear campaign was planned to get back a republican president that
would roll back the "New Deal". For that purpose a national hero of the
Marine Corps was approached: the former general Smedley Butler. He
was at that time the most decorated soldier and immense popular.
Instead of joining he immediately warned the chairman of the Smedley Butler
American Congress who ordered an investigation. The by him installed
McCormack- Dickstein Committee reported that Butler was right in all
fronts. In 1935 Butler published his book ‘War is a racket'. 'Racket'
means organized crime. He describes how he had come to understand
more and more he did not fought in the service of America, but in the
service of the banks and the industry. In the magazine Common Sense
he wrote: 'I was 33 years and four months in active service. And most
time as a pimp for the industry, Wall Street and the banks. I fought in
Mexico to save the oil interests, I made Haiti and Cuba became free
ports for the National City Bank, I helped in raping of half a dozen
Central American countries for the benefit of Wall Street, I helped to
suppress Nicaragua for the bank Brown Brothers, I fought for the US
sugar interests in the Dominican Republic, I fought in Honduras for the
American fruit industry, I fought in China in order to protect the
interests of the Standard Oil Company. When I look back I have lots of
good tips for Al Capone. He has never been further than three districts
in Chicago, I have experience in three continents '.
The disclosures by Butler made Roosevelt even more popular. He won
the elections of 1936 convincingly. Only in the states Maine and
Vermont he lost and he continued his 'New Deal‘ with even more
strength. By the end of the 1930s America was the largest economic
power in the world and the population reasonably prosperous again.
Available In 1940 he ran for a third term in office. There was an
unwritten law that this was 'not done'. Even in his own democratic
party there was resistance. One was afraid for the image of a dictator
who could get not enough of it. Yet he also won that election over his
republican opponent Wendell Wilkie.
I dare to say that our world had looked very different today without
Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president, because America would be
within a short time be party in World War II, which had already broken
out in Europe since 1 September 1939.

39
 A picture made in
France in 1916. At the
far left with the towel
Adolf Hitler. At that
time has was a
corporal. His company
commander described
him as a ’dangerous
psychopathic idiot’ who
should never been
promoted again

We are now arrived at the description of Adolf Hitler, along with Joseph
Stalin the greatest mass murderer in the human history, but he was
the worst. He was born in the Austrian village of Braunau in 1889. His
father worked at the customs but died before Adolf was an adult. He
grew up in poor conditions. He had a talent for drawing and painting at
an early age and he had a mutual dignity complex. He found himself a
great painter, but was rejected twice at the art academy in Vienna. He
felt himself too good to be a normal worker and started making picture
postcards for tourists. He lived in a house for poor people. It was there
that he came into contact with all kinds of strange figures with strange
ideas. Especially in southern Germany and Austria was a strong latent
anti-semitism and in that period he took over those ideas. His father,
Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The
real father would be Johann Georg Hiedler. There are also rumors wich
tell Maria Anna in that period worked as a maid at a jewish family and
one of the family members was the real father of Alois. That might
explain the hatred against jews by Hitler.
Before the outbreak of the war one can characterize him as a bohémien
and too lazy to work. In that period he must also have developed
national-German thoughts. That almost certainly came from his
frustrations that he could achieve nothing in Austria. He wallowed of
the old German empires and felt more German than Austrian. He went
to Munich and started working as a painter servant. When the First
World War broke out he enlisted immediately as a volunteer at a
Bavarian infantry regiment. He was seriously wounded several times
and received the iron cross, a high German decoration. He was
promoted to corporal, but his company commander called him
’dangerous psychopathic idiot’ who should never been promoted again.
This man must have had a foresight.
Just before the armistice, he was recovering from a French gas attack.
At the time, he was almost blind and the news struck him as a
sledgehammer blow: he could not believe it. This had to be a
conspiracy of jews and communists. In his dark psyche it must have
been a disaster. Germany was for him superior: it could simply not
lose. This curve would haunt him until his suicide and demand millions
of victims.

40
After the war he was back to square one, but he was looking for like-
minded spirits. There were enough of them. Already in 1918 he came
under the spell of Anton Drexler, a locksmith. He wanted a political
mass movement based on the labor movement and a German national
socialism. Drexel was an anti-communist, but social democrat and
wished a socialist Germany, but not the one Hitler had in mind.
And this movement Hitler joined. Why no one knows. There were at
that time countless like-minded parties. Hitler had one great talent:
calling what people love to hear. And not just once, but many times
and then people are going to believe you.
It was in that turbulent period when we meet figures such as Hermann
Göring, a many times decorated fighter pilot but anti democrat; Ernst Anton Drexler
Röhm, a former army captain who became a street fighter; the former
teacher Julius Streicher that issued the sheet 'Der Stürmer' that
brimmed the dirtiest anti-semitism; Alfred Rosenberg who was a first
class racist and communist hater; Rudolf Hess, a former sergeant who
was seriously injured several times during the war; Josef Goebbels, a
frustrated failed writer and journalist but who had a great talent for
propaganda and was an exciting speaker and Heinrich Himmler who
had poor health. He was rejected for the training of naval officer but
was admitted to the army. When his training was over was the war
that too and was thus never been at the front. He raved about with
occultism and racialism.

These are few of the followers of Hitler in the early days. All they would
Adolf Hitler
play an important role in future. The small party grew rapidly and soon
the Sturm Abteilung (SA) was established. It was a uniformed street
fighter gang in brown uniforms with as leader Ernst Röhm. Soon
thereafter the 'Schutz Staffeln' (SS). These were in black uniform and
served as bodyguards of the party leadership. Hitler had quickly pulled
the power for itself and the founder Anton Drexler sidelined. The main
action line of the party was that the reparations Germany would be
stopped, have a large army, and own colonies (areas in Eastern
Europe) also called 'Lebensraum', room for living. The racial doctrine
was at least as important. The German citizen had to be racial pure'.
The jews had to get the status of foreigners and could not fulfil
important public or civil functions. The Slavic peoples were regarded as
inferior (‘Untermenschen’). The party then got its name:
Hermann Göring
"Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ' (NSDAP).
The party began to stabilize in size but was in Germany still a minor
party. In 1923 when the inflation was at its height and the Ruhr area
by the Belgians and the French was occupied Hitler thought the time
was there to come into action. In Bavaria was a movement under way
to split itself from Germany. In November the movement held a large
gathering in a beer cellar in Munich. There were speeches. Hitler came
in, shot with a pistol in the air and climbed the rostrum. With its
familiar loud voice he called that the police and soldiers were on his
side and would take over power in Bavaria. He appointed himself as
leader of the new Bavarian government and the retired general
Ludendorff commander-in-chief of the army. When he realized there
was almost no response he organized a march through Munich. It was
a mostly motley crew that was gathered by Ernst Röhm and was
partially armed. At the head walked Hitler, Göring, Streicher and
Ludendorff. Eventually they encountered on a barricade of the Bavarian
Ernst Röhm
police. They refused to stop and the police opened fire. Some twenty
participants of the march were killed and also some police agents.
Hitler had dived to the ground and had an arm from the bowl, Göring

41
was injured but managed to escape to Sweden. Ludendorff marched
straight on but the police did not fire at him and they opened the
barricade out of respect for the old general. Hitler was arrested a few
days later.
At the beginning of 1924 was the process. Ludendorff was acquitted
because he was probably at that time not mentally normal. Hitler was
sentenced to five years in prison. For an attempted coup a minor
penalty. He was allowed to serve his sentence in the comfortable
fortress Landsdorf. There he should have written his book 'Mein
Kampf'. For that he had not the abilities. At most he has outlined, but
the book is written by Rudolf Hess who followed Hitler like a faithful
dog. Hitler trusted him completely and listened especially in the early Rudolf Hess
days to his opinions. After nine months Hitler was a free man again.
Why? Normally he would have spent many years in jail. His attempt to
seize the state caused the death of many people. Already then Hitler
must have had protectors.
There were more ultra right-wing parties in those days. There must
have been forces which were willing to get Hitler in power. The NSDAP
was still a minor party, but the ideas and particularly the abolition of
the reparations and the formation of a new army, the large industry,
the banks and the military were popular. During the period Hitler was
imprisoned Ludendorff had the leadership of the party. Probably they
thought that Hitler had learned his lesson and he would accept
Ludendorff as a kind of father figure. And with such a famous general Josef Goebbels
as leader the party would have to grow quickly and especially make the
ideas a reality. In 1925, Ludendorff is candidate for the presidency, but
lost to defamatory of his 78-year-old old comrade Paul von
Hindenburg. Hitler saw his chance and started a smear campaign
against him and Ludendorff stopped as party leader. He started a club
of mystic Germanic gods worshipers and left the party in 1928.
The nazi party stayed alive the following years and must have had
sponsors to survive in that period.
Just like in America the economy in Europe recovered, though it was a
bit less. In Germany unemployment quickly ran back and the breeding
ground for ultra right-wing parties so as well. Germany also knew its Heinrich Himmler
'roaring twenties'. The film industry produced numerous successes, the
theatres were packed with people. Influenced by the jazz from America
music the German composers went also that way. The German
population saw the future after years of inflation and poverty in sunny
weather. Then came in October 1929 the stock market crash of Wall
Street. Was that not happened than we might have heard anything of
Hitler and his cronies only in a small margin of history.
The crisis struck Germany extra hard. The country was economically
again just got underway when this happened. In no time, almost 18
million people were unemployed. That caused a big social unrest. The
chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Christian Democratic Party was
forced to make hard cuts. Filed by a motion of no-confidence in
parliament and thereupon wrote Brüning new elections which were held Paul von Hindenburg as
on 14 September 1930. president of Germany
The Nazi party must then have been supported, but even during
financial difficulties before that. From 1920 on there was the
newspaper "Völkischer Beobachter", which appeared once a week in
the beginning, but as of February 1923 daily with as editor-in-chief the
anti-semetic Alfred Rosenberg. The newspaper appeared just before
the German defeat in May 1945 for the last time.
The party was meanwhile reasonably well known in the country, but
Hitler was the first politician who crossed the country by plane for his

42
rousing speeches. Millions of pamphlets and newspapers were printed
and distributed during the expensive election campaigns. The SA-
commando groups of Ernst Röhm came ever more massive on the
street, stabbed in brand new brown uniforms. Any socialist or
communist demonstration was attacked by them including the party
offices. They terrorized the street. To finance this obscure group Hitler
was never been able. He was financially supported by sponsors from
home and abroad. In Hitler they must have seen the person who the
upcoming socialism and communism and hence their interests in
Germany would stop. If the anarchy broke out in Germany
shareholders and banks would suffer gigantic losses with the chance
the country would become communist. Poland would then be rushed
and Joseph Stalin would extend its influence to the Rhine.
I'll make a small jump forward in time. In 1933, by the renowned
Amsterdam publishing house Holkema & Warendorf's a book was
published with the title 'The money sources of national socialism',
written by one Sidney Warburg. It is mentioned the American magnate
John D. Rockefeller (founder of the Standard Oil Company) in the
period from 1929 when the great economic crisis began) until 1932
financed the Nazi party by an amount of $ 32 million (now ± 1.2
milliard euros). Officially this was money used to support the German
reparations to France, but large sums were channelled via a detour to
the NSDAP. This Sidney Warburg wrote under a pseudonym. According
to the Belgian translator of the book, J.G. Shoup, he was a son of one
the largest bankers in America and he wanted to show how American
bankers helped Hitler and his NSDAP to power.
So far there was nothing to worry about, were it not for the fact that
within days the entire print run was extracted from the book trades and
including the warehouse copies were destroyed. As far as now known
only one copy has survived.
The publishing house must have been under tremendous pressure to
do something like this. The Netherlands was and is a country where for
centuries books are printed with comments which was impossible in
many other countries.
Let us return in time: the New York Times reported on 20 December
1922 the American car giant Henry Ford was financing Adolf Hitler on a
large scale. A few days later did the German newspaper Berliner
Tageblatt a call to the American ambassador to ask the American
government to look into this matter and order Henry Ford to stop
interfering with German internal affairs.
It was no coincidence Henry Ford did this. He was a notorious anti-
semite. In 1919 he gave the newspaper 'The Dearborne Independant'
anti-jewish opinions. This he bundled in his book 'The international jew,
the world's formost problem'.
I do not know how Henry Ford discovered Hitler and why he saw him
as a potential brake against world communism (in his eyes the jews
were the inventors of it). In any case, Hitler and his staff drove around
in expensive cars and his guards were equipped with brand new
uniforms and with revolvers and pistols. Hitler had a private office and
on the wall was prominently a portrait of Henry Ford.
Practically all payments made to the nazi party went through a
specially established bank in The Netherlands: the Bank for Trade and
Shipping located at Zuidblaak 18 in Rotterdam. There the money was
transferred to the German national 'Treuhand' where none other than
Rudolf Hess was the Treasurer.
The largest financier of all however was IG-Farben, a multinational
company of German origin. It was the result of a merger in 1925

43
between the following (already huge) German companies: Badische
Anilin, Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst, Weiler-ter-More and Griesheim Elektron.
It was given the name IG-Farben Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known
as IG Farben. The group was so powerful that it was described as a
‘State within the State'.
In 1928 were the next American holdings of IG Farben brought into a
single Swiss holding company: Bayer Company, General Aniline Works,
Agfa Ansco, and Winthrop Chemical Company. It was given the name
IG Chemic (Internationale Gesellschaft für Unternehmungen AG
Chemical) completely controlled by IG Farben in Germany.
A year later, American IG Chemical Corporation merged under that
name and again what later was called the General Aniline & Film. One Franz von Papen and
of the main organizers of this was Hermann Schmitz: he was director general Kurt von
Schleicher
of the Swiss holding company and later also of the whole group until
the war years and an important figure in the nazi party.
The Thyssen steel group led by Fritz Thyssen was also a big spender.
He was an admirer of Adolf Hitler.
German coal mines donated 50 pfennig for each sold ton of coal to the
nazi party. There were also numerous donations from individuals and
the businesses.
In this way his millions came in the party. It had everything to do with
the turbulence in Germany and the fear there would take place the
same revolution as in Russia and that the whole German industry
would be nationalized. It would be a disaster for other economies,
especially in America, which had large interests in Germany.
In retrospect we know what Hitler and his cronies have done to
humanity, but in that time people saw him just as a (temporarily) tool Heinrich Brüning
to get stability in Germany again. Paul von Hindenburg was still
president and it was thought that Hitler would have great respect for
him.
The elections were a great success for the NSDAP: from 12 seats it
rose to 108 seats. The party was after the social democrats, the second
party in the country. The NSDAP made governing nearly impossible.
Demonstrative they sat with their brown uniforms and made any
attempt to reform the parliament and laws impossible.
In 1932 there was a presidential election and Hitler saw his chance.
Paul von Hindenburg was candidate again and Hitler decided also to
run for the presidency. There were a few other candidates, but in the
first round were Hindenburg and Hitler the winners without an absolute
majority and so was a second round was necessary. It were especially
the christian and social democrats who then went to vote on
Hindenburg, despite their dislike of the Prussian military directory and
the gentry from East Prussia. Hindenburg won thereby with a majority
of 6 million votes. Persons who had the confidence of Hindenburg
started to try to get rid of chancellor Brüning. Hindenburg began to
suffer of dementia and soon began to believe everything he was told.
So, he was told by the Prussian squire Franz von Papen that Brüning
had planned to seize the East Prussian estates and make colonies of
unemployed out of it. General Kurt von Schleicher reported that the
German army had no confidence anymore in the government of
Brüning. Hindenburg believed almost everything and agreed to replace
him. Von Papen became the new chancellor and Von Schleicher
minister of defense. The side-put Brüning felt himself increasingly
threatened and went to The Netherlands.
After a short time Von Papen found out it was impossible to govern the
country and therefore he suggested Von Hindenburg to do this without
the parliament with emergency laws. Dementia or not, Hindenburg did

44
not accepted this. Von Schleicher told him that a civil war would break
out. Von Schleicher was appointed to form a majority government if
necessary with the NSDAP. It was political panic football because of
course Hitler began to delay the case and formed an alliance with his
old enemy Von Papen. These two started now to put pressure on
Hindenburg and he gave up the fighting. The nazi party participated in
the new government with Hitler as chancellor and Von Papen as vice
chancellor. The nazi party would get only three of the eleven ministerial
posts. That went equally well, but Ernst Röhm and his SA-commando
groups were lord and master on the street. Opponents were severely
mistreated or murdered. Göring was minister of the interior and did
nothing about it (of course not). What Hitler needed was an event that Karl Ernst
would bring the country in turmoil and would give him the opportunity
to get finally his hands on the power. That was settled by SA-chef Karl
Ernst. He never came further in his life than a piccolo in a hotel and a
bouncer in nightclubs. But he climbed quickly on his relentless violence
in the ranks of the SA.
Marinus van der Lubbe was a Dutch mason. By a company accident he
got lime in his eyes and his eyesight was very bad. He was unemployed
and had to live by a payment of just over seven guilders per month. He
joined the CPH (Communist Party Holland). He was so disappointed in
the Dutch society he wanted to go to Russia to the ‘communist
paradise’. At the Polish border he was stopped and had to return.
He saw during his trip in Germany the madness of fascism. Then he
must have decided to do an act. What could be more beautiful than put Marinus van der Lubbe
on fire the 'Reichstag', the building of the parliament, which had shortly after his arrest
nothing to say anymore, as a symbol of protest. With that thought he
went again on a trip towards Berlin. He was already for more than 70%
blind. It cannot be otherwise than that he got shelter at party members
in Berlin he had met on his previous trip and told of his plans. That
must have been leaked or betrayed.
That was the golden opportunity where Hitler had been waiting for.
Karl Ernst was chosen to run the command. Van der Lubbe was not
arrested, he was followed. Goering had a tunnel from his ministry to
the parliament building what considerably facilitated the preparations
and the return.
On the night of 27 February 1933, barely a week before the election,
Van der Lubbe broke in the parliament building with some rags and
matches. He set curtains on fire and fled back out. Karl Ernst with his
accomplices had meanwhile with phosphorus bombs in the building a
large fire prepared. Eye-witnesses stated that the immense building on
all four corners was on fire in no time. Van der Lubbe was soon after
arrested. It was no an imposing figure, but during the process he was
sitting there as a broken man. Presumably he was heavily assaulted.
He insisted he was the only offender and he should really have thought
so. Especially for Marinus van der Lubbe the death penalty was
reintroduced. He had the dubious honor of being the first of many
million death. He was guillotined and his head was afterwards with
crude stitches sewn to its hull.
The nazi propaganda under the leadership of Josef Goebbels made
overtime. The fire would have been the signal to a communist coup.
Many thousands of communists from top to bottom were arrested.
Many died after heavy assaults.
The elections brought the NSDAP almost half of the seats. Together
with a German-nationalist splinter party they had a majority in
parliament. The first act of Hitler was given the chaotic state of the
country (he had caused it himself), an emergency law that gave him

45
dictatorial power for four years. Only the socialists voted against and
thus became Adolf Hitler (he called himself leader) Führer of Germany.
Pro forma, the country was still a democracy, but all politicians who
offered any resistance were threatened. Only a few had the courage to
go on with it. And so Germany turned into a terrible dictatorship, but
one should never forget that Hitler and his NSDAP were chosen by a
great part of the population in democratic elections and he was
financially supported on a big scale by banks and industry.

Long before that it was the failed chicken farmer Heinrich Himmler who
worked himself forward in the party. His Germanic SS in their black
uniforms which at first only served as body guards of the party
leadership grew steadily. The SA was only reserved for street fighters,
but the SS selected initially on intelligence and race together with
ruthlessness. The secret state police (Gestapo) was quickly established
and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and that everything was under the
leadership of the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. Hitler had a pet
name for him: 'der treue (faithful) Heinrich'. That would change at the
end of the war, but then Himmler was the architect of the rise of Hitler.
The entire SS-complex was a state within the state where only
Himmler had the command. He was the architect of the dictatorial
state, where no one dared open his mouth. Kids at school were asked
about the views of their parents and at work your colleague could be
an informant of the Gestapo.
Now was the way open for Hitler to go for total power. President Von
Hindenburg was now completely out of his mind and was no threat
anymore. He believed in the meetings with Hitler he was talking to
emperor Wilhelm. The only one that could be a threat to Hitler was SA
chief Ernst Röhm. With his commando groups he had brought Hitler to
power. He made no secret of it that in his opinion 'now the revolution
was succeeded it was time for the socialist part'. The party was a
‘National Socialist Workers Party‘ and the SA was largely made of
unemployed persons who wanted their reward in the form of steady
work. In popularity he began Hitler to pass by. He wanted to make the
new German people's army with his SA and him as supreme
commander. Now began the military protest. Hitler had as an Austrian
a natural dislike against traditional military Prussians, but he needed
them in his plans for the future and there was no place in it for the SA.
In addition, there was an extremely secret operation going on to make
the army the most advanced in the world. Almost no one was informed
and not at all Ernst Röhm. So 'der treue Heinrich Himmler' was ordered
to solve that problem.
It was in fairly large circles known Röhm was a homosexual. As long as
he was useful to Hitler it was no problem (in the nazi doctrine was
homosexuality a mortal sin), now it was used against him. He
scrupulously prepared an action were the living and domiciles of the
SA-top were detected. Who was where and when and at what point?
When that was finished at the end of June 1934 the SS ruthless
started: hundreds were killed (including Karl Ernst, the preparer of the
Reichstagsbrand), which marked the end of power of the SA. It is also
known in history as the 'night of the long knives'. Not only SA members
were killed but also old accounts were settled. General von Schleicher,
who Hitler saw as an opponent belonged to the victims and many
others with him. At the end of the massacres was Ernst Röhm
portrayed as a homosexual communist infiltrator and one had to be
thankful the Führer had intervened in time. Maybe Hitler was inspired
by the 'cleanings' of Joseph Stalin that took place in the same period.

46
The world saw it with sadness. The economic crisis persisted and the
British and French had their army strength reduced to a minimum. No
one was waiting for a new war. All over the world investors and banks
had large interests in Germany and the nazis, in their opinion,
protected them perfectly. The goal, keeping communism away from the
buffer state Germany, had worked out and that an ultra right-wing
dictatorship had come to power was taken for granted.
The German banks and top industrials and probably also their foreign
partners were aware of a secret deal between Germany and Russia.
That had already started in the beginning of the twenties, first on a
small scale, but it took ever larger forms: the reconstruction of the
German army.
According to the treaty of Versailles the German army could only count
100,000 men. Weapons such as heavy artillery, tanks, fighter aircrafts,
bombers and poisoned gas were forbidden.
As described earlier, the treaty of Rapallo in 1922 was closed between
Germany and Russia. The then foreign minister Georgi Chicherin
named it ‘a merger between two international scapegoats' and that was
still true.
The communist Russia was seen as a threat to the capitalist system
and with the rise of Adolf Hitler as a threat to the democratic system.
That brought both of them to a monstrous covenant: Hitler wanted a
modern army and Stalin wanted instability in Europe, exactly according
to the teachings of Lenin to after a new European war and social unrest General Ernst Köstring
to take over power.
In the deepest secret for that time the newest armament for the
German army and air force was developed in Russia. German officers
and engineers left for Russia and were given access to factories and
training areas. It started around 1923. The aircraft department was
transferred to the town of Lipetsk near Moscow. The development of
the tanks in the town of Kazan at the Volga River. German firms built
the factories, but the workers were Russian. That was needed for the
secrecy. Only the staff was German. One of the most important
German officers there was cavalry General Ernst Köstring. He was born
in Moscow and had gone to school there and spoke perfect Russian. He
led the development of the new generation of German tanks. He died
in 1953 and wanted to talk about that time only summarily after the
war. He stated Goering told him that without the Russian preparations
the German air force would never have reached a level to go to war
and general Guderian (the later German tank general) the same. About
who organized and financed it, Köstring just said: 'Krupp and a few
others'. The tanks and planes had to be tested. The German
commissioned and non-commissioned officers that did this had to
resign officially. They got another identity and carried exclusively
Russian uniforms. It was so secret that even close family had to be
unaware of their whereabouts. During the exercises in the course of
time were of course victims. Those were put in lead chests and as
‘machine parts' shipped to Stettin. Then the family was told they were
killed during exercises in East Prussia.
In the initial phase it must have been a few dozen, but more and more
air force and tank-officers must have had their training in Russia, along
with their modern aircrafts and tanks. So there must have been around
1935 thousands of trained officers that formed the backbone of the
modern German army. It cannot be otherwise than most generals have
been part of the first 'Russia trainees'.
General Hans Speidel
The exercises were later combined with Russian soldiers. General Hans
Speidel told the Russian officers were extremely eager to learn and

47
wanted to get off of the still existing Czarist doctrines and learn
modern western tactics. The exercises took place in an ever larger
scale and were later also attended by Russian field marshals.
From 1923 until around 1935 the foundation of the German army was
made that was going to bring death and destruction. The context of
that army was trained in the deepest secret in Russia. The modern
tanks and aircrafts such as the Messerschmidt, Junker and Stuka were
there designed, tested and partially built.
In 1931 Ernst Köstring was appointed to military attaché in Moscow. He
visited president Hindenburg, who at that time still had a good sense.
Hindenburg congratulated him with the following words: ‘maintain good
relations with the Russians and the Poles, I would like to attack and
destroy them now, but that will take some time'. Indeed, that would
last for eight years yet, but it is indicative of the mentality there
already was.
On August 2, 1934 president Paul Von Hindenburg died. Hitler
appointed himself to Führer and Reichskanzler. From that day on he
was the one and only chief of Germany.
There were now two fascist dictatorships in Europe: in Italy and
Germany and the First World War was just 15 year history. There
would be even a third fascist country appear: Spain. King Alfonso of Spain

In 1931 there were local elections in Spain. There were large revolts,
and King Alfonso fled the country. A revolutionary committee formed a
government, but the contrasts between left and right were great and in
the elections of 1933 the right won. When also the ultra right-wing
CEDA party came in government left-wing rebellions broke out
throughout the country. When the province of Catalonia declared its
independence was that ruthlessly suppressed.
Three years later there were new elections. The left-wing parties won
and also the communists went to join the government. That began to
shorten the excessive number of high Spanish officers (Spain also had
an economic crisis) and those started to prance and revolted led by
Emilio Mola, but soon came the Spanish general Francisco Franco with
his army from Morocco to Spain. That immediately began to advance to
the north towards Madrid and Malaga. That went, despite fierce General Francisco
Franco
republican opposition, relatively quickly.
The arrows were now focused on Madrid and the Basque country. The
fight was characterized by mutual atrocities in which women and
children were not spared. Beginning 1937 were Franco's nationalists
(also called falangists) reinforced with Italian troops. Now it became
international: Russia sent troops and even some tanks on which Hitler
sent the Condor Legion. It was a division of the German air force with
the latest models of the Stuka that now could be tried out in a real war.
Then the Republicans were joined by thousands of foreign volunteers
who wanted to fight against fascism that one went to see more and
more as a threat to world peace. There were many celebrities among
such as the American author Ernest Hemingway and the Dutch author
Jef Last. That cost him his nationality and with him hundreds of other
Dutch people. They got their passport back around 1950, when it was
recognized they had fought for a good cause.
Spanish refugees were in The Netherlands: rich falangists were in large
hotels on the Wadden islands housed and there was a popular song in
those days: ' Spanish refugee '. The wrong people were helped. Ernest Hemingway
By the passive attitude of the rest of Europe the Russians withdrew
their troops. In 1937 the Germans bombarded the small Basque town
of Guernica. There was no military need, it was just a cruel exercise for

48
the German air force. A massacre was caused among the civilian
population. It inspired the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso to his
legendary painting.
The capital Madrid was hold by the nationalists throughout the civil war
and fanatically defended and was never taken.
Eventually, the falangists succeeded in splitting the Republican area in
two. When beginning 1939 Barcelona was captured the Republicans
stopped the resistance. Thousands of them together with the
international brigades crossed the Pyrenees mountains to France.
The falangists took bloody revenge: through the years many thousands
of Republicans were murdered. To this day on it splits the Spanish
people, even in family relationships.
In 1975, the grandson of Alfonso, Juan Carlos, became king of Spain.
But Franco demanded from him that he had to take the oath on the
falangist law and the bible.

And so Spain came as the third fascist governed country into Europe.
We are after 1945 tend to think that only a fascist mentality prevailed
in these countries. The opposite is true. In all European countries and
in America were groups that openly sympathized with fascism and that
was caused by the fear of a communist domination. To describe this
development in all the countries goes too far in my publication, but it
was definitely there, but Great Britain and The Netherlands I want to
give as examples.
In Great Britain were the right-wing parties united under the name
'Right Wing' There is nothing wrong with that. It was the Conservative
Party added by some right-wing splinter parties. But from that a group
was formed called 'Right Club' and that openly sympathized with the Archibald Ramsay
nazis in Germany. Members were prominent Britons whether or not
secretly. The most well-known was Archibald Ramsay. He descended
from an aristocratic British family. He studied at the most expensive
British boarding school, Eton, and got an officer's training at the
Military Academy of Sandhurst. He served two years as an officer of the
Coldstream Guards in World War I. There, he was badly injured. In the
parliamentary elections of 1931, he was elected as a conservative
member of parliament. During the Spanish civil war, he was a fierce
supporter of Franco. In 1938, his dislike against communism and the
jews became finally clear. At the end of January he delivered a speech
at the British Foreign Affairs club in which he stated that he 'Hitler's
dislike against communists and jews could very well understand: of the
59 members of the central committee of the communst party in Russia
were 56 jewish and the three others were married to jewish women. ‘
On 4 September 1939 (a few days after the outbreak of the second
world war he wrote a 'poem' on the music of Land of Hope and Glory:

Land of dope and Jewry

Land that once was free
All the Jew boys praise tea
Whilst they plunder tea

Poorer still and poorer

Grow thy true-born sons
Faster still and faster
They're sent to feed the guns.

49
Country of Jewish finance
Fooled by Jewish lies
In press and books and movies
While our birthright dies

Longer still and longer

Is the rope they get
But – by the God of battles
Twill serve to hang them yet.

He was until the end of the war interned in Brixton prison.

The following example is Oswald Mosley. He was the son of Sir Oswald
Mosley, baron of Ancoats. He went into politics in the conservative
party. There he soon started quarrelling and then switched to the
Labour Party. It didn't take long until he also had the same problems.
In 1932 he founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF): a collaboration
of small fascist parties. The party got a big number of followers and
was looking for confrontations with communists, socialists and jews
after the example of the German SA. Especially in London it came to
heavy street fightings. When the Second World War broke out he was
interned in Holloway prison. In 1943, he was given permission to live in
a cottage in the area of the prison with his family. After the war he
tried to come back in politics, but failed. He went to live in Ireland and Oswald Mosley
later on in France where he died in 1980. I cannot understand why this
man was not punished after the war.

On 20 January 1936, King George V died and thereby his eldest son
became automatically the title of King Edward VIII. He was that for 350
days but never was officially inaugurated.
His childhood years were as a British prince quite normal. He received
a good education and during the First World War he wanted as a young The flag of the British
officer of the Grenadier Guards regiment to go to the front, but that Union of Fascists
was rejected by the British commander Kitchener. Yet he visited the
trenches regularly under mortal danger.
In the 1920s he lived as a kind of 'movie star'. He was not married,
crown prince and thus was sought by the females which opportunity he
gratefully used. He was one of the most photographed persons of his
time and a trend-setter for men's fashion.
In 1930 he went living independently in the country house Belvedere at
Sunningdale. There he had relationships with many women. His private
secretary, Alan Lascelles described him as a man who had stuck in
puberty. His father, King George, once said: 'when I'm dead, he has
completely destroyed himself within a year'.
He came in contact with an American woman: Wallis Simpson. Actually
she was called Wallis Warfield and was the daughter of a successful
businessman. After a previous marriage she married in 1928 a divorced King Edward VIII
businessman: Ernest Simpson and went living in London. They were
great friends with a lady called Thelma Furness, one of the mistresses
of Edward. In 1934 he began a relationship with Wallis Simpson. Pro
forma had Edward could have married her. He had that right, but the
British government got mounting evidence that Wallis Simpson had
more lovers: a married car mechanic and Duke Edward Fitzgerald of
Leinster. In addition, obtained the British secret service growing
evidence she had a relationship with the German ambassador Joachim
von Ribbentrop, the future minister of foreign affairs and that she had

50
pronounced nazi sympathies. Edward had these already, but under her
influence they became stronger and stronger.
When he was confronted with these facts on 10 December 1936
Edward signed the document that he renounced the British throne. This
also applied to any children that would be born. He kept a radio speech
in which he stated he wanted to live with the woman he loved. The
couple moved to Austria and stayed there until Wallis Simpson was
officially divorced. They married on 3 June 1937 in France.
His younger brother became the new king (George VI) and granted
them the titles duke and duchess of Windsor. They were going to travel
around with as climax the visit to Adolf Hitler in 1937. When France
was occupied in 1940 by the Germans they soon moved to Spain and Wallis Simpson
then to Portugal. Why? Portugal and to a lesser extent Turkey before
and during the Second World War were breeding grounds for secret
diplomacy and intrigues. Portugal was ruled by the dictator Salazar
who also had fascist tendencies, but it must be said he came up for the
working class. He had regular contact with Franco and convinced him
to keep himself outside the war, which happened.
In September 1940 Britain was the only opponent of nazi Germany and
was nearly defeated. Just then there came increasing evidence that
Wallis Simpson had contacts again with Von Ribbentrop who then was The visit to Hitler in
German minister of foreign affairs. The couple was not aware of major 1937
British secrets, but the security risk was too great. In addition, they
were ideal as a possible king and queen during a German occupation of
Britain. Given the nazi sympathies of both it was a real option.
The British government acted quickly by forcing the couple to move to
the Bahamas, a British group of islands near Florida. Edward was
appointed to governor and in his back the Americans kept an eye on
the couple. In fact, they were exiled and were not allowed to leave the
islands during World War II.

Now we are arrived in The Netherlands, where on 17 September 1944

operation Market Garden was carried out. The country was already a
long time (as previously described) rather pro-German. After the war
there was a large parliamentary inquiry in which general Van Oorschot
this again underlined. He was before the war major general and head
of GSIII, section 3 of the general staff that did the intelligence work.
The land forces held exercises which were based on siebsig/
einundsiebzig' (the French-German war of 1870-1871) and were very
popular. The Dutch navy had that in a much lesser extent: on the
North Sea and in the Far East waters they worked closely together with
the British navy.
The Netherlands was also a total divided country. The trade unions
were general, catholic or protestant. From schools to sport associations
to choirs and arts and crafts clubs, everyone was in his own private
organization. The radio had the same form: catholic radio (KRO),
protestant radio (NCRV), radio of the laborers (VARA), free protestant
radio (VPRO) and the general radio (AVRO) presided by its founder
Willem Vogt, who thought that his broadcasting organization as oldest
and largest had to get a monopoly position. When that didn't happen,
he began to go increasingly into the fascist corner. It is known that he
was a great admirer of Mussolini. When The Netherlands in May 1940
were occupied by the Germans Willem Vogt sacked within a few days
and without any order from the Germans all jewish employees
including Han Hollander, perhaps the most popular Dutch sport
reporter of all time. He was murdered in a death camp.

51
Aircraft manufacturer Anthonie Fokker worked for the Germans in
World War I and designed the propeller in cooperation with the
machine gun. Also his airplanes were of legendary quality. He remained
very pro-German.

And then there was Henri Deterding. He began his career as the
youngest bank clerk, but soon climbed on. He joined the Dutch Trade
Society and was sent to Medan on Sumatra. There he came quickly in Willem Vogt (left) on
the service of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, where he was a the roof of the
director. He merged the KNPM with the British Shell and was thus one Olympic stadium in
of the greatest captains of industry in the world. The British gave him Amsterdam and on the
the title of 'sir'. He also was a fierce anticommunist and saw in fascism right the legendary
the only force that could stop that. This was caused by the enormous jewish sport reporter
financial losses the oil companies suffered in Russia after the Han Hollander
nationalizations by the communists in 1917. After his retirement he
went to Germany and lived on the Rittergut Dobbin which he had
bought from Prince Hendrik, the husband of the Dutch queen
Wilhelmina. At the age of 72, he died of a massive heart attack. At the
funeral were many nazi leaders present. Hitler had delivered a large
wreath, swastika flags surrounded the coffin and he was praised as one
of the greatest fighters of the world communism. Anthonie Fokker (left)
in 1917 and on the
right in light coloured
Also in The Netherlands fascist groups arose. But they came and went
uniform
away and took minimum attention. But on 4 November 1932 ir. Baron Von Richthofen
Mussert along with Cornelis van Geelkerken as secretary founded the (the Red Baron) who
Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (NSB). with his plane,
Who was Anton Mussert? He was born in 1894 and was the son of a produced by Fokker,
Dutch Reformed school teacher in Werkendam (a village near won many air fights
Rotterdam). First he wanted to become a navy officer, but he was
rejected and then he went to study civil engineering in Delft. In 1918
he graduated cum laude. In 1920, he joined the Provincial Water
Management of Utrecht. He was an extremely able engineer, designed
bridges and made ingenious waterworks. But he also was known as a
conspirator who did everything to climb. People from that period told it
was impossible to work with that man: he couldn't stand criticism. In
politics he was in the beginning a liberal, but he soon became a
member of the National Union, a far-right party led by professor Carel
Gerretson. When the economic crisis began in early 1930s, he was
convinced the world would slide into communism. Democracy would
not be able to stop this.
According to the statutes it was a movement, I call it further party,
Sir Henri Deterding
with a 'leader' (Führer) and five board members who had nothing to
say and the leader could appoint and dismiss them. So it was from the
beginning a dictatorial party. The party also had a 'guiding principle'
that almost literally was retrieved from the German NSDAP. Anti-
semitism however, was not yet there in the beginning.
Mussert was not an imposing figure: he was small and if he revealed he
took poses he copied from Mussolini.
At the end of January 1933 the party went for the first time in the open
when there was a so called 'landdag‘ held in Utrecht with some 600
participants. It was well prepared. The weekly newspaper of the party
'Volk en Vaderland’ then appeared for the first time and following the
example of Mussolini was a 'Weerbaarheids afdeling‘ (Defence
Department) (WA) presented in black uniforms and the greeting: 'hou
zee' (an old sailors saying). Mussert was given the title 'leider' (leader). Anton Mussert
Male members were 'kameraad' (comrade) and the females
'kameraadske' (little comrade). The NSB had a youth department

52
(Nationale Jeugdstorm), a student federation and an agricultural
department.
The party grew rapidly: from about 1,000 members in 1933 to 52,000
in 1936. The followers existed mostly of private workers such as shop
owners and farmers who were hit the hardest by the economical crisis
and had little faith in democracy anymore. Because many jews were
middle classed the party had many jewish members. In the Dutch East
Indies were thousands member of the party. There was a fear for the
demands for independence of the native people and they saw in
Mussert someone who could suppress this. It had also a large financial
advantage for the party: many of the Dutch East Indies members were
rich and supported with generous hand.
Membership for civil servants was banned at the end of 1933 did the
same thing the catholic church in 1935. The party won the provincial
elections in 1935 with almost 8% of the votes; it was then a political
sensation. But at next elections that went backwards again. The
membership also went down but would slowly but surely increase after
the German invasion on May 10, 1940 suddenly spectacular rose. One
still counted In March 1940 33,000 members, there were 90,000 in
October 1941 and September 1943 over 100,000. The loyal members
of the first hour used for them the nickname ' May-bugs ' (the invasion
was in May 1940). It is clear that many wanted a piece of the German
occupation.
Anton Mussert departs in 1935 to the Dutch East Indies to visit his
party members there and to acquire even more supporters. Already for
two years it was forbidden under penalty of dismissal for public
servants to be a member of the NSB, but the governor general Cornelis
de Jonge met Mussert and treated him like a king. Why? De Jonge was
known as an authoritarian person who wanted to have nothing to do
with democracy. As a lawyer he came in 1910 in service of the ministry
of defense and made a quick career. During the First World War in July
1917 he became the first defence minister who had no military
background.
In that period he became big problems with queen Wilhelmina about
the supreme commander general Snijders. The Netherlands was
neutral, but the Germans began to ask by the end of 1917 to pass
through the province of Limburg to bring reinforcements to the front in
Esquire Cornelis
Belgium. That would make a farce to the neutrality and general
de Jonge as governor
Snijders stated that in case of a German attack, the Dutch army would general of the Dutch
be outgunned (which was true) and it was better not to fight. After East Indies
three years of war and millions of deaths had the general had a good
point of view. He was fired by minister esquire Cornelis de Jonge.
According the constitution: 'at the consternation of the king and
government' the supreme commander would be head of state. So
queen Wilhelmina had to give permission. She refused. Prime minister
Cort van der Linden went to the queen, threatened with a cabinet crisis
and the answer of the queen was 'I have nothing against travelling
gentlemen‘. The general stayed in function, the cabinet remained, but
De Jonge and queen Wilhelmina would never become friends, to put it
mildly.
Later on he entered the oil industry at the Bataafsche Petroleum
Maatschappij which was led by the earlier described Henri Deterding
and that cooperation will have affected him even further in his right-
wing thinking. In 1931 he was appointed governor-general of the Dutch
East Indies. There were many protests because several qualified
persons were passed. For me it's a mystery why this man has been
appointed. In 1936, he was succeeded by Tjarda van Starkenborgh

53
Stachouwer. He disappeared from the political scene. We will encounter
him again September 1944 were he played a mysterious role.

We return to the NSB. The rapid growth of the party attracted fascists,
who saw now their chance. One of them was Meinoud Rost van
Tonningen. He was born in the Dutch East Indies and is the son of a
Royal Dutch East Indies Army general. After the First World War, he
worked in Austria for the League of Nations to control the Austrian
finance ministry. There his latent anti jewish and anti communist
feelings developed rapidly. In 1936 he became a member of the NSB
and came on behalf of that party entered the parliament. He profiled
himself more and more within the party and with his fast growing
fanatic nazi followers against Mussert. He was editor of the 'Nationaal
Dagblad', the mouthpiece of the party. In it he ventilated his racist
ideas and his admiration for the "greater German" thoughts of the SS Meinoud
ideology. Mussert would remain party leader until the very end, but Rost van Tonningen
was increasingly eclipsed by this type of dogmatizers. He made a visit
to Adolf Hitler, but was not taken seriously. The party was more and
more dominated by anti-semitism and the jewish members of the first
hour stopped their membership massively.
After the German invasion of The Netherlands thousands of volunteers
joined the 'Germanic SS'. Those were for the most part NSB members.
There was in Europe, but throughout the occupied Netherlands, a
desire to fight against communism. Some 10,000 Dutch people would
eventually volunteer for German service, of which 3,000 actually have
served in the SS (most in neighborhood of Leningrad). The rest joined
the WA who hunted the jews and partisans.

The in future occupied countries were the traditionally democratic Henriette Roland Holst
parties well into the majority. That were above all the social and
christian democrats and liberals. The fascist parties were a small
minority. This also applied to the communist parties, which were not
accepted at all. They had already in the 1930s in a form of illegality,
what gave them during the occupation years a great advantage: they
trusted nobody. Infiltrators had almost no change in comparison to the
first resistance groups that were rolled up much easier. But the
communists had also many intellectuals everywhere in the world in
their midst. In The Netherlands that was, for example, the poet and
writer Henriette Roland Holst, she came from a wealthy liberal family,
but she rejected this more and more. In the beginning she was a social
democrat, but in the end she chose for communism. She had a lot of
contacts with the German Rosa Luxembourg, spoke and wrote in
dedication for the working class and translated the International hymn Henk Sneevliet
into Dutch.

Another example is Henk Sneevliet, son of a cigar maker from

Rotterdam. His family was poor and his mother died of tuberculosis
when he was three. He was raised by his grandmother and aunts in the
city of Den Bosch. He became a railway worker and was soon active in
the trade union movement during the great railway strike of 1903. He
was a municipality council member in the city of Zwolle and during that
time he met Henriette Roland Holst. When his social democratic party
refused to support a sailor strike he left the party and joined the CPH
(Communist Party Holland).
He went to the Dutch East Indies where he worked for some time as a
reporter. In 1918 he was one of the founders of the communist party Mao Tsje Toeng
of Indonesia, PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia). There he was noticed by

54
the Komitern. He was increasingly seen as a threat by the East Indies
Government and they forced him to leave the country. In 1921 the
Komitern sent him to China to help with the foundation of a communist
party there. After some time he pushed the young Mao Tsje Toeng
forward as leader of the party. He gave him the historic advice to
cooperate with the nationalist leader Chiang Kai Tsjek of the Kwo Min
Tang organization and later on seize power. In China he is still seen as
a kind of holy man and is called 'Maring', which was his pseudonym in
those days.
Back in the Netherlands he stops with Stalin and the Komitern and
chooses the side of Trotsky and also leaves the Dutch communist
party. Immediately after the German invasion he goes in the resistance
and writes in illegal newspapers under the name 'Baanbreker (Trail
blazer)'. Early 1942 he is arrested and sentenced to death. With six
others, he is murdered in the concentration camp Amersfoort. Even the
German murderers were impressed: hand in hand they stood there and
sang the International hymn while they were shot one by one, Henk
Sneevliet was the last to die.

In many countries are similar examples, too much to mention in this

publication. But finally, I would like to describe a case that endangered
Great Britain and even NATO for decades. In the 1930s out of a group
of students at the University of Cambridge a pro communist movement
was established: the ‘Cambridge Five'. They saw in communism the
only force to fight and destroy fascism. The leader of the group was
Harold 'Kim' Philby. He was of aristocratic origin. The others were
Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross.
Philby drew the attention of the Russian secret service. He succeeded
in joining the British secret service and made a quick career.
Eventually he became the director of it. The four others he placed in
strategic places within the service. The Russians received for many
years vital secret information. It took the lives of hundreds of secret Harold ‘Kim’ Philby is
here honored on a
agents. Although there is no hard evidence, more and more people
Russian stamp in 1990
think he was also involved in the mysterious death of the Polish prime
minister Wladyslaw Sikorski in 1943 near Gibraltar. Anyway, it fitted
perfectly in Stalins plans for Poland after the war.
In 1963 he was unmasked and fled to Russia where he was treated like
a hero. Until his death in 1988 he had a comfortable life. In an
interview he stated 'not to think a second of any regrets'.

This cramped thinking from far left to the far right can only be
explained by the shock after the First World War, when Europe had lost
its centuries old familiar foundations from one moment to the other.
Consider how fast everything happened: in a period of just over twenty
years the Second World War began. But at that time there were built
on hatred and aggression that had to lead to a war.
I named this chapter 'Pandora's box', out of the Greek mythology, in Wladyslaw Sikorski
which all the misfortunes of mankind show up. In this interwar period
(the period between the two world wars) the water was boiled for the
soup of the next war. In the box were the ingredients and they would
be soon smashed into the boiling water and the soup was ready. The
result was a war that never happened in human history before. Tens of
millions of deaths, people just because of their race, political affiliation,
sexual orientation or mental condition were murdered in an industrial
way. And this all happened because banks and industrials were afraid
of communism and brought one of the greatest idiots of the world
history to power: Adolf Hitler.

55
Towards the catastrophe

When Adolf Hitler had the power finally in his hands, he acted quickly.
His first act was in March 1935 with the introduction of the military
service (conscription). He stated to want a ' peace army ' of 500,000
men, while the Versailles treaty only allowed 100,000 men. But neither
France or Britain could or did not want to intervene. The German
armament industry began to produce at full speed thanks to the
excellent preparations made in Russia. The tanks, guns and aircrafts
were tested and approved and were at that time the best in the world.
In addition, the nazis started building an ' army of the future ': the
Hitler Jugend. The leader of this was Baldur von Schirach. All children
from 6 to 18 years were obliged to become a member of this. Parents
who refused were in most cases sent to prison. From their 6th to their Baldur von Schirach
10th the children camped and much was done to athletics. On their
10th the children already had to make an oath they were willing to die
for Hitler. From their 14th to their 18th they got paramilitary training
and were completely brainwashed with the nazi ideology. The girls
followed a similar program that came from a membership of the BDM
(Bund Deutscher Mädel). The girls were prepared to become mother of
many children (Hitler needed many soldiers in future). In 1938, the
Hitler Jugend counted about 8 million members. Within a few years
many of them would fight as fanatic nazis in the war.
Concentration camps were built all over in the country where mostly
communists, socialists and homosexuals were 'reeducated' and were
terrible mistreated. Many of them did not survive this. The intention
was to scare these people so much they for the rest of their lives do
Jesse Owens
not anything against the nazis. In most cases this worked out.
Racism in practice also began: it was jews forbidden to have public
positions and because the nazi ideology only healthy purebred' people
accepted began secretly the murder on the mentally handicapped. The
most commonly used method was to load these people into a closed
truck. The exhaust gas was led inside. While the car went driving the
victims died a horrible death. Usually the family received a message
the person unexpectedly died and was cremated. Protest or further
information had no sense: the own safety was then in danger.

Before the seizure of power by Hitler the International Olympic

Committee assigned the games of 1936 to Berlin. Despite protests
from many countries the games went on. Berlin and the surrounding
areas were changed into a tourist paradise where nothing of the nazi
ideology could be noticed. Even some countries found it necessary at
the opening ceremony to bring the nazi salute to Hitler, including the
Dutch delegation. The nazis wanted the games to show the superiority
of the white race (Übermenschen), but an American black athlete,
Jesse Owens, spoiled the party. He won four gold medals, three with
the sprint and one with the long jump. Of course for Hitler a great
disappointment. He refused to give medals to colored people.

In March of that year Hitler tried out how far he could go. He stated
that the demilitarized Rhineland belonged to Germany because this
situation would conflict with the treaty of Locarno. German troops
marched into the area in and near Koblenz and German border guards
took the places of their French colleagues without any resistance.

56
There were loud international protests, but that was all. That tasted for
more. The Germans then took part in the Spanish civil war (as
described earlier).

It was the greatest wish of the former Austrian Hitler to add his old
homeland to Germany. He had a large group of followers in Austria that
became increasingly violent and were mobilized. In late January 1938,
the Austrian police raided the headquarters of the nazis and found a Prime minister
detailed plan for a coup. Prime Minister Kurt Schuschnigg went to visit Kurt Schuschnigg
Hitler in the outdoor stay at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. There
he was scolded, cursed and threatened by Hitler in a long tirade.
Schuschnigg knew that his country was militarily completely
outgunned, but he did not accept to be intimidated by Hitler. He
proposed a plebiscite, in which the population could speak out:
independent or become a part of Germany. Then the border between
the two countries was hermetically closed by the Germans and many
troops were drawn together. In secret was the Austrian nazi Arthur
Seyss-Inquart prepared to become the head of state.
Schuschnigg indicated he wanted to resign. He stated that further
resistance was useless and he wanted to prevent many victims.
President Wilhelm Miklas however, refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as
prime minister. Thereupon the German troops crossed the border. SS- Arthur Seyss-Inquart
chief Heinrich Himmler temporarily took over the power in Vienna.
There alone 69,000 people were arrested. Across the country was
almost no place for all prisoners. Many were killed or severely
mistreated. Seyss-Inquart issued according to plan a law that made
Austria part of Germany and it got a new name: Ostmark. A plebiscite
was still held: about 99% voted for the 'Anschluss' (for those who want
to believe it). Again Europe reacted helplessly. In the press was talking
about 'a natural process because both countries have the same
language‘.
As a reward for his services Seyss-Inquart was Governor General
of Poland after the invasion in September 1939 and later on President
‘Reichskommissar‘ in the occupied Netherlands in 1940. It makes him Wilhelm Miklas
one of the first big war criminals. He was responsible for the terrible
war crimes that began in Poland soon after the invasion in 1939.

The next step of Hitler was the annexation of Czecho-Slovakia. It was

formed in 1918 as a state after the break-up of the Austrian-Hungarian
empire. It was a combination of the Austrian parts of Bohemia and
Moravia and the Hungarian parts Slovakia and Ruthenia.
It had, however, a minority within its borders. The nazis called them
'Sudentendeutschen'. They were never Germans: they were part of
Austria and the Austrian Government had asked during the formation
of Czechoslovakia leave the Sudetenland to Austria. It hasn't happened
and now Hitler had a stepping stone to agitate. For many years Konrad
Henlein was agitating in that area, because he felt that the German
Konrad Henlein
speaking population part (±18%) was heavily discriminated by the
Slavic speaking population. In practice it almost did not happen but his
organization was then financially supported by Germany and became
increasingly aggressive. In May 1938, they started openly walking on
the streets with imitation-uniforms of the SS and SA. The government
announced a partial mobilization. The Czechoslovakian army was
modern and well equipped. Defeating the Germans was not possible,
but they could still inflict heavy losses. The British and French
Governments began now to protest and declared its readiness to
support the Czechoslovakians. Hitler got one of his famous tantrums,

57
but had to stop (temporarily). Henlein received orders to use as much
as possible aggression. Provocations led to violence and the ‘Sudeten
Germans' were more and more described as victims. Henlein
demanded now the Sudetenland would become part of Germany and
Hitler promised that after this he would have no further territorial
demands. The French president Édouard Daladier did not want to go
into an offensive war (France was preparing itself go defensively with
the building of the Maginot line) and the British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain called Czecho-Slovakia 'a new state, that he actually did
not knew well'. The Czechoslovakian government kept on resisting.

Chamberlain went three times to Germany to meet Hitler: to

Berchtesgaden, Bad Godesberg and Munich. Hitler understood that the Édouard Daladier
British and French at any cost wanted and solution, but not a new war.
And so he had more and more demands.
Finally Benito Mussolini threw himself up as a 'mediator', which
resulted in an international conference. The Czechoslovak government
was not even invited. It was decided that four areas of the
Czechoslovak Republic, were the German language was spoken, went
to Germany. And those were just the upland areas that were vital for
the defense of the country. The best ally of the British and the French
with a modern army of 48 well trained and equipped divisions that
could have stopped the Germans was made impossible to fight.

The British army took over the Czecho-Slovakian ‘Brengun'. It was a

semi-automatic rifle and extremely modern for that time. It would be in Neville Chamberlain
use until 1958.

Neville Chamberlain returned as a great hero to London. Out of the

plane he swung with a piece of paper signed by Hitler. Peace in Europe
was assured. It would be a short illusion.

Hitler wanted the whole of Czecho-Slovakia. Especially he needed the

heavy war industry. The attack on Poland was for a long time on his The ‘Brengun‘
wish list and Czecho-Slovakia was one of the operating bases of the
German army. Above that the country had still a strong army that he
did not want in his back during the attack on Poland.
And again was looked for a ‘discriminated group’ in the population. This
time it were the Slovaks. A Catholic priest, Josef Tiso, was discovered
who was agitating for years. Hitler offered him his support, which he
accepted without hesitation. Under his leadership all over Slovakia
riots, rebellions and strikes broke out. In March 1939 came a Slovak
declaration of independence which the Germans scrupulously had
prepared in the background. The new president Emil Hacha was
summoned by Hitler and was like its predecessor verbally abused and
threatened. Let down by the world and after consultation with his
government, he signed a statement that he would surrender the
country to the Germans. Fighting was no option.
The next day Hitler held a triumphal tour through Prague. The names
Czech Republic and Slovakia were immediately changed into Bohemia
and Moravia and declared to German protectorate. The German former
foreign minister Von Neurath was appointed to Reich protector. Under
his command the population did not notice much of a nazi terror. That
changed after the German invasion of Poland when SS general
Heydrich succeeded him. The Czechs and Slovaks are a Slavic people
and were in the eyes of the Nazis 'Untermenschen'. A terrible reign of
terror like in Poland would follow.

58
To finish Hitlers demands for that moment the government of Lithuania
was forced to turn over the ‘Memel area, where many German
speaking people lived, to the German province of East Prussia.

In the above period of the 'negotiations' a terrible drama began to

emerge: the persecution of the jews. It did not happen in secret, but
openly. When Hitler rose to power in 1933, the jews were soon
prohibited to visit certain places such as parks, swimming pools,
cinemas, theatres etc. In 1935 the Nuremberg race laws were
introduced and with it the jews lost their civil rights. They were not
allowed to hold public positions and could no longer study at
universities. Around 1938 150,000 of the 600,000 jews had fled the
Herschel Grynszpan
country. But that were only those who could effort it. And even then it
was very difficult to find a country who accepted these refugees.
In October 1938 12,000 Polish-German jews were ordered to leave
Germany immediately. They were only allowed to carry a suitcase per
person. One of these families was the Grynszspan family from
Hannover. They had (like most others) lived in Germany for
generations. A 17-year-old son from that family lived with his uncle in
Paris. When he heard of the misery that his family had to undergo he
went out of his mind. He went with a gun to the German embassy.
There he had a heavy discussion with a German diplomat, Ernst von
Rath, and shot him down. Three days later he died.
This was the chance to further suppress the Jews and put them in a
bad daylight. The attack had to be 'spontaneously', in the language of
the Nazis 'Gesundes Volksempfinden'. That was something for
propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels: in hotel Schottenhammel in
Munich the instructions were given. Everything which was jewish would
be attacked: shops, schools, synagogues and cemeteries. The police
got command not to intervene. They also got the instruction to take
account of the arrest of about 30,000 jews. In addition, they had to
take as many jewish archives as possible. This would greatly facilitate
the persecutions that were planned for later.
In the night of 9 on 10 November 1938 (two days after the murder in
Paris and in history known as the 'Reichskristallnacht') hell burst loose.
Jewish shops, stores and homes were destroyed. Some 200
synagogues were burned as well as community houses. There were
around 300 deaths and thousands of wounded. Many jews committed
suicide. Two days later, the jewish community was criticized they had
provoked this by itself and had to hand over 25% of their property to
the state because of the damage suffered (!). It involved an amount of
more than a milliard marks. Also 30,000 jews were deported to
concentration camps, where at that time they were barely not
murdered (that would change very soon), but heavily assaulted and
humiliated. The world responded pro forma with outrage, ambassadors
were called back but they returned quickly and that was it.

Now Hitler began to agitate against Poland. As in Czecho-Slovakia was

a German-speaking minority of about 800,000 people and it was to be
expected Hitler would play his old tried and tested game.
In 1919 the Polish State for the umpteenth time in its history, became
independent. In the north was the Baltic Sea with the German province
of Pomerania left and right the province of East Prussia that after a
public vote remained in Germany. The city of Gdansk (Dantzig) became
a 'free city' under the control of the International League. The majority
of the city and several villages which belonged to the area were mostly
German was speaking.

59
This would cut off Poland completely from the Baltic Sea and without
any port. Therefore Poland was assigned a strip of land between
Pomerania and Gdansk of several tens of kilometers wide, called the
'Polish corridor' with at the Baltic Sea the fishing village of Gdynia. Until
then Gdansk was the biggest seaport in the area (in the Middle Ages it
was one of the biggest Hanseatic cities), but in a few years Poland
made from Gdynia a modern international port and Gdansk was
outflanked. That created frustrations. All of a sudden the corridor was a
threat: Pomerania and East Prussia were separated from each other by
means of a Polish threat, what of course was complete nonsense.
Hitler began again with his old familiar tactics: if the German minorities
in Poland would be respected he would leave the country in peace. It Józef Beck
was the Polish foreign minister Józef Beck that convinced his
government not to believe the words of Hitler. He concluded a treaty
with the British and French governments would be much better
because he had the impression these countries would guarantee the
Polish independence and wanted to put a halt to Hitler's expansion
obsessions. In addition, Poland had also still Russia in the back and
Stalin would take every chance to take revenge on the lost Polish-
Russian war, just 18 years ago. Minister Beck was right. But whatever
decision was taken, it had made no difference. As always in history
Poland was not important and its interests came on the last place.

Around the summer of 1939 it became clear Hitler was planning to

attack Poland and use as a springboard for an attack on Russia,
entirely according to plan of the banks and the big industry that had
brought him to power. Joseph Stalin must have been aware of this. But
he wanted a new war in Western Europe. He hoped when they had
massacred each other it would have been easy for the Russian army to
invade Western Europe. That was the reason he had tolerated for years
the German war industry could develop its latest weapons in Russia,
but which now became a threat to Russia.
Hitler saw Western Europe as a collection of ‘fraternal peoples' (read
Übermenschen) with whom he wanted to have a good relationship
when he was going to attack Russia (read the communism). In other
words: he wanted to be covered in his back.
The Russians especially looked at the often secret negotiations between
the British and the Germans. Because it were the British who did this to
prevent another world war and to secure their colonies all over the
world.
So there was on 17 July 1939 in London an international conference on
whaling. Participants were the United States, Great Britain, Japan and
Germany. The British minister of foreign trade Robert Spear Hudson
and Helmut Wohlthat, the director of the German planning bureau were
there as representatives. They had the first secret negotiations. Secret
or not, things were leaking out. On 22 July the British newspapers
bring the news the British government would give Germany a loan of 1
milliard pounds in exchange for a partial German disarmament.
Wohlthat also on 19 July had a conversation with Horace Wilson,
secretary of prime minister Chamberlain. From that conversation is still
an extract known written by Von Dirksen, the German ambassador in
London. Summarized: Germany is recognized as a superpower and can
cooperate with the British to keep its empire intact. Together with
Germany Great Britain could expand its trading influence in China,
Africa and Russia (in my opinion after a German invasion into Russia,
and for that purpose Poland had to be sacrificed).

60
Wilson wanted an agreement that would bring the British Conservative
Party an election victory which would take place in the autumn. One
could reassure the population there was no new war coming, just peace
and prosperity. The issues about Poland and Gdansk would be of no
importance anymore, which means Poland was left alone and given to
the horrible mercy of Adolf Hitler. From these negotiations remained
almost nothing. Only a few members of the Chamberlain government
were informed. Why there were no further negotiations is not clear. If
the complete negotiations were known today it still would cause an
enormous scandal.

With the planned attack on Poland, Hitler became impatient and at the
end of July 1939 the British newspaper magnate lord Kemsley was
invited by his German colleague Otto Dietrich. That was of course not a
'spontaneous' invitation. At the time, the German press was no longer
independent. Dietrich was a fierce nazi, confidant of Hitler, chief and
above all controller of the German press and general of the SS. Of
course Kemsley meets Hitler. He asks to put the British proposals
clearly on paper and adds there will be no negotiations without
cancellation of the treaty of Versailles and the return of the German
colonies.
Chamberlain accepts the request, but in the deepest secret. Even the
ministry of Foreign Affairs was not informed. On August 3, the letter to Otto Dietrich in his
Otto Dietrich (in fact to Hitler) was handed over. It asked on which Otto Dietrich
uniform of a SS in his
general
issues Hitler wants to negotiate (maybe there were British proposals in uniform of a SS general
it, but that is not known to me).

Carl Burckhardt was a Swiss who was appointed by the League of

Nations to high commissioner of the city of Gdank. In the evening of
August 10, he is phoned by the local nazi leader Forster. Would he be
so kind to visit Hitler the next day in is country home Berchtesgaden in
Bavaria. For transport the private airplane of Hitler is already on its
way. And next day is the visit between Hitler and Burckhardt. This was
exactly one week after the letter Hitler received from Chamberlain.
Apparently the contents of that letter was no assurance to Hitler and
more and more he became in a hurry. His generals had advised him to
start not later than 1 September the attack on Poland because of the
heavy rains in the autumn. It shows Hitler tried everything to keep
Great Britain and France out of a new war. He and his generals wanted Carl Burckhardt
to prevent the same situation as in 1914 when Germany had to start
the war on two fronts. Although Germany had on that moment the
most modern army and air force in the world it was not yet on full
strength and just able to defeat Poland, but when the British and the
French would attack at the same moment the German army would
have serious problems.
Hitler:
"If there must be war, then I prefer to have this sooner rather than
later. I'm not such a wimp as the emperor Wilhelm who continued to
hesitate. Japan and Italy will choose my side. My divisions will hold out
in the west and Poland I crush easily within three weeks. The Swiss will
do nothing and thus cover my right flank and my air force is the best in
the world. I am not afraid of the Russians. We know them through and
through. For years, German officers served in Russia and we know the
best Russian officers have been murdered. But what do I want? Just
this: Germany needs grain and timber. The grain can I grow in the
east. For the wood I need colonies. I have no interests in the west. Not
today and not tomorrow. I have totally no ambitions in the densely

61
populated Western Europe. But I want to have my hands free in the
east. I am willing to negotiate on this. All I want is to act against
Russia. If the west is too stupid and too blind to understand this than I
have to negotiate with the Russians. Then I will beat the west first and
then attack Russia. I need the Ukraine so they cannot let us starve like
they did to us in the last war.”

The reaction of the British and French governments was they gave
Hitler no guarantees for an undisturbed attack on Poland. So he did
just what he had promised: he started negotiations with the Russians.
Just than a week before the attack Stalin, the German foreign minister
Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Russian colleague Vyacheslav Molotov
signed in the Kremlin a nonaggression pact. It had a secret clause:
German and Russian spheres of influence were agreed. Finland, Estonia
and Latvia fell under the Russian and Lithuania under the German
sphere. Parts of Eastern Poland would become Russian again. The most
secret issue was that Russia would invade Poland too. Actually, it was a
more comprehensive version of the treaty of Rapallo in 1922 that never
was denounced. The news hit like a bomb. The British and the French Joachim von Ribbentrop
had tried to stop Hitler from an attack on Poland. By every time giving
in to Hitlers wishes they had ridiculed themselves internationally. But
Hitler had built up the strongest army in the world in the meantime.
Now we know it would have been possible to attack Germany from the
west when Poland was invaded. Hitler needed all his troops there. It
was decided the risk was too great. But then the British and French
governments stood before a devilish dilemma: start a new war with
Germany or let Hitler take his course again. Looking at the statements
made by Hitler during the talks with Carl Burckhardt that he was not
interested in an occupation of Western Europe (which was known to
both governments) they decided, I believe, a Solomon judgment: let
Hitler attack Poland, we declare the war (so we are internationally
covered), then do nothing and see how the situation develops. And Vyacheslav Molotov
above all, he is not attacking us.

As always Hitler needed an excuse for an invasion. Around Gdańsk and

East Prussia were already many provocations organized of so called
Polish attacks on 'Volksdeutschen', but this time it was done perfectly,
just as Hitler whished. Close to the Polish border was a German radio
station. This would be attacked by ‘Polish provocateurs‘. In fact it were
German speaking Polish prisoners who were promised freedom if they
were cooperating. The 'attack' was performed and there was some time
a 'Polish propaganda' broadcast. Immediately thereafter the prisoners
were murdered. The architect of all this was Walter Schellenberg who
had a meteoric career within the SS. He was from the beginning
Himmlers favorite and at the end of the war number two within the SS
after Himmler. I don’t know why but in history his description is of a
nice young person who disliked the nazi crimes. In fact he was one of
the worst. We are going to meet him several times in this publication. Walter Schellenberg
In early morning of 1 September 1939 Poland was invaded by the
German army. A few hours later Hitler made a screaming radio speech,
in which he said the many Polish 'provocations' had reached a high
point with the attack on the radio station and that now the orders were
given to 'shoot back'.
The British and French governments presented an ultimatum: German
troops had to retreat. The ultimatum ran until 3 September. When
nothing happened, both countries were officially at war with Germany.

62
The Second World War
with new negotiations
It is impossible within the scope of this publication to describe the
course of World War II extendedly. What in my opinion are the main
events I will do so. I know I do injustice to the millions of soldiers and
civilians who have died, who gave their lives to destroy nazism, the
millions who were murdered in the death camps in an industrial way
just because there were jew or gypsy. But during the writing of this
they were and still are in my mind.

A few days before the invasion came the German naval training ship
Schleswig Holstein to visit Gdansk. It was an old cruiser from the First
World War, but armed with heavy cannons. The ship took the peninsula
'Westerplatte' under fire. It was a fortress that protected the port
entrances of Gdansk and Gdynia. About 300 Polish soldiers defended
the fortress. Until the capitulation they did this to the last man and is
nowadays a symbol of Polish independence.
The Polish Army fought hard and bravely, but was no match for the
German army. The Polish cavalry conducted attacks on horseback, the
airports were immediately turned off by the Stuka bombers, so the
German air force had free reign. When Poland on 17 September from
the east also by the Russians was attacked, the war was decided. It is Johannes Blaskowitz,
an example of enormous braveness that Poland still so long could offer one of the few Germans
who protested against
resistance.
war crimes
Immediately when the ground troops had passed began the massacres
against jews and the intelligentsia. After the capture of Warsaw played
a German military band loud marching music on a square in the center.
A German eyewitness tells that he was sickened by what he saw.
Dozens of people were arrested because of a jewish appearance or that
maybe they had a high education and were hung in surrounding trees.
The hard music only served to suppress the fear shouting of the
victims. This was just a tiny beginning of the horrific killings that would
take place. Six million Polish would eventually perish.
But few Germans protested against this. General Johannes Blaskowitz
did it: in fierce terms he protested at his commander Walther von
Brauchitsch. His soldiers had to fight and die to legitimate this
'disgusting massacres?'. It did not make him a popular officer. Because
he was an extremely able general, he remained in service.
On May 5, 1945 he was German negotiator during the surrender talks
in hotel 'De Wereld' in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Just after the war
he is murdered by fellow prisoners in a prison in Nuremberg (all
German officers were screened).

Stalin could be satisfied: the areas in the Polish-Russian war that were
lost were back again. During the discussions on the demarcation line
he got custody of the Baltic states Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania (which
originally would be German) and were incorporated in Russia. France
and Great Britain were at war with Germany and he could look leaned
backwards they would butcher each other after which it would be his
turn to attack Western Europe. This is what Lenin wanted.
The Russians also wanted no Polish intelligentsia. The Germans out of
racialism, the Russians wanted to deal with potential opponents in the

63
future. They had made many thousands of prisoners after the invasion
of Poland and which were 'sorted'. They were transferred to Katyn, a
Russian village about 30 kilometers west of Smolensk. It has a forest,
which was used as execution place. In 1940 there were ± 27 000
Polish citizens, clergy and officers killed. The mass graves were then
planted with trees. The rest of the prisoners were housed in camps
where they were treated badly.
After the German invasion of Russia in 1941 they were suddenly
regarded as 'comrades'. Most of them refused and wanted to fight with
the Western Allies. The Russians could not kill thousands of Polish
people again. They were in the beginning of the war depending on the
supply of huge amounts of raw materials from the Western allies. Tens
of thousands Polish soldiers under the command of general Anders
went to Syria, from there they reached Palestine, where they were
trained in the use of the British weapons.
They would play an important role in the liberation of Western Europe.

Hitler made a big gamble with the invasion of Poland. The French army
was then already almost fully mobilized and there was already a British
expeditionary force in northern France. After the war German generals
stated that if the British and French had immediately attacked there
would have been little opposition. It did not happen. On October 6,
Hitler held a public speech in which he proposed peace with Great
Britain and France. Poland was defeated and so there would be no
reason to start a war (in his point of view). There were no official
responses. There were French parliamentarians, like Flandin, who
wanted to accept it.
The French had in the beginning of September conquered the big
Warndt forest in the Saarland which was of great strategic importance.
Maurice Gamelin
But after a few weeks president Daladier ordered his commander-in-
chief Maurice Gamelin to withdraw which is a proof the French
government did not want to provoke the Germans.
Thus was born a wait-and-see attitude on both sides. It would take
another nine months before the war in the west broke out. The British
called it 'the phoney war', the French 'la drôle de guerre' and the
Germans 'der Sitzkrieg'. There were occasional small skirmishes but
that was all.
Hitler was impatient: he wanted to attack Russia as soon as possible
and a stable situation in the west was therefore desired. Already on 9
October he gives the general staff orders to prepare the attack in the
west, codename Fall Gelb. His generals did not agree: the attack on
Poland had lasted much longer than planned. Especially the fanaticism
with which the Polish had defended themselves was impressive. But
Hitler did not change his mind.

Behind the scenes attempts of rapprochement were done: the

American ambassador in Paris, Bullit, sends a message to Washington
in which he announced that James Mooney, the director of General
Motors is approached by Hermann Göring to let the American
government mediate in the conflict on neutral territory.
Probably reacted by this early 1940 president Roosevelt sent his
deputy foreign minister Summer Welles Europe with the intent to
mediate. The first thing he does is to visit Hitler. He was of course not
against it but stayed with his old requirements: the treaty of Versailles
must be renewed and return of the German colonies. Then Summer
Welles went to Rome to visit Mussolini. He saw opportunities to
negotiate. When that news was known Von Ribbentrop went to Rome

64
like a spear to put Mussolini in his place: Hitler was the director.
Summer Welles remains a few days in Rome, but then leaves without
any result.

The French statesmen Laval and Dregrelle seem to have secretly

proposed the demilitarization of Poland and make it a vassal of
Germany. If Germany attacks and defeats Russia (apparently everyone
knew that apart from Stalin) then Poland would receive back her old
borders and become independent again (wishful thinking of course).
Nevertheless, the mean line of thinking was the British and French
were expecting a German-Russian war of which they want to stay
outside and a war with Germany that would not come. And here
appears my red road in history again: communism would suffer a fatal
defeat whatever the costs in human (at that moment Polish) suffering.

That was also partly caused when the Russians invaded Finland on 30
November 1939 and immediately the capital Helsinki was bombed. It
was at that time a country of just four million people and the army was
no match for the Russian army. But the Russians made a big mistake
of judgment. The Finnish commander-in-chief Gustav Mannerheim had
his army transformed into a guerilla army that on skis (temperatures
from-30-40 degrees were normal) inflicted the Russians terrible losses.
Despite of there braveness the Finns could not hold out and on 12
March 1940 they had to capitulate. The country lost large parts to
Russia which were of strategic importance to the Russians and of old
sentiments from the Tsarist time.
Gustav Mannerheim
Then something unexpected happens: on 10 January 1940 lands a
German Bf 109 from the German airport Münster in Belgium at
Mechelen aan de Maas. The pilot, major Erich Hönmanns, is lost and
thinks the river Meuse is the river Rhine. Along with his passenger,
major Helmuth Reinberger, they are captured. Big is the surprise when
they find in the briefcase of Reinberger the complete invasion plan of
Belgium and The Netherlands. Of course the Germans then knew a
copy of "Fall Gelb" probably was in the hands of the Belgians and then
of course was given to the British and French.
The plan was a comprehensive version of the plan 'Von Schlieffen‘
which was used in 1914. Now also would be attacked the neutral
Netherlands. The main gravity of the attack would be in the southern
Dutch provinces Brabant and Limburg and north Belgium and then
Heinz Guderian
south to northern France and thus bypass the French Maginot line. The
architect of the plan, general Heinz Guderian, changes it into: the
secondary attack would now take place in the north and the main
attack through the Ardennes where his tanks would attack with all the
strength they have. According to the military manuals impossible and
therefore according to Guderian a total surprise. He would be right.

The Dutch neutrality was on 9 November 1939 by the Germans

deliberately discredited by the so-called. 'Venlo-incident'. In The
Netherlands was a small division of the British secret service (SIS)
established. The Germans were informed and they approached the
British. Supposedly there was in a wide circle within the German army
resistance to a new war in the West and wanted to remove Hitler. One
of these officers was 'Schämmle' who acts as a contact person. In
reality it was the SS man Walter Schellenberg, who the 'attack of Polish
terrorists' on the German radio station had prepared. The British were
represented by captain Sigismund Payne Best and major Richard

65
Stevens. The dissident German officer would eventually report in Venlo
in café Backus on several tens of meters of the border. The Germans
were already in secret across the border. When the car with the British
arrived, the Germans opened fire with machine guns. The Dutch
lieutenant Dirk Klop shot with his gun but died in the bullet rain. The
British were dragged in the cars and brought to German territory. The
goal was achieved: the Dutch neutrality was discredited and a fool was
made of the British secret service.

We are now near the German attacks on Western Europe. What

inspired Hitler? Any provocation from him was not answered, he could
do as he pleased. The attack on Poland gave him a declaration of war,
but months later, almost nothing had happened. Had he attacked
Russia (where the British and French together with the banks and the
big industrialists hoped for) he would have been undisturbed. The
destruction of communism always came on the first place.

Hitler suffered Parkinson's disease. In 1940 he was 50 years of age,

but the symptoms of the disease revealed itself. He kept his shouting
speeches with waving hands, but around 1938 he held his left arm with
his right. As described earlier his commander in the First World War
called him 'a psychotic idiot who absolutely no longer must be
promoted'. But he became even crazier. He could before his illness still
reasonably assess political and military situations, but that became
later on gradually impossible. That was caused by his personal doctor
Karl Brandt who remained in this function until Hitlers suicide in 1945.
Karl Brandt was the architect of the murder of German seniles, lunatics
and morons.
Parkinson is treated with the drug dopamine. When it is given in too Karl Brandt just after
large doses it causes mental health problems. Hitler had a boundless his arrest in 1945
confidence in Karl Brandt who gave any medicine Hitler wanted beside
the dopamine. A blessing to humanity, because if he had listened to his
generals the war had lasted much longer.

Before I go any further with the German invasion of Western Europe I

would like to describe the formation of airborne troops: they will form
an important part of my publication.
The aircrafts became in the 20s and 30s bigger and bigger. Continental
passenger flights were quite common, and so the military began to
think about the possibilities. The idea was to bring troops quickly
behind enemy lines. They could create great confusion and attack from
the back. There are two types of airborne troops: the paratroopers and
troops in planes landing on the ground. These planes also transported
the heavier equipment such as vehicles and artillery.
The Russians had in 1936 the first trained airborne troops (but given
the collaboration with Germans maybe both of them). There was a
demonstration for an international military public. It was the British
general Wavell who immediately became a strong supporter of airborne
troops. 1200 man were dropped including vehicles and 18 light
cannons. Many of the paratroopers were then transported on the wings
of the aircraft and were forced to frantically hold on before they could
drop over the target area. But the trend was set. The British also
started with it. Initially there were amateur parachutists as instructors,
but with ‘trial and error' the first battalion was formed.

66
In America was the 82nd Infantry Division under general Omar Bradley
(we will meet him several times in this publication) transformed into
the 82nd (All American) Airborne Division.
The same thing happened in Germany: the 22nd Infantry Division
under general Kurt Student was also secretly transformed into the
22nd Airborne Division.

The German armaments industry needed steel, much steel. That was
largely imported from Sweden through the Norwegian port of Narvik.
In December 1939 warned the Norwegian nazi Vidgun Quisling (who
had the illusion to become Norway's nazi leader) Hitler that the British
had plans to isolate Narvik and thus the German war industry. On the General Kurt Student
night of 2 on 3 April 1940 German marine units and transport ships left
their ports towards Norway. The British had a brigade and some
battalions landed to port cities along the elongated Norwegian coast to
protect them. For the first time in history were airborne troops used:
they landed with transport aircrafts on the airport Fornebu near Oslo
and conquered it soon. Almost the complete German fleet was
deployed, but suffered heavy losses in the battles with the British. That
could not prevent the German army, despite brave resistance from the
Norwegians and the British could quickly occupy Norway. Above Narvik
was fought until 7 June, but in fact the fight was already decided.
At the same time Denmark was attacked. The Danes gave up the fight
already after a few hours in Jutland: they were completely outgunned.

In the early morning of 10 May 1940 the German attack ("Fall Gelb") Hans Oster
on Western Europe began. The Dutch military attaché in Berlin, major
Bert Sas, was repeatedly informed of the date of the attack by the
German colonel Hans Oster. The attack was often postponed which was
caused by the harsh winter of 1939-1940. The information of Bert Sas
was therefore not taken seriously anymore. Hans Oster was on 9 April
1945 hung up in the concentration camp Flossenburg by means of a
piano-string.

When on May 10, 1940 the German attack was deployed to Western
Europe the battle-weary British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
resigned. He was already seriously ill and would die from stomach
cancer in 1941. He was succeeded by his minister of Marine, Winston
Winston Churchill
Churchill.

The Dutch defense, under the command of general Henri Winkelman

was based on the old (but effective for centuries) Dutch Water Line.
Between Amersfoort and Rhenen was the Gelderse Valley flooded.
There was no more than a few tens of centimeters water but enough to
prevent an attack with heavy vehicles. The high-altitude Utrechtse
Heuvelrug north of the main rivers was an ideal line of defense. The
plan was the Dutch army would slow down a German attack in the
eastern and southern provinces as long as possible, after which the
troops would withdraw on the 'fortress Holland' in the north. In his plan
the Grebbelinie was the main defensive point, but he had also the so
called 'Peel-Raamstelling' positioned in the south to stop the German General
army as long as possible and thus keep in touch with the Belgian and Henri Winkelman
French army to offer a free way direction of Breda and the Moerdijk
bridges.
In in the early morning of 10 May 1940, the attack on Western Europe
began. The British, French and Belgian armies were just like the Dutch
in terms of experience and modernization no match for the German

67
army. The German 9th Panzer Division advanced despite of brave
resistance through Noord-Brabant and the Dutch army was cut off from
the Belgian and French forces.
The withdrawal on the fortress Holland and the Grebbelinie went
largely according to plan. The first German attacks on the Grebbelinie
were not successful. The Germans were impatient and attacked with
two 'SS-Leib Standarts': Das Reich and Adolf Hitler. They had a lot of
experience from the invasion of Poland. Then began the Grebbelinie
slowly to succumb. The Dutch troops were in all areas far behind in
training and armament, but continued to hold out. The troops started
slowly to retreat to the fortress Holland. The German attack on the
Afsluitdijk in the north was repulsed by effective cooperation with the
artillery of navy ships.
During the attack on The Netherlands, for the first time in history
massive use of airborne troops was made. Everything the Germans had
was used: the 7th Airplane Division and the 22nd Airborne Division
under General count Hans von Sponeck (he was murdered in July 1944
as one of the first after the attempt on Hitler). One company was
deployed to the Belgian fort Eben Haezer, which attack was successful.
The troops had to conquer all three airports around The Hague:
Ypenburg, Ockenburg and Valkenburg as well as the airport Waalhaven
near Rotterdam. Their orders were to arrest the royal family, the
government and the general staff and so achieve a quick capitulation.
The German transport aircrafts flew over the North Sea with the
intention to cause confusion. One had to think they were flying to General count
England. Above the North Sea they turned around and the Hans von Sponeck had
to dig his own fox hole
paratroopers were dropped. They came down widespread.
near The Hague
Then the transport aircrafts began to land on the airfields to get their
troops and heavier equipment on the ground. Sometimes they
managed, but all airports were with great braveness (mostly by
recruits) recaptured again. Many German planes were destroyed with
heavy machine guns during the landing. The paratroopers were hunted
down and could achieve almost nothing. Waalhaven airport was
recaptured by Marines and they pressed the paratroopers further back.
The German attack through the air became a big fiasco: no goal was
achieved. The losses were great: from the 430 transport aircraft
deployed over 300 were destroyed or damaged beyond repair (many of
the pilots were irreplaceable instructors), in total lost to the German air
force from 10 to 14 may 525 planes in Netherlands. Around The Hague
the Germans lost almost 3,000 men. Some 1,800 prisoners of war
were transferred to England on naval vessels.
The German paratroopers round the Rotterdam Willems bridge were
still further surrounded by the Marines. The German army command
had calculated the resistance in The Netherlands for up to three days.
Because of the unexpected resistance at the Grebbelinie and the failure
of the attack on The Hague was decided to bomb Rotterdam. The
historical center was bombed like Warsaw and completely destroyed.
General Winkelman received the ultimatum Utrecht and Amsterdam
were the next targets. Thereupon he could do nothing else than
capitulate. The royal family and the government were a day earlier on
a naval ship evacuated to England.

At the same time with the attack on The Netherlands the main force of
the German army invaded Belgium and France. It had 90 divisions
available and 48 in reserve and over 3000 modern tanks. It was not
the question if the Belgians, French and British would lose, but when.
As previously mentioned general Heinz Guderian sent the main force

68
with the majority of the tanks through the Ardennes and it was indeed
a complete surprise. The tanks, in combination with motorized infantry,
artillery and supported by heavy air raids made could advance as they
pleased. When three German armored corpses broke through near
Sedan in northern France in the British expeditionary force became in
danger and started to retreat towards the Channel coast. The British
Navy decided to prepare a massive evacuation. Everything that could
sail, from fishing vessels to pleasure yachts, was used. Finally the
British expeditionary force reached Dunkirk. From 28 May to 3 June
1940 were 210,000 British and 120,000 Belgians and French evacuated
over the Channel. It is not known how that could have happened. It
seems Hermann Goering Hitler assured his air force could handle this,
but it didn't work. The troops had to leave their heavy weapons behind,
but they formed the framework of the armies that, with the experience
gained, were going to make it the Germans very difficult in the near
future. The Germans were advancing quickly to the south. Eventually it
was decided to a truce on June 25, 1940. To the humiliation of the
French it was signed in the same railway wagon in Compiègne where
the armistice was signed in 1918.
In southern France a German friendly area was created called 'Vichy
France' headed by the old French marshal Pétain, who successfully
Pétain meets Hitler
defended Verdun in World War I. Apparently he forgot this, because his October 1940
government is in history known as one of the largest collaborators
especially with the deportation of jews. And again my red road
appears: he was a known socialist and communist hater. But
apparently Hitler wanted to keep some friendship with the French. The
German army could have occupied complete France, but didn't do it.

Then late July 1940 the air battle of Britain began. If the German army
wanted to conquer Great Britain, it first had to defeat the Royal Air
Force. Starting from airports in western France this was tried. The
British army was out of date, but not the air force: they had the
'Spitfire' the fighter aircraft that in terms of maneuverability and
firepower was far better than the German fighter planes. The Germans
had a majority in aircrafts, but in the end they lost the battle. The
invasion to Britain (operation Sea Lion) was called off.

What the German army in the First World War not could achieve in four
years, it did now within a few weeks. From the start of the invasion in
Poland the Germans acted like beasts. Now there was a big difference:
the West-European countries were looked upon as 'Germanic' brother
nations and as future fellow combatants against the communist enemy
Russia. The installation of the French Vichy government is an example
of that. On looting and raping could in the attack in Western Europe the
death penalty be given. It is known that the paratroopers who were
deployed in The Netherlands had to pay at shopping (they were
provided with Dutch money).
In the occupied countries were appointed 'heads of state' with strict
orders to treat the population with silk gloves. In the Netherlands that
was the earlier mentioned Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who was transferred
from Poland and therefore was fully aware of the war crimes that took
place there (because he was limping he had the nickname 'six and a
quarter'). In the beginning of the occupation he presented himself as a
father figure to the Dutch people.

From the North Cape in Norway up to Gibraltar the Germans were end
1940 lord and master. In Italy was the fascist Mussolini in office and in

69
Spain Franco. Vichy France in the south had an extremely German
minded government under Pétain, and in Belgium King Leopold III who
refused to leave to Great Britain. He stayed and regarded Germany as
an ideal buffer against communism.

Great Britain had practically no material for the ground forces. The
Navy and the air force were still opponents to the Germans, but the
British had also to take into account the advancing Japanese threat in
the Far East and had to station troops there too. This situation divided
the British politicians into two camps: the pigeons who wanted peace
with Germany and the hawks who wanted to continue the war.
Edward Wood, better known as lord Halifax was one of the pigeons. He
was part of various conservative cabinets and as chairman of the
House of Lords was the figurehead of the party. November 1937
Halifax visited Hitler, Goebbels and Goering. He stated he was not blind
to the abuses in Germany, but had great admiration how communism
in Germany was eliminated.
When Chamberlain resigned he was asked to become prime minister. Lord Halifax
He had the preference of the conservative party and King George, but
he refused. Then the minister of Navy Winston Churchill was appointed.
It was then thought he would become a sort of ‘between prime minster'
and would be succeeded by Samuel Hoare, who occupied important
governmental posts in the 1930s, but he preferred to become British
ambassador in Spain and was one of the most important persons, who
convinced Franco to stay outside the war.

All countries which were part of the British Commonwealth were after
September 1939 automatically at war with Germany. And they were
not happy and waiting for this: again a new war. Especially New
Zealand and Australia protested. The Australian Prime Minister, Robert
Menzies, wrote to the High Commissioner (the contact between the
British Government and the Commonwealth countries) that he
regarded Winston Churchill as a war propagandist and publicity seeker
and the European countries had to make peace before it got out of
hand and must their forces unite against the real enemy: communism.
Churchill was unpopular in those countries: in 1915, an attack on
Constantinople deployed via the Dardanelles. The plan was from his
hand. He was then minister of Marine. It was bad prepared and took
the lives of thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
Within the British government was a serious discussion about 'change
money' if there were negotiations. One was prepared to give Malta,
Suez (including the channel) and Gibraltar to Mussolini. He regarded
the Mediterranean Sea like the Romans as an Italian sea (Mare
Nostrum, our sea). Possibly there could be added Kenya, Uganda and
Somaliland. The German demands of return of their old colonies of the
treaty of Versailles in 1918 would also be negotiable.
Halifax asked Churchill point blank whether he could accept that if it
was required for the independence of Great Britain he was prepared to
talk with the Germans '.
From the diaries of Chamberlain it shows Churchill replied, 'when we
get out of this shit by giving away Malta, Gibraltar and a few African
colonies then I jump on top of it'. It hasn't happened, probably because
Hitler himself caused by the quick victory in the west had the illusion
he was able to conquer Great Britain at another time (after the
invasion of Russia). That has probably been our salvation: how would
the world have looked like if Hitler had succeeded?

70
Lord Halifax became British ambassador in the United States. The talks
of an interim peace were, to my knowledge, over at that time.

The British had a force at the Suez Canal and defeated the Italian army
in Libya destructive. Also parts of the Italian navy were defeated by the
British navy. At the same time, French naval vessels were destroyed
that were anchored in French North African ports. The French
government in exile was angry, but they were commanded by Vichy
France under Pétain and therefore a great danger.
In early 1941 the British were in North Africa and the Mediterranean
not in a bad position. They controlled the Strait of Gibraltar (and
Gibraltar itself), the Suez Canal (which offered a short route to the Far
East) and the islands of Malta, Crete and Cyprus. They conquered more
and more area on the Italians and on 5 May 1941 the Ethiopian
Emperor Haile Selassi could return. The Italian army had only suffered
defeats.

In the meantime the preparations for operation 'Barbarossa' were in

full swing. It was the German plan of attack on Russia. Barbarossa
(Red Beard) is a mythical Germanic king from the Middle Ages. He
would rest on a large stone in a forest in Thuringia. As the great
German empire of his days was recovered he would return. In other
words a 'Germanic messiah'.
The German army was divided into three army groups: the northern
group would advance towards Leningrad, the central towards Moscow
and the south towards south-east Russia. It was a gigantic force with in
the beginning a million men with 3000 tanks, the most modern artillery
and supported by more than 4,000 aircrafts. The planned date of
attack was 1 May 1941: that was not only the great day of the
socialists and communists, but also the deadline according to the
German general staff. In Russia begins the autumn already in
September with much rain that makes the roads impassable for heavy
vehicles. End of October begins the winter with snow and severe frost.
The days with daylight will be fast shorter.
Why did Hitler attack Russia? The Treaty of Rapallo was still valid and
also the non-aggression pact from 1939. I think Hitler felt himself so
strong he could dare the attack. The British were his only opponent and
he knew they were divided among themselves. The conquest of Russia
was always part of his plan and thought by the international hated
communist Russia to attack in the rest of the world (especially in
America, where we have seen before the banks and the big industry
were no friends of president Roosevelt) sympathy and perhaps even
gain support.
In the historiography is an underexposed aspect: mid April 1941
departed the Russian foreign minister Molotov to Japan to sign a non-
aggression pact. The Japanese government was happy to do that: they
were at that moment in a (especially by the Japanese) horribly cruel
occupation and war in Manchu-China. That took place along the long
Russian borders with China. What importance had Stalin to this
agreement? He saw a German attack come and he wanted to be
covered in his back. In any case, Hitler must have a déja-vue: 'he does
the same as what we have done and is going to attack us'.
Have The Russians not noticed a major attack was prepared? Along
their border was the biggest attack on their country in history
prepared. This cannot have been unnoticed. There are two possibilities:
it is well known that Stalin (like Hitler) lived isolated and did not like
bad news and could not believe that Hitler would attack him.

71
The other (and more plausible possibility for me) is that he wanted
Hitler to attack like Napoleon did, let him advance a long distance
(Russia is enormous) then in combination with the severe winter defeat
him and then attack Western Europe. The participation of the
Americans in the war was no issue at that moment.

The failed military escapades of Mussolini forced Hitler to postpone the

attack on Russia. The attack of the German army group South aimed to
reach the Near East and ultimately the Suez Canal. Hitler wanted in the
entire Balkan region a ‘quite situation‘ during the attack on Russia and
Yugoslavia was a part of it. Belgrade was bombed for three days and
18,000 people lost their lives. At the same time Greece was attacked to
support the Italian troops who were stopped.
Winston Churchill fell back in his old error: as in the First World War he
wanted an attack in southern Europe what he called 'the soft
underbelly of Europe’. With all due respect to what this man meant in
the Second World War it must be said that he had narcissistic
tendencies: his opinion was the truth. In addition, champagne was day
and night his favorite drink. The British supreme commander Alan
Brooke (thus also as commander of the Commonwealth troops) tells in
his memoirs about the hours lasting discussions to bring Churchill on
other thoughts. But at that moment Alan Brooke was not yet in office,
he would become that in December 1941. General Alan Brooke
So according to Churchills’ plan British divisions were withdrawn from
the North African front (they were desperately needed there) to fight
against the Germans in Greece. But the Greek commander-in-chief
Tsolakogloe capitulated on 21 April 1941 and was already on 26 April
willing to cooperate with the Germans. The Greek king and his
ministers fled to Crete. Three quarters of the British expeditionary force
also succeeded in doing so, but just as in Dunkirk they had to leave
behind most of their equipment.
The German high command then suggested to attack Malta (operation
Hercules), now the British were so weakened. Malta is a small island,
but strategically located in the Mediterranean Sea. If the Germans had
conquered it, they probably had conquered North Africa including the
Suez Canal.
General Erwin Rommel
Airborne general Kurt Student, however, knew to convince Hitler to
attack Crete with his airborne troops. After the debacle near The Hague
and Rotterdam he wanted to prove that his troops could handle this,
and so it happened. On 20 May 1941 the attack was deployed under
the name 'operation Mercury'. After ten days Crete was conquered. On
first look a great success, but in reality the German airborne troops
suffered for the second time huge losses. The estimates vary, but it is
realistic to estimate them at 18,000. The British saw an opportunity to
evacuate another 20,000 men to Egypt, 5,000 man surrendered, but
many retreated to the mountains and make the Germans in
cooperation with the local resistance life difficult until the end of the
war. From that day on the German Airborne Army was no longer
deployed in full strength. Paratroopers were trained on a modest scale,
but they served as ground troops. As paratroopers they were
occasionally used in small operations, such as the liberation of
Mussulini in 1944.

The German general Erwin Rommel with his 'Afrika Korps' was
instructed to cross to North Africa to attack the British towards the
Suez Canal. His army was getting stronger and the lack of troops and

72
equipment the British had lost in Greece and in Crete was getting more
and more palpable.

We now turn back to 10 May 1941 (exactly one year after the German
attack on Western Europe). On that day, Rudolf Hess, the second man
in nazi Germany, the reserve of Adolf Hitler, flew from Augsburg in a
plane towards Scotland. According to the history books to have peace
negotiations with the British. He would land with a parachute near the
castle of the Scottish lord Douglas Hamilton. He is arrested and at the
Nuremberg trials he is sentenced to life in the Spandau Prison in Berlin
together with Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer, who as the
organizer of the German building industry was responsible for the
deportation and death of innumerable forced laborers and therefore
was gracious treated (more about him in the description of Market
Garden). Von Schirach and Speer were both released relatively quickly,
but Hess had to sit out his sentence. In 1987 at the age of 93, he Lord Douglas Hamilton
committed suicide by hanging himself to a power cord. So much
according the official version.

How you look at it, fact is that the second man in nazi Germany flew to
the British to have peace negotiations. He was the confidant of Adolf
Hitler and presumably the actual writer of 'Mein Kampf' (it is certain
that he has extensively edited it). He was born on 26 April 1894 in
Alexandria, Egypt as the son of a wealthy German merchant. He went
to school there. He was then already known as extremely intelligent,
especially in mathematics. In that period he had British friends what
his Anglo-Saxon oriented thinking must have affected. His parents
went back to Germany in 1908 and the family settled in Bad
Godesberg. In Switzerland, he visited a famous economic university. In
the First World War, he was seriously injured by a shot through his
chest and his lungs. Albert Speer during the
Around the beginning of the 1930s (when he is already in the top of Nuremberg trial
the nazi party), he came into contact with the 'Oxford Group'. The
American Frank N.D. Buchman founded in Great Britain the 'Oxford
Group' in the 1920s. It was a kind of religious club who tried from the
Christian thinking to develop a sort of general philosophy of life. Later
on it got a different name: "Moral Rearmament" and he founded the
'Alcoholics Anonymous'. But also Frank Buchman hated communism.
On 25 August 1936 he gave an interview to a newspaper in New York
and said among other things the following: 'I thank heaven for a man
like Adolf Hitler that has built a front-line against the antichrist,
communism'. Or: 'my Barber in London told me that Hitler had saved
the world from communism. So he felt that. I do not agree all what the
Nazis do. Anti semitism? Bad of course. but I think Hitler sees in every
jew a Karl Marx'. In any case, the Oxford Group was clearly anti-
communist.
Frank N.D. Buchman
Rudolf Hess and Heinrich Himmler were regular visitors to the
meetings. Hess had contacts there with the 'pigeon' lord Douglas
Hamilton. Himmler became friend for life with the fanatical Dutch nazi
lady Julia Op ten Noort and her brother Laurens (we meet them again
during the description of Market Garden).
Flew Rudolf Hess to Scotland on its own initiative? That's unlikely. More
plausible is the idea that Hess had plans to put Hitler aside, make
peace with the British and then take over Hitlers place. Why? It is well
known that Hitler by his excessive use of medicine for Parkinson's
disease was becoming extreme aggressive and incalculable: his
personality was deformed. He could explode during discussions

73
regarding the smallest issues. Above that there was within the German
command a great resistance to the planned attack on Russia and
presumably Hess was one of them. He was a great admirer of Hitler,
but that must have changed the other way around.
It is quite a bit if you substitute behind your back wants to negotiate
with the enemy. It is never been clear who were his associates. I think
initially to Heinrich Himmler, strange as that may sound. From 1944 he
started secret negotiations with the western allies. His SS-empire was
a state within the state and if he had he wanted to wipe Hitler away, if
only by an 'accident'. And as previously mentioned he was also a
member of the Oxford Group in which he must have had international
contacts.
Martin Borman
My second candidate is Martin Borman, the secretary of Hitler. Unlike
most others in the party leadership, he never was in the foreground.
He did not smoke, was teetotal, slowly but surely he climbed on. He
had the full confidence of Hitler.
The German military intelligence service (Abwehr) had a section called
'Fremde Heere Ost' under the command of general Reinhard Gehlen
(more about him more when discussing Market Garden) which was
excellent infiltrated in Russia. After the war, Gehlen became head of
the West German intelligence service (BND). He stated to be entirely
convinced Borman was an agent of the Russians and after staff talks
crucial information was transmitted to the Russians. After the suicide of
Hitler in April 1945 he disappeared. In the 1970s there were bones
found near a bridge in Berlin. His old dentist identified his teeth out of
memory and a DNA test done with a 83-year-old family member and
with that evidence he was officially declared dead. We must keep in
mind all this happened in East Berlin and the Russians had every
interest to protect him if he was an agent.
In case of a seizure of power by Hess the attack on Russia was
cancelled and the Russians would have had a perfect mole in Germany.
The in my opinion
The British documents on Rudolf Hess will be released in 2017, but so-called Rudolf Hess
over the course of more than 70 years, there are things discovered. during the Nuremberg
The most common theory is that in 1941 both in Germany and in Great trial
Britain the 'pigeons' wanted to get rid of Hitler and Churchill. Hess
would follow up Hitler and the previously mentioned Samuel Hoare,
Churchill.
Hess did not arrive unexpectedly: near the castle of lord Hamilton in
Scotland was a small runway and that was illuminated for several
hours. In addition, there was fuel for the return trip. But why did Hess
personally fly to Scotland? That was to meet someone who could not
leave the country himself: prince George, the youngest brother of the
British king and his chief advisor. He was on his way to Scotland, but
returned as soon it became apparent that not everything went
according to plan. Hess planned to stay two days and then fly back, but
he had to use his parachute. Presumably he came too late and the
illuminated runway began in the dark to get too much attention and
was turned off (besides, how was it possible that an enemy plane could
Prince George
fly undetected to Scotland?). The result was that the peace movement
of the British king, Prince George, the duke of Hamilton and Samuel
Hoare had to blow off the plan quickly. Hitler explained Hess officially
as insane, but he must have sensed that there were behind his back
conspiracies against him which explains his increasingly paranoid
behavior.
There were probably two Rudolf Hess in Britain in that period: one in
Wales, who stayed there until the end of the war and one in Scotland

74
that must have been the real one. In August 1942 Prince George was
killed in an air crash in northern Scotland. Officially he was on his way
to Iceland to increase the morale of the British garrison over there.
There are strong indications he was on his way to the neutral Sweden
with the real Hess. The Prince and the crew are all identified, except for
one person. The seaplane had orders not to fly over land but did it
anyway (it would have been a navigational error). It is said there were
indications there were in Germany plans the put Hitler aside and
replace him by Hess. Then there would be peace with Great Britain and
America. The occupied countries would be demilitarized but with a pro
German government. Of course the war against Russia (read
communism) would continue.

In 1946, Hess(???) was in the Nuremburg trial because of crimes

against humanity sentenced to life long imprisonment.
There are more indications he was not the real Hess. During the
process he looked depressive. It was not a shadow of the early
combative Hess. He stated to suffer of memory loss (which is quite
normal when you are playing somebody else). Especially Hermann
Goering, who sat beside him during the trial and knew Rudolf Hess for
many years, made a fool of him and later during the trial he ignored
him. When he finally was allowed to have a last statement he was after
a short time in a blunt way interrupted by the British judge.
His British doctor in the Spandau Prison, Hugh Thomas, is convinced he
was not the real Rudolf Hess. Hess had in World War I a shot through
the chest that heavily damaged a lung and the bullet went outside
through the back. Thomas discovered during a medical examination
there was no trace of a scar on both places. In addition, Hess refused
until 1963 to meet his wife and son. A real husband and father would
be happy to speak with them. It is also known he loved his wife very
much and was proud of his son. When he was visited since 1963 he
almost said nothing.
In 1987 he would have as the only remaining prisoner at the age of 93
committed suicide by hanging himself with a power cord. It was in the
time of the relaxation between east and west under the Russian
president Gorbachov. Before that, the Russians refused categorically to
free Hess on humanitarian grounds. It is realistic to presume this was
going to happen this time and the so-called Hess was killed so he
couldn't tell the truth.
Then, of course, remains the question: who was this so-called Hess
who spent the rest of his life in a miserable existence in the Spandau
Prison to protect the real Hess. He must have been put under an
enormous pressure to do this. Maybe in 2017, when the files are
released, we know the truth. Finally, I would like to make one remark:
if everything around Rudolf Hess is so clear and innocent, why do we
have to wait until 2017?

About the same period (see the dates above) there is a statement by
the Dutch colonel of Marines De Bruyne, who was chief of the Dutch
intelligence service in Britain. This was made under oath during his
hearing by the parliamentary committee that after the war was held in
The Netherlands. Colonel de Bruyne of
Quote: 'In the autumn, at least in the second half of 1942 I was under the Dutch Marine Corps
great pressure by the British. I was ordered to visit general Alan
Brooke (the British commander in chief), to hurry up, because early

75
1943 he saw a great opportunity for an agreement with Germany, with
at least a retreat of the German troops from The Netherlands '.
What hurry is not known because the president of the commission,
Donker, neither the members of his commission asked any further. As
far as I know there is no serious research done on this subject. But I
have a suggestion: it was in those days ‘not done‘ to harm the royal
family, but probably they had everything to do with it, see the
description below.

On 7 January 1937 Princess Juliana and the German prince Bernhard

zur Lippe Bisterfeld got married. It was a committed marriage. Juliana
was the only heiress to the throne of the Orange dynasty in The
Netherlands and suitable candidates were not found (at that time it had
to be someone of nobility). Prince Bernhard had a function in Paris at
the German chemical company IG Farben. As a student he became a
member of the SS. On the wedding party was the pontifical SS-Horst
Prince Bernhard and
Wessel song played in which the Hitler salute was brought. By means princess Juliana in 1937
of his marriage he got the Dutch nationality automatically, yet he found
it necessary to write some letters to Hitler in which he wrote always to
be a German and a made a personal visit to him. And that at a time
when The Netherlands were trying to maintain a strict neutrality. In
terms of secrecy, he was a huge security risk. He was susceptible to
blackmail: his mother (princess Armgard) and his brother prince
Ashwin lived in Germany. The latter was also an officer in the
'Brandenburg' regiment that was specialized in getting information.

For many years is there in the Netherlands commotion about a so-

called 'stadhoudersbrief'. In this letter prince Bernhard should have
offered or was asked to become a German minded head of state of The
Netherlands. The letter should have been co-signed by princess Juliana.
It would have been written in 1942.
When we look at the attempt of the British prince George with the real
Hess to fly to Sweden and the statement by colonel De Bruyne then it
is very likely there were secret peace negotiations during that period
with the intention to put aside both Churchill and Hitler and then it is
not so strange prince Bernhard was approached as a candidate head of
state in The Netherlands.
When the Dutch Government and the royal family were established in
London in May 1940, prince Bernhard (because of his nazi past) was
distrusted on all sides. That distrust became less, but remained. But a
German prince, with close ties in nazi Germany, husband of the crown
princess was very suitable as a 'governor' of a German friendly
Netherlands where he was still very popular.

It fits perfectly in the image of a remarkable conversation that took

place in August 1942 in the town of Shitomir in the Ukraine between
Himmler and the previously mentioned Walter Schellenberg. He was at
that time only 32 years, but already moved up to SS-General and
director of the 'Reichs Sicherheits Hauptamt, RSHA’. Both came to the
conclusion that since the participation of America in the war, caused by
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Germany
had no chance to win this war. That was even before the German
defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad. They agreed there should be an
'alternative' solution. There had to be a 'compromise peace' established
with Great Britain and America.

76
The German Africa Corps of general Erwin Rommel was at that moment
already in the defensive and the attack on Russia was as good as
jammed. To continue that attack was a 'German-friendly' peace in the
west needed. The 'pigeons' in Britain were in favor and together with
the Americans they could than use all their forces against Japan in the
far East, where the British had great colonial interests. At that time the
Americans helped the British already in the 'loan' of naval vessels, but
president Roosevelt would probably then also have agreed to such a
compromise peace. A new war in Europe was not supported by the
public opinion in America. Last but not least the Germans would go on
fighting against communism. It must have been a well prepared plan.
The real Rudolf Hess (note: still a convinced nazi and anti-semitic)
intended to present himself as new leader of Germany in Sweden. The
strictly neutral Sweden lay sandwiched between the occupied Norway
and Finland that joined the Germans during the siege of Leningrad.
The Swedish government must have been convinced that it's all good.
The plane crash in Scotland has made to an end. Evil tongues claim
that forces around the hawk Churchill have caused the accident.

On 22 June 1941 was the attack on Russia, almost two months later
than scheduled. In some places, the Russians provided brave
opposition, but the three German army groups marched quickly and
irresistible. The infantry could almost not keep up the tanks. Leningrad
was soon threatened by Army Group North, Army Group Middle would
reach the suburbs of Moscow and Army Group South marched quickly
to the Crimea. In some areas were the German troops were welcomed
as liberators with flowers but that quickly changed.
The three army groups had each in the rear guard each had an
'Einsatz-kommando‘ which had orders to murder all the jews in the
conquered areas. They were rounded up and shot, little children, the
elderly, it didn't matter. Even the hardened murderers became
psychological problems: with drugs and alcohol they continued to do
their dirty work.
The great director of it all, Heinrich Himmler, once witnessed such a
mass murder. When a skull by a bullet impact exploded he got bloodied
brain remains on his uniform and threatened to faint. They could only
barely keep him standing. Shortly after he delivered a speech in Posen
(nowadays Poznan in Poland) in which he glorified the work of the
'Einstazkommandos', but admitted it had to be done in a much faster
and ‘human‘ way (how could he say this!). Right away was started the
construction of the extermination camps Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibor
and Auschwitz. I know, there were many more, but millions of people
were killed here in an industrial way. Their hair and body fats were
used in the war industry. Gold of teeth were removed before the
cremation and melted down to gold bars. It is the greatest crime
against humanity in history.
As in Poland the Russian population was terrorized by the Germans
who acted like beasts (in their view it did not matter: also the Russians
were ‘Untermenschen‘). Any form of resistance was punished
mercilessly, preferably by hanging people in public (even little
children). It was not only the SS who was guilty. Also the regular
German army (Wehrmacht) did this. The result was thousands of
partisans that were operating behind German lines and attacked the
supply lines which became longer and longer.
When in September the autumn came with a lot of rain on the mostly
dirt roads the offensive almost stopped. The following as always severe
Russian winter did the rest.

77
Meanwhile, Japan invaded China from Korea and Mantsju. It was
extremely cruel. The cities were bombed and the Chinese population
gruesome terrorized. The Japanese quickly advanced to the south.
Japan was for its war industry largely dependent on America and when
this was stopped because of the war in China, was decided to attack
the large American naval base Pearl Harbor on the Hawaii Islands,
which lay in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. By disabling the American
fleet they hoped to win enough time to get their raw materials from
areas to conquer (especially the Dutch East Indies). In addition, it was
expected that if Japan would rule such a vast area America would no
longer attack. The Japanese commander, Admiral Yamamoto, was
against. He had lived in America for years and warned against the huge
American industrial potential that would work against Japan. The plan Admiral Yamamoto
was pushed through and Yamamoto obeyed his emperor. On December
7, 1941 from Japanese aircraft carriers hundreds of airplanes were
launched on the American fleet in Pearl Harbor which was largely
destroyed. President Roosevelt declared war a day later and later Japan
and Germany did the same against America.
In the beginning the Japanese plan succeeded: by disabling the
American fleet they had free rein in South-East Asia. They conquered
Burma and were advancing to Malacca. With air raids they destroyed
many British naval ships. Especially the loss of the battleship 'Prince of
Wales' was a big blow for the British. The attack on the strategic port
city of Singapore was successful. The Americans were beaten on the
Philippines and the Dutch East Indies were attacked from all sides. The
KNIL (Royal Dutch East Indies army) fought for what it was worth, but
was defeated (some small units pulled themselves back and fought Rear admiral
years in the jungle). Karel Doorman
The Dutch navy was commanded by Admiral Helfrich. He should have
ordered his fleet (complemented with British, American and Australian
units) to go to Australia for protection. He decided to attack the
Japanese fleet in the Java Sea. It was a mission without a change. Rear
admiral Karel Doorman was the commander. On February 27, 1942 the
squadrons were looking for the confrontation with the Japanese navy.
They were largely defeated. Karel Doorman commanded the flagship
'De Ruyter'. It was sunk. Karel Doorman could have escaped with
lifeboats, but chose to die with his men in the engine rooms, who had
no chance. These great naval losses weakened the defense of Australia
very much.

But on 5 June 1942 there was near the small island Midway in the
Northern Pacific a sea battle delivered by the Japanese and American Admiral Chester Nimitz
navies. The Americans had three aircraft carriers and the Japanese
four. In addition, the Japanese navy had more battleships. Yet admiral
Chester Nimitz ordered the attack. The American navy destroyed all
four Japanese aircraft carriers and from that moment on Japan was in
the defense. The American priority now became the war in Europe
(Himmler and Schellenberg had estimated that very well). The war
against Japan was largely conducted by the US Navy and the US
Marine Corps. The navy was under command of admiral Chester Nimitz
and the ground forces under general Douglas MacArthur. The
Americans fought direction Japan step by step in conquering small
Pacific islands. The Australians defeated the Japanese in New Guinea
and prevented an invasion of Australia. General Douglas
MacArthur

78
By the end of 1940 Great Britain stood alone in the war. It was totally
dependent on sea for supplies. The Germans began under the
command of admiral Dönitz a merciless dive boat war, especially in the
northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The vessels sailed in convoys and
the speed of the convoy was the speed of the slowest ship. They were
escorted by naval vessels with depth charges, but mostly could only
intervene when it was too late. The number of torpedoed ships rose so
fast that a breaking point was near and the British industry had so few
raw materials, that war production came in danger. Thousands of
sailors were killed in that period.

It was known the Germans were sending encrypted messages with the
Enigma device. In the beginning it was impossible to decode them. Admiral Dönitz
Today there are many 'romantic' stories about secret agents who would
have stolen such a device in a German embassy etc. In reality it was
an encryption device that was on the market from the end of the 1920s
and was used by many countries to send secret messages. The
possession of the device was not a solution. Between the sending and
the receiving device secret codes were needed and if you didn't know
then the device was worthless. Millions of combinations were possible.
In the late 1930s four Polish mathematicians had in the deepest secret
already begun cracking the codes and were already rather successful,
and the British used their experience gratefully. But it was the brilliant
British mathematician Alan Turing who made it possible to read to
decoded messages in a short time. He changed the thinking of the
numbers 1-9, but thought only in 0 and 1 (true or false), which marked The Enigma device
the beginning of the development of the computers which still work
according to this basic principle. In fact, he built one. A big device that
was working with radio lamps, but could compare millions of
combinations within a few seconds. When there was once a coding
book from a German submarine captured, the German Enigma system
was broken and could all commands to the German submarines, but
also to the German land and air forces be read. It remained a secret
until the 1960s. It could also lead to terrible dilemmas: the German
bombing of the city of Coventry was known to the British, but if they
had attacked the bombers, the secrecy would have been in danger. So A statue made to the
the historic city was bombed at the expense of many victims. honor of Alan Turing
The decryption center was housed in a large country house near
London named Bletchley Park. Everything happened there under strict
secrecy. Only the highest government circles and military leaders were
aware of it.
Now it was possible to 'listen' the attacks on the ship convoys could be
driven off and beginning 1944 it were the German submarines which
were hunted down. The war on the Atlantic Ocean has cost the lives of
numerous people.
Alan Turing was a homosexual. When this end sixties became known,
British state security tried to force him to undergo a chemical
castration. He could not accept that and committed suicide by a bite
from a by himself poisoned apple. The computer company Apple uses
in its logo an apple with a bite out of it. Presumably a tribute to him.

The German army was end 1941 already in the defense. The siege of
Leningrad was broken. Over the frozen Ladoga Lake east of the city
were food and ammunition transported. The city was day and night
under German artillery fire. There was hunger and it is known that pets
were eaten, yes even cannibalism occurred. But the city was not taken
at the expense of more than a million inhabitants who did not survive.

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In 1942 the Germans began a desperate offensive. In the autumn
spearheads had reached the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad on the
river Volga. The history repeated itself: the winter fell in and the
offensive halted. The troops in the Caucasus were given permission to
withdraw. But Stalingrad was declared to a fortress by Hitler and the
Sixth Army under command of general Friedrich von Paulus was
ordered to fight to the last man. Stalingrad was totally destroyed by
bombing, but the Russian army held out in ruins and cellars. In
November 1942 the Russians started a counter offensive under
command of general Grigory Zhukov with well-equipped and trained
soldiers from Siberia. They managed to surround the city. A total of
over 300,000 soldiers were trapped. 100,000 survived and were taken
prisoner. General Von Paulus was promoted to field marshal before the General Grigory Zhukov
capitulation, but with the intention that he would 'die fighting' (he had
to commit suicide). He did not do so to the great anger of Hitler. Years
after his imprisonment, he led a fairly luxurious life in the former
Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
Many German officers were 'turned' to the communist thinking: the
best known is Walter Ulbricht, the first president of the DDR, he was a
staff officer of Von Paulus.
The Russians had brought their war industry in safety behind the Ural The Russian T-34 tank
mountains. There they developed new weapons, but especially a new
tank: the T-34. It was for that time a product of incredible technology:
it was easy to drive and maintain, it was in terms of firepower superior
to the modern German tanks, it could endure the lowest temperatures
and it was equipped with the most modern gadgets such as a sloping
armor, which forced grenades ricocheted and therefore had no effect.
On 5 July 1943 was the tank battle of Kursk. It was a response to a
new attack of the Germans. It was eventually the swansong of the
German tank army. The Russian T-34'ers were superior. The Germans
could never replace the losses. From that day on they could only
retreat out of Russia.

But the Germans went on with the murdering jews and gypsies. In
Eastern Europe this was openly done, in Western Europe that went
quite ‘sophisticated‘. The unimaginable of the death camps was almost
known to no one. The jews was told they were transported to Eastern
Europe and had to work hard on farmlands. There were even
'Jewish Councils' set that were allowed to control the order in which
they had to leave. The illusion of survival was maintained until the last
moment.
In Eastern Europe jews were bundled in so called. 'Ghettos'. Those
were areas of a city where far too many people were crowded in
anticipation of their deportation and extermination. The largest was in
Warsaw. It was surrounded by a wall. Eventually there were more than
a million people. There was almost no food and medical and sanitation
were hardly there. One died of hunger on the streets. But there they
knew what was awaiting them. On 19 April 1943, it came into rebellion.
With illegally obtained light weapons (guns, revolvers and hand
grenades) they held until May 16 and had the pleasure to kill many of
their tormentors. The SS-General Stroop who brutally stopped the
uprising produced a 'memorial book'. The cover was made from skin of
the victims and was sent around as a present.

In North Africa, the Germans were also in the defense, with no change
for victory. Their Africa-Corps under General Rommel was becoming
less and less supplied, because the Mediterranean Sea came under

80
increasing British control. After a defeat at Tobruk the British army had
to withdraw hundreds of kilometers in the direction of Egypt and so
came the Suez Canal at risk. But also this German attack was stopped.
In addition, the British Eighth Army got a new commander: general
Bernhard Law Montgomery. He served as a young officer in the First
World War and was then seriously injured and declared dead, but he
miraculously survived. In May 1940 his troops in northern France
lasted tough opposition to the Germans. He was known for his 'pep
talks', in which he motivated his troops again. He did this also near the
village of El Alamein, were the German Afrika Korps gathered for a
decisive battle. He studied the battle mode of general Rommel and
decided to attack him in the same way.
The British 8th Army consisted largely of divisions from the British General Bernhard Law
Commonwealth: there was an Australian, Indian, New Zealand and Montgomery
South African division. Complemented by British divisions it formed a
large force.
Up to this day, Montgomery is criticized for being much too cautious
and only wanted to attack if he was confident of victory. That's a big
misconception: he had fought in the trenches of the First World War
and did not want to be responsible for new such massacres. When
necessary he attacked at the expense of great losses. But now he had
general Rommel in an iron grip. Montgomery prepared the attack very
detailed: he let Rommel believe his main attack would take place at the
northern front, but the big hit was in the south. The Germans offered
fervent opposition, but were completely defeated and could only
retreat.
Now Hitler's dream, the conquest of the Suez Canal and Saudi Arabia
with the rich oil fields was over.

On the night of 7 to 8 November 1942 US forces landed in Morocco and

Algiers. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean directly from America. Most
French troops there (they were under command of Vichy France)
quickly joined the allies. Thus the defeat of the German Afrika Korps
was nearly a fact. Rommel (in Germany a national hero) got from Hitler
orders to report himself sick and return to Germany.
The American troops were under command of general Dwight D.
Eisenhower (nicknamed Ike). In 1936 he was still a major, but soon his
organizational talents brought him in the picture. The American
supreme commander George D. Marshall was alerted on him. Then the
promotions came quickly. At the end of October 1941 he was promoted
to brigadier general and in North Africa when he was already a General Dwight D.
lieutenant general. The rank of major general was skipped. Why was Eisenhower
that so quickly? In civil society he had probably moved up as the leader
of a multinational company. He had the talent to bring people together,
ready to achieve that one goal. He was not a 'fighting general', but
organizer and diplomat. The fighting in North Africa he left over to the
generals George Patton and Omar Bradley (more about them later). He
was destined to become the supreme allied commander.

Earlier I mentioned the fear of the Japanese admiral Yamamoto of the

strength of the American industry. It was in reality faster than he could
imagine. In no time, the American industry was changed into a war
industry. The German industry was producing modern and perfect
weapons but this needed much development and production time. The
Americans massively started to produce weapons, ships, aircrafts and
vehicles that were cheap, easy to operate and maintain.

81
The M4 Sherman tank had a 75-mm gun and was no match for the
German tanks, but was produced in such large quantities that they
eventually defeated the German tank army. By his agility, he was ideal
for street fighting.
There was the GMC truck: it had almost no breakdowns. The M4 Sherman tank
The famous 'Jeep', which could drive in all areas thanks to the four
wheel drive and was for that time extremely revolutionary.
The C-47 Dakota was a military version of the passenger plane that
already existed for several years. It was adapted and could be used for
all imaginable purposes. It could fly on one engine without serious
problems.
The Americans managed to build a cargo ship within a week. It was the
first 'prefab' system in history. The components were built in factories
and put together on the yard. It received the name 'Liberty' ship. There
was no comfort on board, but it was solid and fast. The GMC truck
Almost all vehicles and aircraft were armed with the .50 Browning
machine gun, developed by the American Browning company. It
already existed since 1921 and is still in use today. The ammunition
has a caliber of half an inch and has a devastating effect. All this was in
unprecedented quantities produced, including the most modern naval
vessels and aircrafts.

There were discussions between the British and Americans whether The famous Jeep
Italy had to be attacked first or Western Europe. It was Stalin who
(rightly) urged the Western Allies for an invasion in Western Europe to
reduce the pressure on his troops in the east. But at that time it was
impossible. The American military was mobilizing in an enormously
speed, and even the industry could not produce enough to attack in
early 1943. Already on 19 August 1942, an attack was carried out on
Dieppe by Canadian troops, but it was a total failure. It was therefore The .50 Browning
machine gun which is
decided to attack Italy first. Sicily would be the first target. That
still in use in many
happened on 10 June 1943. The British army under general
armies
Montgomery and the American army under general Patton with his
chief of staff general Omar Bradley.
When the Americans invaded North Africa they suffered heavy defeats
under general Fredendall. He was immediately replaced by general
Patton. There are no doubts about his expertise, but about his
psychological state. He was a great admirer of the classical war lords:
he was even convinced he was a reincarnation of that time. He
accepted no contradiction and felt himself far above his fellow generals. The C-47 Dakota
He walked around like a cowboy with revolvers on his hips that were
inlaid with ivory.

In North Africa British airborne troops were already used on a small

scale, but it happened en masse during the attack on Sicily. The British
army had, first of all, to conquer the port of Syracuse. There had to be
conquered an important bridge the Porto Grande, under general Hicks.
That succeeded at the expense of great losses: from the gliders 50
The ‘Liberty’ ship
were lost above sea. 25 are never recovered. Many of the landings took
place far from the target site, causing even more losses. Another
objective was the attack on the Primosole bridge across the river
Simeto under General Lathbury (Hicks and Lathbury we will both
encounter again at Arnhem). The crossing of the air fleet was
prosperous, but when approaching the coast it was fired upon by
British naval air guns and then by the German air defense. The brigade
was dropped, but only about one fifth came near the bridge, which was

82
eventually conquered. Also here the losses were enormous. One had
learned nothing of the German debacles near The Hague and on Crete.

The landings went according to plan. But Patton began to advance

immediately like a raging bull at the expense of great losses just to be
faster than Montgomery and that on an island where after just a few
days the outcome of the battle was already known. His command was
taken from him when he had visited a military hospital. He insulted and
some soldiers who were there because of psychological problems. By
prolonged artillery shelling they had the ‘shell-shock trauma', what was
known from the First World War and was recognized within the British
and American armies. One of the soldiers he tried to mistreat and he General George Patton
had to be stopped. He was transferred to England, where he went to
lead a ghost army. General Omar Bradley became the new
commander.

There were in Sicily and later on in southern Italy only few Italian
troops in action. That had a cause. Prior to the invasion, the American
government talked with one of the greatest gangsters in history: Lucky
Luciano. He was not that 'lucky' at that time: he served just like Al
Capone a lengthy prison sentence for tax evasion (the only thing he
could be caught for). But even then he controlled the port trade unions
and he had important connections with the Italian mafia. He was
offered the following: we want no problems in the American ports and
use your connections with the mafia in Italy to army officers and high
ranked public persons to offer no resistance. In return he would get General Omar Bradley
amnesty. And so it happened. The mafia on Sicily and on the Italian
mainland did so and had a large share in the fall of Mussolini. Lucky
Luciano got his amnesty, but was not allowed to live anymore in
America. He returned to Italy after the war.

Then the allies crossed the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland
and slugged their way north towards Rome. On top of a strategic
mountain pass stood an ancient monastery: Monte Casino. It had to be
conquered. Attack after attack was repulsed by the Germans under
general Kesselring. It was eventually conquered by the Polish forces in
one of the bravest attacks during the war.
From sea the Americans attacked Salerno and Anzio and allied
themselves with the advancing troops from the south. On 25 July 1943, Lucky Luciano
Mussolini was deposed and arrested by his own government. On 3
September, after secret negotiations led by the American general
Maxwell Taylor (also more of him later) the Italian government closed
an armistice with the allies and Italy declared war on Germany on 13
October. The Germans acted resolutely: Mussolini was freed by
German paratroopers and became leader in northern Italy, but in
practice he had no power. On 28 April 1945 he was killed by Italian
partisans. The fighting in Italy would continue until the German
surrender in May 1945. Despite the large losses it had a cynical
advantage: strong and experienced German units were tied on the
Italian front and could not be deployed elsewhere.

At the end of December 1943, a German dissident was trying to find The skippers café in
contact in The Netherlands and in Coevorden (near the German border) Coevorden were the
a remarkable meeting took place between the resistance leader Van meeting between
Staehle and Van
Heuven Goedhart (he was also editor-in-chief of the illegal newspaper
Heuven Goedhart took
Het Parool) and the German lieutenant-colonel Wilhelm Staehle. How place
was this meeting established? It happened in a skippers café that was

83
driven by Mrs Roelie Duinkerken. The resistance movement made good
use of her hospitality. Her brother, Piet Duikerken, was headmaster in
Emmer-Compascuum and was already in 1942 in contact with Staehle.
That was no accident: the mother of Staehle came from Coevorden and
had the girls name Wildeboer. He was there already a well-known
person. Through his mother he was bilingual: he spoke perfect Dutch.
He was a faithful protestant-christian man and anti-Nazi. He was an
admirer of Carl Goerdeler, former mayor of Leipzig, an outspoken
opponent of the Nazis. He came into the circle of people that Hitler
wanted to kill. Those were people from a variety of groups. Eventually
it would result in the attempt on Hitler in July 1944 by colonel Von
Stauffenberg. It was been tried before: when Hitler visited the eastern Carl Goerdeler
front there were bombs on board the plane that had to explode at a
certain height, but they were not working.
The brother of Roelie came in contact with Mr. Jaap Cramer that had a
high position in the province of Drenthe and was active in the
resistance. Piet Duinkerken asked his sister to use the café for the
meeting and she agreed. Staehle suggested Van Heuven Goedhart the
following: Hitler would be eliminated, the Germans would withdraw
from The Netherlands and Belgium. Staehle would temporarily become
‘head of state‘ of The Netherlands and Belgium. He did this proposal on
behalf of Goerdeler, but under the condition Germany would continue
to fight against the Russians. Van Heuven Goedhart brought the
proposal via a radio link over to the government in London and
received the answer not to go on with the talks.
After the war it became known the proposals of Staehle were indeed
serious. He was part of the group of Von Stauffenberg. In the spring of
1945 he was murdered with a shot in the neck. It also proves again
that even the greatest opponents against Hitler wanted to continue the
war against the Russians (read communism).

In 1943, the British general Frederick Morgan was appointed to 'Chief-

of-Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC).' That supreme
commander did not exist at that moment. Morgan had the difficult task
to prepare the invasion in Western Europe. He had to take into account
all the imaginary scenarios and prepare them. One scenario he had not
in hand: most British and Canadian troops were stationed in central
and northern England. For the in large numbers incoming American
troops remained only southern England, where also the American
airports were constructed. Already in an early stage the invasion got
the code name 'Overlord'. It was decided to invade in Normandy. The
beaches were suitable and the massive invasion fleet had space to
maneuver there, unlike the British Channel, where the Germans were
General
expecting the attack. Frederick Morgan
The positioning of the troops had as a consequence the Americans
would have to land in the southern region of Normandy and the British
and Canadians in the north. This was the plan for a 'normal' attack, but
he also had to take into account other scenarios: that was named plan
Rankin.
Rankin case A: the Germans would become so weakened that only an
invasion on a small scale was needed;
Rankin case B: The Germans would withdraw from occupied territories
in Western Europe;
Rankin case C: A sudden collapse of the German army which happened
in 1918.
Case A never occurred. When we look at case B then it appears it was
taken in account that a German demilitarization of parts of occupied

84
Western Europe was a possibility, which shows that if the Germans
would make such a proposal under the condition they would further
fight against the Russians (read communism) the allies were not
unwilling to accept this.
Case C speaks for itself but in both B and C there might be a coup. In
1918 there was no preparation for such a situation.
In 1943 the Russians on the eastern front were on the winning hand
and started to advance quickly towards Western Europe. The fear of a
communist domination in Western Europe in the event of a sudden
German collapse was great. This explains the rapid buildup of the allied
airborne troops. They could be used in a few hours throughout
Germany to take vital objects (especially government buildings and
airports). Without significant opposition the ground troops could reach
them within a few days. During the description of Market Garden I will
describe this more extensively.

In early 1944 General Morgan got his commander in chief: Eisenhower.

Morgan had his (excellent) preparatory work done and had to step
back. Because the Americans had by far the largest share in the war so
it was obvious they supplied the supreme commander. The British air
marshal Arthur Tedder became his deputy. This system was
implemented in all important functions. Also the name COSSAC was
changed into SHEAF (Supreme Headquarters Expeditionary Allied
Forces).
The planning and construction of operation Overlord could begin. It was
a huge undertaking: the troops had to be trained to the extreme, the
embarkations from the massive invasion fleet had to take place in
exact sequence, the approach routes of the fighter planes and bombers Air Marshal
had to be established, each navy ship that would participate in the Arthur Tedder
previous bombardment had to arrive on time at the right position. But
the most important was the secrecy. Only a small number of soldiers
and politicians were aware of the goal of Overlord: Normandy. At the
exercises the men was often told the target was Calais, Belgium or The
Netherlands. Everything was done to confuse the Germans about the
invasion.

With the British general Percy Hobart the allies had an inventive
person. This man is a phenomenon: right in front of Calais, he built an
imitation army. Vehicles and aircrafts were made of wood, rubber or
canvas and looked from the air like real ones. The tanks were of rubber
and could be filled with air. Even real soldiers walked around.
Commander of that ghost army was George Patton, who was as much
as possible in public to suggest Calais was the attack target.
But Hobart could much more. He designed the so-called 'funnies': General Percy Hobart
those objects were not 'funny' at all. The tanks were converted with on
front a large role with chains. The chains struck with great force into
the ground and brought the land mines to blast. He constructed tanks
floating on canvas, also tanks with huge flamethrowers on board and
tanks that could carry and lay a bridge. The 'funnies' were built in large
numbers.

The invasion in Normandy was planned at the beginning of May 1944.

General Eisenhower understood he was responsible as commander-in-
chief. If Overlord (also known as D-Day, Decision Day ') failed, he had
his resignation letter ready and signed.
The American landing troops were under the command of general
Omar Bradley and the British under general Miles Dempsey. General

85
Montgomery was given the supreme command of the landing troops.
The landing beaches in Normandy were given code names from south
to north: Utah and Omaha would be attacked by the Americans. Gold,
Juno and Sword by the British and Canadians. Behind the American
beaches were two airborne divisions grounded: the 82nd under
command of general James Gavin and the 101st under general Maxwell
Taylor. The British used their newly-formed 6th Airborne Division under
general Richard Gale (it had a Canadian paratroopers battalion in its
ranks).
The summer of 1944 was wet and cold. Overlord was dependent on
good tides and moonlight for the airborne troops that would land at
night. The landing was delayed a few times. In the evening of 5 on
June 6, there was a meeting of the commanders. The weather was
bad: it rained and the wind blew hard. The landing troops were on General Miles Dempsey
board the ships. The next opportunity with the right tides and moon
light would be much later. The meteorologists reported a weather
improvement that would only last a few hours in the early morning of 6
June. Eisenhower was faced with a dilemma: clearing the landing ships
clearing was not only bad for morale, but especially the secrecy came
in danger. Eisenhower decided to attack. Countless naval ships and
landing crafts started to sail. Fighter planes and bombers took off to
attack the invasion area. The three airborne divisions were flown over
and were dropped. With all due respect to the showed braveness it was
like in Sicily a big fiasco. Especially the Americans were (partly due to
fierce German anti-aircraft guns) often dropped far from their goals.
They made large confusion behind German lines, but a significant share
of the fight they have not delivered. Major Howard
The British Airborne Division struck the same fate: far spread from
each other they came to the ground. But there was one important
exception. Major Howard of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Regiment'
(abbreviated Oxford Bucks) had been given the task to conquer the
important bridge across the river Orne with gliders. They landed
exactly on the target, defeated the Germans within minutes and
removed the explosive loads of the bridge. For hours they held their
position until they were reached by the commando troops of lord Lovat,
who had advanced via the beaches.
To this day, the bridge is a pilgrimage place of veterans of the British
6th Airborne Division. It became the name 'Pegasus Bridge', named
after the logo that the British airborne troops wore.
In the early morning the huge invasion force appeared before the
Normandy coast. Dozens of heavy naval vessels started to shoot at the
beaches and the underlying area: it was a real inferno. The invasion
troops were embarked in the landing crafts and began to storm the
beaches. In the far south it was Utah beach. To their luck they landed
kilometers too far from the planned invasion zone. They could achieve
their goals within a short time.
Further north was Omaha Beach. The landing troops were almost
completely massacred. General Omar Bradley looked stunned from the
American battleship Augusta. A few hours was considered to evacuate
Omaha. Bradley made the big mistake he did not want to use the
British 'funnies' of general Percy Hobart. He thought his American First
Division 'the Big Red One' was able to do it only with infantry. With
superhuman braveness a breakthrough was forced at Omaha beach.
The British and Canadians made good use of the 'funnies'. They
cleaned the minefields and the flamethrowers destroyed most of the
German machine guns.

86
It was intended that already on the first day the British and Canadians
would take the city of Caen, a major transport hub in the area.
However, they met heavy resistance by SS Panzer troops. That had the
advantage the German attacks on the Americans were weakened. For
weeks a heavy battle was delivered in the difficult terrain, but at the
end the Americans broke through. General Patton became commander
the American Third Army. General Courtney Hodges commanded the
American First Army and captured the port of Cherbourg. It was a long
time of no use: the Germans had all quays inflated, the port
installations destroyed and many ships sunk at the harbor entrance.
Before the Normandy landings two port quays were built in England:
Mulberry A and B. It was the most modern technology of the time.
Floating concrete caissons were sunk and formed miles of quays over General
Courtney Hodges
which thousands of tons supplies per day.
Mulberry A was intended for the British and Canadians and B for the
Americans. On 16 June 1944, they were already in use. Three days
later there was one of the worst storms of the century. At the end was
Mulberry A totally destroyed and B could only provisionally be repaired.
From that day on there was an enormous supply problem: a big harbor
had to be conquered. In Britain and America still dozens of divisions
waited for a crossing to the Western European mainland. The Germans
defended along the Channel coast the ports fanatic and destroyed them
when they had to withdraw. Because of its northern position the First
Canadian Army under general Crerar became the heavy task to try to
conquer a port which could be used.
From 24 to 31 July the Americans broke with huge power through the General Crerar
German lines and moved to the northwest. At Falaise, they made
contact with the British and Canadians and it was the Polish First
Armored Division under general Stanislaw Maczek that with heavy
losses and great bravery closed the gap. Only small German elements
could escape across the river Seine. It was similar to the German
defeat at Stalingrad.
Irresistible the Americans were advancing. On 25 August they stood
before Paris and were ordered to stop. Eisenhower wanted the
commander of the French troops, general De Gaulle, give the glory to
liberate his capital.
General de Gaulle was a terrible cocky person. President Roosevelt
called him his 'political headache' and absolutely did not want to be
involved in the postwar French political troubles. In the spring of 1945 General
(then the zones of occupied Germany were known) he suggested a Stanislaw Maczek
giant operation to move the American troops to the north of Germany
and the British to the south.
On August 15 the Americans invaded in southern France under general
Jacob 'Jake' Devers. They defeated the Vichy regime and were
irresistible advancing on to the north. The German army group G under
the aforementioned general Johannes Blaskowitz could only withdraw.
The British 2nd Army crossed the Seine. On 3 September it reached
Brussels and a day later the 11th Armored division Antwerp, one of the
biggest European ports. The Belgian resistance made sure it was
undamaged. The quays and the cranes were ready to work for the General de Gaulle
allies.

87
The red road is going in the direction of
Arnhem

On 20 July 1944, colonel Claus von Stauffenberg made an attempt

against Hitler. He was from the start an anti nazi. In North Africa he
was seriously injured and no longer suitable for active service. He
belonged to the circle of confidants around Hitler. He had only a few
accomplices. High German generals were aware of his plans, but only
wanted to participate if Hitler was actually killed and his clique of
supporters was arrested. It was intended that after the attack the
garrison of Berlin would occupy government buildings and radio
stations. But again Hitler was lucky: the attack took place during a staff
discussion in his headquarters called ‘Wolfsschanse' in East Prussia.
The discussions were normally held in a bunker, but this time in a
wooden building. Von Stauffenberg had two heavy bombs in a
briefcase. He tried to activate them on the toilet with time detonators, Colonel Claus
but was disturbed. One bomb was activated: he hoped the other would von Stauffenberg
explode with the other one. He placed the briefcase right in front of
Hitler and excused himself because there was an important phone call
for him. A few minutes later, the explosion: the second bomb did not
explode. The briefcase was placed below a heavy wooden table and
was by one of the attendees moved with his foot. The roof of the
building was swept away. If the explosion had taken place in a bunker
no one had survived. There were three dead people and many
wounded. Hitler had only minor injuries.
Von Stauffenberg had awaited the huge explosion at a safe distance.
He could only assume Hitler was dead. In the confusion, he came from
the high security area and flew to Berlin, where he said Hitler had been
killed. His associates hasitated. General Fromm was afraid and
arranged a quick court martial. A day after the attack Von Stauffenberg
and several of his supporters were shot in the evening one by one Roland Freisler
under the light of headlights of trucks.
Hitler's revenge was terrible: thousands were murdered or put in
concentration camps (which was approximately the same).
The main suspects had to undergo a show trial that was chaired by nazi
judge Roland Freisler. He had already made a reputation for himself in
February 1943 at the trial of Hans and Sophie Scholl, who were
members of the student resistance in Germany under the name 'White
Rose'. They distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets. The 'process' took place
behind closed doors and lasted only briefly. They were sentenced to
death and guillotined within an hour.

The 'process' in Berlin was widely reported. Freisler had a camera

hidden behind him that recorded everything. The accused were given
barely a chance to defend themselves and were continually scolded by
Freisler in the rudest way. The belts were out of their pants and
Freisler made it nasty 'jokes' about it.
Also here the 'process' was over within a short time. The accused were
all sentenced to death. One of the wives asked a guard if she would be
allowed to visit her husband for the last time. He looked at her with
pity and said: 'Madam, your husband is already dead'. And so it was:
they were hanged with piano chords attached to meat hooks and died a
slow, gruesome death. Hitler ordered to make a film of it and when
watching had the greatest pleasure when with one of victims the pants
went down during the hanging.

88
For Freisler came justice: beginning 1945, an American bombing of
Berlin took place. On the way to the bomb shelter he went back to
retrieve files of some new victims. A bomb hit the courthouse and he
died buried under wooden beams. I hope he died slowly.

But the witch hunt went on: no one was spared from top to bottom.
Field marshal Günther von Kluge was suspected. He must have been
aware of the plot side, but not much. He was recalled from northern
France and then he knew what was coming to him. On 18 August 1944,
he ordered his driver to stop near Metz, where he fought in the First
World War in the trenches and committed suicide.
The German national hero, field marshal Erwin Rommel, got visit at
home. He had the choice to swallow a poison pill or a process where of
course the result was known in advance. In addition, his wife and
children would be sent to a concentration camp. He swallowed the pill
and received a huge state funeral.

Another important victim was admiral Wilhelm Canaris. He was head of

the German Abwehr intelligence service. He soon changed from nazi to Admiral
anti-nazi. He had good contacts with the Spanish dictator Franco who Wilhelm Canaris
had more confidence in him than in Hitler (Canaris was fluent in
Spanish). When a request came in the beginning of the war to give
German troops free passage to Gibraltar, Canaris convinced him not to
do so because such an act would involve Spain in the war. In 1943
Canaris had in the Spanish Santander a secret meeting with his British
and American counterparts Menzies and Donovan. He suggested a coup
against Hitler, but again under the condition Germany would keep on
fighting against the Russians. The proposal was rejected.
A few days after the assessment on Hitler Canaris was arrested by his
subordinate, the aforementioned Walter Schellenberg, making the SS
also had control of the Abwehr. Canaris was transferred to the
concentration camp Flossenburg. On 9 april 1945 he was together with
the famous German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and colonel Hans
Oster also hung with piano-strings. General count
Tadeusz
Middle 1944 the Russian army began to advance boisterous. It Bór-Komorowski
marched into Poland and exceeded the borders of East Prussia. On 23
July the Russians conquered the Polish city of Lublin in the east and
started to advance to the capital Warsaw. They started to broadcast
over the radio calls to revolt and thus to facilitate the capture of the
city. On 29 July the first Russian units reached the suburbs of Warsaw.
Thereupon decided (with the permission of the Polish Government in
exile) on August 1, the commander of the Armia Krajowa, the Polish
underground army, general count Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, to start
the revolt in Warsaw. They had no heavy weapons, but were counting
on a quick arrival of the Russians. That did not come. Stalin thought it
better the Germans would murder his future opponents. His wish was
fulfilled: General Erich Von dem Bach-Zelewski (originally his name was
Von Zelewski, but he added a 'Germanic' touch to it) was instructed to
strike down the rebellion. This nazi rat was previously commander of General
the three aforementioned 'Einsatzkommandos' that in Eastern Europe Erich von dem Bach-
already had murdered about a million jews. He also gave the idea to Zelewski
Himmler to build an extermination camp in the Polish village of Oswitze
(Auschwitz). This mass murderer enjoyed after the war in Germany a
large pension. He claimed he has given the suicide pill to Hermann
Göring in Nuremberg after the death sentence by the noose. At old age
he got a process, but one found him too old to do his sentence.

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In the area of Warsaw the Armia Krajowa had some 50,000 man, half
of which was armed. There was heavy fighting. The Germans tried to
break the resistance (the civilians cooperated enthusiastically) by mass
executions: between 40,000 and 60,000 civilians were killed.
On September 10, heads of the Russian army reached the river Vistula
(Wisla) near Warsaw. Members of the ‘Armia Krajowa' greeted the
Russians and were hoping that their most difficult period was over.
They were immediately arrested and most of them were deported to
Siberia. There was one exception: on the side of the Russians in the
northern sector was the army of General Konstantin Rokossowski. His
father was Polish and his mother Russian. His father died young and
the family moved to Russia where he made a career as an officer. Much General
he could not do without irritating Stalin, but secretly he let weapons Stanislaw Sosabowski
smuggling to the city. After the war he became minister of defense in
Poland.
In Great Britain was the First Independent Polish Para Brigade under
command of general Stanislaw Sosabowski. They were since 1943
trained and motivated to the extreme. The name was not for nothing
'independent'. They were promised to fight for the liberation of Poland.
Thousands of Polish soldiers fought on the western front against the
Germans. The Polish Government in exile begged for the transport of
the brigade near Warsaw. Sosabowski and his men knew they would
suffer great losses, but they were prepared: their capital was holy and
every German they could disable (and that would have been a lot) had
the Russians probably forced to intervene and that is what the western
allies did not want: every mile the Russians would advance to the west
was a mile too much. General
There were flights from Italy (Brindisi) with help stock for the fighters Konstantin Rokossowski
in Warsaw. It was not much and more symbolic for the outside world.
It was technically difficult but possible to drop the brigade of 3,000
men west of Warsaw. It did not happen: during operation Market
Garden they were allowed to take part as extras and even then they
did more than their duty. And here comes again my red road: they had
probably forced the advance of the Russians (read communism) further
to Western Europe. On 1 October the Polish capitulated. The remained
fighters were treated as prisoners of war: in practice they were at least
not immediately murdered. What was left of the city (especially the
historical buildings in the center) was set on fire with flamethrowers
and was largely uninhabitable: the population was evacuated and it
would take many years before they could return. The number of
casualties on German side was about 20,000. On Polish side it is
difficult to estimate but it must have been between 120.00 and 180.00. Henry Morgenthau Jr.

Soon after the Allied invasion in Normandy on 6 June 1944 president

Roosevelt and his political and military staff began to make plans of a
postwar Germany. The already weak health of the president went
backwards: he was working on his third term and that had taken its
toll. Mentally he was no longer able to cope with the hawks among his
advisers. Plans were made to kill at least 50,000 German officers
without a trial. The German political and military top would be shot 'on
the run‘.
In late July 1944 the American treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau
Jr. visited Europe and the American troops there. On 10 August he had
a meeting with Winston Churchill. He had other concerns at that time.
The once mighty Britain stood on the edge of bankruptcy. It had a debt
of 300 milliard dollars and was no longer creditworthy. Only America
was able to help.

90
 The post war Germany
according to the
Morgenthau plan

Although the plan carried the name Morgenthau, it is known the

architect of it is Harry Dexter White, a top economist and financial
expert. After the war he was one of the founders of the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund. He died in 1948 of a heart attack.
Later on he was accused to be a Russian agent. Fact is that the
Morgenthau plan perfectly fits in the Russian ideas of a post war
Germany. It created the same unstable situation as in 1918. Germany
would be extremely economically and military weakened and the
Russian army could advance to the west as it pleased.
The Morgenthau plan looked broadly like this: Germany would be split
into three parts. A northern part and a southern part and in the west
an international zone. A part of East Prussia and Upper Silesia would
become Polish, the northern part of East Prussia to Russia and the Saar
to France. The entire German industry would be dismantled and the
machines and tools would be divided between the allied European
countries. Germany would become an agrarian state. The German
mark would get a value of 5 US cents (later became that 10 US cents),
which was a fraction of the actual value.
The consequences were disastrous for Germany: more than half of the
working population would become unemployed, diseases and
permanent hunger starvation with innumerable victims would be the
result.
From 12-16 September 1944 was in the Canadian Quebec a conference
held with as participants Roosevelt, Churchill and the Canadian prime
minister Mackenzie King. There Morgenthau presented on 14
September the plan. Churchill was against: he warned that, as in 1918,
the germ was laid for a new world war. In addition, he pointed out that
between the Russian army and the Rhine a demilitarized area would
come and one only had to wait and see how Stalin would react. That
was also the opinion of the American ambassador in Moscow, William

91
Averell Harriman. He was a personal friend of Roosevelt and warned
him repeatedly for the cynical Stalin who broke, if it was in his
advantage, his promises. Eyewitnesses stated that Roosevelt looked
bad during the conference and had a confused impression. Churchill
finally had to agree to the plan because he received a huge loan from
the Americans to save Great Britain from bankruptcy. But also many
high ranked American politicians and soldiers were against the plan and
agreed with Churchill. The American lieutenant colonel John Boettinger,
the son-in-law of Roosevelt, spoke the prophetic words: 'this plan gives
Hitler 30 highly motivated divisions'. And so it happened: when the
plan was public under the direction of Joseph Goebbels German
propaganda worked at full speed to present the German people a
future that was even worse than the plan itself. The allied soldiers at
the front noticed it: the German opposition became heavier by the day.
But the plan was approved by Roosevelt and Churchill on 15
September, two days before the start of Market Garden. In America the
protest against the plan grew by the day. Around the end of November
the plan was not actual anymore, but the harm was already done.

On 10 August 1944 in Strasbourg in hotel Rouge (what an appropriate

name for my publication!) a meeting took place with the top of the
German industry. It was held right after the assassination attempt
against Hitler (July 20). On the same day an army corps of the 3rd US
army conquered Le Mans, near Paris. Why a meeting in France and not
in Germany? It all had to happen under the greatest secrecy. Hitler was
psychological no longer on this world and Heinrich Himmler and his SS
were in reality the boss in Germany, both politically and economically.
In the historiography is this meeting described as an attempt to bring Hotel Rouge in
Strasbourg
the nazi capital to safety to be able to finance a new 'Nazi Fourth Reich'
after the war. I consider this as great nonsense: even the most
fanatical and especially financially educated nazi must have known that
their time was over. This German industrials had brought Hitler to
power and had earned their milliards of money and expertise, then
tried to bring in safety to use it again after the war. There were
representatives of Volkswagen, Krupp, IG Farben and Messerschmidt
and many others as well as representatives of the ministry of
Armaments (representing minister Albert Speer) and the ministry of
Finance (representing minister Hjalmar Schacht, yes he was still
active). The best and most hypocrite country to manage these huge
capitals was Switzerland which was even not averse to accept the
many gold bars made of the countless golden teeth of the victims from
the death camps. One of the last railway transports to the death camps
concerned Italian jews that drove through Switzerland. It would not
surprise me if there have been British and American representatives to
secure after the war in Western Europe a strong economic Germany to
counterbalance the communism that was at that moment advancing
further west (how far the Russians would advance was at that time not
known).

In the spring of 1944 (before the landing at Normandy) was the

American operation "Safehaven" planned. It was an initiative of the
American secret service OSS to prevent large German capitals to
escape to all sorts of dubious tax countries. But even the American
secret service was powerless in the face of their own mighty industry
which had important contacts with the German industry before the war.
The American law requires that in a state of war the contacts should be
frozen. This was especially important for the development of military

92
weapons. Operation Safehaven was not in the interest of big American
industries such as Standard Oil, Alcoa, Dupont, Remington Arms,
Proctor and Gamble, General Motors, Goodyear and Union Carbide
(which had a partnership with the German IG-Farben).
They had an argument: the German technology was in many ways far
ahead of the rest of the world. The Germans already developed a jet
plane and they were far into the development of missiles. The war in
Europe might be almost over, but not the war against Japan and
German technology could play an important role in this war. And again
came the argument: would the American government like this
knowledge fell in the hands of the Russians (read communism)? And so
Operation Safehaven was called off and German capital and technology
could be brought in safety.
And that explains why I during the 1950s as a small boy in Ede (The
Netherlands) jealously was looking at the A12 highway at the
numerous cars with the white German license plates that drove to our
bulb fields and beaches. My parents could hardly pay a bike and the
old-age pension was introduced in The Netherlands years after the
German pension, but the Germans had their 'Wirtschaftswunder'
(economic miracle). It was no miracle: the Marshall aid and the rapidly
returning huge German capitals and expertise, earned on the back of
millions of forced laborers and murdered jews developed the German
industry rapidly according to the latest technology. And this all to
create a strong buffer state against communism. Germany lost the war
but became the most important European country within a short time
and it still is. Was that justice? I don’t think so.

We return to the Allied rapid advance after the battle of Falaise. On 1

August 1944 general Montgomery was relieved of his duties as
commander of the allied troops. Instead, it was the headquarters
SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) that moved
from London to a hotel in Paris with general Eisenhower as supreme
commander. Two army groups were created: in the southern sector the
12th army group under general Bradley, which consisted of the 1st
American army under general Hodges and the 3rd Army under general
Patton. Montgomery became commander of the 21st army group which
consisted of the British 2nd army under General Dempsey, the
Canadian 1st army under general Crerar, the Polish armored Division
under general Maczek, the Dutch Princess Irene brigade under prince
Bernhard and various smaller units of different nationalities. For
Montgomery, it was a personal tragedy. As a comfort he was appointed
as a British field marshal.
Why did it come so far? It is widely known that he was cocky and
arrogant, but that was no obstruction for his outstanding abilities as a
general. He attacked until he had the certainty that everything was
prepared to perfection. He had experienced in the First World War as a
young officer that irresponsible actions could lead to terrible large
losses.
British and Americans do not like each other. The British look at
America still as an old colony and the Americans view the British as old
colonizers. There were persistent rumors Montgomery was
homosexual. He was a widower since 1937 and had a son. He was
always surrounded by junior officers. True or not true, today is
homosexuality already difficult in the military, but in those days it was
a mortal sin and certainly in the American army.
The American general Patton couldn't get through one door with him:
they could shoot each other. General Bradley was the commander of

93
Patton: he served in North Africa under him and still regarded him as
his mentor. Patton could advance quickly thanks to the strategy of
Montgomery (still Patton did so at the expense of unnecessarily high
losses). With its characteristic hoarse voice he held like a movie star
press conferences: 'if they had let me do it my way I was broken
through like shit through a goose'.
When his army near Metz reached the German border it was over with
his rapid advance: he came across general Hasso von Manteuffel who
inflicted him heavy losses and forced him to stop (he would after the
war become the first commander of the Bundeswehr). When the
German Ardennes offensive in 1944 was stopped Patton demanded the
honor for himself: he had with his army the main share in it (he had General
his army in an incredibly short time moved to the north but it was Hasso von Manteuffel
Montgomery who (with the American 1st Army that temporarily was
under his command) had the biggest share of the fight.
Just after the German capitulation Patton was involved in a traffic
accident with a truck. He was seriously injured and died several days
later in a Russian hospital. There is growing evidence that the
American secret service OSS is involved. At every opportunity he
insulted Russian officers and he called the Waffen SS the only soldiers
with whom he liked to fight against the Russians (read communism). It
must at least have been no bad news for the American president Harry
Truman. He already had enough problems with general MacArthur in
the war against the Japanese and Patton had already announced that
he would like to join in the war with Japan. But another prima donna
on that scene would have been too much.

Eisenhower's headquarter in Paris functioned poorly to put it mildly.

The connections with the troops in the field were usually through
telegrams that arrived regularly not or in portions which caused
misunderstandings. That was during the rapid advance after Falaise no
great disaster, but when the front began to stabilize it became a real
problem. Montgomery blamed Eisenhower (it was true) he was not a
'field general' was, but a diplomat.
On 6 September the harbor of Dieppe was largely restored and so also
from there next to the beaches of Normandy stocks could be
transported. But it was nowhere near enough. An additional Poster of the
complication was that in preparation for Overlord practically all bridges Red Ball Express,
and railway lines in northern France were destroyed by bombardments. which drove on the
Four armies had to be supplied and that was an impossible task. The Red Ball Highway
"Red Ball Express" was created: complete divisions that just arrived
were taken off all means of transport and assigned to the Red Ball
Express. And so day and night trucks drove on roads marked with red
balls. The drivers were almost all colored: the American army only
accepted highly educated colored people in staff positions, the others
were used in support functions. But even this was not enough to supply
the troops and the advance began to stop. The British 2nd Army
consisted of three army corpses, of which only the 30th Corps under
general Brian Horrocks further advanced. The other two were brought
to a halt, so that 30th Corps received all the stocks. It liberated
Brussels and the large port of Antwerp in collaboration with the local
resistance, which disabled the explosives charges to the quays and
cranes. The last British achievement was the conquest of a bridge over
the Kempisch channel at Neerpelt. The tank crews of the 11th Armored
General Brian Horrocks
Division that had taken Antwerp fell asleep where they were. They had
nearly made 400 kilometers in three days. Yet they should have
advanced a few miles further to the north and thus at least sealed

94
 The port of Antwerp
(right under) was
conquered and ready
for use. Above the
Western Scheldt the
peninsula Walcheren
which was not sealed
off by the British. The
German 15th Army
could escape from
Breskens to Vlissingen
(left) and then to the
main land. How could
this happen?

off the peninsula Walcheren: Antwerp is only accessible via the

Western Scheldt and as long as Walcheren was in the hands of the
Germans it remained unusable.
To the left of the British 2nd Army the 1st Canadian Army under
general Crerar had the most difficult task: where the other allied
armies were advancing at a rapid speed, they had to fight against the
15th German Army under general Gustav von Zangen who had the
order to defend the ports along the Channel coast as long as possible
and destroy them at a retreat. The Canadians did more than their best.
The 15th army came up with its back against the wall: the
Westerschelde. The German high command panicked: at Falaise was
the 7th Army embedded and now threatened the same to happen with
the 15th army. The previously disgraced field marshal Gerd von General
Rundstedt was once again popped up and was given command in the Gustav von Zangen
West. He had a glowing hate against Hitler and called him 'the
Bohemian corporal'.
One of his first acts was to order the evacuation of the 15th German
army. It is one of the last orders which via the aforementioned Enigma
coding device that could be deciphered by the British. The Germans
retreated to their borders and messages over long distances were no
longer needed. It could by phone and personal contact.
But this Enigma-order was received and decoded. The allied command
was aware of the evacuation of a complete German army which would
be evacuated over the Western Scheldt, from Breskens to Vlissingen.
They did it with freight and inland vessels and usually in the night.
When they tried it in daylight, they were attacked from the air, so the
evacuation was known. In total, about 80,000 men including material
were evacuated. The allied navy was superior: why was there not a Field marshal
blockade made? In that case the complete German army would have Gerd von Rundstedt
been trapped. Bur it escaped and I can't find out why. It must have
had a purpose.
???Maybe extra troops in order to fight against the Russians???

95
During World War II in America and Britain airborne divisions were
formed. The British had two: the 6th Airborne Division (which was used
in Normandy) and the 1st Airborne Division. In addition, the British had
the Scottish Lowland Division which could be transported by air. The
Americans had five airborne divisions: the 82nd and the 101st (both
were used in Normandy). There was the 11th Airborne Division, which
was used against the Japanese in the Philippines, but only as ground
troops; the 17th Airborne Division, which was used in March 1945 in
operation 'Varsity' during the big attack of the 21st Army Group at
Wesel across the Rhine; and finally the 13th Airborne Division which
arrived in Europe in February 1945. They were stationed near Paris. At
one time they would take action, but that was called off. The division
would still be deployed against the Japanese, but that also did not
happen. It is the only American unit in the Second World War that did
not come into action. And then there was last but not least the Polish
Independent Parachute Brigade. It was the brigade made impossible to
fight during the rebellion in their capital Warsaw.

I have mentioned it before but have to do it one more time: why had
the allies such a huge airborne force? Every time the use of large
numbers of airborne troops had lead to unacceptable losses and the
tactical profit was almost zero. The German high command stopped to
use them after the failures in The Netherlands and Crete. The use of
the Allied airborne troops on Sicily and Normandy was, with all due
respect, (except local successes) also a failure.
It had everything to do with the sudden collapse of the German Empire
in 1918. Then the allies were not prepared and they did not want to
make that make that mistake again. The British general Morgan in his
plan Rankin had already taken this into account. Should such a collapse
happen massive airborne forces were employable: they could
throughout Germany with the sheer numbers of aircrafts be used at
any wanted. It must have been many British and American officers who
had served in the First World War (and also politicians) who were
happy with this rapid action alternative.
And my red road comes again: what to do in case of such a collapse?
Also the Russian army had problems with the long supply lines and the
advance began to slow down, but there were no agreements between
the Western Allies and the Russian general staff (Stavka) about a
demarcation line. During the Yalta Conference on the Russian Crimea
between 4 and 11 February 1945 global agreements were made, but
Churchill had great doubts about Stalin and Roosevelt was already too
ill to have serious discussions with him.
But despite their supply problems the Russians continued advancing to
the west. The previously described Warsaw uprising lasted until 1
October, but north and south of the city was the offensive resumed.
The tactical thinking of Eisenhower included not the question: is
Germany going to be defeated but when and how far will the Russian
advance go to the west or were maybe solutions possible with dissident
Germans to advance as far as possible to the east? That last option is
not so strange when we look at the secret negotiations there had been
until then. And those were negotiations that have become known, but
the more time passes there will be undoubtedly more known.

At the beginning of August 1944 the 1st Allied Airborne Army was
founded. The intention was to bring together the strength and the
expertise of the airborne divisions.

96
The American Air Force general Lewis Brereton became the commander
and the British general Frederick Browning was his deputy. The
American divisions formed the 18th American Airborne Corps under
general Matthew Ridgway and the 1st British Airborne Corps the British
divisions under General Frederick Browning.
The appointment of Brereton was controversial: there were no doubts
about his qualities as an air force general. This he proved on the
Philippines in the fight against the Japanese, but his knowledge of
airborne troops was minimal. For general Ridgway it was a big
disappointment: he had a vast experience in the field of airborne
troops and was an able general.
General Browning had formed the British airborne troops and was the
one who introduced the famous red beret to distinguish his troops from General Lewis Brereton
the 'regular'. But he was extremely distant and dressed according to
the latest military clothing, earning him the nickname 'Boy' Browning.
In addition, everybody had to know he was married to the famous
British writer Daphne du Maurier.

At the end of August general Eisenhower ordered his troops to make

plans for the conquest of bridges over the Rhine, because that was the
major barrier for the attack on Germany. Montgomery had to do this
between Arnhem and Wesel and Bradley between Mannheim and
Koblenz. That was a theoretical command: none of the armies was at
that time able to do this because of the marginal supply.
Immediately after the formation of the 1st Allied Airborne Army there General
were made many plans to support the advancing ground forces, but Frederick Browning
they moved so quickly that none it was used. One of them was
operation Comet: the British 1st Airborne Division would conquer the
bridges between Eindhoven and Arnhem.

We return to the beginning of September 1944. France and Belgium

were largely liberated, but the offensive was halted because of lack of
supplies. The seaport Antwerp was captured undamaged but could only
be used as the Walcheren peninsula was conquered and the Western
Scheldt was free of sea mines. Eisenhower was very well aware of this,
because on September 9, he sent a telegram to all chiefs of staff in
which he said the release of the Western Scheldt (the conquest of
Walcheren) would slow down the advance but urgently was needed. On
the same day (at least between 8 and 10 September Montgomery General
asked an airborne attack on Walcheren which immediately was rejected Matthew Ridgway
by Brereton: the terrain was unsuitable and there would be too much
air defense. That may have been true, but the staff of Brereton had
proposed plans in the past in which not even maps were available for
the troops. And even if it had taken place at the expense of great
losses Walcheren had been conquered, the port of Antwerp would have
been available and the 1st Canadian Army did not have to fight an
even bloodier battle which would take place a few weeks later.
Furthermore, the question can be asked why Eisenhower and
Montgomery did not order Brereton to launch the attack.
The airborne army had access to the light Tetrarch tank which could be
transported with a glider. It had a crew of three persons: driver,
commander and gunner. It had a 40 mm gun and a 7.92 mm machine
gun and a speed of 63 miles per hour. The British 6th Airborne Division
used it on a limited scale during the Normandy landings. There it was
no success: it came against heavy German tanks and was outgunned.
The American airborne troops had also such a weapon: the M22 Locust
tank. It was even lighter, had a 37 mm gun and a .30 machine gun,

97
but was extremely effective in the support of infantry. On Walcheren it
would have been a formidable help for the airborne troops: there were
little or no German tanks. Deployed in an air landing and later on in
combination with British and Canadian ground troops it would it then
have been possible to use the port of Antwerp. The supply problems
would have been over and the course of war maybe totally different.
But all of a sudden there were probably more important things not to The British Tetrarch
use such an unique chance. All the plans and discussions to free the tank
port of Antwerp stopped. It was on Sunday 10 September at an airport
near Brussels. Eisenhower landed there for a conference with
Montgomery. Eisenhower had an injured knee. It happened with an
emergency landing with a small plane when he was on his way back
from England. He had helped the pilot on the ground to get the plane
in safety and had injured his knee. According to the known facts the
meeting could only take place in the plane because Eisenhower was The American
unable to get off the plane. He always had the habit as commander-in- M22 Locust tank
chief to have talk with the soldiers (if only briefly). That had also been
possible at the headquarters of Montgomery. Then my next question: if
you can step into an airplane with an injured knee why can’t you step
out with that same knee?
In my opinion there were extremely secret talks in the plane. That is
already apparent out of the fact there was a discussion between
Eisenhower and Montgomery about who was allowed to be present.
According to the historiography Montgomery proposed a more
comprehensive version of the Comet plan, which he had cancelled the
day before because the German resistance became too strong (!!!).
Instead of the British 1st Airborne Division it would be carried out by
four airborne divisions and an airborne brigade: the 1st British, the
American 82nd and 101st, the Scottish Lowland Division and the Polish
Independent Airborne Brigade what we now know as operation Market
Garden. The British XXXth Corps would advance from the bridgehead at
Neerpelt to Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem (a distance of about 180
kilometers) and that had to be done on a narrow road.
Eisenhower would have agreed under the condition that it would be a
limited attack, because Montgomery was in favor of a single attack
through northern Germany to Berlin with his 21st Army Group and
Eisenhower was against this. I know a lot of historians do not agree
with me, but I do not believe a word of it.
For example, in March 1945 operation Varsity was successfully carried
out. It was an attack on Wesel and two bridges had to be conquered:
across the rivers Maas and Rhine. The commander of the British 2nd
Army, Miles Dempsey, was strongly in favor of this.
At Market Garden five bridges had to be conquered: the bridge at Son
across the Wilhelmina Channel, at Veghel across the Zuidwillemsvaart,
across the Maas River at Grave, across the Waal at Nijmegen and
finally across the Rhine at Arnhem. Every amateur strategist (that
includes me, I was just a simple corporal) could and should have seen
this attack was irresponsible. Because even though the operation was
successful then to the east the river IJssel had to be crossed (the sixth
transition). And even then: there were at that time simply not enough
stocks to support such an offensive for a longer period.
In addition, it was completely contrary to the nature of Montgomery,
who always attacked if he had prepared everything to the last detail. Of
course, in that period of quick advances he must have had his
moments of optimism, but such a gamble does not suit him. General
Bradley said when he heard of the plan: 'if the devout teetotaller
Montgomery walked into the headquarters with a giant hangover may I

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 Above a map of operation Varsity launched
24 March 1945. Both generals Dempsey and
The Guingand preferred this attack in
August/September 1944.

Left the map of operation Market Garden

launched 17 September 1944. Visible are the
bridges that had to be conquered over a
distance of about 180 kilometers.

could not have been more surprised'. Montgomery's chief of staff,

General Francis de Guingand was also against the plan. He preferred
the attack on Wesel like general Dempsey.
Days later, General Bradley was informed of the plan. Also that is
curious. You would expect the commander of the other army group at
least in was quickly informed. On September 15, 1944 he received
from Eisenhower a telegram in which there was a major description of

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Market Garden. He talks about the conquest of Rotterdam and
Antwerp. This shows that it was not at all the intention to invade
Germany through the 'back door', but the attack would turn to the
west. And then it would via the South Holland and Zeeland Islands had
to be conquered. In that case two world ports were available and the
supply problems were solved forever.
As an amateur strategist I see the problems already looming: you
invade one of the most densely populated areas in the world and most
of it is below sea level and can be easily flooded by the enemy.
Suppose you have conquered Rotterdam, then you should advance
towards Walcheren across broad waterways and that was next to
impossible. Yet it was in that telegram.
The 1st British Airborne Division had to conquer the bridge at Arnhem.
In the original plan that was the 82nd Airborne Division. When general
Bradley heard about this he protested: this division was his favorite:
originally it was the 82nd Infantry Division of which he was the
Commander in the 1930s and experienced it was transformed into the
first American airborne division.
Also that is curious: when (again according to the official
historiography) Montgomery proposed the plan to Eisenhower the
divisions were apparently already fixed. I can imagine Montgomery and
his staff made plans, but did that at least in consultation with the staff
of the 1st Allied Airborne Army. Only when Eisenhower approved the
plan general Frederick Browning was allowed to see it and would have
spoken the historical words 'maybe we'll go a bridge too far'. I doubt
these words looking at his irresponsible behavior during the planning.
In my opinion it was not a plan of Montgomery, although it does have
his initials: MG, but from Eisenhower himself. That explains the secret
discussion on a remote part of the airport near Brussels.

Three days earlier the first V2 rockets fell on London. They were
launched from near The Hague. There was no defense against this.
They came down from the stratosphere without making a sound. They
were armed with a huge explosive charge that caused a massive
destruction. Thereupon the chief of Eisenhower, general George
Marshall reported from America he was very concerned not only about
rocket itself: but more it might also carry a nuclear warhead.
The Messerschmidt was
The Germans technology was in many areas far ahead of the rest of the first jet fighter in
the world: for example, they developed the first jet aircraft. But in the history
development of rocket technology they were superior. They had
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun, better known as
Werner von Braun. He was missile genius already at the age of 25 and
in the late 1930s he became the head of the German missile
development program. That happened in the small village of
Penemünde near the Polish border at the Baltic Sea.
The first rocket was actually no a rocket. It was an unmanned plane The V1 after launching
with on the back of a rocket engine. The plane itself was packed with
explosives. It was given the name 'V1'; the V stood for
Vergeltungswaffe. It was for that time genius: the current cruise
missiles are still based on it.
The V1 rockets were fired on Britain. In the beginning they caused
panic. During their flight they had a characteristic humming sound.
When that stopped in your area it was dangerous: then he collapsed
down and a huge explosion followed. In the beginning it caused great The V2 on a mobile
panic in the British cities, but soon was discovered that V1 's could be launching
detected and intercepted by means of radar: most of them were shot platform
down by specially trained squadrons.

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However, the V2 was the first rocket in human history that could attack
cities over long distances and that began to master the tactical thinking
of the allies: it will not happen that we just before a victory will be
beaten by missiles with nuclear weapons? It was at that moment a real
option. The V2 rocket could be produced in large numbers in the Harz
mountains. Under these mountains were two enormous access tunnels.
In there was the so called 'Dora factory' built. Thousands of foreign
forced laborers were there to assemble the missiles and thousands of
lost their lives caused by the extreme poor working conditions and
malnutrition. When production thereby came in danger, Werner von
Braun personally selected in the Buchenwald concentration camp a few
thousand prisoners who were transferred to the Dora factory. His Wernher Magnus
brainchild had to be produced regardless the costs of human lives. That Maximilian
same Werner von Braun (more on that subject later) entered the Freiherr von Braun,
service of the American NASA and developed the Apollo rocket that better known as
made it possible man could reach the moon. Werner von Braun
There was a V3: it was a huge cannon that with extra air pressure shot
to England from the Channel coast. It has functioned but with little
success.
The British bombed Germany at night and the Americans during the
day. From the returning crews came more and more information about
the Messerschmidt jet fighter against which they had no defense, nor
the escorting fighters. Now we know the jet fighter jet was far too late
taken into production and there were too little of, but then it became
part of the tactical thinking.
There were also reports the Germans were on a large scale gathering
huge quantities of arms, ammunition and poisoned gas and hide them
in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps. After the war a major guerrilla war
was planned in that area. It was named the Alpenfestung (alpine
fortress). After the war it appeared this happened on a very small
scale, but then it had to be taken into account.
In addition, (here comes my red road again) the Russians invaded
Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, thus forming a danger to Greece and
the Balkan.

But the biggest fear was the Germans were near the development of
an atomic bomb. It was known they were working on it. In Norway was
a factory where 'heavy water' (deuterium) was manufactured. The
factory is bombed several times and attacked by British airborne troops
and with reasonable success. A large amount of heavy water was
loaded on a ferry and was sunk with explosives with the help of the
Norwegian resistance. But no one knew how far the Germans were in
the development and a German atomic bomb remained a nightmare.
The British secret service became information about this from the
scientific editor of the German publishing house Springer Paul Rosbaud.
Risking his live, he continued to give information throughout the war.
Paul Rosbaud
Through him it was quite accurate known the Germans were working
on a nuclear weapon and made plans in the summer of 1944 to attack
the American east coast with a 'dirty' atomic bomb. That was not a real
bomb but a large heavy explosive filled with extremely radioactive sand
to be blasted at high altitude above a city. For that purpose a plane
was developed that only had large wings and with little fuel could make
the flight over the Atlantic and back. This danger also had to be taken
into account seriously.

In America was started with the development of the atomic bomb. It

happened under the code name 'Manhattan Project' and was so secret

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that even vice president Harry Truman was held outside. He was
informed after the death of president Roosevelt when he became
president of America.
The leadership of the project was in the hands of the American
physicist Robert Oppenheimber. In his staff were well-known physicists
from around the world such as Fermi, Bohr and Teller.
For security reasons, the project was housed in Los Alamos, far away in
the Arizona desert. For the development of the bomb large amounts of
clean uranium was needed. That was not available in America. It was
obtained through secret channels of the Belgian company Union Minière
in the Belgian Congo. Eventually an atomic bomb was produced and
was brought to blast in July 1945.
Robert Oppenheimer
Finally, it was known the Germans had a first class extensive network
of secret agents and informants in Russia. This organization had the
name 'Fremde Heere Ost' and was led by general Reinhard Gehlen. It
provided the German general staff with reliable information about the
Russian plans. This network was extremely important for the postwar
period. After the war Gehlen and his staff reported to themselves to the
Americans.
For years after the war he was head of the then West German
intelligence service BND (Bundes Nachrichten Dienst) and his network
remained functioning and worked closely with western intelligence
services. But in 1944 his service was a valuable prey in the fight General
against communism. Reinhard Gehlen
Those were the dilemmas of general Eisenhower at the beginning of
September 1944.

At the meeting of 10 September with Montgomery Eisenhower must

have had confidential information that in the advance area of
Montgomery's 21st Army Group were possibilities and not just in a
military way. To my opinion it was a demilitarization of the northern
part of The Netherlands. That also explains his telegram to General
Bradley regarding the use of the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. At
that time The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway were still occupied by
the Germans. We have seen before that German proposals to that
subject were made during the war, provided the Germans were allowed
to continue the war against the Russians (read communism).
Great Britain was at that time military and financial at the end. The
country was on the edge of bankruptcy and the losses of the regiments
could hardly be replaced with trained soldiers. The country was
financially totally dependent on America. In the Far East the Americans
and the British also fought against the Japanese (that would last until
August 1945 and without the use of the atomic bomb much longer at
the cost of heavy casualties).
And then there was the public opinion in America and Canada: they did
not ask for this war. The many thousands of casualties made the war in
Europe not popular. Again it were the Americans and Canadians who
30 years after the First World War had to solve the European problems
again. Of course there was and is an American citizen. But they are all
descendants of mostly European immigrants. Most of them immigrated
between 1870 and 1930. Many American soldiers had family all over
the European countries which were at that time in a state of war and
that can create mental problems.
And then it is, looking at the above, no longer strange Eisenhower
made a calculated gamble. It fits in the Rankin plan of a sudden
German collapse; the name was later on changed into Talisman and

102
then into Eclips. It may appear cynical (we are talking about thousands
of lives that were risked), but he used from his huge force an Army
Corps, four airborne divisions and one airborne brigade. In comparison,
the Russian army had no problem using almost daily such numbers in
the war, regardless the losses.

What was that proposal? In my opinion it is the following: we have

seen that before the war the Dutch nazi leader Anton Mussert with all
possible honor was received in the Dutch East Indies by the governor
general, esquire Cornelis de Jonge, an extremely authoritarian person.
He was in favor of democracy, but only the least of the least. In the
First World War, he was minister of defense and had (as previously
described) a major conflict with queen Wihelmina.
After his governorship, he lived a reclusive existence in a spacious
home in Oosterbeek (a few hundred meters from Hotel Hartestein
which would become the headquarter of general Urquhart during the
battle of Arnhem). In 1940 he was one of the candidates of the Dutch Damsel
Union party under professor Jan de Quay that was looking for far- Julia Op ten Noort
reaching cooperation with the German occupier but for him it was not
far enough and he withdrew.
But he must have been remained in the picture as he was approached
by esquire Laurens Op ten Noort and his sister damsel Julia Op ten
Noort. Both were fanatic supporters of the SS-ideology. Julia Op ten
Noort was a personal friend of Heinrich Himmler. She knew him since
years by means of the earlier mentioned meetings in Britain of the
Oxford Group. For everyone Himmler was not approachable, but Julia
Op ten Noort could have contact with him without any problem. It has
been rumored she had a child of him, but that's doubtful.

As brother and sister Op ten Noort came in action Heinrich Himmler

and his paladin Walter Schellenberg were behind this. Laurens Op ten
Noort had even a document from Himmler to be given to De Jonge. Pro
forma was Hitler the boss, but that was (especially after the attack on
him in July) completely impossible by his excessive use of medicine for
Parkinson's disease and was only surrounded by good news people. In
reality the huge SS complex controlled Germany with Himmler as the
great director. Until the end of the war, he remained behind the scenes
to negotiate for peace with the Western Allies.

Why esquire De Jonge? Himmler and Schellenberg were looking for a

'between Pope' who temporarily the reign (with tight hand) could take
over in The Netherlands, à la Pétain in Vichy-France. The Dutch
government in exile was of course impossible and queen Wilhelmina at
all. The far right De Jonge was ideal: he had government experience as
a defense minister, had been governor general of the Dutch East Indies
and pro-German (but not too much and too fanatic) and a known anti
communist.
I think secretly a proposal was done for a truce to the allies and Market
Garden was the 'insurance': the bridgehead over the Rhine at Arnhem
and the Deelen air base just north of the town. The proposal thus Esquire
meant the area north of the big rivers. Cornelis de Jonge
The Germans would continue to fight against the Russians (which is
maybe an explanation for the practically undisturbed evacuation over
the Western Scheldt of the 15th German Army under General Gustav
von Zangen). That would mean the offer to the allies is made at the
end of August 1944 and that makes my theory about the secret
meeting on 10 September at the airport near Brussels plausible. The

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attacks with the V2’s would be stopped (they were launched from The
Netherlands) and perhaps a German atomic attack: this still had to be
taken into account seriously.
Maybe I am very cynical when I think that the allies then would have
had the time to build a huge force to (if it was necessary) support the
Germans in the back in the fight against the Russians (my red road)
because there had to be formed a strong buffer state to keep the
Russians as far as possible to the east. After the Yalta conference in
1945, was talked about an unconditional surrender of Germany and the
occupation zones.

Then there is the intermediate question: why not prince Bernhard as

between Pope? We have seen before that he was in the discussion
about the so-called 'stadhoudersbrief'. If it was offered him, he would
probably had accepted: he could live like a chameleon as he could act
in the foreground. But he was appointed commander-in-chief of the
Dutch armed forces. He went along with the Princess Irene Brigade
that became part of Montgomery's 21st Army Group. Both Eisenhower
and Montgomery were against the appointment having regarded his
nazi past, but prince Bernhard had good contacts with Eisenhower's
chief of staff general Walter Bedell Smith, a notorious communist
hater. He convinced Eisenhower to accept prince Bernhard. So
Montgomery had to accept him too as a subordinate, but continued to
Prince Bernhard
distrust him.
Bedell Smith was indispensable to Eisenhower: he was the supreme
commander with the eternal smile. He was the diplomat who could
armies of all nationalities bind together and so he had to remain
popular. Bedell Smith performed the "difficult" conversations with
officers who did not function: even general George Patton had such a
conversation with him. He did the dirty work for Eisenhower. After the
war, Bedell Smith became American ambassador in Moscow and after a
few years head of the CIA. Prince Bernhard organized from the 1950s
the so called 'Bilderberg conferences' in Oosterbeek. Bedell Smith
cooperated there too: politicians and industrialists from all over the
world came together. They could have undisturbed meetings and speak
General
out opinions which were in public impossible. Politicians come and go, Walter Bedell Smith
but here it were mainly the biggest industrialists of the world who
before the war had brought Hitler to power and after the war they were
brainstorming how communism could be kept far away.

After this interlude about Prince Bernhard and Bedell Smith, I can
imagine that you are wondering from where Himmler had the courage
and brutality to propose this truce. Now we know that after the war the
trial of war criminals has taken place in Nuremberg and that most of
them ended their lives on the gallow. But that is a novelty in the
human history. Before that it was quite common that such figures were
given shelter in a country that wanted to accept them (with a lifetime
golden handshake of course). When asked in the prison of
Scheveningen how the arrested Dutch nazi leader Anton Mussert saw
his future he answered he was making plans to give lectures at the
American University of Harvard. He died some time later before a firing
squad.

After the German surrender in May 1945 Heinrich Himmler was dressed
in a soldiers uniform and mixed himself among the thousands of
prisoners of war. That was in northern Germany in the area of
Montgomery's 21st Army Group. They had just liberated the Bergen

104
Belsen concentration camp and discovered the abominable crimes
committed there (Anne Frank and her sister died there a few weeks
earlier died from malnutrition). Therefore the German prisoners of war
were treated not too mild by the British. Himmler had lived about 20
years as an uncrowned king. It had failed him to nothing and then he
was suddenly thrown back on basic living conditions. He felt insulted
and made himself known. He was immediately isolated, his identity
was confirmed. He had a cyanide pill which was not discovered and
committed suicide. That is one of the versions.
Another version is he was recognized. He has been extensively
searched over his body and nothing was found. The process in
Nuremberg was yet to come and I think he still had the illusion he
could leave to another country. In addition, he could prove that he
secretly had conducted negotiations with the allies. When the
Neuremberg process started the accused nazi leaders were optimistic.
That changed when they really understood they were called to justice. I
think it is quite possible Himmler is killed to avoid he was going to talk
about an unilateral truce in which he played the leading role and that
had to remain a secret especially for the Russians.

That millions were murdered in the death camps was hardly known in
1944. That concentration camps existed where prisoners were treated
inhuman was known even before the war, the mass murders of jews in
Eastern Europe were partly known, but that millions of people were
murdered on an industrial scale was not known. Even nowadays this
unimaginable crime is hard to believe.
One could have known: on 7 April 1944 escaped the jewish Slovak
Rudolf Vrba from Auswitz. He had a 'privileged position': that is to say
he was not gassed right away and was allowed to live a few months
longer because he had a minor function in the camp. He heard the
Hungarian jews were the next to be murdered. He managed to reach
Budapest and warned the jewish community, but he was not believed.
It was still believed (like all those millions of people before them) that
they would be deported to labor camps. Life would be heavy, but one
had high hopes on survival. He made a written report on the events
and that was sent to the allies. On 20 June 1944 it is published in the
New York Times and the British BBC spent attention to it in a radio
program. But one could not imagine that it was true. I believe this:
who at that time (even nowadays) could believe there are millions of
people gassed for years, day and night. That never happened in human
history and was not to imagine and understand. Only when the
Russians had reached the death camps in 1945 gradually the horrible
truth came to light.
Himmler and Schellenberg knew this dark chapter was still largely
secret: it happened far away in remote places in Poland and if the
German army was allowed to drive the Russians back they had a
chance to hide their crimes for a long period.

Now I am going to describe the preparation of operation Market

Garden. Before I start, I would like to state once again that all large-
scale airborne operations, both on Allied and German side (apart from
occasional local successes) all failed. And now, the biggest of them all
was nearly to start. Were all previous airborne landings on a relatively
limited scale carried out (with the ground troops there right behind),
this time it concerned a distance of almost 180 kilometers to Arnhem.
XXX Corps had to advance on a narrow road and five bridges had to be

105
conquered. For this very complicated operation was less than a week
available for preparation.

Through many years I have known many Polish and British veterans
and had personal conversations with them. If it comes to Market
Garden I noticed the angry opinion of the 'old hands'. In the British 1st
Airborne Division were many veterans of all ranks who already had
fought in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy. They were immensely
annoyed about the nonchalance with which the new recruits were
trained: 'it seemed as if the war was already won, we knew the Jerries
(Germans) and knew they were fighting until the last moment'.
Major general
The British 1st Airborne Division had several command changes: the Robert ‘Roy’ Urquhart
first commander was killed in action in southern Italy, was succeeded
by another that was reassigned to India to set up an Airborne Division.
In early February 1944 the Scotsman Robert 'Roy' Urquhart was
appointed as new commander of the division. He was successful as a
brigadier general in North Africa and Sicily, but had absolutely no
experience with airborne troops and also suffered from airsickness.
Insiders had expected brigadier general Gerald Lathbury would be
promoted to the new commander. In Sicily he had proven his skills
with great courage. He never showed his disappointment

You would expect that for the biggest airborne operation in human
history (also looking at the failures in the past) everything possible was Brigadier general
Gerald Lathbury
done to make it a success. The opposite is true: it seems there was an
euphoria of invincibility, which proves my suspicion it was to be a more
political than military operation. Several officers asked for the use of
the aforementioned 'Tetrarch' tank, but this was rejected by general
Browning: they would not be necessary and use too much glider space.
Therefore the main part of Urquhart's plan was the use of the
specialized company (the only one in the British Army) of major
Freddie Gough, consisting of motorcyclists and jeeps armed with heavy
machine-guns that had to reach the Arnhem bridge and conquer it
quickly.
Then there's the tale of the failure of the radio communications: it is
said the radios did not function. That is not true. They did function but
had a range of only five kilometers and were manufactured for the fight
against the Japanese in Burma jungle. It was suggested to transport a
fair number of heavier transmitters/receivers that had a much greater
range and were reliable. This was rejected by general Urquhart
because less soldiers could be transported. His troops landed and were
dropped in an area of about 18 kilometers which is much more than
the reach of 5 kilometers his radios could handle. This was asking for
trouble. He should have known that if it went wrong he would have no
direct connection with his troops, which happened.

General Browning (the commander of the Market Garden airborne

troops) found it necessary to have his headquarters in the fighting
area. It took 36 gliders. He landed between the 82nd and 101st
American airborne divisions. For the commander of the 82 nd Division,
general James Gavin, he was just an obstacle without any use, which
he had to protect with troops, he could have used better. Browning was
there perfect redundant and had better stayed in England, but probably
there was something going to happen he would not like to miss. His
only achievement was he ran quickly out of his glider after landing to
urinate in Germany (it was near the border and that was his great

106
desire). With those 36 gliders Tetrach tanks and reliable transmission
equipment could have been transported.

The choice of attack priorities is remarkable: the American 101st

Airborne Division under General Maxwell Taylor would be lowered just
before the British 30th Corps and had the 'easiest' command, although
they had to conquer several small bridges. But the big bridges over the
Meuse, the Waal and the Rhine had to be conquered by the 82nd
American and the British 1st Airborne divisions. Both generals Urquhart
as Gavin chose for landing areas far from the bridges. At first it was
intended, like in all former operations, to land at night. But there was Major general
not enough moonlight so the operation would take place in daylight. Maxwell Taylor
Suggestions have been made to conquer all bridges in surprise attacks
at first (a logical reasoning). That was rejected because of presumed
heavy German air defenses and a marshy ground round the bridges In
the planning of operation Comet 18 gliders would land on the south
side of the Arnhem bridge which had to be taken by surprise. So a
week before it was no problem at all.

The landing and dropping areas of general Urquhart were far away
from the Arnhem bridge (near Ede, Wolfheze, Renkum and Heelsum, a
distance of about 18 kilometers). The Polish brigade of general
Sosabowski would be dropped on the third day south of Arnhem and
the Rhine near Elden (later that became Driel to use the ferry there
when it was too late). But the heavy equipment (such as artillery and Major general
transport) was already lowered north of Arnhem and the Rhine, under James Gavin
enormous protest of Sosabowski. It proves Sosabowski had no
participation in the planning and not at all about his own brigade. It
also makes clear that above all the Polish brigade had to be kept away
far from Warsaw were the uprising still was going on.

General Gavin had to conquer the bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen.
But he also chose not to attack the bridge directly. He concentrated
most of his troops around Groesbeek where he expected a German
counter attack from the 'Reichswald'. He ordered only one direct
attack. A company of the 504 Regiment carried out that attack on the
bridge over the Maas at Grave and that was immediately successful.
But he also could have attacked with gliders, parachutists and fighter
aircraft on the north side of the Waal. The traffic bridge was his main
goal: but he also took a wait-and-see attitude.

It was impossible to transport the three divisions and the Polish

brigade in one 'lift', because there was insufficient capacity. It was
decided to attack on Sunday 17 September during the day at one
o'clock in the afternoon. Only one-third of all troops would be flown
over. The argument was the returning aircraft urgently needed
maintenance and there was too little ground staff to do that.
That would mean that the aircrafts after a short flight to The
Netherlands could not do the same again. Was there a war going on? If
the attack had taken place in the early morning most of the troops and
the material could have been transported and the ground troops of XXX
Corps would have a full day for their attack. The first troops now could
only do limited action and other units had to defend the landing areas
at night for the second 'lift' that would come the next day. The
Germans got all the time to respond and so they did.
At the end of the day it was for the Germans a piece of cake to
understand what the purpose of the airborne landings was. In a

107
crashed American glider was found a plan of attack, but even that the
Germans did not need.
The British XXX Corps met unexpectedly violent opposition and was
immediately behind on the timetable. In addition, the Germans blew up
the first bridge that had to be conquered: the bridge over the
Wilhelmina Channel.
There had to come a so called. 'Baily'-bridge. That caused hours of
delay. As mentioned earlier a company of the 504 Regiment conquered
the bridge over the Maas with a lightning attack. The next obstacle was
the Maas-Waal Channel: it had three bridges. Two were blown up, but
the third conquered. Still remained the main goals: the rail and road
bridges over the Waal at Nijmegen.

But in the area of the 1st British Airborne Division went everything
wrong what could go wrong. The air landing brigade and the parachute
brigade landed successfully. During the crossing only a few aircrafts
were lost. But exactly the gliders with the equipment of major Freddy
Gough were lost and thus general Urquharts plan of a quick conquer of
the Arnhem bridge was gone. He was many kilometers of the rail and
road bridges at Arnhem. Immediately, the connection problem arose: it
was almost impossible to have contact with each other and the
advance towards Arnhem went slowly. By some miracle elements of
lieutenant-colonel John Frost's battalion succeeded via the extremely
southern route, to conquer the north side of the bridge. When the next
day the last parachute brigade landed the German resistance had
become so strong that there was no question of advancing, but retreat
to the hotel Hartenstein in Oosterbeek, where Urquhart had established
his headquarters.

There the German field marshal Model recently had the headquarters of
his army group established. It looked like a quiet place far from the
front. Model was a convinced nazi and a favorite of Hitler: he had a
glowing hate against officers of Prussian descent, which he regarded as Field marshal
Model
the cause of the defeat in 1918 and Model totally agreed with him.
When the British airborne landings started he went to the vicinity of
Doetinchem and gave leadership to the fight. In spring 1945 he was
surrounded in the German Ruhr area. When he saw no way out, he
committed suicide with his service pistol.

In the same area were the remnants of the German 9th and 10th SS
Panzer divisions that had escaped from 'the Falaise pocket' in
Normandy. They were under command of general Wilhelm Bittrich.
When field marshal Von Rundstedt shortly before took over the
command in the west he already saw eventually an attack towards the
Rhine had to come. He therefore positioned the troops of general
Bittrich in a densely wooded area between Arnhem, Apeldoorn and
Doetinchem. For example, had the attack taken place at Wesel Bittrich
General Wilhelm
also could attack there within a short time. In addition, in a depot at
Bittrich
Kleve were about 30 'Tiger' tanks, the most modern in the world of
that time, together with the Russian T34.

The presence of the German armored forces was, moreover, already

known for Market Garden. Intelligence reports described pretty exactly
the retreat to the north, the names of the divisions were known and
were they positioned in the triangle Arnhem-Apeldoorn-Doetichem.
Also was known the divisions were heavily damaged, but still combat-
ready. These intelligence reports also came under the eyes of

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Eisenhower and Montgomery who Market Garden just approved. It was
proposed to send on the third day extra troops of 6th British Airborne
Division, but that was rejected.

In the staff of General Browning was an intelligence officer major Brian

Urquhart (no family of the general). He was so worried by the flow of
unfavorable information he requested and received permission to have
photo flights near Arnhem. On some pictures were heavy German
tanks which were camouflaged under the trees. When he continued to
protest against the attack, he was dismissed and sent on sick leave by
general Browning because he would have psychological problems. But
he was a very stable person, because in his later career he was many Major Brian Urquhart
years deputy Secretary General of the United Nations. But apparently
no one was allowed to undermine the operation.

When we return to the combat operations, we see that at Arnhem

general Urquhart is beginning to panic. Because of the failing
connections he has no contact with his commanders. We have seen it
was his own fault. Also he gambled on the use of the company of
Freddy Gough, which also failed. He also must have known of the use
of 18 gliders to take the Arnhem bridge from the south in the planning
of operation Comet.
Anyway he tried to find his commanders by himself. He did not
succeed. Instead he is isolated in a house in Arnhem for many hours.
That is for a division commander an incredible mistake. He had to
remain on his headquarter, how difficult that was. In addition, he had
not indicated who was his deputy if he was dead, injured or missing.
Now was that, according to military tradition, the oldest general. That
was brigadier general Hicks, the general of the troops who had landed
with the gliders. He had to give leadership in the defense of the area
around hotel Hartenstein in Oosterbeek. It is known he acted as an
archaic officer from World War I. He forced the troops to unnecessary
counter attacks regardless the losses.
When general Urquhart was back on his headquarters the battle was
lost, but the goal achieved: lieutenant-colonel Frost had the north bank
of the bridge still in hands, but it was impossible to sent reinforcements
so he could hold this position only for a short time.

Meanwhile was also the Polish Brigade dropped near Driel rather than
Elden. That had everything to do with the (too late) discovery of the
ferry near Westerbouwing. General Sosabowski did what he could and
managed to get parts of its troops on the north side. And of course he
had to fight without his artillery and transport which was already
dropped far away on the north side. It was too little and too late. His
troops have done more than their best. But I know from many Polish
veterans that in their hearts they were in Warsaw where the uprising
still was going on.

The British 30th corps under general Horrocks fought along the narrow
corridor: they were regularly attacked in the flanks and occasionally
the corridor was broken, but in the end they reached Nijmegen, where
heavy street fighting broke out. The rail and road bridge were equipped
with explosive charges. The Nijmegen resistance fighter Jan van Hoof
would have cut the connection to the spring-loads, but a commission of
inquiry after the war concluded that that it had not the desired effect.
Jan van Hoof served as a guide for the allies when he died on
September 19, on a jeep.

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General Gavin decided to carry out an historical attack. It is known as
maybe the bravest from the war. A battalion of the 504 Regiment of
colonel Reuben (that regiment had also already conquered in a
individual action the bridge over the Maas-Waal Channel) crossed
under cover of smoke grenades in canvas boats the Waal and has
conquered the road bridge from the north. The tanks of the British 30th
Corps began to cross the bridge. The Germans tried to blow up the
bridge but failed. In one of the first tanks was a young officer: Lord
Carrington who later became a British minister.
Once on the other side however they stopped with the argument they
had to wait for the infantry who was still fighting in Nijmegen. At that
time, the bridge at Arnhem was still in British hands. I know: in the
area between Nijmegen and Arnhem was heavy German resistance,
but if you really want to conquer the Arnhem bridge it was possible at
the cost of heavy losses. Instead, they carefully advanced and
eventually the decision was made to withdraw the remnants of the
British 1st Airborne Division and the Polish Brigade across the Rhine.
This is what the official history tells us. The truth is there was no new
German government formed and the hostilities went on. A major attack
further north was at that moment impossible due to lack of supplies.
All the efforts and sometimes exceptional braveness was done for
nothing. The result was the conquest of the province of North Brabant
and a bulge from Nijmegen to Arnhem. The area between Arnhem and
Nijmegen became a no man's land where bloody battles were fought
until the end of the war. Montgomery named Market Garden 'for 90%
successful'; after that he consistently refused to speak about it.
The same applies for Eisenhower: in his memoirs there is just
summarily talked about it.

From the start of Market Garden everything dramatically went wrong.

We have seen that, despite the earlier bad experiences with airborne
troops on a large scale, the planning was done with great optimism and
nonchalance. The use of all available weapons and direct attacks on the
main bridges were not made. On the first day scarcely half of the
troops were flown over, while two flights were possible. General
Browning let his headquarter flown over and was completely useless.
But probably there was an easy victory to come and he wanted to be
one of the first to celebrate it. There is a curious phenomenon: the
destruction of the bridges. The Germans undermined from early
September 1944 all strategic bridges in the Rhine area. They knew an
allied attack had to come in that direction. In the area of the 101st
American Airborne Division was the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal
blown up (it was the only one). The company of the 82nd Airborne
Division that the bridge over the Maas-Waal channel captured, found it
undermined, but the spring loads could not be detonated. Same thing
happened to the road bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen and the bridge
at Arnhem was not undermined at all. It is true: field marshal Model
initially refused to blow up the bridge at Nijmegen because he believed
to have still chances to advance to the south. But when the 30th British
Corps began to pull over the bridge was tried and failed to blow it up.

In my humble opinion for Market Garden the German offered the allies
a helping hand. I think on Saturday 16 September or on Sunday, 17
September 1944 there would be made public the Germans had put
Hitler aside, had formed a new government and would demilitarize the
north of The Netherlands (maybe also Denmark and Norway). The

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former governor general of the Dutch East Indies De Jonge would
(temporarily) take over the reign over that Dutch area. Both the city of
Arnhem on the north bank, as well as the Deelen air base just north of
it would be in allied hands as a kind of guarantee.

In any case, the port of Antwerp would come at the disposal of the
allies and (maybe) Rotterdam. The allies would stop their advance and
the German army would have the hands free to fight against the
Russians (read communists). The attacks with the V1 and V2-weapons
would be stopped. While the Germans would try to drive the Russians
back, the allies would be able to build up huge armed forces along the
Rhine as a warning to the Russians. How far the Russians had to be
driven back? My guess is across the Polish-Russian border.

What went wrong? I believe general Eisenhower received a German

offer of which he could not properly estimate the consequences, but
apparently was worth a try and he made the gamble. His offensive
against Germany was almost stopped due to lack of supplies and it
looked unlikely it would quickly improve. And if there was a change to
stop the unpopular war in Europe and even the communism could be
halted he was willing to do so. Of his immense armed forces he used a
British Army Corps, four airborne divisions and a parachute brigade. It
sounds cynical: but if it was to fail it would hardly affect the strength of
its armed forces.

It is known that Laurens Op ten Noort in command of his sister Julia

tried to contact De Jonge in Oosterbeek were he lived in a beautiful
house called Dennenoord, but he could not reach him because of the
fighting that started. He had a signed document from Himmler to be
given to De Jonge. Apparently was expected of him he was going to be
presented as the new head of state of The Netherlands. But De Jonge
had left Oosterbeek a few days before and stayed in castle Amerongen
with his friend baron Bentinck, a member of the Dutch nazi party NSB.
He probably reported this but for some reason it was not known to
Laurens Op ten Noort. But already things happened that changed
everything.
Heinrich Himmler and his paladin Walter Schellenberg had the plan to
put Adolf Hitler aside and to form a new government which was
acceptable to the allies. It did not happen. Why?

President Roosevelt and prime minister Churchill were from 12-16

September 1944 at the conference in the Canadian Quebec and must
have known of Market Garden and its effects. And there was also
presented the aforementioned 'Morgenthau plan' named after the
American treasury secretary, to change Germany after the war into a
farmer state without heavy industry. The plan quickly, but was widely
reported in the international press.
The German propaganda (read Joseph Goebbels) made good use of it
in order to fight to the last man. Churchill was fiercely against the plan
related to the situation of the advancing Russians (read communism)
and a German surrender when just like in 1918 large riots would break
out and the Russians would use it to bring communism throughout
Germany.
I think at that moment Himmler and Schellenberg stopped their plans.
Before the presentation of the Morgenthau-plan they saw the allies as a
potential help in the fight against the Russians and thus they were
prepared to put aside the crazy Hitler and his clique. Most of the army

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had probably followed. Now the situation was changed. A post war
Germany would be (just like in 1918) deeply humiliated and they did
not want to cooperate with this.

When the fighting at Arnhem was near the end there was an
unexpected visitor: 'Reichsminister‘ Albert Speer, the minister of
industry and armament. He had every interest in a successful Market
Garden: his industrialists had to be taken in protection against the
nearing communism and that explains his presence in this remote
corner of the front and maybe he was part of the new German
government. He also had plans to assassinate Hitler through the poison
gas Tabun, that by the fans of his command bunker should be brought
inside. Albert Speer was the personal guest of general Bittrich, who is
known as an outspoken opponent of Hitler. He rose in ranks of the
Waffen-SS, but soon he got an aversion against Hitler and the nazi
party. He expressed his support to field marshal Rommel that if Hitler
would be cleared out of the way he would fully support him with his
troops.
Minister Albert Speer expressed his admiration for the armistice which
Bittrich ordered to give the British and Polish wounded medical
treatment on the battlefield. For Bittrich it had been easier to fight
against the British and the Polish to the last man. He didn't do so. He
has openly protested when an American aircraft crew after an
emergency landing was murdered by SS officers.

Who were aware of the plan? Eisenhower cannot have decided this on
his own. The German proposal must have come around late August
through international channels and must have been very serious. There
must have been contact between Roosevelt and Churchill and
consultation with the commanders in chief Marshall and Alan Brook.
They will have given the green light. Then on 10 September 1944 in
the airplane at Brussels the famous meeting took place. At that time
only Montgomery was informed. He then became very angry and
Eisenhower reminded him patiently and delicately he was the boss was
and had to listen to him. I have said it before: Market Garden was
completely contrary to the cautious nature of Montgomery. One day
before he cancelled operation Comet (which was a lighter version than
Market Garden) because the German resistance in the area became
stronger and stronger.
It was an American operation: what for Americans (not to mention the
Canadians) the most important thing was: 'the further we keep the
Russians to the east, the better it is. We do not like to help you for the
third time in this century. When this war is over solve your own
European problems'.
This must have come out of the heart of president Roosevelt: he called
the French general De Gaulle his 'political headache' (who wanted a
total destruction of Germany) and in the advance of the Russians he
saw a new European war coming, where again the Americans had to
deliver the main part.
In summary it is not surprising general Eisenhower risked the gamble
Market Garden.

After the battle the Polish soldiers of general Sosabowski had to endure
it: they were flown in only at the end of battle (not even all of them).
They did more than they could. General Browning found it necessary
(before he was sent to Ceylon) to write a backstabbing letter to the
general staff in which he described general Sosabowski as a person

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who did not know his place and constantly was trying to delay the
case.
The Polish brigade was disbanded and Sosabowski spent the rest of his
life as a simple factory worker. Like most Polish soldiers he could not
return to his beloved homeland where he was regarded as a traitor by
the communist government.

Also the 1st British Airborne Division was disbanded and general
Urquhart was transferred to Malacca and later on to Australia as
commander of the British troops there (that was a considerable
degradation). It seems they were transferred to the end of the world in
functions where no questions were asked.

Julia and Laurens Op ten Noort had after the war despite their extreme
nazi past barely problems where others were condemned to long
sentences. They both died in peaceful conditions about 1977. Laurens
in The Netherlands and Julia about the same time in south Germany.
Julia Op ten Noort was a favorite of Heinrich Himmler and she was one
of the most important nazis in The Netherlands. Never a serious
research of her activities and her role round Market Garden is done.
The same applies to her brother and esquire De Jonge.

The paladin and substitute of Himmler, Walter Schellenberg, was

arrested in Denmark after the German surrender and sentenced by an
American military court in 1946 to just six years in prison, but was
released after three years because he should have suffered from a liver
disease. He lived in comfort in Switzerland and later on in Italy and he
even wrote his memoirs in which he describes himself not as a SS-man
but more like a soldier of the Salvation Army. He died on 31 March
1952. People who saw him after his death (he was just 42 years old)
said he looked like a very old man. There are strong rumors he had no
liver disease but he was poisoned.

There is a good reason for all this: imagine if I would have written
down the truth (of which I am 100% sure) then that would mean
enormous trouble with the Russians, even after so many years.

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The letter of a coward

The letter of general

Frederick Browning
written after
Market Garden.
Looking at the date
It was about the time
he was no longer
deputy commander.
Even the name of the
brigade is not correctly
written.
A letter of a
frustrated coward.
Source:
Website of the family
Sosabowski

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115
An unsolved mystery

Through the years I had the honor and privilege to meet and speak
many veterans. About 1993 I met the SAS veteran Frank Maidment.
The SAS (Special Air Force) is a British elite force founded in the
Second World War. There are used mostly for secret missions behind
enemy lines. The members and veterans have a restriction: they
almost do not speak about their missions. But what he told me is very
interesting. About 14 September (three days before Market Garden) he
was with two more SAS-men flown in a water plane to the Rhine
between Wageningen and Arnhem. They were dressed in civilian
clothing. He told me they had orders to go north ‘to meet somebody’.
About 30 kilometers to the north was a successfully operating Belgian
SAS-unit. But I do not believe they were going to meet them. That
could have been done by parachute and in uniform. My guess is they
were going to meet esquire De Jonge. For some reason it did not
happen and they got involved in the fighting. Frank Maidment took
over the uniform and equipment of a killed soldier. During the battle he
accompanied brigadier general Hackett for some time. On the picture
he is standing second from the left. You can understand I am looking
for additional information. I know nothing about the faith of the other
SAS-men.

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The aftermath
The Canadian 1st Army under command of general Guy Simonds
(instead of general Crerar who was ill), was ordered to clear the
Scheldt estuary of German troops. They had to advance through South
Beveland and Walcheren towards Vlissingen in open terrain and
practically without any coverage. The losses were enormous: it was the
butchers account that had to be paid for the escape of the 15th
German army of general Von Zangen and because of Market Garden.
The attack started weeks too late and the Germans had enough time to
build up the defense. 8 November 1944 the fighting was over.
Then the Western Scheldt could be made free of mines and on 28
November 1944, the first ship arrived in Antwerp. To honor the
Canadians it was a Canadian ship: the Fort Cataraqui.

Picture made during the

Yalta conference.
From left to right:
Churchull, Roosevelt
and Stalin

The American troop buildup came now gaining momentum: the

American 7th Army under general Alexander Patch which had landed in
southern France and was strengthened by a provisional French army
under general Jean De Lattre De Tassigny, positioned itself south of
General Patton's 3rd Army. Above the American 1st Army came the
American 9th Army under general William Simpson. The Americans had
a total of four armies along the Rhine. In the North were that the
British 2nd and the Canadian 1st army, supplemented by troops of all
nationalities. Eisenhower had In total so six armies at his disposal, not
to mention an air force that just had reached almost a complete air
superiority.

From 4 to 11 February 1945 was in the Russian city of Yalta a

conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Here were the
agreements on a post-war Germany confirmed and there would only be

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an unconditional German surrender accepted. During the conference,
Stalin declared to be a supporter of a strong independent Poland as a
buffer between Germany and Russia. In Moscow the American
ambassador and personal friend of Roosevelt, William Averell
Harriman, warned him repeatedly for the 'promises' of Stalin. At that
time there were about 200,000 Polish soldiers active in Western Europe
and fought with a huge commitment, but with the aim of an
independent Poland. Also the Polish government in exile in London
warned Roosevelt. But he was already seriously ill. It is similar to the
conference of Versailles in 1918 when the US president Wilson was
infected with the Spanish flu and was so sick that he accepted every
proposal. The opinion of Churchill was not important like during the
conference in Quebec: Great Britain was financial and military
completely dependent of America. Fact is that in Yalta the eastern
European countries were given away to Russia.

Heinrich Himmler was active again in that period: in collaboration with

his masseur Felix Kersten, a Finnish physician he got in touch with the
Swedish count Folke Bernadotte, who was then vice president of the
Swedish Red Cross. With jewish prisoners as change he tried for the
last time to conclude peace with the Western Allies.

On April 12, 1945, president Roosevelt died around one o'clock in the
afternoon behind his working table. He was succeeded by his 'running
mate' and vice-president Harry Truman. Around the clique of Hitler was
hysterical euphoria: this would be the start of the final victory, but for
the 'regular' American soldier on the front it was the opposite: it was
known he was seriously ill. They regretted the death of a great
president and were hoping that the new president Truman would mean
the same for them.

The Russians advanced and reached the Oder river near Berlin. Stalin
had ordered the field marshals Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Koniev to
conquer the city. But he played them off against each other: the price President Harry Truman
would be the 'Reichstag‘ parliament building. The ambitious field
marshals were only looking for their own fame. When Zhukov slowed
down, he ordered his artillery to fire against the troops of Koniev.

Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide (with whom he was
married some days earlier). Joseph Goebbels and his wife did the
same, but they also poisoned their six little children. What a heroes.

There was no command structure anymore in the German army. So in

several places was capitulated on 5 May 1945. But the actual overall
capitulation was on 8 may in Berlin, where field marshal Wilhelm Keitel
signed the documents. The war in Europe was over.
It was then for the first time Winston Churchill used the words 'iron
curtain'. He meant that Russia and the danger of a communist invasion
from the occupied eastern European countries.

The capitulation of Germany means VE-day (Victory Europe day) but

VJ-day (Victory Japan day) was still far away. Island after island in the
Pacific was conquered, then New Guinea and the Philippines and Japan
was finally achieved: the first Japanese islands. It were Okinawa and
Iwo Jima. When the Americans attacked the Japanese fought
themselves literally dead: it was an attack on their homeland and their
emperor. The American losses were enormous. The American fleet was

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attacked by so-called Kamikaze aircrafts: the pilot was supposed not to
return and a big bomb was placed in the plane. They tried to collapse
on the American naval vessels and had regular success. It was
calculated that an attack on Japan would ask between 500,000 and
700,000 American casualties.

We have seen that the Americans had developed an atomic bomb in

July 1945 and it was so secret (operation Manhattan) that the US vice
president Harry Truman only after its inauguration was informed. He
had to take the difficult decision to use the bomb actually. In retrospect
it is easy to judge that he should have done this. Now we know the
long-term consequences of radioactive radiation, but then again: I
think president Truman made the right decision. The countless who
were in captivity in Japanese camps and/or as forced laborers blessed
the day the atomic bombs are used.
On 6 August the first bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. The Japanese
government refused to capitulate. The Americans waited five days and
there was no response.

The Russians acted quickly: on August 8, Russia declared war on

Japan, invaded Manchuria, Korea, the peninsula Sakhalin and the Kuril
Islands, a group of islands north of Japan. They had conquered a large
number of strategic points in a short time without heavy losses.

On August 11, the second bomb was thrown on Nagasaki and then
Japan was willing to capitulate. For the first time in their lives the
Japanese heard the voice of their emperor Hirohito: he spoke a nearly
unintelligible 'court language' and gave the order to capitulate. This
was signed on September 2, 1945 on an American battleship in Tokyo
Bay.

Also in Japan a kind of Nuremberg held: there were war criminals and
responsible heads of government hanged, but the biggest crook of
them all, emperor Hirohito, was not brought to justice. With his
knowledge and in his name all those crimes were committed. He was
allowed to remain emperor, but no longer 'divine'. That was the work of
general MacArthur who then was a kind of governor of Japan. That had
everything to do with the rapid Russian advance: especially the Russian
occupation of the Kuril Islands were regarded as an outright communist
threat and therefore the feudal Japanese people were westernized
rapidly and, just as in Germany, financed with American dollars and at
a low interest rate.
And so it could happen the two countries that started and lost the war,
Germany and Japan, and that were responsible for many millions of
deaths were rewarded because of the fear of communism. They
became and still are economic world leaders. How can you explain this
to the victims?

Finally this: the atomic bomb was the guarantee that the 'cold war' is
not escalated into a 'hot war'. Then again countless millions of people
would have been killed, wounded or displaced. Because of the bomb
also the government leaders and generals, who otherwise always were
relative save, would become leaders of a world where life was
impossible when they left their bomb proof bunkers. That's been our
insurance policy after 1945. Thanks to the people of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki who have made that possible. Their suffering of the
explosions and the radiation diseases that plagued them the rest of

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their lives have opened the eyes of the 'strategists' and realize a
nuclear war only provides losers.

At the end of this publication I want to go back to 1914. What have the
heads of government in those days done to their population: whole
generations are killed in both world wars, wounded or traumatized and
the jewish population of Europe is almost massacred. If the
governments in that period had negotiated on the basis of reasonable
compromises, then we would have had around 1950 a European Union
including Russia. A lost century, yes even the century that in future will
be described as the biggest disgrace in human history.

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