The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945
Page 45
The fact that most of these Russian reinforcements consist of strong regiments drawn from the Far East has led to speculation in diplomatic quarters here as to the exact extent of the “published” Russo-Japanese pact of mutual friendship and non-aggression. Most quarters here feel that it provided a welcome escape for the Japanese Government, whose Foreign Minister, during his stay in Europe, witnessed several Axis rebuffs.
The Russian concentration of the main reinforcements in the south, however, is interpreted here as a measure of the gravity with which Russia regards the German occupation of the islands of Lemnos and Samothrace following the collapse of Greek resistance. From these positions German forces not only could threaten an intransigent Turkey with aerial attacks but could bottle up any Russian fleet bent on operating in the Mediterranean from the Black Sea.
It further shows the importance that the Russian High Command attaches to the possibility of Germany’s re-employing the famous “Hoffman Plan” used so successfully by Generals Hoffman and von Mackensen in 1917 against the Russians. That plan envisaged an enveloping operation of the Russian armies in the Ukraine by simultaneous pushes from the north and south and, only if these operations progressed, a direct frontal attack from the west. The success of these operations resulted in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March, 1918.
Russian apprehension is further heightened by an increasingly acrimonious tone in the Axis press in its references to the Soviet Union. According to one report reaching this capital tonight, several German newspapers and one Italian paper this afternoon, after sarcastically referring to Russia’s repeated statements she “wished to preserve Europe from a further extension of the conflict,” listed the following five actions on the part of the Moscow government, qualifying each as a deliberate attempt to disturb the “construction of a new order in Europe.”
Repeated conversations in London between Ivan Maisky, Soviet Ambassador, and Anthony Eden, British Foreign Secretary, which the Axis interprets as indicating a hostile attitude on the part of Moscow, which is held to be desirous of entering into “a closer alliance with Britain.”
The Russian assurances to Turkey on the eve of the Vienna visit of Dragisha Cvetkovitch and Dr. Alexander Cincar-Markovitch, former Yugoslav Premier and Foreign Minister, respectively, to adhere to the Axis pact. The reported extension of Russian-Turkish exchanges, which Berlin allegedly interprets as directed against herself, further irritates the Axis Powers.
The Russian-Yugoslav agreement on non-aggression and mutual friendship, signed in Moscow a bare three hours before the German onslaught against Yugoslavia, was entered into, according to these papers, despite Russian knowledge of the impending German action. It was interpreted as a deliberate and calculated act of “passive hostility.”
Russia’s sharp accusation that Budapest should “be ashamed of itself” for attacking a country with which it had just concluded a non-aggression pact and the subsequent polemics in the world press were, according to the Axis charges, “deliberately engineered to put the worst possible interpretation on a delicate situation.”
Russia’s repeated attempts to keep Bulgaria in line and prevent her from gravitating to “her natural allies, the Axis powers,” are not interpreted as the outcome of normal Russian apprehension at German expansion in the Balkans and the Middle East, but as an un-warranted interference in “Germany’s sphere of influence.”
MAY 4, 1941
OUR ARMY TRAINS FOR NEW WARFARE
Military Experts Say Germans Have Made First Change in Basic Methods Since Crecy
By CHARLES HURD
WASHINGTON, May 3—Behind the drilling and marching of the new American Army and the record production of war material, military experts in this country are shaping a force based on the conviction that the German staff has invented the third basic change in military science to occur since masses of men waded into each other armed with clubs, swords and spears.
The first vital change in warfare occurred in the fourth century A.D., when a horde of wild horsemen rode down the formerly invincible Roman legions. Their victories, which destroyed the old Roman Empire, started the career of the mounted soldier and laid the foundations for the age of chivalry.
That age lasted for about 1,000 years, until the Battle of Crécy, when an English army of men appeared with powerful longbows and fired arrows that penetrated the armor of the knights and their horses, and thus restored the basic power of war to the man on foot. From the longbow came the development of missiles, ranging from bullets to 2,000-pound shells.
NEW TACTICS
The European conquests of 1940 again took basic striking force from the man on foot, the infantry, and put it in the hands of two types of “mounted” men, acting in unison.
Careful studies of the German campaigns in the Low Countries and in France last year, and more recently in Cyrenacia and in the Balkans, have revealed the union of tanks and airplanes.
Tanks themselves needed artillery preparation to lay a path of destruction ahead of them. Airplanes can bomb and machine-gun objectives, but these air raids have little value unless places attacked by airplanes can be raided and “mopped up” immediately by forces strong enough to hold them. And infantry cannot keep up with the pace of modern lightning thrusts.
Accordingly, the Germans “married” their aircraft and tanks, relegating infantry to the job of occupation.
MAY 7, 1941
WASHINGTON WARY ON STALIN’S MOVE
Diplomatic Observers Believe It May Mean Opposing Axis or Joining It
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, May 6—The replacing of Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff as Soviet Premier by Joseph Stalin aroused great interest here. It was considered to be significant, although official experts recognized that in the light of experience the full import might not become known to the outside world for some time.
The State Department had no official confirmation of the change, but the Moscow radio announcement was accepted at its face value. However, the fact that Mr. Molotoff will remain as Foreign Commissar, it was believed, robbed the announcement of overshadowing importance, even though that office is subject at all times to the orders of Mr. Stalin.
Diplomatic experts thought the change might mean one of three things:
The merging of the Communist party and the State so that Mr. Stalin can deal with problems as head of the State in a critical time.
The taking over of power by Mr. Stalin in the face of a threatened German attack on the Soviet Union.
The discarding of old policy for a new one of doing what Germany wishes. This presumably could mean joining the Axis.
At least officials were satisfied that the announcement meant the merging of the party with the State for the present. In their opinion that obviously must inevitably weaken the party.
Although there have been rumors of a German attack on the Ukraine, diplomats were inclined to doubt that Reichs-fuehrer Hitler intended to launch such an attack.
On the other hand, they weighed more carefully the question as to whether it meant a new policy of more complete friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany, even to the point of Moscow joining the Axis.
Had Mr. Molotoff gone as Foreign Commissar also, this possibility would have been treated very seriously. It was recalled in this connection that when Maxim Litvinoff was ousted as Foreign Commissar there followed the Russo-German pact that precipitated the present war.
While this condition, according to the reports, does not now exist, there have been rumors recently that Russian generals were exerting pressure on Mr. Stalin to adopt a more conciliatory policy toward the Axis. These reports have been without official confirmation.
Joseph Stalin in the 1940s.
MAY 7, 1941
INDO-CHINA SIGNS PACT WITH JAPAN
Wireless to The New York Times.
TOKYO, May 6—After four months of negotiations Japan and France today signed two agreements for economic collaboration between Japan and Fr
ench Indo-China. They are hailed here as another concrete step in the establishment of a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” under Japanese leadership.
Signatures were affixed this afternoon in a ceremonious setting by Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and Hajime Matsumiya, Special Ambassador to Indo-China, for Japan, and by French Ambassador Charles Arsene-Henry and former Governor General René Robin for France and French Indo-China.
The first agreement is a convention regarding residence and navigation, providing reciprocal treatment of nationals as the basis, and most-favored nation treatment, as the occasion demands, for entry, establishment, acquisition and possession of movable and immovable property, conduct of commerce, manufacture, imposition of taxes and treatment of companies.
In particular, French Indo-China agrees to admit Japanese capital in the development of agriculture, mining and hydraulic concessions. Ships of the two countries are to be treated on an equal footing in principle.
The second agreement, a bulky document that will require months of study before ratification, concerns trade, tariffs and payments.
TARIFF CUTS FOR JAPAN
It provides reciprocal most-favored nation treatment in respect to customs and tariffs, but French Indo-China agrees to admit Japan’s principal products either duty free or at reduced minimum duties and to impose only minimum duties on all other Japanese products. In return Japan agrees to give favorable customs treatment to the principal products of Indo-China.
The trade provisions envisage increased mutual trade. French Indo-China will export rice, maize, minerals and other principal products to Japan and will import Japanese textiles, other manufactured articles and miscellaneous products.
Payments are to be made in Japanese yen and Indo-Chinese piastres and will be cleared on a basis of compensation through Japanese and Indo-Chinese banks without the intermediary of foreign currency. French Indo-China agrees to afford a “special favor regarding the payment for Indo-China rice purchased by Japan.”
Furthermore, French Indo-China agrees to the admission of Japanese commercial firms into the Federation of Importers and Exporters, which has been one of the principal issues until recently. Indi-China agrees also to the establishment of Japanese schools and the institution of periodic economic conferences to examine general economic questions between the two countries.
MAY 13, 1941
BRITISH ASTOUNDED
Hitler’s Deputy Is in Hospital After Bailing Out Of War Plane
By ROBERT P. POST
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, May 13—Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the German Nazi party and the third-ranking personage in the German State, parachuted to earth in Scotland on Saturday night and is now a prisoner of war.
That may sound like something from a mystery thriller by Oppenheim. But in sober truth, 10 Downing Street issued a communiqué last night that is probably the strangest and most dramatic document ever to come from the official home of a British Prime Minister.
THE BRITISH STATEMENT
This statement said:
Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany and party leader of the National Socialist party, has landed in Scotland in the following circumstances:
On the night of Saturday, the tenth, a Messerschmitt 110 was reported by our patrols to have crossed the coast of Scotland and to be flying in the direction of Glasgow. Since a Messerschmitt 110 would not have fuel to return to Germany, this report was at first disbelieved.
Later on a Messerschmitt 110 crashed near Glasgow with its guns unloaded. Shortly afterward a German officer who had bailed out was found with his parachute in the neighborhood, suffering from a broken ankle.
He was taken to a hospital in Glasgow, where he at first gave his name as Horn, but later on he declared that he was Rudolf Hess.
He brought with him various photographs of himself at different ages, apparently in order to establish his identity.
These photographs were deemed to be photographs of Hess by several people who knew him personally. Accordingly, an officer of the Foreign Office closely acquainted with Hess before the war has been sent up by airplane to see him in the hospital.
IDENTIFIED BY OFFICIAL
Ivone A. Kirkpatrick, who used to be first secretary in the British Embassy in Berlin, was the official sent to Scotland, and the Ministry of Information announced early this morning that Herr Hess’s identification had been definitely established.
Earlier the Germans had announced that Herr Hess, who was outranked only by Reichsfuehrer Hitler and Reich Marshal Hermann Goering in the Nazi hierarchy, had been suffering from hallucinations and had violated Herr Hitler’s orders in taking the plane.
It was just before nightfall Saturday that Herr Hess was found by a Scottish farm worker; he was groaning in agony, with his parachute wrapped around him. He was taken first to a little two-roomed cottage and then was turned over to the military authorities. This morning he was in a military hospital somewhere near Glasgow.
That is the bare outline of the facts as they are known so far. What do they mean? The Germans have already announced that Herr Hess’s “adjutants” have been arrested. The British are inclined to believe that there may be another purge in Germany—a purge similar to the one following the arrest of Captain Ernst Roehm, who was also one of Herr Hitler’s closest collaborators, on June 30, 1934.
But from this distance it is almost impossible to say what this development means as far as Germany is concerned. One can record only what the British believe it means. One Briton told the writer that “this is the first ‘break’ we have had since the war started.”
The British are not inclined to believe the German contention that Herr Hess was unbalanced. They assert that it is impossible to fly a Messerschmitt fighter adequately if one is suffering from “mental disorder.” Furthermore, the British emphasize, there is the fact that Herr Hess had with him photographs to establish his identity. That, it is insisted here, is clear proof that Herr Hess was in his right mind.
POSSIBILITY OF ROW
It is possible, of course, that Herr Hess had been in some sort of row with other leaders of the Nazi party and got out while the getting-out was good. It is also possible that Herr Hess, a fanatical Nazi, found that there was some sort of “monkey business” going on that he could not stomach.
In either case, the British would appear to have caught a prize of untold worth. If Herr Hess is sane and really fled from Germany, he can be an intelligence officer’s dream. The information he could give, if he were willing to give it, would be invaluable. Since he apparently set a course straight for Britain it would not appear that he is unwilling to help the British.
There is one other consideration that the British are thinking about. For months—indeed, ever since the war started—many British officials have been basing hopes for a final victory on a crack-up in Germany. Others have believed that a crack-up would not come until Germany had been hit so hard that the Reich would crack under the force of the blow.
In view of the Hess development, one British problem will be to choke off those persons who will interpret this dime-novel occurrence as indicating that Germany is cracking. Of course, these persons may be right. But British leaders know that they must not make any such assumption.
From the British point of view it is still a long, hard war. It is not likely that Prime Minister Winston Churchill or anybody else will succumb to an overoptimistic interpretation of this development.
Rudolf Hess’s starting point—Augsburg—was disclosed by Berlin; his point of arrival—Glasgow—was disclosed by London. The flying distance between the two places is 825 miles.
MAY 8, 1941
IRAQI SIEGE BROKEN BY BRITISH ASSAULT
By DAVID ANDERSON
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, May 7—Iraqi troops threatening the British garrison at the airport between Lake Habbania and the Euphrates River were blasted from their strong position in
the sandhills yesterday by a sustained Royal Air Force attack with bombs and machine guns, supported by infantry.
The insurgent Iraqi force withdrew in the direction of Feluja on the Baghdad road after suffering heavy losses—estimated by Prime Minister Winston Churchill today at 1,000, including twenty-six officers and 408 men taken prisoner. The Air Ministry disclosed that howitzers were transported by plane from Basra to enable the British force at Habbania to return some of the shelling to which they had been subjected for more than four days.
[Germany is reported to have demanded that Syria permit her troops to pass through in their push toward the Suez Canal. She is also reported to have threatened that they would enter by parachutes if barred at the frontier. The British Press Service in New York said reports from abroad showed that Palestine had “never been so quiet” and branded Axis reports as “fantastic.”]
Headquarters of the British Middle East Command at Cairo reported that Imperial troops, bolstered by Iraqi levies, had advanced up a slope of the Habbania escarpment after R.A.F. night patrols had told of finding Iraqi trenches and gun emplacements empty. Aircraft then located Iraqi detachments clustered around the oil pipeline to the East. They were waving white flags.
The motley garrison of Habbania, consisting of regular soldiers, Arabs and airmen, occupied the site from which the forces of Premier Rashid Ali Beg Gailani had menaced them since Friday. The communiqué said it was the Iraqi levies who faced their fellow countrymen remaining on the hilltop and drove them toward the flood waters of the Euphrates.
While this was going on, the Royal Air Force harried the retreating foe by skimming over the disorganized columns and showering high explosives and bullets on them. They were in no mood to offer resistance, for the British planes had kept up a relentless attack the previous night.