The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945
Page 48
The first account of events in Baghdad during the last few weeks was received today. As far as the stranded colony of several hundred Britons was concerned, Mr. Knabenshue, the United States Minister, played a leading role. Altogether 500 persons were sheltered at the British Embassy and the United States Legation for more than a month. British women and children had been evacuated from the capital on April 29. The men were placed under the orders of Sir Kinahan and Mr. Knabenshue.
Police guards and then Iraqi soldiers took up posts outside the legation on May 2, but two days later they were withdrawn. Excitement was greatest when the Iraqi Foreign Minister telephoned to say that Iraqi subjects must leave the building, as it might be bombed within the hour. It was explained that the British had threatened to destroy Baghdad’s public buildings unless the Iraqi troops menacing the R.A.F. garrison at Habbania were withdrawn. Rashid Ali, it is stated, sent a counter-ultimatum saying that all British subjects within the capital would be bombed in retaliation.
Mr. Knabenshue refused to listen to his guests’ offers to surrender to the Iraqis to save the United States Legation. He helped them to toss out all inflammable material, including old records, from the basement. Any kind of bomb would have flattened either the British Embassy or the legation, but the crisis passed without an attack. From then on Mr. Knabenshue remained close to his British charges, sharing hardships with them.
JUNE 2, 1941
NAZIS LIST CAPTIVES IN CRETE AT 10,000
Berlin Says That Invasion Has Been Completed as Port on South Coast Is Taken
By C. BROOKS PETERS
By Telephone to The New York Times.
BERLIN, June 1—It was said in Berlin tonight that the invasion of Crete had now successfully been completed. With the joining of hands between Italian and German forces at Ierapetra, which occurred yesterday, the single harbor at all navigable on the otherwise precipitous southern Cretan coast is in Axis hands.
Therewith the only possible avenue of escape for any sizable contingent of the remaining British and Greek troops is said to have been closed. It was announced here tonight that around 10,000 of them had already been captured. At Ierapetra there is a sandy beach from which small groups of soldiers might have escaped in light craft from the pursuing Axis forces.
The harbor at Ierapetra itself, Germans declare, however, is so badly in need of dredging that the entrance of any sizable vessel into it is impossible. Small groups of British and Greek troops have attempted to flee and gain the open sea in light boats, it is reported here. Not many of them, however, it is added, have been successful.
EXPECT MORE PRISONERS
The Germans apparently count upon either capturing or destroying whatever Allied forces are still operating on Crete. Even those forces that succeeded in reaching open water are not necessarily safe. Yesterday the German Air Force is reported to have attacked British naval units endeavoring to cover the escape of as many troops as possible in the waters between North Africa and the southern coast of Crete. They are reported to have hit directly and badly damaged a destroyer, sunk a merchant vessel of 3,000 tons, destroyed a schooner loaded with ammunition and damaged a small troop transport—which was already within seventy-five miles of the Egyptian coast.
The cleaning up of the dispersed remnants of the Allied forces in the southern portion of Crete is making good progress, according to the German High Command. Authoritative quarters declare, moreover, that although some of the dispersed Allied units have taken to the mountains, the breaking of all resistance and therewith the total occupation of Crete will be completed in a very few days.
Chapter 7
“NAZIS TRY THE BLITZ ON RUSSIANS”
June–July 1941
There was no secret by June that something major was poised to happen on the long border between Germany, its Axis partners and the Soviet Union. However, not everyone thought it would happen. The veteran newsman Walter Duranty wrote a piece for The Times on June 17 in which he argued that the two dictatorships were more likely to make a deal than go to war. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, refused to believe any of the intelligence evidence he was given because he thought the British were trying to deliberately foment a Soviet-German war. But if Stalin had read The Times, the prospect of war was hard to avoid: “Nazi Troops Pouring to Russian Border” on May 30; “Clash Is Expected Soon” ran on June 10 and, on the very day of the invasion, “Big Armies Mass on Eastern Front.” The invasion was the biggest news since the campaign in the West more than a year before and the Times office in Berlin had the news out to America the same morning, while Ralph Parker in Moscow confirmed it. The invasion, code-named “Operation Barbarossa” by the Germans, was the largest invasion in history, with four million German, Hungarian, Romanian and Slovakian soldiers, joined by the co-belligerent Finns a few days later. It had been planned since the previous year for May 1941 but had to be postponed not just because of the Mediterranean campaign, but primarily because of a late-winter thaw and the muddy roads that followed. Hanson Baldwin, Times military correspondent and something of an expert on German tactics, wrote a story under the title “Nazis Try the Blitz on Russia,” arguing that this colossal campaign marked for Hitler “the fork in the road toward smashing conquest or ultimate defeat.” The invasion focused everyone’s attention on the Eastern Front. “Reds Here Urge Lend-Lease,” reported The Times, and although Lend-Lease could not formally be extended to Russia, a way was found to promise material aid. The anti-Bolshevik Churchill pledged assistance the very day of the invasion, insisting that he was supporting the ordinary patriotic Russian against the Axis aggressor rather than supporting Communism.
The main problem for reporters was the paucity of solid news material. The German High Command was unusually silent, though the German press hinted at great victories. Soviet news was unreliable but was relayed to New York nonetheless. In truth the Soviet defenders in the first two months of the campaign suffered terrible losses and within weeks German armies had swept across eastern Poland into the Baltic states and toward Leningrad in the north, Minsk and Kiev farther south. On July 30 Brooks Peters from Berlin reported “Berlin Confident of Soviet Defeat,” though the German communiqués continued to lack detail and conviction, while on the same day from Moscow came the news of “New Soviet Blows.” This was one of the few areas of the war where the press had to rely on secondhand information.
While the invasion went on, America also had to watch the Pacific. On July 26 Roosevelt approved a further embargo on oil supplies for Japan and a freezing of Japanese assets in the United States. A day later The Times reported that Japanese troops had occupied Saigon in southern Indo-China (this later became Vietnam). General Douglas MacArthur was appointed overall commander-in-chief in the South Pacific area, with a brief to reinforce the American military presence in the Philippines. Japan now directly threatened the European empires in Southeast Asia where there was oil and raw materials to compensate for the American embargo. The United States was edging closer not just to war, but to war across two different oceans.
JUNE 1, 1941
BRITISH IN BAGHDAD
German Fliers Reported Fleeing—Civil Group Rules the Capital
By DAVID ANDERSON
LONDON, May 31—An armistice signed in Baghdad late this afternoon brought to an end the rebellion in Iraq against Britain, London learned tonight. Indian fighters of the British forces took up positions in the outskirts of the capital city, from which Premier Rashid Ali el Gailani, leader of the revolt, and all his followers were able to do so had fled.
The Emir Abdul Illah, the Regent deposed by Rashid Ali, will form a new government without delay. Apparently the sole damper on celebrations of these developments is the absence of 6-year-old King Feisal, who is said to have been kidnapped by Rashid Ali.
MAYOR ASKS ARMISTICE
A request for armistice terms was made to the British by the Mayor of Baghdad after Rashid Ali had crossed the Iranian frontier at the town of Kasr-i-Shlrin yesterday and British troop
s had closed in on Baghdad. A committee of four citizens, headed by the Mayor, took charge of Baghdad’s affairs, first ordering all irregular military organizations to disband, according to reports that reached London by way of Cairo.
An Iraqi officer carrying a white flag presented himself at the British headquarters before Baghdad as the first step in the armistice negotiations. Earlier the Mayor had seen Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, the British Ambassador to Iraq, who recommended parleys with British military commanders.
The terms of the armistice guarantee Iraq’s unity and independence. The people are asked to return to work at once. The blackout has been lifted in Baghdad but no traffic is permitted on the streets after nightfall. Without question the British will receive the right to use all highways, railroads, airports and other communication facilities In Iraq, which figured in the treaty over which Rashid Ali started the dispute.
Archad el Omari Mohafez, president of the Iraqi Commission of Internal Security, said in a statement today:
“The hostilities, for which there is no longer any reason, will be ended as soon as the commission has received assurances that the complete independence of the country and the honor of the army will be guaranteed.”
Authorized statements clarifying the situation in Iraq have been given out in London. They say that the trouble has been cleared up and that it now is plainly evident that the dispute was not between the British Government and the Arab peoples, but between Britain and Germany. It is thought that the Nazi failure to go to the aid of Rashid Ali in force was due in large measure to the way the British troops fought tooth and nail in Crete, thereby tying up the German schedule.
Stress is laid on the fact that Rashid Ali fled to Iran instead of going to Mosul, where Germans still are to be found. The campaign against these German forces, mostly air units, will continue; the struggle in Iraq is over only as far as the Arabs are concerned.
JUNE 15, 1941
CLASH IS EXPECTED SOON
Germans Are Expected to Attack
By DANIEL T. BRIGHAM
By Telephone to The New York Times.
BERNE, Switzerland, June 14—The latent rivalry between Russia and Germany is believed in diplomatic circles here to have reached a point where political-military developments are expected at any moment.
Indications point to military action, probably along the Russian-German dividing line in Poland. within the next ten days. But some observers hold that Adolf Hitler will make at least one more political move to bring Russia into line before he launches his forces on a campaign directed at taking the Ukraine.
Recurrent reports of steadily reinforced garrisons on both sides of the demarcation line in Poland have long given indications of which way Russian-German negotiations have been turning. Each time at the last minute the Kremlin, apparently, has acceded to one more request.
Now, however, the latest German demands, as reported to neutral foreign diplomatic quarters here, include the withdrawal of at least half of the Russian forces east of the demarcation line; withdrawal of aerial garrisons at Brest-Litovsk and Lwow increased deliveries of Russian gasoline, oil and wheat and the acceptance of German control commissions to supervise the withdrawals of the Russian forces and speed up production.
Russia’s answer to this, according to these circles, was to increase her military forces along a line running from the corner of former East Prussia and Lithuania to the Bessarabian northern frontier, from 105 divisions to about 160. On the other side of the line the Germans are reported to have just completed the concentration of 143 divisions plus several aerial detachments.
In the North Baltic States, the Russians are reported to have massed twenty-five divisions equipped with new material, while in the South, in Bessarabia, Russian forces have been reduced in the ceded territory but withdrawn behind newly constructed fortifications on the eastern bank of the Dniester Rover. The Dniester forces have been greatly strengthened during the last ten days, presumably in preparation for a counter-move to a potential “political move” by Herr Hitler.
This “political” move directly concerns Rumania in that, in exchange for the use of Rumanian bases and the wholehearted “collaboration” of the Rumanian Army, Herr Hitler is reported to have offered General Ion Antonescu, Premier of Rumania, two days ago the return of the Bessarabian Province seized by Russia early last year.
Reports arriving from neutral military observers in Bucharest tell of a total of twenty-seven new German divisions just arrived there and being deployed to the East. Another “political” move also apparently on the books is the rumored forthcoming adherence of Finland to the Axis pact. This Helsinki denies, pointing to her fundamentally neutral stand so far in the Russian-German “negotiations.”
JUNE 7, 1941
ONE-THIRD OF JEWS FOUND IN NAZIS’ GRIP
Joint Distribution Official Puts Figure at 5,000,000
Special to The New York Times.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., June 6—More than one-third of the 15,000,000 Jews in the world are now in countries under German domination, subject to discriminatory anti-Jewish regulations that make sound economic and social existence impossible, Joseph A. Schwartz, vice chairman of the European field of the Joint Distribution Committee, reported in an address before the national conference of Jewish Social Welfare here today.
Another third of the world’s Jewish population is now in Russian territory or in countries recently acquired by Russia, he said, with the remaining one-third in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the United States. It is to the Jewish population of the United States that European Jews, subject to persecution and discrimination, look for support, Mr. Schwartz stressed.
“Despite all the obstacles and difficulties arising out of the war situation, the Joint Distribution Committee is today functioning throughout Europe,” Mr. Schwartz said. “Help is being extended in Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, France and Holland, and possibilities of immigration are being made available to the Jews still remaining in Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Slovakia.”
Mr. Schwartz estimated that through the activities of the Joint Distribution Committee 1,000,000 persons were receiving help or service of some kind.
JUNE 17, 1941
Soviet-Nazi Deal Held More Likely Than Clash Despite All Rumors
Lack of Scruples on Part Of Stalin and Hitler, Cited As Opening Way—Negotiations Are Declared to be Going on
By WALTER DURANTY
It is not wholly an accident that reports of an impending clash between Russia and Germany coincide with the arrival in London of Sir Stafford Cripps, Britain’s Ambassador to Moscow. As early as last February Sir Stafford made no secret of his belief that Germany would attack Russia this Summer, probably before the end of July.
The Ambassador argued that Adolf Hitler already realized he would be unable to reach a quick decision against “Britain and that he must therefore,” seek “a solid” foundation” for subsequent peace proposals by occupying the Ukraine and perhaps part of the North Caucasus. That sounded reasonable enough, but few persons in Moscow thought anything of the kind would occur this year.
However, Sir Stafford maintained that Herr Hitler knew better than anyone the degree, speed and “volume of the current upswing in Soviet” industrial-especially military-production, in labor discipline “generally and in the reorganization and the reinforcement of the Red Army and Air Force.
UNCENSORED LETTER CITED
The British Ambassador’s views were not shared by well-informed foreign circles in Moscow, who thought he was over-ready to accept Soviet figures and assertions at their face value; but it is worth noting that I have just received an uncensored letter from a competent friend in Moscow, dated April 27, stating:
“Various indications are that the Germans intend eastward action in June. Many folks here now take it very seriously.”
The recent Tass (Soviet news agency) denial of friction between the U. S. S. R. and Germany alleged to have resulted from the failure of negotiations th
at Tass rather ambiguously disavows contains a definite Soviet recognition of heavy German troop concentrations along Russia’s western frontier.
Nothing, of course, was said about corresponding Soviet measure but I learned in Siberia that the protection of the eastern maritime provinces had been entrusted to the long-term-service frontier guard (say a quarter of a million strong) and local territorial units, while the rest of the former Special Far Eastern Army had been moved westward. The neutrality pact with Japan would give further reassurance to Soviet eastern security.
There are other items that appear to herald a speedy Russian-German clash, improbable as it still appears to me. The Soviet Ambassador to Rumania, Arkady Lavrentieff, has just been recalled to Moscow. The Finns announce restrictive: measures on frontier travel, and the presence of German troops jn Finland is admitted, although their number is disputed.
From Istanbul and Ankara we hear that tension between Turkey and Germany is less acute and that Turkish anxiety has diminished. Finally, there is the fact, neglected by war prophets and pundits, that climatic conditions at this time of the year in the South Palestine North Arabian desert and the Libyan desert, the two land approaches to Egypt, are more like hell than anything on earth save the crater of a volcano.
Russian civilians digging an anti-tank ditch outside of Moscow for defense in preparation for the attack of advancing German troops in June 1941.
JUNE 20, 1941
INVASION OF RUSSIA IS DENIED BY REICH
Berlin Spokesman Admits ‘Flood Of Rumors’—No Border Clashes
BERLIN, June 19 (UP)—Authorized Nazi spokesmen denied flatly today that a German invasion of Russia had started or that border clashes had occurred, although they admitted that a “tremendous flood of rumors” had burst out concerning Nazi-Soviet relations.