21.
Diary entry 11 September 1940, Burdick and Jacobsen op cit p255.
22.
Blumentritt op cit p92.
23.
Diary entry 31 July 1940, Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p244.
24.
Interrogation by the IMT Commission, 19 June 1946, IZ ZS 129.
25.
Blumentritt op cit p98.
26.
Diary entry 5 February 1941, Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p316.
27.
Letters dated 5 and 21 February 1941, Freiburg HSg 1/1893.
28.
Postcard dated 8 February 1941, Stephen W Bumball Collection.
29.
Diary entry 30 March 1941, Burdick & Jacobsen op cit pp345– 46.
30.
IMT Commission Interrogation, op cit.
31.
Lost Victories pp 179–80.
32.
IMT Commission Interrogation, op cit. Von Rundstedt said that he thought that the conference had taken place in May or June 1941, but 30 March was the only time that Hitler addressed the senior commanders as a group on BARBAROSSA. On the other hand, he may have confused it with a visit which von Brauchitsch made to the army groups in the second week of June, just after the Commissar Order had been issued, or possibly with Hitler’s final conference with his commanders on 14 June.
33.
Taylor Memorandum of August 1947 p5 PRO FO 371/64474.
34.
US Dept of the Army G-2 Report B-826 op cit.
35.
Halder diary entry, 19 May 1941. Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p389.
36.
Blumentritt op cit pp103–4 and Liddell Hart interview, 9 November 1945, LH 9/24/77.
37.
PRO W0205/1020.
38.
Shulman op cit, pp75–6.
39.
Hassell diary entry 22 May 1941, op cit p180.
40.
Quoted by Andreas Hillgruber in Carver The War Lords p193.
CHAPTER EIGHT
1.
Burdick and Jacobsen op cit p419.
2.
Dated 23 June, Freiburg MSg 1/1893. An English translation of extracts of this and several other letters written during the period 1941–2 is to be found in LH 9/24/132. These are clearly based on the extracts found in Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
3.
Letter to Bila dated 1 July, Freiburg MSg 1/1893. Von Rundstedt’s elder grandson, stresses that this comment did not mean that his grandfather was anti-Jewish. It was merely a traditional German expression. A parallel might be that someone using the English expression ‘to work like a black’ is not necessarily a racist.
4.
Letters dated 9 and 10 July 1941, Ibid.
5.
Letter dated 9 July 1941, Ibid.
6.
Haider Diary entry 10 July 1941, Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p463.
7.
Ibid, 9 July 1941.
8.
Letter dated 10 July 1941, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
9.
Diary entry 10 July 1941, Burdick and Jacobsen op cit pp464–5.
10.
Letter to Bila dated 13 July 1941, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
11.
Letter dated 18 July 1941, Ibid.
12.
US Dept of Army G-2 report B-826, September 1945, op cit.
13.
Burdick and Jacobsen op cit pp480–2.
14.
Letter to Bila dated 26 July. Freiburg Msg 1/1893.
15.
Gilbert, Martin The Holocaust: the Jewish Tragedy p173 (Fontana Paperback edition, London, 1987).
16.
Quoted Gilbert Second World War p221.
17.
Höhne Canaris p462.
18.
IZ ZS 129.
19.
Taylor Memorandum, August 1947, p41, PRO FO 371/64474.
20.
IZ ZS 129.
21.
Ibid pp29–55.
22.
Howell, Edgar M The Soviet Partisan Movement 1941–1944 p53 (US Department of the Army pamphlet 20–244, 1956)
23.
Ibid pp57–8.
24.
Ibid pp59–60.
25.
Taylor Memorandum op cit pp33–35.
26.
Letter dated 8 August 1941, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
27.
Letters to Bila dated 30 July and 16 August 1941, op cit.
28.
US Dept of Army G-2 report B-826 dated 6 September 1945 op cit. The comments on the Rumanians are echoed by von Manstein in Lost Victories pp206–7.
29.
Letter dated 8 August 1941, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
30.
Hibbert, Christopher Benito Mussolini p174 (Reprint Society edition, London, 1963)
31.
Letter to Bila dated 8 September 1941, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
32.
Macksey Guderian Panzer General p147.
33.
Haider Diary entry 24 August 1941.
34.
Letter dated 4 September 1941, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
35.
Blumentritt op cit p115.
36.
IZ ZS 129.
37.
Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
38.
Ibid.
39.
SHAEF PWD Int Sect Background Information Report DE416/DIS202 dated 31 May 1945, op cit.
40.
Letter to Bila dated 3 October 1941, Freiburg 1/1893.
41.
Letter dated 14 October 1941, ibid.
42.
Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p552.
43.
Seaton The Russo-German War 1941–45 p197 citing Army Group South War diary, and Military Intelligence Service US War Department Report B-826 dated 6 September 1945, copy in von Rundstedt archive.
44.
A January 1948 medical report on von Rundstedt describes the heart attack as ‘acute’ (PRO FO 371/70652). If it had been so, it is most unlikely that he would have remained at duty.
45.
Military Intelligence Service US War Department Report B-826 op cit.
46.
Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p571.
47.
Quoted Blumentritt op cit ppl 11–112.
48.
Burdick & Jacobsen op cit p574.
49.
Keitel op cit p161.
50.
Quoted Blumentritt op cit p114.
51.
The correspondence surrounding the cheque is found in Bundesarchiv, Koblenz under R 43 II/985a.
52.
Letter Editha von Rundstedt to Matthew Barry Sullivan, 26 March 1977.
53.
Interview Gerd and Eberhard von Rundstedt, 4 November 1989.
54.
54. Von Hassell in his diary, 24 January 1942, wrote that it was von Brauchitsch whom von Rundstedt represented at the funeral and that he was requested to do so by letter via Schmundt (Hassell op cit p213). Von Rundstedt, however, told the IMT Commission at Nuremberg that it was Hitler whom he represented (IZ ZS 129).
CHAPTER NINE
1.
Letter dated 15 March 1942, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Full text if given in Trevor-Roper Hitler’s War Directives 1939–1945 ppl 11–116.
4.
Schweppenburg The Critical Years p205.
5.
Mellenthin Panzer Battles p205.
6.
Dated 10 October 1945 and quoted Foot SOE in France p224.
7.
21 April 1942, Lockner The Goebbels Diaries 1942–3 pp128–9.
8.
Letter dated 15 March 1942, op cit.
9.
Letter to Bila dated 6 August 1942, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
10.
Letter to Bila dated 6 Ap
ril 1942, ibid.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Cited Roskill, Capt S W DSC MA RN The Dieppe Raid and the Question of German Foreknowledge: a Study on Historical Responsibility JRU SI February 1964.
13.
Report on Dieppe dated 3 September 1942, ibid.
14.
Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
15.
Lehmann, Rudolf Die Leibstandarte Vol 2 p317 (Munin Verlag, Osnabrück, 1980).
16.
Brett-Smith Hitlers’ Generals p155.
17.
Military Intelligence Service US War Department Report B-826, op cit.
18.
For evidence of both see my biography of Dietrich, Hitler’s Gladiator.
19.
Taylor Memorandum p1O, August 1947, PRO FO 371/64474.
20.
Letter to Bila, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
21.
Letter to Bila, 19 August 1942, ibid. The translations of von Rundstedt’s letters for this period found under LH 9/24/132 are prefaced by the comment: ‘To judge by his story of the Dieppe raid one would imagine that the Field-Marshal had spent a busy day directing operations. If officers on his staff are to be believed, he was actually suffering from a hangover so severe that it prevented him from reacting in any way.’ This was presumably written by Liddell Hart, but I have found no evidence to support this accusation.
22.
Letters to Bila dated 21, 22, 23 August 1942, ibid.
23.
Leter to Bila, 28 August 1942, ibid.
24.
Letter dated 14 Sepember 1942, ibid.
25.
For a full account of the SSRF raids see my The Commandos 1940–1946 (Kimber, 1985 and Grafton Paperback edition, 1991), which also give the full text of the Commando Order.
26.
Taylor Memorandum pl2, PRO FO 371/64474.
27.
The Trial of Major German War Criminals Part 21 pp 91, 101–2.
28.
Quoted Griffiths Marshal Pétain pp311–2.
29.
Quoted Whitcomb France during the German Occupation 1940–1944 p1545.
30.
La Chronique de Vichy 1940–1944 pp309–10.
31.
Quoted Blumentritt op cit p 121.
32.
Neubronn, Alexander Freiherr von Als ‘Deutscher General’ bei Pétain (Vierteljahreshafte für Zeitgeschichte No 4 1956).
33.
Letter dated 10 December 1942.
34.
Letter dated 20 September 1942, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
35.
Richardson & Freidin The Fatal Decisions p175.
36.
Reynolds op cit p219.
37.
Diary entry 22 February 1943, Tloke op cit p144.
38.
Diary entry 2 March 1943, Lochner op cit ppl99–200.
39.
Interrogation Report CSDIC/CMF/SIM/AB22 dated September 1943 and cited in Foreign Office Research Department GER/96/49 20th July (1944) Plot Personalities Wheeler-Bennett Papers op cit.
40.
Blumentritt op cit pp141–2, Whitcomb op cit p795, Godon Collaborationism in France during the Second World War p178.
41.
Moll op cit p219.
42.
Taylor Memorandum op cit p25.
43.
Interview Gerd and Eberhard von Rundstedt, 4 November 1989.
44.
Foreign Office Research Department GER/96/49 op cit.
45.
Dated 8 March 1943, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
46.
Letter dated 10 May 1943, ibid.
47.
Ibid.
48.
Freiburg Pers 6/16.
49.
See letters Ditha to Bila dated 4 November 1942, 19 April 1943, Freiburg MSg 1/1893.
50.
Letter dated 10 May 1943, ibid.
51.
Richardson & Freidin op cit ppl79–180. Blumentritt op cit p92 says that the shelter was built sometime during the winter 1940–41, but the air threat was only minor at this time and what RAF operations did take place in the Paris area were mainly leaflet raids. I have therefore preferred to follow Zimmermann.
52.
Blumentritt op cit p157. Zimmermann mentions von Rundstedt’s visit to Hitler, but does not say that he asked him to raise the matter of the defence of the West. Richardson & Freidin op cit p177.
53.
Postcard Bila to Ditha, 22 June 1943, von Rundstedt archive. Blumentritt claimed wrongly that von Rundstedt was still at Bad Tölz and that Hitler sent a car for him.
54.
Warlimont Inside Hitler’s Headquarters p374.
55.
Undated handwritten comments by von Rundstedt triggered by Zimmermann’s Ob West: a Study in Command (IWM AL 786), von Rundstedt archive.
56.
Lockner op cit p376.
57.
Liddell Hart interview, 26 October 1945, LH 9/24/132.
58.
Von Rundstedt Memorandum, 10 October 1945, quoted Foot op cit pp233, 285.
59.
Riess, Curt Marshal von Rundstedt: German Darlan, The Saturday Evening Post, 2 October 1943.
60.
Aron The Vichy Régime 1940–44 p434. I have not, however, been able to find out any details of this incident.
61.
Du Gard op cit p373, Lottman Pétain: Hero or Traitor: p310. Von Rundstedt’s report is in the Say er archive.
62.
Cited Wilt, Alan F An Addendum to the Rommel-Rundstedt Controversy (Military Affairs, December 1975).
63.
Trevor-Roper op cit pp 149–153.
64.
Written statement dated 1 December 1949, IWM AL 1553/2. Seydlitz was Frederick the Great’s cavalry commander. At Rossbach, 5 November 1757, Seydlitz delivered a devastating surprise attack into the flank of the greatly numerically superior Austro-French army.
65.
Irving The Trail of the Fox p287.
66.
Richardson & Freidin op cit p180.
67.
Liddell Hart The Rommel Papers p461.
68.
Liddell Hart interview, 26 October 1945, LH 9/24/132.
69.
Pariser Zeitung 21 December 1943.
70.
Riess The Saturday Evening Post 2 October 1943, op cit
71.
This is based on Rommel’s report to Hitler dated 31 December 1943 and quoted at length in The Rommel Papers op cit pp452– 456.
72.
OKW Operations War Diary, 31 December 1943, cited Ellis Victory in the West Vol 1 p56, and Wilt op cit.
73.
Rüge Rommel in Normandy p77.
74.
Taylor Memorandum, op cit p20.
75.
IMT Vol 21 p92.
76.
Letter 27 April 1944, Rommel Papers op cit p463.
77.
CSDIC(UK) Report GRGG 344 dated 21 August 1945, PRO WO 208/4178.
78.
Rommel Papers op cit pp467–8.
79.
Ibid p469.
80.
Ruge op cit ppl64–5. Karl May was a German writer of adventure stories in the Jack London mould.
81.
Schmundt diary entry 3 March 1944, Bradley & Schulze-Kossens Tatigkeitsbericht des Chefs Heeres-personalamtes … pp 129–130 and Ruge op cit p90.
82.
Manstein op cit p531–2.
83.
Schmundt diary entry 19 March 1944, Bradley & Schulze-Kossens op cit p131, and Manstein op cit p532.
84.
Irving op cit p306. Irving, however, does not make any mention of the reason why von Rundstedt had been summoned to Berchtesgaden, which would have upset him far more than Hitler not listening to him. Hence this quotation must be viewed with circumspection.
85.
<
br /> Lamb op cit pp275, 282.
86.
Neubronn op cit.
87.
Speidel, Dr Hans Ideas and Preparations made by FM Rommel for and Independent Termination of the War in the West and Elimination of National Socialist Depositions, January 1947, MS B-721. Copy in Wheeler-Bennett Papers.
88.
Ultra intercept cited in Bennett Ultra in the West p50.
89.
Du Gard op cit p483.
90.
Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich p1036.
91.
War Diary Ob West, 1 and 3 June 1944, Freiburg RH 19 IV/40.
92.
Ruge op cit p169.
93.
War diary Ob West op cit.
CHAPTER TEN
1.
Quoted Wilmot The Struggle for Europe p247.
2.
Ob West reactions are taken from War Diary, Freiburg RH 19 IV/43 and IV/47.
3.
Luck, Hans von Panzer Commander: the Memoirs of Colonel Hans Von Luck p180 (Praeger, NY, 1989)
4.
Report to OKW dated 15 June 1944, Ob West War Diary op cit. Marcks had lost his leg on the Eastern Front. He was killed by an Allied fighter near St Lö on 12 June.
5.
Ibid.
6.
Further detail of Dietrich’s problems is given in my Hitler’s Gladiator pp 123–5 op cit.
7.
Ob West War Diary entries, 8 & 9 June 1944, op cit. Dietrich also commented on the British Churchill tank with 6pdr gun. It could only be effectively attacked at ranges of under 1,000 metres, but its own gun was effective beyond this range. For further details of the communications problems see Hitler’s Gladiator op cit p126.
8.
Irving op cit pp340, 343.
9.
IMT p93.
10.
Liddell Hart op cit p491.
11.
Lamb op cit p280.
12.
Undated handwritten notes, von Rundstedt archive.
13.
Die Weltwoche, Zurich, 16 June 1944.
14.
Speidel We Defended Normandy p89.
15.
Shulman Defeat in the West p136.
16.
Ob West War Diary op cit.
17.
Ibid.
18.
Mitcham, Samuel W Hitler’s Legions: German Army Order of Battle World War II p377 (Leo Cooper, London, 1985). This is confirmed by Luck op cit p 181. Feuchtinger was apparently tried by court-martial in March 1945 for dereliction of duty on 6 June 1944 and found guilty, but his sentence was mitigated on orders from above.
19.
Shulman op cit p131.
20.
The description of the conference is based on Speidel op cit pp 105–111, Blumentritt op cit pp233–5, Rommel Papers op cit p479, Zimmerman in Richardson & Freidin op cit pp 190–1, and Ellis Victory in the West Vol 1 op cit p195.
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