Hitler. 1936-1945: Nemesis полностью

276. Below, 112, 114–15.

277. TBJG, I/6, 49 (19 August 1938).

278. Cit. Irving, Führer, 127.

279. Text in Förster, Befestigungswesen, 123–48, here especially 132, 137, 143; and see Keitel, 185–6, for Hitler’s intended fortifications on the Westwall.

280. Irving, Führer, 128; Mason, Arbeiterklasse, 106, 556, 667, 849.

281. Hoch and Weiß, 55.

282. TBJG, I/6, 59 (26 August 1938).

283. TBJG, I/6, 61–2 (28 August 1938).

284. TBJG, I/6, 63 (30 August 1938).

285. TBJG, I/6, 68 (1 September 1938).

286. Müller, Beck, 538–9, 544–5, 561.

287. Shirer, 102.

288. TBJG, I/6, 65 (31 August 1938), 68 (1 September 1938).

289. See Kershaw, ‘Hitler Myth’, 133ff.; Auerbach in Knipping and Müller, 282–3.

290. BA/MA, RW19/41, WWI VII (Munich, 9 September 1938).

291. Groscurth, 105 n.29; Smelser, 231–2.

292. Bloch, 191; Weinberg II, 421, 428; Klemperer, 101ff.; Meehan, 149ff.

293. DBFP, Ser.3, II, 195–6, No.727 (and see also 220–21, No.752).

294. Weinberg II, 418–20; Smelser, 235.

295. Smelser, 235.

296. Smelser, 236–7.

297. Groscurth, 104 and n.26.

298. Groscurth, 111.

299. Groscurth, 104.

300. Groscurth, 107.

301. Groscurth, 112.

302. Groscurth, 112 and n.62; Smelser, 234–5.

303. DGFP, D/II, 686–7, NO.424; and see Bloch, 191.

304. Groscurth, 113–15.

305. Groscurth, 109.

306. Groscurth, 107.

307. Groscurth, 109.

308. Groscurth, 112.

309. Cit. Weinberg II, 423 n.195.

310. Domarus, 900–905 (especially 904–5); Shirer, 104–5 for reactions.

311. Schmidt, 401.

312. Shirer, 104–5.

313. At a meeting with his military leaders at Nuremberg on September 9–10, the target day was confirmed as that stated in Plan Green (1 October) (DGFP, D, II, 727–30, NO.448 (notes of Schmundt); Smelser, 238).

314. Smelser, 237.

315. Weinberg II, 426–9.

316. TBJG, I/6, 91 (15 September 1938); Groscurth, 118.

317. Schmidt, 401; Keith Feiling, The Life of Neville Chamberlain, London, 1946, 364.

318. He confessed to ‘some slight sinking when I found myself flying over London and looking down thousands of feet at the houses below’, but he was soon enjoying ‘the marvellous spectacle of ranges of glittering white cumulus clouds stretching away to the horizon below me’, before experiencing ‘more nervous moments when we circled down over the aerodrome’ in Munich after passing through some turbulence when ‘the aeroplane rocked and bumped like a ship in a sea’. (Birmingham University Library, Chamberlain Collection, NC 18/1/1069, letter of Neville Chamberlain to his sister Ida, 19 September 1938.)

319. Birmingham University Library, Chamberlain Collection, NC 18/1/1069, letter of Neville Chamberlain to his sister Ida, 19 September 1938.

320. Schmidt, 401–7; DGFP, D, II, 787–98, No.487; DBFP, Ser.3, II, 342–51, No.896. According to Chamberlain’s notes of the meeting (DBFP, Ser.3, II, 338–41, No.895, here 340), his reply to Hitler had been: ‘If the Führer is determined to settle this matter by force without even waiting for a discussion between ourselves to take place, what did he let me come here for? I have wasted my time.’

321. Schmidt, 406, blames it on Ribbentrop. As Weinberg II points out, however, 433 and n.235, it appears that Ribbentrop was acting on Hitler’s orders. See DGFP, D, II, 830–31, no.532.

322. Weinberg II, 433.

323. Weizsäcker, Erinnerungen, 184.

324. Weizsäcker-Papiere, 143.

325. TBJG, I/6, 94 (17 September 1938); Below, 123. Keitel, 189, claimed that Hitler was not satisfied at the outcome. This assertion is left unsupported, and contradicts the impressions of Weizsäcker and Below.

326. Below, 123. Keitel’s own account — since he had been present at the Berghof, but not at the actual talks — must have drawn upon Hitler’s own description and diminished the role played by Chamberlain. Hitler, reported Keitel, had threatened the cancellation of the naval pact, at which Chamberlain had ‘collapsed’ (zusammengesackt). The Führer had added that he was ready for anything, and had twenty years’ advantage over the British Prime Minister. To spare Chamberlain the long journey to Berchtesgaden, he agreed to meet him in Godesberg. He was prepared to travel to London but would be exposed there to insults of the Jews. ‘There is a determination to march,’ Keitel concluded. (Groscurth, 120 and n.102–3.)

327. Weinberg II, 438.

328. Birmingham University Library, Chamberlain Collection, NC 18/1/1069, letter of Neville Chamberlain to his sister Ida, 19 September 1938.

329. Weinberg II, 437–44.

330. TBJG, I/6, 94 (17 September 1938).

331. TBJG, I/6, 99 (19 September 1938).

332. TBJG, I/6, 101 (20 September 1938).

333. TBJG, I/6, 98 (18 September 1938).

334. Groscurth, 120 and n.104; Weinberg II, 434.

335. See Goebbels’s report on Hitler’s thinking in TBJG, I/6, 113 (26 September 1938).

336. TBJG, I/6, 101 (20 September 1938), 103 (21 September 1938), 105 (22 September 1938).