Stalin полностью

Hitler—still hopeful of averting a pan-European war by scaring or enticing Britain into backing down from defense of Poland—had heeded the advice of Ribbentrop and once more had British ambassador Henderson summoned to the Chancellery. During a meeting on August 25, that commenced at 1:00 p.m. and lasted about an hour, Hitler denounced Chamberlain’s recent restatement in Parliament of the guarantee for Poland, but he also divulged that he was still prepared to make “a large comprehensive offer” to guarantee the continued existence of the British empire with German troops after he had “solved” the urgent Polish problem. Hitler called this “his last offer.” He suggested that Henderson fly immediately to London, putting a plane at his disposal. The Führer had always trained something of a jealous eye on Britain’s empire and power, and remained open to some sort of bargain, but only on the basis of full British acquiescence to his domination of the continent.²⁰⁷ Henderson insisted that any bilateral deal would require that German differences with Poland be settled through negotiations, a concession Hitler refused. “The chancellor,” Henderson would report, “spoke with calm and apparent sincerity.”²⁰⁸

Henderson would fly off to London on the Hitler-supplied plane, carrying his “last offer,” but only on the next day (August 26).²⁰⁹ Already at 3:02 p.m. on August 25, mere minutes after the ambassador’s exit from the Chancellery, Hitler issued the final order to proceed with military action against Poland before dawn the next morning.²¹⁰ But then, only four and a half hours later, Hitler called the invasion off. Frantic desist orders went out to chief of staff Halder, who was already in his command bunker south of Berlin.²¹¹ German soldiers on the front lines, when told to stand down, remarked that “Hitler got cold feet.”²¹²

It was the duce—the sole leader who had once stood up to Hitler.

Mussolini, essentially consulting no one in his own government, had signed the Pact of Steel with Germany, so Italy was on the hook for war. Now he pledged support for a war over Poland but wrote that Italy did not command the resources for a war against France and Britain. He also noted that he had been kept in the dark about the deal with Stalin. Hitler had been sure of a favorable reply from Rome. When the Italian ambassador arrived at the Reich Chancellery bearing Mussolini’s letter, only an hour or so had elapsed since the Führer had given the order for war.²¹³ Italy’s demurral was inconsequential for the German plan of battle, but it did remove a cudgel to induce France and Britain to back down and, no less consequentially, could damage Hitler’s prestige. “The Führer ponders and contemplates,” Goebbels recorded in his diary. “That’s a serious blow for him.”²¹⁴ Mussolini’s was not the only unpleasant news. The French ambassador, Coulondre, had also been summoned to the Chancellery, and he had stated to Hitler that German reports of Polish atrocities against ethnic Germans were exaggerated and that France would honor its commitments to Poland. Additionally, Ribbentrop had reported word out of London of a new mutual assistance treaty, just signed between Britain and Poland.²¹⁵

When Göring, in the Chancellery that day, asked whether the war had been canceled or just postponed, Hitler vowed to continue to break off the Western powers from Poland, in order to fight only a local war.²¹⁶ General Walther von Brauchitsch, Wehrmacht commander in chief, judged that Hitler genuinely did not know what to do.²¹⁷ Could the Führer really back down in front of his military inner circle, the German people, and the world? Would he risk a world war over Polish territories that he likely could obtain via negotiations? Chamberlain continued to relay offers of Polish territory to Germany that the Poles had explicitly rejected. Ribbentrop rightly surmised that the British PM was looking for a way out of his commitment.²¹⁸ Even if Hitler insisted on fighting a war, would it not have made the most strategic sense to accept British offers regarding Danzig and the Polish Corridor, which would have elicited the Polish government’s rejection and thereby given Britain and presumably France a firm pretext to renounce their “guarantees” for Poland’s independence and stand aside?