PORTABLE LAIR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 305, 7 October 1942, Page 5

PORTABLE LAIR

HITLER’S HEADQUARTERS. v i NAZI LEADER’S SPECIAL TRAIN. One of the most famous date lines in the world is “Fuehrerhauptquartier,” meaning “the Fuehrer’s Headquarters ” writes Frederick 'Ofechsner in ‘‘Collier’s Weekly,”. It is from here that the German war communiques are issued; also, new laws, decrees and announcements by Hitler. Technically, the Fuehrerhauptquartier in wartime is anywhere Hitler happens to he. Thus, if he returned from the front for an extended residence in Berlin, the Chancellory itself would become the Fuehrer’s Headquarters. Or if lie lived in a tent at the front, that Avould bo it.

The Fuehrerhauptquartier changes in physical character. On the West Front, it was at one time a permanent building in a Belgian town; at another, it was a collection of camp buildings in a forest. On the East Front, it is a train. Few Visitors Permitted. Whether the Russians ever actually located Hitler’s ’headquarters on the Eastern Front is not certain, but at least their planes flew r over it at least six times, and on two occasions dropped bombs near it. Visitors to the Fuehrerhauptquartier are rare; Government leaders of satellite or allied nations may be received there to collect their decorations; Mussolini is naturally admitted. Otherwise, only the headquarters staff, Hitler’s •adjutants and close piolitical associates, as well as army leaders avlio have reports to make, are allowed in the sacred precincts. Gocring, Keitel and Ribbentrop maintain their own headquarters near “the chief,” from whose shadow they never risk being far distant.

The special train which became Fuehrerlm.uptqu artier after tlie invasion of Russia was parked in a heavy forest somewhere in East Prussia, There, with a staff of more than 200 persons, Hitler has lived liis “simple” life, all the threads of his empire constantly in his hands. Special lyi Constructed Cars.

Cars, especially made for him by the great locomotive and railway firms, Henschell and Borsig, have housed him and his staff. His own residence car has a bedroom, bath, office and dining-con-ference room large enough to .accommodate ten or twelve persons. Other residence cars, all special jobs, are for his adjutants and close associates and for aiiy prominent visitors, foreign or German.

A telephone switchboard through which Hitler can be connected with any part of the world with which 'lie is not at Avar is maintained day and night; through it, or over the brace of eight or ten teletype machines, comes an endless stream of reports on military or political matters. Kitchen cars to feed' the big staff make up. a considerable part of the long train, the main cars of Avhich are not only armoured but camouflaged. One of the coaches, is a special press car Avhich Hitler had made and presented to his Reiehs press, chief, Dr. Otto Dietrich, for the latter’s birthday. The Pufee of the Nation;. There is a constant stream of copy day and night from the Propaganda Ministry, the official Nazi neAvs agency DNB, .and from Transocean, which handles much of the Nazis’ foreign propaganda report; likewise from regional and district press officers throughout the Reich, enabling Dr. Dietrich and his boss, among their other occupations, to keep their fingers on the morale pulse of the nation and to take .any. measures necessary. It Avas Hitler’s intention to have his Fuehrerhauptquartier train moved across the Russian frontier about tAvo weeks after the opening of the campaign last summer. An entire regiment of pioneers had been detailed to cnange the railway gauge on the Russian tracks to accommodate tlie train. They moved in. behind the advancing German armies and actually changed 700 kilometres (about 450 miles), but Hitler’s train never left its position. Neither Hitler • nor anyone else bad reckoned with the ferocity of the Russian resistance. The army and the secret police (special units of which'are detailed to guard Hitler’s life) would not take the responsibility •of guaranteeing his security in Russia,