HIGH COMMAND WILLING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 5

HIGH COMMAND WILLING

New Facts Relating To Defeat Of Germany

N.Z.P.A. —Copyright.—Rec. noon. LONDON, June 21. Hitherto unanswered points connected with the defeat of Germany, according to a statement made by an intelligence officer at Allied Supreme Headquarters, have been brought to light through the interrogation of Jodl, one of the German generals who signed the surrender, Keitel, one of the commanders on the Western Front, and Kesselring, finally Commande>r-in-Chief on the Western Front, all members of the German High Command. The facts brought to light are as follow:—

(1) Orders for the invasion of Britain were issued on June 2, 1940, but were cancelled on October 6, 1940, because of the weather and lack of proper training equipment, which would have made the undertaking most hazardous.

(2) The German High Command, including Jodl, Kesselrin? and Keitel, never wanted Italy to enter the war, and always considered her rather a liability than an asset.

(3) Hitler's decision to invade Russia, previously believed to have been his sole responsibility, was supported by the German High Command. Nobody in Germany considered the attack against Russia either desirable or probable until late in 1940. Early in 1941, when German intelligence officers acquainted Hitler with the information that there was a progressive build-up of Russian forces opposite Germany, Hitler and the High Command agreed that if they did not attack soon they would be faced with the entry of Russia into the "weaker States" of Europe.

(4) The North African invasion furnished the first complete surprise for the German High Command, which had absolutely no idea that such an attack was even contemplated until the Allied invasion convoys were spotted passing through the Straits of Gibraltar.

(5) The German High Command guessed the place, strength and approximate date of the Allied invasion of France, but still could not hurl back the Allies into the sea. The Germans held strong forces in the Pas de Calais area (which includes Calais and Dunkirk), where they felt certain the Allies would make a second and even a stronger assault.

(6) The German plans to drag out the war as long as possible in the hope that a political miracle would save them were completely upset by the seizure of the Remagen bridgehead, which German officers described as "one of the most outstanding achievements of the war."

It has been officially announced at Allied Supreme Headquarters that the final total of German prisoners of war and disarmed military personnel on the Western Front at the end of the war was 7,614,794, of which 4,209,000 were in prison camps when the Germans surrendered. It is estimated that 1,400,000 Germans were killed or seriously wounded on the Western Front.