GERMANS DISILLUSIONED

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 October 1939, Page 8

GERMANS DISILLUSIONED

LEI) ASTRAY BY HITLER. [llltlTlSll OFFICIAL WIKELESS.] (Reed. Oct. 17, 11.30 a.m.). RUGBY, October 10. Il is understood in military circles’ in London that an examination ol Get man prisoners taken by the French Army on the Western Front suggests that," for some weeks after the outbreak of the war. men of the rank and file of the German Army were in ignorance of the fact that Herr Hitlei had involved their country in war with France and Britain. Many of these prisoners obviously had acquired an outlook which is said to have become prevalent among the German public, that the “Fuehrer can get everything without war,” and their disillusionment on learning the truth was very marked. “TARGET PRACTICE.” (Received October 17, 12.40 p.m.) PARIS, October 16. The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press of America stated that the British War Office announced that the French Army’s examination of German prisoners shows that the rank and file, some weeks after the outbreak of the war, are still being told there is no war, of which they are unaware until captured. Prisoneis from quiet sectors believed they were on manoeuvres, being informed that the firing they heard was target practice or blasting. They were convinced that the Fuehrer would get everything without war, and that the Polish conquest was a walk-over. One said, when apprised of the Rus-sian-German pact, that it was the Fuehrer’s ruse in order to trap the Russians, whom he hated beyond anything else. Another refused to believe that Germany was allied with Russia, and was fighting England and France, but said that, if it was true, there would be trouble, adding, “but not at first, because, as we do not think for. ourselves any more, it will take some time to realise that we have been deceived.”