HITLER AS CRITIC

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20547, 6 May 1941, Page 7

HITLER AS CRITIC

CHURCHILL’S TACTICS BALKANS WAR VERSION STORY GIVEN TO NAZIS (Reed. May 6, 9 a.m.) LONDON, May 5. Messages from Berlin state that Herr Hitler, during his speech to the Reichstag yesterday, said that by taking troops from North Africa after the defeat of the Italians, the British Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, made the biggest strategic mistake in history. Herr Hitler said that the losses of the German army in the Balkan campaign totalled 57 officers and 1042 non-commissioned officers and men killed, 181 officers and 3271 men wounded, and 13 officers and 172 men missing. The air force casualties amounted to 10 officers and 42 other ranks killed and 36 officers and other ranks missing. Herr Hitler claimed that over 9000 British, Australian, and New Zealand troops were taken prisoner in the Balkans, and that 8000 Greek officers and 210,000 men, and 6298 Serbian officers and 336,000 men were captured. Herr Hitler said that only one alpine and two tank divisions, and a Storm Troop bodyguard had been used for the fighting against the British and Anzac forces in Greece.

According to another report, HenHitler declared that the British prisoners taken in Greece consisted mostly of New Zealanders.

Herr Hitler did not refer to the United States by name, but American observers interpreted the following passage as referring to America: “When democratic agitators of countries to whom Germany has never done any harm threaten our State, I answer that we v/ill never again witness another 1918.”