GERMAN CHANGE

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1934, Page 5

GERMAN CHANGE

ALLEGIANCE TO HITLER ARMY SWEARS ITS LOYALTY CAMPAIGN FOR PLEBISCITE FUNERAL OF HINDENBURG TREMENDOUS PREPARATION

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 7 p.m. Berlin, Aug. 5. Tremendous preparations are being made for the funeral of President Hindenburg at Tannenburg, whither the body is being conveyed on a gun-car-riage at midnight. Stands are being erected to accommodate 200,000 guests. Three funeral pyres will be lighted when a salute of 101 guns begins, and will bum far into the night.

President Hindenburg’s will, in accordance with German custom, is unlikely to be made public, but it is believed he left only £20,000 —one of the smallest estates ever known for a figure of his eminence.

Thousands from all parts of Germany have paid their last tribute to President Hindenburg, who has been lying in State at Neudeck. The ex-Crown Prince placed a wreath on the death-bed on behalf of the ex-Kaiser.

The body, dressed in a field-marshal’s uniform, was encoffined for the journey to Tannenburg on Monday along a 25mile route lined by torch-bearing Reichswehr and Storm Troops. Only men will be admitted to the funeral service. Herr Blomberg has reported to Herr Hitler that every soldier throughout Germany has taken a new oath of unconditional allegiance to Herr Hitler. Herr Hitler has refused the draw the salaries of both Chancellor and President, aggregating £12,000. He says he possesses sufficient with royalties and income from newspapers. In order to ensure that 40,000,000 should answer “Yes” to the plebiscite question, “Do you support the law making Herr Hitler the Reich’s leader?” Dr. Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, is planning a whirlwind 15-day campaign, including 200,000 loud speakers through which the Nazi speeches will be daily broadcast. It is intended to round up the laggards orf polling day and get a 100 per cent. vote. Dr. Goebbels is confident that it will be 100 per cent. proHitler.

A later message . says it is questioned in many quarters whether Herr Hitler on August 19 will receive anything like 95 per cent, of the votes given the Nazi Government in November. The Communists are preparing a great drive in working-class quarters, where a majority is possible against endorsement, but there is no possibility of Herr Hitler receiving an adverse vote to the aggregate. THE HERO OF TANNENBURG COMMAND OF EASTERN FORCES. ( DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIANS. The outbreak of war came when Hindenburg was .leading a life of seclusion in Hanover. It was in response to the threatening development of the opening campaign against the Russians in the east that he was appointed Com-mander-in-Chief of the Eighth German Army, and had assigned to him MajorGeneral Ludendorff as Chief of Staff. They had hardly known one another before, but each saw in the other a kindred spirit, and there developed between them a unity of thought and deed without parallel in history. After the war attempts were made to turn Ludendorff into a scapegoat, but Hindenburg came to his defence. During the months of campaigning Hindenburg revealed the gift of being able to economise his mental energy and guard it against strain or premature exhaustion. He was thus able to save his nerve force until the end of the war, when he was called upon to save his fellow countrymen from revolution.

Hindenburg began with the brilliant victroy of Tannenburg, where, despite inferior forces, he converted a successful defence into operations which enabled his army to twice encircle and practically annihilate the Russian forces. The most striking feature of the operations was the concentration of all available forces in order to overwhelm the enemy despite the threat to Hindenburg’s rear, first by Rennenkampf from the north, and later from new Russian forces which approached from the south. The German general showed consummate mastery in employing a central position to prevent the hostile forces from uniting,' and in the BcClo of the Masurian Lakes, from September 7 to 12, he dispersed the forces of Rennenkampf and rendered them unfit for operations for weeks.

Hindenburg was unable to follow up these victories, however, for the AustroGerman forces had suffered a heavy defeat in Galicia and the bulk of the forces available had to be sent to their aid. A combined offensive was launched. It encountered little resistance, but the roads were morasses. At last immense Russian forces began to concentrate and threaten the flank of the German Ninth Army, and Hindenburg retreated in order to escape envelopment. He grouped his men about a railway line running to East Prussia and launched an attack on the flank of the advancing Russians, and at the Battle of Lodz succeeded in bringing the “Russian Steamroller” to a standstill.

In the meantime Hindenburg had been appointed Marshal’ and Commander-in-Chief of all the German forces in the east. He struck a blow in the Upper Bobr area which ended in the annihilation of the Tenth Russian Army, but the attempt to cross the Narew failed and the main campaign was concentrated in Galicia, while Hindenburg’s armies remained static.

The general eastern campaign was then directed by von Falkenhayn, between whom and Hindenburg there were differences of opinion, and at Vilna Hindenburg obtained insufficient forces for a drive which he had repeatedly urged, and could not gain a decision. But he had other successes and had the united c&mmand of the Eastern front given to him, while when Rumania entered the war the Marshal, who was now the national hero, was appointed Chief of the General Staff in place of Falkenhayn. In his new post he faced immense tasks. When the campaign against Rumania was improvised it was necessary to stand upon the defensive in the west. The attack agains' Verdun was abandoned and endeavours were made to obtain a peace with Russia. By 1918 the Italians had been decisively defeated in their greatest offensive, the U-boat warfare was producing its effect, the Bolsheviks were in power in Russia, and peace was negotiated with them and with Rumania at Brest-Litovsk. There remained the hardest task, subjugating France and England before the United States was in a position to intervene in the war as a military factor. How that failed is well-known history.