NAZI LEADER’S PLAN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21558, 22 January 1940, Page 2

NAZI LEADER’S PLAN

KEITEL AND NETHERLANDS I have just had an opportunity of discussing without reserve the mentality and development of General Keitel, the German Army Chief of Staff, reported the Brussels correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph” on December 3. My informant was a lieutenant-general, recently retired, who has known him since he was an army captain, and has watched his rise to a supreme post. “The staff of the Germany army,” said the lieutenant-general, “has always been against the violation of Holland and Belgium since the failure of 1914. Von Moltke, before August, 1914, opposed the violation of Holland because he said that country must remain like a German lung, open to the outside world. From 1919 till 1938 the German staff openly recognised that the violation of Belgium in 1914 was the blunder which caused Germany’s defeat.

“That opinion is not shared by General Keitel. To understand his views one must know his career and development as I know it. “Keitel does not belong to the Prussian military caste. He is much closer to the mentality of Hitler than any other German general. Militarily he is a pupil of Admiral von Schroeder. Commander-in-Chief in Flanders and along the Belgian coast in the last war. “Von Schroeder thoroughly deserved his nickname of ‘Lion of Flanders,’ conferred by the German officers and soldiers. He terrified his staff, threatening to put in prison or to execute officers who did not succeed in performing the orders he gave, especially when these orders were intended to counteract British enterprise.

“It must not be forgotten,” said the lieutenant-general, “that von Schroeder had in Flanders the command of the Marine Corps acting as infantry, the group of submarines and torpedo-boats, and also of the aircraft stationed along the coast. The only staff officer he could tolerate Keitel, who was always ready sincerely to espouse his chief’s views.

“Keitel is the direct heir of the doctrines and hatreds of von Schroeder. His earnest desire is to wage war on Britain at the same time on land, on sea, under sea and in the air, which is only possible from the river deltas of the Netherlands and the sandy coast of Flanders.

“Keitel,” corn Aided my informant, “will never advise Hitler against passing through Holland and Belgium to strike at France on the weakest points of her defensive system of fortifications.”