GERMANY’S TIMETABLE

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21336, 6 February 1941, Page 10

GERMANY’S TIMETABLE

TO WIN THE WAR TALK OF OFFICERS * AMERICAN’S REVELATIONS A remarkable story of how German officers told him details of their war timetable (and how all worked out according to plan till they came 4° taCkle Britain)- is told by Mr Albert Y. Gotven in a letter to Life Mr Gowen is an American who became well-known when, in 192021, he cruised round the world in a 64-ton motor-boat. Later he settled m England and, as a leading figure m the cement industry of that country, travelled extensively on the Continent. Thus it was that he was in Copenhagen on April 9, when the Germans invaded Denmark. He was awakened by the noise of some 150 German planes overhead. They flew about 50 feet above the chimneys, with machine-guns pointed at the populace below. Later the German General Staff moved into the hotel in which he was staying and he approached an officer for permission to cable to his wife in Boston. The officer spoke to the general, who agreed to the request and promised to send an interpreter to take the cable. News Broadcast Copied Learning this, Mr Gowan went out and bought one of the few shortwave radio sets available in the city. When the interpreter arrived he first took down the cable message and then began to ask about the radio. As he was doing so a British news broadcast began to come through. The German borrowed a pencil, took down the whole broadcast, and left the room. About 15 minutes later he was back with a request from the general for permission for the General Staff to come up to hear the next broadcast. Mr Gowen agreed as long as they spoke only English, pretending that he could not understand German and that he would feel uncomfortable to hear people talking in a language he could not understand. Sharing Hates Seven men arrived and transcribed the next broadcast. Then they fell into conversation. “When the German officers said they hated Churchill, I said that I hated Churchill. When they hated England, I hated England. When they hated Roosevelt, I hated Roosevelt. As a matter of fact there was nothing they hated that I did' not hate also. They liked that and after a time became very talkative. \

“This was the beginning of a most interesting relationship which lasted about 11 days. During that time my room was crowded from 10 in the morning till 1.30 or 1 at night with German officers. Each night when they left I tried to write down all that I had heard and memorise it, after which I tore my notes into small pieces and disposed of them in the toilet. The German Plan

“I will not bother to record here what they told me about Norway, the Low Countries and France except to say that when I finally got back to England I was able to tell the authorities of the /ay on which the German armies were going into Belgium, the day they were going to break through the Maginot Line and also the exact spot. I repeated, too, the Germans’ assertion that the treaty with France would be signed not later than July 1 in the railway car in Compeigne Forest. “As to Britain, the officers told me that it would be attacked first by plane in seven cities—Gloucester, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham. Edinburgh, and the outskirts of London. If that did not serve the purpose, Hitler would give them a breathing spell afid then decide what to do next. The peace treaty with England would be signed about September 1 in Berlin. So far everything they told me has come true within a few days of the time predicted (except for the important exception of England. The letter was written well before September 1.).

United States Next “Naturally these German officers were a little less precise in telling me about Hitler’s plans for the United States, but the general gist of their conversation was as follows: When England has been defeated, the Germans count on having at least half the British Fleet, added to what they got from France. Italy’s navy, and what they themselves had before, would give them a superiority of about two to one against the United States, and their shipbuilding plants would be five to two against United States plants. “The Japanese fleet was going to be with them as soon as England had been disposed of. This meant that, however we divided our fleet, they and the Japanese could take care ot it with the greatest of ease. Within about nine months of the signing of peace with England, during which time England would be made impregnable, they would be coming across the Atlantic. Occupation of Cities “Having defeated the United States fleet, the Germans explained that they could occupy our eastern coast, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. It would not be necessary for them to invade the rest of the country because they expected the ‘eighty families’—l did not know what that referred to at the time, but have since connected it with Ferdinand Lundberg’s book. ‘America’s Sixty Families' —would settle on German terms rather than see the country destroyed.”