Berlin Diary (67 page)

I saw at the front last week the terrible punishment the Belgian army was taking; saw all of Belgium, outside of Brussels, laid waste by the German artillery and Stukas. You can sympathize with Leopold in a sense for wanting to quit. But the French and British say
he did it without consulting them, thus betraying them and leaving them in a terrible situation, with no chance of extricating their armies from the trap. The three armies together had a small chance of fighting their way out. With half a million excellent Belgian troops out of the picture, the fate of the French and British armies, it would seem, is sealed.

A nice, civilized war, this. Göring announces tonight that as a result of information reaching him that the French are mistreating captured German airmen, all French flyers captured by the Germans will be immediately put in
chains
. Further, Göring proclaims that if he hears of a German flyer being shot by the French, he will order
five
French prisoners shot. Further still, if he hears of a German flyer being shot “while parachuting,” he will order
fifty
French prisoners shot.

Allies, as far as we know, are shooting parachutists who fail to surrender, because these boys were largely responsible for the fall of Holland and play hell behind the lines. Probably ordinary German flyers parachuting from shot-down planes have been mistaken for the dreaded parachutists. Göring’s order, however, is obviously part of Hitler’s technique of conquering by sowing terror. B., who was in Rotterdam last week, says the town was largely destroyed
after
it had surrendered. German excuse is that surrender came after the Stukas had left the ground and they could not be recalled in time! This sounds flimsy, as they all carry radios and are in constant touch with the ground.

Göring added that the above rule of shooting five to one or fifty to one would not apply to the English, “as they have not as yet given grounds for such reprisals.”

The Propaganda Ministry tonight showed us a full-length news-reel, with sound effects, of the destruction
in Belgium and France. Town after town, city after city, going up in flames. Close-ups of the crackling flames devouring the houses, shooting out of the windows, roofs and walls tumbling in, where a few days ago men and women were leading peaceful, if not too happy, lives.

The German commentator’s enthusiasm for the destruction seemed to grow as one burning town after another was shown. He had a cruel, rasping voice and by the end seemed to be talking in a whirl of sadism. “Look at the destruction, the houses going up in flames,” he cried. “This is what happens to those who oppose Germany’s might!”

And is Europe soon to be ruled and dominated by such a people—by such sadism?

B
ERLIN
,
May
29

Boss of one of the big American broadcasting chains (not Columbia) cables the German Broadcasting Company today: “PLEASE ARRANGE BROADCAST BY KING LEOPOLD.”

Lille, Bruges, Ostend captured! Ypres stormed! Dunkirk bombarded! Fate of encircled Allied armies sealed! …the incredible headlines went on today without a let-up. Tonight still another phase of this gigantic battle, without precedent in history, appeared—at least in Berlin—to be drawing to a conclusion.

The German High Command told the story in these words at the beginning of its communiqué today: “The fate of the French army in Artois is sealed. Its resistance south of Lille has collapsed. The English army which has been compressed into the territory around Dixmude, Armentières, Bailleul, Bergues, west of Dunkirk,
is also going to its destruction before our concentric attack.”

And then this evening the German command announced that in rapid attacks designed to crush the British army Ypres and Kemmel had been stormed.

In reality, the Germans tell us, the French and British armies since yesterday have been isolated, the one from the other, and each trapped in a tiny pocket. The smaller pocket, which is in the form of a square, the sides of which are about twelve miles long, lies south of Lille—between there and Douai. In that small square is what is left of three French armies, and tonight the Germans are battering them from four sides. The larger pocket runs roughly in a semicircle around the port of Dunkirk, reaching inland for some twenty-five miles. Here the British are trapped.

What next, then, if the British and French armies either surrender or are annihilated, as the Germans say they will be in their two pockets? The first invasion of England since 1066? England’s bases on the Continent, barring a last-minute miracle, are gone. The lowlands, just across the Channel and the narrow southern part of the North Sea, which it has always been a cardinal part of British policy to defend, are in enemy hands. And the French Channel ports which linked Britain with its French ally are lost.

Most people here think Hitler will try now to conquer England. Perhaps. I’m not so sure. Maybe he’ll try to finish France first.

One weird aspect of yesterday’s fighting: When the Germans yesterday took French positions east of Kassel, they actually rushed the French fortifications along the Franco-Belgian border from
behind
, from the
reverse side
.

Prince Wilhelm
of Prussia, killed in action on the western front, was buried with military honours in Potsdam today. If things had gone smoothly for Germany after 1914, he probably would have been the German emperor. Present at the funeral were the Crown Prince and Princess, Mackensen and a lot of World War officers in their quaint spike helmets. The former Kaiser sent a wreath.

More on the nerve war: An official statement tonight says that for every German civilian killed and every stone damaged in Germany during the night raids of the British, revenge will be taken many times over.

B
ERLIN
,
May
30

Our Memorial Day. I remembered it when one of the consuls phoned and reminded me of a month-old golfing date. How many killed in the Civil War?

A German dropped in today. He said: “How many
years
will the war last?” The question surprised me in the light of the news. Last week three Germans in the Wilhelmstrasse bet me the Germans would be in London in three weeks—that is, two weeks from now.

This German also mentioned a matter that’s been bothering me: German losses and the effect on the people of not being allowed to know by Hitler what the losses are and who is killed. (Hitler will not permit the publication of casualty lists.) He said people are comparing
that
situation with the one in 1914–18, when every day the papers published the names of those lost, and every few months, he said, a résumé of the total casualties up to date in killed and wounded. But today no German has the slightest idea of what the western offensive has cost in German lives. He doesn’t even know
what the Norwegian campaign cost. The last figures he had were on the Polish campaign, and even then he was skeptical of those Hitler gave.

The great battle in Flanders and Artois neared its end today. It’s a terrific German victory. Yesterday, according to the German High Command, the British made a great bid to rescue what is left of the BEF by sea. Sent over fifty transports to fetch their troops along the coast around Dunkirk. Germans say they sent over two flying corps to bomb them. Claim they sank sixteen transports and three “warships,” which no doubt is exaggerated, and hit and damaged, or set on fire, twenty-one transports and ten warships, which probably is an even greater exaggeration. British sent out hundreds of planes to protect their fleet. The Germans claim they shot down 68 British planes. The British claim they shot down 70 German planes.

What is left of the three French armies cut off in Flanders and Artois is being gradually annihilated, one gathers from the German reports. Today the Germans say they captured the commander of the 1st French Army, General Prieux. They’d already got General Giroud, commander of one of the other two armies, the day he took over. The French apparently are entirely surrounded. The British still have the sea open and are undoubtedly getting as many men out as possible. London yesterday said the British were fighting “the greatest rear-guard action in history.” But they’ve been fighting too many of these.

Much talk here that Hitler is getting ready to bomb the hell out of London and Paris. A press and radio campaign to prepare his own people for it is already under way. Today the attack was mostly against the
French. The
Völkische Beobachter
called them “bastardized, negroized, decadent,” and accused them of torturing German airmen whom they’ve captured. It said that soon the French will be made to pay for all of this. The papers are full of talk of revenge for this and that.

The German Ambassador to Belgium gave us a harangue at the press conference today on how he was mistreated by the French on his way out to Switzerland. As a German told me afterwards, the Germans seem incapable of apprehending that the hate against them in France and Belgium is due to the fact that Germany
invaded these countries—Belgium without the slightest excuse or justification—and laid waste their towns and cities, and killed thousands of civilians with their bombings and bombardments. Just another example of that supreme German characteristic of being unable to see for a second the other fellow’s point of view. Same with the wrath here at the way their airmen are treated. The other side is tough with airmen coming down in parachutes because it knows Hitler has conquered Holland by landing parachutists behind the lines. But the Germans think that the other side should not defend itself against these men dropping from the skies. If it does, if it shoots them, then Germany will massacre prisoners already in her hands.

B
ERLIN
,
May
31

Italy seems to be drawing near to the day of decision—to go in on Germany’s side. Today Alfieri, the Italian Ambassador, saw Hitler at his headquarters.

It was three weeks ago today that Hitler hurled his armies into Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France
in a desperate effort to knock out the Allies in one blow. So far, after three weeks, he has had nothing but success. What it has cost him in lives and material, we do not know yet. This is what he’s accomplished in three weeks:

1. Overrun Holland; forced Dutch army to surrender.

2. Overrun Belgium; forced Belgian army to surrender.

3. Advanced far south of the extension of the Maginot Line on a front extending over two hundred miles from Montmédy to Dunkirk.

4. Knocked out the 1st, 7th, and 9th French Armies, which were cut off when one German army broke through to the sea.

5. Knocked out the BEF, which also is surrounded. Some of the men, at least, of the BEF, are getting away on ships from Dunkirk. But as an army it’s finished. It cannot take away its guns and supplies and tanks.

6. Obtained the Dutch, Belgian, and French Channel coasts as a jumping-off place for an invasion of England.

7. Occupied the important coal mines and industrial centres of Belgium and northern France.

I said in my broadcast tonight: “The Germans have certainly won a terrific first round. But there has been no knockout blow—yet. The fight goes on.”