Posted on 08/19/2009 5:24:48 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
During this entire time, FDR pretty much had his finger up his a==.
August 19 was the decisive day. Orders for the German submarines and pocket battleships to sail for British waters were being held up until word came from Moscow. The warships would have to get off at once if they were to reach their appointed stations by Hitlers target date for the beginning of the war, September 1 only thirteen days away. The two great army groups designated for the onslaught on Poland would have to be deployed immediately.
The tension in Berlin and especially on the Obersalzberg, where Hitler and Ribbentrop waited nervously for Moscows decision, was becoming almost unbearable. The Foreign Office dispatches and memoranda that day disclosed the jittery feelings in the Wilhelmstrasse. Dr. Schnurre reported that the discussions with the Russians on the trade agreement had ended the previous evening with complete agreement but that the Soviets were stalling on signing it. The signature, he said, was to have taken place at noon this day, August 19, but at noon the Russians had telephoned saying they had to await instructions from Moscow. It is obvious, Schnurre reported, that they have received instructions from Moscow to delay the conclusion of the treaty for political reasons. From Obersalzberg, Ribbentrop wired Schulenburg most urgent to be sure to report anything Molotov said or any sign of Russian intentions by telegram, but the only wire received from the ambassador during the day was the text of a denial by Tass, the Soviet news agency, in Moscow that the negotiations between the Russian and Anglo-French military delegations had become snarled over the Far East. However, the Tass dementi added that there were differences between the delegations on entirely different matters. This was a signal to Hitler that there was still time and hope.
And then at 7:10 P.M. on August 19 came the anxiously awaited telegram:
The Soviet Government agree to the Reich Foreign Minister coming to Moscow one week after the announcement of the signature of the economic agreement. Molotov stated that if the conclusion of the economic agreement is made public tomorrow, the Reich Foreign Minister could arrive in Moscow on August 26 or 27.
Molotov handed me a draft of a nonaggression pact.
A detailed account of the two conversations I had with Molotov today, as well as the text of the Soviet draft, follows by telegram at once.
SCHULENBURG
The first talk in the Kremlin, which began at 2 P.M. on the nineteenth and lasted an hour, did not, the ambassador reported, go very well. The Russians, it seemed, could not be stampeded into receiving Hitlers Foreign Minister. Molotov persisted in his opinion, Schulenburg wired, that for the present it was not possible even approximately to fix the time of the journey since thorough preparations would be required . . . To the reasons I repeatedly and very emphatically advanced for the need of haste, Molotov rejoined that, so far, not even the first step the concluding of the economic agreement had been taken. First of all, the economic agreement had to be signed and published, and achieve its effect abroad. Then would come the turn of the nonaggression pact and protocol.
Molotov remained apparently unaffected by my protests, so that the first conversation closed with a declaration by Molotov that he had imparted to me the views of the Soviet Government and had nothing to add to them.
But he had something, shortly.
Hardly half an hour after the conversation had ended, Schulenburg reported, Molotov sent me word asking me to call on him again at the Kremlin at 4:30 P.M. He apologized for putting me to the trouble and explained that he had reported to the Soviet Government.
Whereupon the Foreign Commissar handed the surprised but happy ambassador a draft of the nonaggression pact and told him that Ribbentrop could arrive in Moscow on August 26 or 27 if the trade treaty were signed and made public tomorrow.
Molotov did not give reasons, Schulenburg added in his telegram, for his sudden change of mind. I assume that Stalin intervened.
The assumption was undoubtedly correct. According to Churchill, the Soviet intention to sign a pact with Germany was announced to the Politburo by Stalin on the evening of August 19. [Hmm. Excerpts now citing one another. Homer] A little earlier that day between 3 P.M. and 4:30 P.M. it is clear from Schulenburgs dispatch, he had communicated his fateful decision to Molotov.
Exactly three years later, in August 1942, in the early hours of the morning, as Churchill later reported, the Soviet dictator gave to the British Prime Minister, then on a mission to Moscow, some of the reasons for his brazen move.
We formed the impression [said Stalin] that the British and French Governments were not resolved to go to war if Poland were attacked, but that they hoped the diplomatic line-up of Britain, France and Russia would deter Hitler. We were sure it would not. How many divisions, Stalin had asked, will France send against Germany on mobilization? The answer was: About a hundred, He then asked: How many will England sent? The answer was: Two, and two more later. Ah, two, and two more later, Stalin had repeated, Do you know, he asked, how many divisions we shall have to put on the Russian front if we go to war with Germany? There was a pause. More than three hundred.
In his dispatch reporting the outcome of his conversations with Molotov on August 19, Schulenburg had added that his attempt to induce the Foreign Commissar to accept an earlier date for Ribbentrops journey to Moscow was, unfortunately, unsuccessful.
But for the Germans it had to be made successful. The whole timetable for the invasion of Poland, indeed the question of whether the attack could take place at all in the brief interval before the autumn rains, depended upon it. If Ribbentrop were not received in Moscow before August 26 or 27 and then if the Russians stalled a bit, as the Germans feared, the target date of September 1 could not be kept.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
On the evening of August 19 Stalin announced to the Politburo his intention to sign a pact with Germany.
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
German fleet update at reply #2.
Nazi-Soviet pact update at reply #4.
????????????????????????????
This move certainly removed any doubt that Hitler not only wanted Danzig and The Corridor and the former German territories, but to occupy all of Poland, and to wipe her off the map. The Poles knew that concessions were meaningless.
He’s too short to invade! Geez.
With the commitment in secret for the Hitler-Stalin Pact on this day, tens of millions of innocent people were as good as dead. You might say they were ‘shovel-ready’.
Thank goodness our government today doesn't have a "secret protocol."
I don't know what more he could have done to influence the course of events. The U.S. was a potential super power at the time. The actualization was a few years off.
Want to bet on that?
I think everyone knew war was coming, but there were still people in denial. Look at John Gunther’s article datelined from Riga. In the article he mentions that Poland is ready to fight, but those comments are always juxtaposed with the comments that “Hitler has miscalculated Polish resolve” or words to that effect.
It appears that Gunther, based on the “informed sources from the region,” was taking the line that all the saber-rattling over Danzig was a bluff on Hitler’s part. It’s an assumption that Hitler didn’t really want to go war. Today, we all know that Hitler did indeed want to go to war; he insisted on it. What Homer hasn’t posted yet from “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” were Hitler’s FEARS at this time of another “Munich.” Yes, he actually was afraid he’d be coerced to the bargaining table. Even if a Polish Munich handed him all the territorial concessions he demanded of Poland, he still would not have gotten what he wanted. He wanted a war. He got one.
By the way, these articles show why Hitler was so successful; with one notable exception, nobody had a clear read on the man. Everything he said was so bombastic that it was dismissed as bombast. But it was all really true. He even fooled Stalin right up to June 22, 1941. Stalin, in his paranoia, as far as I know, only trusted one person. He trusted the last person on earth he should have trusted; Adolf Hitler. The exception was Winston Churchill; he saw right through Hitler from the beginning.
What’s scary is that today, we have bombastic loons like Chavez, Kim Jong Il and Achmedinijah who act the same way. Bombast, or statements of true intent? You make the call.
My difficulty is deciding what excerpts to post and what to pass on. I could post many pages for each day during the last half of August. I don't because I don't have time to transcribe it all and, even if I did, it would not serve the readers to make all those really long posts. So I try to include enough to give an idea of what is going on behind the news articles without going overboard. I just read a section from August 26, for example where Mussolini and Hitler exchange communicaitons. Il Duce is hoping for another "Munich" while Der Fuerhrer tries to get it though his erstwhile ally's head that a peaceful settlement is not part of the program. I do not plan to post that section.
I recommend that anyone interested in the origins of the war get a copy of "Rise and Fall" if you haven't read it. It is a real pot-boiler.
so you know, I look forward to this ping everyday.
I appreciate it. Now I have to figure out a way to squeeze in a trip to the library soon so the world doesn't end on October 20 when my material runs out.
Just wait until the 24th when the Non-Agression Pact announcement is announced. I’m really looking forward to reading the comments on that day.
I got decent grades in history and passed 101 and 102 but this is great stuff, a day by day account I just hope the times is reporting from a non biased viewpoint. Is rise and fall reallty that good?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.