The Dahlerus intervention actually doesn’t help. The man is not a trained diplomat, and his presence makes the British think that there is a division in German internal politics. The British also find him hard to take seriously, calling him “The Walrus.” To the Germans, the British seem so desperate for peace they will resort to unconventional means to keep it.
Meanwhile, the French also try again. Coulondre brings Hitler another letter from Daladier, which reads, “Like myself, you were a soldier in the last war. You realize, as I do, how a people’s memory retains a horror for war and its disasters. If the blood of France and that of Germany flow again, as they did, each of the two people will fight with confidence in its own victory. But the most certain victors will be the forces of destruction and barbarism.”
The words make no impression on Hitler. “His mind was made up,” Coulondre says later. Hitler says the letter proves the French will not fight.
Dr. Wolf meets with his top military economist, General Georg Thomas, who presents Hitler with the gloomy economic facts: eventually, augmented by the United States’ industrial might, the democracies will outgun Hitler. Der Chef brushes the complaint aside. The West will not go to war for a Poland they cannot save.
Next up, a haggard and sleepless Hitler meets with Reichstag deputies, having canceled three prior meetings with them. He tells the legislative puppets that he will fight “with the most brutal and inhumane methods,” to achieve victory. “If any one of you believes that my actions have not been inspired by my devotion to Germany, I give him the right to shoot me down.”
The US Embassy in Berlin issues a formal circular, urging all Americans whose presence is not absolutely necessary to leave. Most of the correspondents send their wives and children home. CBS radio cancels its “Europe Dances” program, consisting of pick-ups from nightclubs in London, Paris, and Berlin, due to the “gravity of the situation.”
All across Europe, nations ready for war. In Paris, the streetlamps are covered with dark blue paint. Buses no longer run at night, and cars are allowed one blue headlight. The City of Light is dimmed. In Warsaw, Polish bombers and fighters fly over the city, providing training targets for searchlights.
Danzig is a garrison ready for siege…1,000 SS men have come from East Prussia for a gymnastics competition and have remained there. Houses are requisitioned for ammunition storage, and entrances to high points are cordoned off. Yet most Danzigers do not believe that Germany will go to war for their city.
At midnight, Dahlerus takes the offer to Hitler. Mr. Wolf treats Dahlerus to his favorite diatribe: how he rose to power, how England will not cooperate with him, and his doubts to English sincerity.
Dahlerus counters that he worked for years in England, as a common laborer in a Sheffield factory and knows all classes of Englishman – the British will fight. Hitler then asks Dahlerus, “You have worked as a common laborer in England? Tell me about it.”
The conversation becomes a series of questions and answers about the British people, and Dahlerus extols their strengths. To no avail. Hitler tells Dahlerus that the Luftwaffe is unconquerable, the RAF pitiful. A German infantry company bears no resemblance to any unit of its size ever seen before. It has anti-tank equipment, small quick-firing guns, machine guns, and is superbly drilled. The armor is invulnerable to the anti-tank guns of the enemy. “If there should be war, then I will build U-boats, build U-boats, U-boats, U-boats, U-boats! I will build airplanes, airplanes, airplanes, and airplanes, and destroy my enemies.”
To Dahlerus, Hitler has become “more like a phantom from a story book than a real person.” Dahlerus looks at Goering. But Fatso doesn’t “turn a hair.”
“If there should be no butter, I shall be the first to stop eating butter,” Hitler roars. “If the enemy can hold out for years, then I can hold out for one year longer. I know that I am superior to all the others!”
Hitler tells Dahlerus to tell that to the British. A shaken Dahlerus tells Hitler he needs something more concrete. Goering takes an atlas and marks in red pencil the Corridor and Danzig.
Dahlerus returns to his Esplanade Hotel at 4:30 a.m. on the 27th, unable to get over Hitler’s twisted mouth and staring eyes. He has been dealing with a madman. At 8 a.m., he books a flight to Croydon Airport in London. All air traffic across the Continent has already been stopped, so when Dahlerus’s plane lands, the press are there to snag the possible diplomatic coup. A reporter asks who the Dahlerus is.
“I do not know who I am,” Dahlerus answers.
He goes straight to 10 Downing Street, where Chamberlain awaits. The wing-tipped Prime Minister asks Dahlerus what he thinks of Hitler.
Dahlerus answers, “I shouldn’t like to have him as a partner in my business.”
The endgame is now underway – German airports are closed, the Nuremberg Rally cancelled, rationing commences on August 27. The Italians offer one more conference with the British and French to try a second Munich, and Hitler agrees to make yet another try to gain what he wants without bloodshed.
Bill Shirer reports that the Germans will institute rationing for food, soap, shoes, textiles, and coal. “This will wake up the German people to their situation!” he notes in his diary. He notes the headlines in the Volkischer Beobachter: “Whole of Poland in War Fever! 1,500,000 Men Mobilized! Uninterrupted troop transport toward the frontier! Chaos in Upper Silesia!” Shirer also writes bitterly, “No mention of any German mobilization, of course, though the Germans have been mobilized for a fortnight.”
Meanwhile, preparations for war roll on. The German merchant marine is ordered to return home to Germany or make for the nearest neutral port. German troops move to their positions in Eastern Europe. Jagd Geschwader 26, named “Schlageter Geschwader” for the martyred guerrilla, is deployed to the area around Dusseldorf, with its new Me 109E fighters, to fend off French attacks. In the Mediterranean, Adm. Sir Andrew Cunningham hoists his flag as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, on the battleship HMS Warspite. Major John D. Frost commands “Landing Ground No. 5” in the Iraqi desert, leading a half-platoon of Assyrian Levies and a section of RAF armored cars to protect a line-of-communications base. Maj. Kenneth Strong packs his bags as a British Military Attaché at the Embassy in Berlin. Maj. Gen. Bernard Freyberg commands the British troops assigned to the Salisbury Plain. Lt. Gen. Harold Alexander is overseeing the arrival of reservists for his 1st Corps, which will be assigned to the British Expeditionary Force, headed for France. Most of the corps’ second-line transport consists of requisitioned tradesmen’s vehicles.
On the 27th, the adjutant of 43 Fighter Squadron at RAF Tangmere diaries, “Everything is being taken very calmly.”
That same day, Shirer diaries, “Hot and sultry today, which makes for an increase in tension.” He notes that no matter what, the Germans will not renounce their demands. “There you have German character stripped to the bone,” Shirer writes. “A German cannot renounce vital things, but he expects the other fellow to.”
Shirer also notes the food ration situation: meat, 700 grams per week; sugar, 280 grams; marmalade, 110 grams; coffee or substitute, one-eighth of a pound per week. “As to soap, 125 grams are allotted to each person for the next four weeks. News of rationing has come as a heavy blow to the people.” Berlin cops start going door-to-door to hand out ration cards. Berliners also find out they cannot make international phone calls or long-distance calls, and that the whole national transport system is under military control. Only foreigners or those with vital national duties are allowed to travel.
