Hitler's War Directives 1939-1945 [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The Second World War was Hitler's personal war in many senses. He intended it, he prepared for it, he chose the moment for launching it ; and for three years, in the main, he planned its course. On several occasions, between 1939 and 1942, he claimed to have won it. It was - or would have been - a personal victory; for although the aims which he sought to realize were old nationalist aspirations, the policy and the strategy for their realization had been imposed by him. Consequently, when he failed, the failure too was his : so obviously his that the old national aspirations which he represented have too often been quietly forgotten. Of course there are reservations to be made. The war, even in its earliest, most successful phases, did not exactly correspond with Hitler's preconceived plans. It could not, for his plans, though fixed in their ultimate purpose, were always elastic in detail. Always, up to the last moment. Hitler nursed alternative projects, and his final choice of method would depend on circumstances. And as these circumstances varied, so his plans varied too. They varied particularly in relation to Germany's immediate neighbours, the lesser powers of Eastern Europe who might be either his satellites or his victims. For instance, in certain circumstances. Hitler might have made war on Russia in alliance with Poland. There were forces in Poland, the Poland of Pilsudski and 'the Colonels', which might willingly join in the anti-Bolshevik crusade, just as Rumania, the Rumania of Marshal Antonescu, would afterwards do. On the other hand, he might as easily have made war on Rumania as he did on Poland : there was also the Rumania of Titulescu. Again, in 1941, Hitler did not at first intend to conquer Yugoslavia: he assumed that Yugoslavia would cooperate in the Blitzkrieg against Greece ; he only had to change his plans when Yugoslavia changed and he found himself