Hitler. 1936-1945: Nemesis

185. TBJG, II/4, 486 (10 June 1942).

186. TBJG, II/4, 492 (10 June 1942).

187. See DRZW, vi.868ff. for the unfolding of the campaign.

188. Halder KTB, iii.462 (21 June 1942).

189. Overy, Why the Allies Won, 66.

190. Halder KTB, iii.467 (28 June 1942).

191. Halder KTB, iii.469 (1 July 1942); Domarus, 1895–6.

192. Bock, 512–14 (3 July 1942).

193. Halder Diary, 632–9 (3–13 July 1942); Bock, 525–6 (13 July 1942); Below, 312. In his talk with Bock on 3 July, Hitler had made fun of the English for sacking generals when something went wrong and thereby undermining the freedom of decision in the army (Bock, 513 (3 July 1942)).

194. See Domarus, 1897, n.312.

195. Domarus, 1897; Hauner, Hitler, 179, for the return to Rastenburg on 1 November.

196. Schroeder, 135–41; Halder KTB, iii.483 (16 July 1942); Below, 313. Picker found the Ukraine an attractive area (Picker, 465 (22 July 1942)). Below, who had mentioned that Hitler disliked the heat and the flies in the summer of 1942, referred to the Vinnitsa headquarters during the second sojourn there in late February and early March 1943 as ‘pleasant’ (Below, 331). Goebbels, however, visiting FHQ in that period, found the location ‘desolate (trostlos)’ TBJG, II/7, 501 (9 March 1943)).

197. Below, 313; Picker, 461 (19 July 1942).

198. Picker, 457–77 (18–26 July 1942).

199. Below, 313.

200. Halder KTB, iii.492 (28 July 1942), 493–4 (30 July 1942), 494–5 n.1; KTB OKW, ii/2, 1285; Irving, HW, 405–6.

201. Hartmann, 325.

202. Below, 313.

203. See Bernd Wegner, ‘Vom Lebensraum zum Todesraum. Deutschlands Kriegfuhrung zwischen Moskau und Stalingrad’, in Jurgen Forster (ed.), Stalingrad. Ereignis-Wirkung-Symbol, Munich/Zurich, 1992, 17–37, here 19.

204. Cit. Hartmann, 326 n.90. Ninety per cent of the Soviet Union’s oil came from Baku and the north Caucasian oil-fields (Wegner, ‘Vom Lebensraum zum Todesraum’, 19).

205. Wegner, ‘Vom Lebensraum zum Todesraum’, 21, for the scepticism, but the lack of a convincing alternative on the part of the generals.

206. Wegner, ‘Hitler zweiter Feldzug’, 660; Wegner, ‘Vom Lebensraum zum Todesraum’, 29.

207. Weisungen, 227. Marshal Semyon Timoshenko was the Red Army’s senior general, commonly regarded at this point as the Soviet Union’s most competent military commander. He had, however, presided over the loss of a quarter of a million men, together with their tanks and artillery, in the battle for Kharkov in spring, and was recalled to Moscow on 23 July, returning to a field-command, this time on the north-west front, only in October (Oxford Companion, 1108–9).

208. Hartmann, 325.

209. Weisungen, 227–9; see Hartmann, 326.

210. Hartmann, 328–9; DRZW, vi-953ff.

211. Halder KTB, iii.489 (23 July 1942), trans. Halder Diary, 646; Hartmann, 328.

212. Cit. Hartmann, 328.

213. Overy, Why the Allies Won, 67.

214. Halder KTB, iii.503–7 (12–19 August 1942); Hartmann, 329.

215. Halder KTB, iii.501 (9 August 1942); Speer, 252; DRZW, vi.942–3; Wegner, ‘Vom Lebensraum zum Todesraum’, 30; Irving, HW, 414.

216. TBJG, ii/5, 353–4 (20 August 1942).

217. This is what Speer later claimed (Speer, 252).

218. Halder KTB, iii.508 (22 August 1942); Below, 313; Domarus, 1905.

219. Speer, 253.

220. DRZW, vi.965; Hartmann, 329.

221. Halder KTB, iii.509 (23 August 1942).

222. See Hartmann, 329.

223. Halder KTB, iii.511 (26 August 1942).

224. Warlimont, 251 (dating the meeting to 8 August); Halder KTB, iii.501 (7 August 1942); DRZW, vi.908; Irving, HW, 415.

225. Below, 314; DRZW, vi.898–906; Irving, HW, 416– 18.

226. Hartmann, 330.

227. Heusinger, 200–201; trans. amended from Warlimont, 251–2.

228. Engel, 125 (4 September 1942); see also Warlimont, 251–2, 618 n.21; Erich von Manstein, Lost Victories, (1955), London, 1982, 261–2. Though his diary entry is misdated, and is a post-war reconstruction, there seems no obvious reason to doubt the authenticity of Engel’s record. Heusinger’s account (Heusinger, 201, also misdated) of Hitler’s further response is less insulting than what was actually said. Heusinger accepted after the war that he had deliberately avoided publishing Hitler’s worst insult. (See Hartmann, 331–2 and nn.14, 17.)

229. Engel, 125 (4 September 1942). Halder, recognizing that he could no longer cope with Hitler’s operational leadership, appears, in fact, consciously to have been working towards the second half of July at provoking his own dismissal, aware that a conventional resignation would not be acceptable (DRZW, vi.954).

230. Engel, 126 n.395.

231. Engel, 124 (27 August 1942). This and a further entry for the same date are misdated by Engel (see 124 n.389) and repeated almost verbatim (126) under the date 7 September 1942.

232. Engel, 124 (27 August 1942).

233. Engel, 126 (8 September 1942). According to her later testimony, Jodl told his second wife, Luise, that ‘he had never witnessed such an outbreak of fury’ in Hitler. (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, Toland Tapes, II/T1/S2/3 (interview, in English, with John Toland, 7 November 1970).)

234. Below, 315.

235. Warlimont, 256; Halder KTB, iii.518–19 (8 September 1942).

236. Engel, 125 (27 August 1942).

237. Irving, HW, 422.

238. Engel, 125 (27 August 1942). See his similar comments, 128 (18 September 1942).

239. Engel, 127 (8 September 1942).

240. Warlimont, 256; Below, 315.

241. Engel, 127 (18 September 1942). For Hitler’s lack of trust in his generals, see Engel 127–9 (14–30 September 1942).

242. Warlimont, 257–8.

243. Warlimont, 258.

244. Below, 316.

245. Warlimont, 259; Below, 315. Zeitzler was a close friend of Schmundt (Warlimont, 259). See Hartmann, 337–9, for a description of Zeitzler and his belief in Hitler. Hitler had pointed out to Goebbels some weeks earlier how impressed he had been by Zeitzler’s work in the west (TBJG, II/5,353 (20 August 1942)).

246. Warlimont, 260.

247. Hartmann, 339.