Author: Robert A. M. Chittino
Translation: Hu Yibing
On the eve of the Battle of Loyten in 1757, Frederick the Great summoned his officers to a meeting in the small Silesian village of Parchwitz. There he addressed them, inspiring them to be strong in the face of the coming test. It was a snowy December morning, and the king looked like he had no kingly atmosphere. He was weak, bent over tired, and his uniform was ragged. He usually likes to speak elegant French, but this time he speaks plain German.
The time had come, he told them. Although the number of troops was only half that of the enemy, he decided to attack the Austrians in front of him. "We must defeat the enemy, or we will be buried under their guns." He reminded the officers to remember their traditions, recalled their past exploits for his dynasty, and listed the great family names of Prussian military history. In this speech, Palkhwitz spoke of the most emotional point, and he even allowed those who did not think they were ready for the battle to leave. "You can go home, and I won't blame you." He said quietly.
A dead silence enveloped the conference room. He deliberately offended them and questioned their honor. The mere thought of going out the door can disgust the crowd. One of those present, Major Konstantin von Billerbeck, couldn't help but shout, "Yes, if you're a scoundrel — let's go now!" Billebek was an officer in the Prince Henry Regiment, and what he said carried a lot of weight among his comrades. He led a mere 200 musketeers to repel an attack by 4,000 Croatian irregular troops on an important Prussian reinforcement. At this moment he calmed the people in the room with a bold cry.
"Ha! "I know," the king grinned, "that I know none of you will abandon me. "He doesn't usually smile a lot — his strengths don't include approachability. But he felt victory in this room. He has won over their hearts and minds, making them his personal bodyguards, willing to go to the soup for him. For politicians, this is an achievement worthy of boasting.
He adjourned the meeting, "Good luck now, gentlemen: tomorrow we will either defeat the enemy or we will never see each other again." ”
Nearly two hundred years later, in 1944, wehrmacht commanders gathered at the Eagle's Nest on a dark day in December. They obeyed the Fuehrer's call and came here to listen to him. These people were the spiritual descendants of the royten warriors.
Eagle's Nest near Bad Nauheim – December 12, 1944. The name "Eagle's Nest" suggests open space, blue skies, fresh air, and freedom. But the room was surprisingly hot, with a heavy, sweaty sweltering heat. Some of these officers worked overtime to make plans for the upcoming offensive, lying in front of the map day and night, already so tired that they would occasionally hang their heads and doze off, and when they suddenly woke up, they would continue to doze off.
And he didn't look very good either—hunched over, his left and left arms trembling all the time, sometimes shaking badly, pale and puffy. He looked exhausted and sick. Some of the generals had seen him at a staff meeting in Berlin nine days earlier, and they felt that his health had deteriorated significantly since then.
The Fuehrer was as vocal as ever—he spat out hundreds or even thousands of words in one breath, some of which were reasonable, some of which were wise, but some of which were inexplicable and incomprehensible. The Prussian soldiers had always prided themselves on their "concise, Knapp" way of speaking, but this was perhaps the least suitable term to describe Hitler's habits of speaking.
The Fuehrer did not provide new information on the offensive operation code-named Wacht am Rhein, but they did not need it. They had all heard of the mission announcement and had long memorized the details, including the exact deployment of each corps, division and regiment. According to german military practice, this battle plan was also controversial, with some advocating the "Großelösung" plan, which crossed the Meuse River in a desperate bid and rushed to Antwerp, while others advocated the "Small Settlement" (Kleinlösung) plan, which reached a breakthrough and then surrounded the American forces east of the Meuse River near Aachen. Hitler and his staff continued to support the former, and others gradually joined them, but privately there was always a certain complaint.
The debate is over, and the troops are already on their way to the intended assault site of the Great Settlement. Today's conversation is about the big picture — very big. In his 90-minute speech, he brought up a variety of topics that Hitler had always been obsessed with: the fear of Germany being surrounded by enemy powers, the need for living space, the machinations of the "transnational Jewish clique", and the delusion of "survival or destruction" that Hitlerist foreign policy could never escape.
But it is history that the Fuehrer talks about the most. He reminded them of the great significance of the struggle. The current conflict is no longer an eighteenth-century conflict over a border province or a succession to the throne, but an "existential war." It has many roots: the attempt of the European powers to break the dominance of the medieval German Empire on the European continent; the Peace of Westphalia of 1648; Bismarck's war of unification. Europe wanted to see a weak and divided Germany, and it was the fragmentation within Germany that "made the rise of the British Empire possible," ensuring that "the American continent spoke English rather than German" and that France gained "dominance on the European continent."
In order to break this suffocating international shackle once and for all, he launched a "preventive war" in 1939. "Gentlemen, all successful wars in history have been preventive," he told them. The timing was right. His vast rearmament program gave the Third Reich a potentially decisive advantage, but that was only temporary, so in 1939 he had no choice but to take the initiative. They had all heard these remarks before, and their gazes had undoubtedly become more and more sluggish during the more than hour-long speech, not only because of fatigue.
But his words also have something that is right to their heart, words that correspond to their fundamental principles of war, words that have made them reflex under the tutelage of history. He mentioned mental strength, Zähigkeit, beharrlichkeit and perseverance (Dauerhaftigkeit). He went beyond the material realm and spoke of the need to deprive the enemy of "confidence in victory" by launching an offensive, to make the enemy understand that "their plan could not succeed from the outset": "The chances of achieving this goal through a successful defense can never be as great as a successful attack." So in the long run, we can't cling to the creed that "defense is a stronger form of combat." That will only benefit the other party... We must be clear: a prolonged period of tight defensive combat will damage the endurance of the troops, and they must be relieved by successful (offensive) strikes. ”
He claimed that it was his consistent will to "fight on the offensive and guide the war with a campaign mentality" in order to avoid static operations like the First World War. Although the Wehrmacht turned to the defensive out of necessity of the situation, it was necessary to "reassure the enemy that whatever they do, we must not expect us to surrender, it is absolutely impossible".
He also mentioned Frederick the Great as always. They had all heard of Hitler's adaptation of Frederick's slogan. According to Frederick, Germany will hold out this struggle until "one of our damned adversaries is tired." This time, the Fuehrer made another argument, which, though it might seem absurd decades from now, might have been perfectly reasonable in the eyes of those in that room at the time. In the seventh year of the Seven Years' War, every one of Frederick's advisers persuaded him to submit: the generals, the governors of the provinces, his ministers in Berlin, and even his own brother Prince Henry. Everyone wanted him to end the unwinnable war, but the king refused. He chose to be patient. The Fuehrer pointed out that the idea that Frederick had only made good luck and that the death of the Tsarina was the real turning point was "off-point." Frederick's spiritual strength, "a man's tenacity", is the key, which created that miraculous turning point. "If the surrender is made in the fifth year of the war, then the change of the Russian throne in the seventh year — two years later — will not matter. Everything depends on timing. ”
Indeed, the Fuehrer, the generals in the room and all the officers and men of the Wehrmacht have been waiting for their time since 1943 to persevere in an increasingly desperate war. Nearly 18 months have passed since the last German offensive, the one that failed in Kursk. The time has come for a final "offensive strike" to prove that the Allied plan has no hope of success, that the confidence of the Allies is out of place, that the Allies will never be able to crush the Third Reich, "absolutely impossible."
This article is an excerpt from the Wehrmacht trilogy
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