THE BEND BULLETIN, BEND, OREGON, TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1945
PAGE TWO
Hitler: Most
Ruthless in
World History
Where Adolf Hitler Failed
55
' (B; United Prati) .
Adolph Hitler, the Austrian
who destroyed his own country,
made himself master of Germany
in 14 years and became known as
the most powerful and ruthless
conqueror in history.
Before e conquered, he was a
hod-carrier, a house painter, a
common laborer. Viennese work
men called him a bum when he
went there after his mother died.
Hitler lived in a flophouse.
Workers despised him. He had
nn almost femininely smooth
white skin and soft, muscleless
limbs and arms, with a caved-in
. chest. They laughed at vague ar
guments about Germany which
he could not back up, at his pic
ture of a Germany in which he
would not be a laborer or a vaga
bond, so he began to read facts
to back up his theories.
'Duiigeroutt Fanatic'
During World War I, Hitler
joined the Bavarian army, swear
i n g allegiance to Germany's
cause. Officers said he glorted In
bloodshed, and they awarded him
nn Iron Cross for bravery. But
they refused to give him a com
mission. He was termed a "dun
gerous fanatic."
Hitler was beaten when Ger
many fell. He went as a spy for
the Reichswehr to a meeting of
six men fishtlni? for anti-Semi
tism and staved to become the, burg's cabinet and, in 1933, was
seventh member, beginning his! made dictator by the Reichstag,
whole race theory which gave rise i He immediately began his boycott
to one of the greatest waves ofof Jews, repressed all religions,
persecution in history. jand threw thousands of oppon-
By 1923, the little man whoicnts Into concentration camps.
would not eat meat, drink beeri He encouraged paganism and
ana wno rejecter! women, naa neo-paganism, and Hitler, him
harangued himself into leader- self, became somewhat of an as
shlp of Deutsches Arbelter Par-1 trologer. Locked away In his files
tel. a recognized force in Munich, were hundreds of pictures of con
He overplayed his hand in the gtcllulions. On one afternoon,
abortive beer hall "putsch" when shortly before the settlement of
he tried to abolish the Bavarian the Czech crisis, Hitler was not
mtwizui i.rh I t ( FINLAND
this battle when U-booti I - , "I I J f I,..--. -..:. SOVICT RUSSIA
(oiled to Mop Mow of mp- I . NORWAY ' 1 A U A TP ' , '
plies to Russia and Britain I J NORWAY 1 V , I ) HUh,ktL , v .
m decisive years ot 1940 43 Jp Btrgtni 0ito ( 0 ln.ni EUiUI-H.tl.r toiled hex k
nmmmmmm J . ,,,, .A,SWtDN J nTiv. v.-" where Napoleon had succeeded,
7' .rriT ' V. V -j"' ( eST I -:.-t,'W,9ot?l 'A missing Moscow by 30 miles in
tfPS-JrK A -' ..' ftaMiV-Ai-lik.,;. oim M2. Follyot in-
AtlantlcOcecn fTJjERITAIN f' V L $ ' " voot Russia became apparent
A North5ea fW VT--r j M'ow j
KsS rYl Baltic StaLTTH.Jf ( S i , , r
'SLiy y$hf f Wo ubeo"?"' ) .topped Nan. ,n defeat that I
7 f M' W ' Idjim-H,,l,,n.a7h ' A? V9'
, "V , onized army to point where! v -"v , Cfs "'On Vv H
BW?Wj -Hitler toiled " ' - l 9n8rol conspired to kill lS D,POHok1 ' " jis- , - i & S I
to prevent Allied landings, V CDAki-i- ' 'Munich , htm, precipitated unrest Kvt-s ; Xtiew . if ' I rv9C I
stem mighty invasion tido hKANLt VJJV s 'I
JLllM-AII,esbr,kTkBVt VN fy ,.BrV
. i 0 Nan rcsistonccand I Rom - X. )r p TURKEY
.1 swarmed over "bout " Nnnl.liV 2r-0 if M -ttgwrw , . "V "
. 1 L-U 1 P SOv'J?BrrF 0 C, puCZUjui--Hillerwasl
' Q Mediterranean Sea ) oheece w . unableto win this lonj--jr!'.-: X,''
p;.tyjf,w.t-Aiis c q malta j o t A r f mmm-n.ih x.
MOROCCO 'B':-,rjj.-'.l - PWW?'W-a-' 'Wlldlm.
.rtriM.Twr--C RnockuM,V,;Vn,40-42; tailed fittjm& I A ti" I 8
- ' . tyBajEl . , I tnhn IH Sic v Sardinia. Corsica. I I ara.D in 1942. Hit-1 rl J ler .grasp when
. "-V - s ... ALGERIA v. .:;. ..yHtasHHMaiiHMMl I ler failed to win I I T 1 British took over I
AL,.,TO," tHTX thi.keywmc.nal I A herein 1941 fc-w.
CfiilZI-After pushing ,"P'" obrtllt-s l "IPX. J W""""1
" British back twice, Rommel I I .. T7-.- TT
finally lo.t here in 1943J UBYT0 ) EGYPT C ' f AAB'A
government. But during his year
in prison for his attempt, he wrote
"Mein Kampf," outlining the
plans which he later carried out
step by step until stopped by the
allies.
I)lilatir or the Ueluli
Aided by Rudolf Hess, Paul Jo
seph Goebbels and other "believ
ers," ho stumped Germany. He
became a German citizen to run
against the aging Field Marshal
von Hlndenburg, German leader,
in 1932. He won 11,000,000 votes,
40 per cent of the total. However,
he forced his way Into Hinden-1
avallahle to anyone. He was con
sulling with his astrologers re
garding the wisdom of the mea
sure he was about to take.
In 1934, Hitler purged his own
party in a blood bath in which
1,000 persons died, and he set out
to prove himself one of the great
est opportunists of all time, seiz
ing presidential powers when Hin
denburg died.
Still, very few persons knew
the dictator well enough to call
Uiiirf- Adolf, though his faithful
into Poland, in 1939, to touch off
the bomb which rocked the whole
world. They cheered before that
when he took Austria and Czech
oslovakia. They helped him when
he drove through Holland, Belgi
um, Luxembourg, eliminating en
emics at home and forging ahead
to control the European continent,
aided by a new type of warfare,
the Blitzkrieg, and a fifth column
of opportunists who wanted a
share in Hitler's world.
Took Personal Command
Only when his forces in Russia
were beaten back, when Der
Peuhrer took personal command
in December, 1941, did the people's
confidence show signs of totter
ing. But Hiler shouted to his peo
ple, lauding his losing ally, Beni
to Mussolini, and promised "vic
tory Jn 1942."
"We shall never capitulate,"
Hitler exhorted later, still unshak
m in the belief in his destiny. But
his armies were beaten in North
Africa, and in Russia the Wehr-
patty '-leaders supported h i m I macht turned and ran from tlie
blindly when he sent his armies tremendous momentum of the red
ALL uir FOE TTTHIE
FIML1WW
We're going to knock out Hirohito
HOLD
your Bonds
and
BUY
MORE
but it won't be easy!
We must fight warily and wisely before
our enemy is crushed.
Rats are dangerous to the last corner!
Our boys on the battle fronts are mind-
ful of these things ... as they slug away
with unremitting valor.
Can we on the home front do any less?
Let's black out that "Rising Sun" with
War Bonds!
S&N Men's Shop
945 Wall St.
"We Dress the Town"
Bend, Oregon
drive. The allies closed In from the
west and in Italy there no longer
was aid lor tne axis.
Hitler retired more and more to
Berchtesgaden with a Bavarian
girl, Eva Braun, whom he met In
1935. By 1938, Miss Braun had
been established as "Die Chefin
(feminine counterpart of Hitler's
intimate title, -Der Chef) In Hit
ler's household. Reports of unrest
grew in .Holland, France, Den
mark, throughout "Xestung Euro
pa" which Hitler's armies con
trolled. Hitler ordered additional
purges, to enforce the nazi dictum
of "one party and absolute obedi
ence to dor fuehrer." i -Escaped
Generals' Plot .
The purges were not thorough
ly carried out until after a group
of Junker generals attempted to
assassinate -4-iuter on July iy,
1944, as he stood in the inner cir
cle of official headquarters. A
bomb exploded only six feet away
from the falling leader.
Hitler empowered Himmler to
clean up the home front.- Her-,
mann Goering and Paul Joseph
Goebbels were named "dictator"
and "plenipotentiary" of the Ger
man home front and occupied
Europe, as Hitler waited for the
outcome of the purge which no
nnp niitKlrta nf flormnnv cniilrl
know.
The leader of the super-nation
was constantly guarded, appar
ently fearing for his life from
every hand. But he shouted again
that Germany would not give up,
even when Russian armies, call
ing down revenge on the Germans,
noured across nazi soil, and Anglo-
American armies advanced into
France.
His plans were ended for con
quering the world for the Aryan
race of supermen, the pure race
he sought to build while enslaving
the rest of the world.
The allies ended his destinyj
Mien he was 5(i vears old and
latter he had ruled Germany for
! only 11 years.
The goal was a complete con
quest of axis-held North Africa.
But once again Wavell found him
self thwarted by that besetting
nemesis of every desert advance
faltering supply. Conversely,
Rommel's resistance stiffened as
his supply lines shortened.
The British reached Ey Agheila,
400 miles west of the Egyptian
border, on Jan. 7. They got no
farther. Rommel had entrenched
himself in the desert hills and
salt bogs just west of the port.
Repaired and replenished, his big
guns and tanks slapped back
fiercely at his pursuers, who were
forced to encamp on a flat, ex
posed plain. After a week, the
British were weakened further by
troop transfers to Singapore.
Uommel Counterattacks
Another week passed and then
Rommel launched a savage coun
terattack under cover of a sting
ing sandstorm. The attack was
successful. The pattern of the
previous months was repeated in
reverse. In two days the British
were swept back 80 miles to Age-'
daba. Benghazi fell once more,
and for its capture Rommel re
ceived the rank of field marshal.
By Feb. 20, the British were back
In the vicinity of Tobruk.
.There they regrouped, held des
perately and forced a stalemate
on a line running from Tobruk
40 miles south to the desert cross
roads of Bir Hacheim. The lull
lasted three months. The two ar
mies rested, fidgeted and waited
for reinforcements under a desert
sun that withered men and made
metal too hot to touch.
On May 26, Rommel opened his
final desert campaign. He ordered
his tanks forward. For two weeks,
the struggle swirled back and
forth below Tobruk. Then, on
June 13, British Gen. Nell M.
Ritchie sent his tanks into a nazi
trap and lost 230 of them.
Stripped of their armor, the Brit
ish lost Tobruk and 25,000 men
stationed there. The squat nazi
tanks roared on eastward over
the coastal plain.
Nazis Beach Matruh
Bardio, on the Egyptian border,
fell after a week, and then Sidi
Barrani, 100 miles inside. By
June 29, the nazi tide had reached
Matruh, the largest town west
of Alexandria, and Rommel was
nearer the green valley of the
Nile and the brown ditch of the
Suez than ever before. England
and the Empire, Churchill told
commons, were in mortal peril.
At a sun-baked collection of
huts named El Alamein a name
now fixed in history with Water
loo and Gettysburg the British
finally called a halt. Grimly they
threw up a defensive line run
ning inland 35 miles to a vast
alkali bed called the Qattara de
pression. Rommel flung his panz
ers furiously against the make
shift defense, and for several cri
tical days the decision hung in
the balance. But although the line
bent perilously, it failed to crack.
For a third time the pay-off vic
tory had eluded the axis grasp.
And now Rommel's Afrika Korps
was out of tanks, ammunition
and water everything a desert
army needs. It dug in to await
supplies and reinforcements.
This time, it got them, but the
British got more. They also got
new leaders: the spirited and of
fensive-minded Gen. Sir Bernard
L. Montgomery and the master
strategist Sir Harold R. L. G.
Alexander.
Under these talented soldiers, a
new British army took shape that
summer. Not only quantities of
British men and supplies but long
lines of U. S. Sherman tanks and
more than 1,000. American planes
were added to give it new bite
and stamina. Visiting Cairo,
Churchill told Montgomery his
orders this time were to "destroy
Rommel and his army for good."
By autumn, preparations were'
completed.
The attack was launched just
before midnight on Oct. 23 with
a mighty, wheel-to-wheel artillery
bombardment. At 1 a. m., the or
der came: "Forward!"
Early Axis Strafegy Called
For Control of Suez Canal
By Malcolm Mulr, Jr. 1 the west.
(United Preu Suit Correspondent) No longer hampered
The lid had flown off the North ! French threat on their
i
African powder keg with the fall
of France in June, 1940.
For the French collapse had
given the Axis French Morocco,
Tunisia and Algeria, handing it
effective control of the entire cen
tral Mediterranean. Jumping at
this chance to cut Britain's east
ern lifeline for good, Axis strate
gists now selected the Suez, the
vital valve leading to the Indian
ocean, as their next military goal.
The first blow was struck in
July, 1940, from East Africa at
the Suez's rear. From Ethiopia,
Italian armies drove south into
Kenya and north into the Anglo
Egyptian Sudan, posing a grave
threat to the canal's western
by a
flnnU
about 250,000 confident ItallaiS
paraded eastward ifrom Llbv
across the lightly-defended Egyn.
tian border. They carried with
them marble monuments to ceie!
urate aiiuuipuieu victories.
The British, outnumbered, re
treated and in a matter of weeks
the Italian march reached Sidi
Barrani, 100 miles Inside Egypt
There, Grazlani paused, apparent
ly to regroup his (orces for a
drive through to Alexandria and
the canal.
The British, reinforced in D&
cember, beat him to the punch.
' 130,000 Italians Captured
Australians, New Zealanders
ana incuans unaer uen. sir Archi-
coast. This was followed in Au-jbald Wavell probed the Italian!
mict hi, TlolUn nmnnBtlnn nt Drit. li.u fn,A .1 -1 1
gust by Italian occupation of Brit
ish Somaliland on the Gulf of
Aden, virtually plugging the ditch
from the south.
Up on the north African coast,
a month later, another Italian
force under Marsha Rudolf o
Grazlani launched the first of the
Axis' desert campaigns designed
to seize and block the Suez from
Sappers led the advance, jab
bing cautiously to uncover buried
mines. Stain-faced tommy-gunners
followed, covering the sap
pers. Next came the PBI's poor
bloody infantry -r- holding their
bayonets outthrust before them
in the darkness. Their job was
to widen with cold steel the
breaches started in the enemy
lines by the earlier bombardment.
Then the allied tanks clanked for
ward to seek out the German.
armor.
Rommel, expecting Montgom
ery to attack in the center, had
divided his divisions in the hope
of crushing the British in their
jaws. Instead, Montgomery
struck from the north, aiming to
overpower tne German Hank. For
nine days, the Germans managed
to noio on in brutal no-quarter
fighting. Then, on "Nov. 2, the
speedy medium-weight Shermans
drove a fatal gap in the enemy
wall. Before the day was out 350
axis tanks and 400 big guns lay
blackened and smoking among
the desert dunes. The Afrika
Korps crumpled and fled. Mont
gomery's lanes and tanks struck
out in hot pursuit.
The British had won a victory
whose importance it was impos
sible to exaggerate. Not only had
they smashed the Rommel myth
and lifted for good the axis threat
to their eastern life-line. They
had placed the initiative in World
War U once and lor all in the
hands of the allies. The chase
that began at El Alamein was hot.
to end until Bizerte and Turns six'1
months later.
unes, iouna mem shaky aiKf"!
pressed their advantage hardf
Sidi Barrani fell before Christ
mas, ana me imperials sweDta
kxnl, axaa 1. " I I t
The port of Tobruk. the cam.
van terminals of Derna and Ben
ghazi far along the coast were
stormed and taken in brisk fight
ing. Upward of 130,000 Italians
were captured. By Feb. 18, 1941,
the British advance had reached!
Agneiia, auu miles west of its I
starting point. i
All Libya might have faltal
that spring but for two factors I
111 U7ai,all'o ...nn -3 1.. ,
seriously to send troops to threat-1
ened Greece; (2) the- Axis army I
wo oLMieneu uy irerman armored I
forces under the nazi panzer and
aesen expert, uen. Ji;rwln Rom
mei.
Rommel took prompt advan-f
tage of the skeletonized British
force. In a savage charee. hkt
Mark IV tanks, armored cars andN
motorized intantry swept the Im
perials from their El Agheila p i
sitions late in March. They were
back at Benghazi by April 4 1
Derna fell three days later and f
three British generals were cap 8
i-uicu uy a jituu scouting party.
Retreat to EirvDt
Racing on, Rommel's divisions
now known as the Africa Korps f
chased Wavell's troops the rest
of the way back to Egypt faster I
than they had come. Only at the
battered port of Tobruk did a
pocket of British resistance man-1
age to hold out.
Not until he had crossed the!
Egyptian border early in May did f
Rommel finally call a halt, his f
supply lines stretched overlong
In East Africa, meanwhile, the 6
tide of war had been reversed t
Converging on Ethiopia from I,
both Kenya and the Sudani
strengthened British columns re
moved the threat to the Suez F
jfrom .that direction, more than j ,
wiping out the Italians previous
gains. t
Fuehrer Ruins
General's Plan
To Take Suez
(lly United FrcM)
For the Germans, the insatiable
demands of the Russian struggle
took priority over all other con-
; sidoratlons in 1941 and 1942. None
; realized this more acutely than
Gen. Erwin Rommel, whoso
; Afrika Korps stood stranded just
inside Egypt in October, 1911.
I Rommel, called upon to recoup
, Mussolini's Libyan debacle, had
done that and more. Now he
; threatened to snap the British
'.Mediterranean life-line beyond re
pair. Once astride the Suez, he
would be in a position to pry
open the Near East and the Mid
dle East, perhaps even to break
through to the Indian ocean and
join the legions of Japan,
j But Hitler did not choose to
play out what appeared to bp a
winning hand. Rommel waited for
supplies in vain. British Gen. Sir
1 Archibald Wavell saw his chance.
On Nov. 15. five British spear
heads sprang across the horriiT in
the greatest allied drive of the
war up to that time: hailed by
Churchill as the first undertaken
with men and machines to match
the enemy.
i Rommol had no choice but to
1 retreat. His main problem soon
; became to nvert a full-flodged
rout. For the British pressed their
second Libyan offensive with im
prrssive speed. Tohrtik's gallant
i garrison was relieved early in De
cember and by Christmas the fly.
: ing Imperial columns were past
! the caravan terminals of Derna
land Benghusi, hundreds of miles
1 beyond.
Are You Prepared, Hirohito?
Every one of us, civilian and military, is fully determined
to bring this war to a speedy and successful conclusion
through an all-out effort against you and your little
"Sons of Heaven."
We're Punching -All of Us!
So be prepared for unlimited losses of both your men and
your ships for our fighting men are in hurry to get back
home and we're backing them to the limit. Here we come
and there's no stopping us!
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A
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