CRISIS IN GERMANY!
SEELY, Lt. Comdr. C. S.
Crisis In Germany! By LT. COMDR. C. S. SEELY FOR several months the world has been witnessing the development of a major military blunder, but happily it is an enemy blunder. It is now reasonably...
...It is much too late now to dispose of Hitler and also continue the war...
...The fact that a considerable number of officers have turned against Hitler is conclusive evidence that he is losing the confidence of German society generally...
...They never heard the "other side" of the story, so to speak, for so long that they deluded themselves into believing (because no German openly disagreed with them) that their opinions could not be wrong...
...It is true that the recent resignation of the Japanese Cabinet may not mean much, but such an occurrence in any country during war disturbs morale and impairs the war effort...
...The longer she delays these moves the more vulnerable her military position becomes...
...A situation similar to that which exists in Germany may also exist in Japan...
...Why then have the Germans ignored the rule...
...The Time To Strike Probably the cause of the German blunders is the fact that Hitler and his advisers, by surrounding themselves with "yes men," denied themselves the advantages of intelligent criticism of their actions...
...We may have to wait long for the correct answer, but I suspect they did so because of something like group hypnosis (or perhaps group psychosis...
...Hitler's recent troubles, at least partially brought about by blunders, have given us an excellent opportunity to convince the enslaved peoples of Europe, and especially Germany, that it is to their advantage to overthrow their masters...
...If we do this we will shorten the war, and save the lives of many Americans...
...It is now reasonably clear that Germany, sometime ago, should have withdrawn from Italy, Finland, and Norway, and in the East fallen back to her Baltic Sea-Black Sea line (shortest eastern defense line...
...that their plans were perfect in conception and execution...
...We must give the peoples of all of them cause for revolt against Nazi-fascism wherever it exists, and thus make our soldiers' task easier...
...If it were merely a matter of deposing Hitler and continuing the war under other leadership, that would have been done before the defeat in Russia...
...Germany is no doubt looking about for a way out of the war...
...In short, they have considered themselves infallible...
...A Cause For Revolt The revolt, even if it does nothing else, will greatly strengthen the opposition to Hitler...
...Trouble may be brewing for the Japanese militarists, and we must take advantage of whatever the situation presents to win Asiatics to our cause...
...Everyone who understood the European political-military situation—including of course the German generals—must have known that the Nazis could never beat Russia...
...It should be noted that the British in 1940 and the Russians in 1941 did just that...
...The opinions and assertions expressed above are the private ones of the writer and are not to be con-strued as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large...
...Unrest due to it certainly will continue for at least a month...
...The Japanese are doing it now...
...They have had no choice but to stick to Hitler until Germany's chances of winning the war were absolutely and obviously hopeless...
...They hardly would have staged a revolt had they not been convinced that the Nazi cause was hopeless...
...that Germany is now fertile ground for anti-Hitler propaganda...
...that the entire German nation agreed with them...
...We must present our case in a convincing manner...
...By trying to beat off superior forces merely to hold areas which have lost their military value, Germany is violating one of the cardinal rules of strategy...
...Political conditions certainly are unstable in Germany when army officers even consider disposing of Hitler...
...Obviously the time is now more than ripe for us to launch a great psychological attack on Germany...
...With the sole exception of a few party members close to Hitler and the rich men who financed him, the fortunes of no group in Germany were closer tied up with Nazism than the army officers...
...But we must give the German people good reasons for taking the risks they must assume when they sabotage and generally undermine Nazi strength...
...She also probably should have begun a general retreat in the Southwest to her Havre-Belfort-Belgrade-Sophia line...
...Anyway it is the same thing that made possible the incredibly stupid attack on Russia...
...We should ¦—we must—take full advantage of this opportunity, by using every means at our disposal, to convince the German people that their chances at the peace table and in the postwar world will be better if they drop Hitler now...
...Strangely enough this blunder is being made by a nation noted for its development of military science...
...Psychological warfare is now in order in all the occupied countries...
...The German, Clausewitz, a great military teacher, stresses a fact which all military schools have long sinffe accepted—that when attacked by a superior force, an army must shorten its lines ("withdraw into the interior" was the way he put it...
Vol. 8 • July 1944 • No. 31
