Towards evening we assembled in the Führer-apartment and received the order for the off. Seated in a car with my colleague Daranowski and the representative of the Reich press chief[56] we were driven out of Berlin towards Staaken, leading us to assume that we would be flying from the airport. That was not the case, for the car drove on past Staaken and eventually pulled into the forecourt of a small railway station where the Führer-train stood waiting.
Apart from the military adjutants nobody seemed to know where we were supposed to be going. It was all very mysterious. At dinner in the dining car Schmundt[57] joked: ‘Have you all got your sea-sick pills?’ Was he hinting that we were going to Norway◦– the train was steaming north? Hitler chipped in: ‘If you are good, you might be able to bring home a sealskin as a trophy.’ After midnight◦– past Hannover◦– the train was suddenly switched to the westbound tracks although this was only noticed by the alert few.[58] Towards dawn we drew into a small station from which the name-shields had been dismounted. We left the train and continued our journey in three-axled open Mercedes cars. In all the villages through which we drove the street signs had been replaced by yellow shields with military designations. Finally we finished up in a hilly, wooded region before a regimental command bunker which the boss had claimed for his HQ. As we stood near this bunker at dawn we could hear artillery fire in the distance. Hitler gestured with his hand towards the West and said: ‘Meine Herren, the offensive against the Western powers has just begun.’
It became clear that we were somewhere near Münstereifel. The FHQ was called Felsennest.[59] The command post (bunker) was very small with simple wooden walls and chairs of braided fibre. The room accommodated Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Schmundt, Schaub and one manservant and there was a small dining room for a nucleus of the staff. All other staff members were given quarters in the nearby village. From the point of view of landscape it was the best situated of all FHQs. The wood, fresh with spring, was filled with bird song. Hitler called it ‘the bird paradise’. He felt very well in this region and since his bunker room was very small he held most of his conferences in the open air. He was never outdoors so often as he was here. He enthused frequently about the glorious scenery and made a plan to bring us all back on a commemorative visit every year once the war was over.
On 5 or 6 June 1940 the FHQ was transferred to Bruly de Pêsche not far from Brussels in order to be closer to the Front. This was a village with an old church and a spacious comfortable schoolhouse set amongst fields in opulent bloom. Never again did I see fields of that kind covered over so great an area with such succulent margaritas and skirted by a wood of wonderful primeval oaks.
Letter, Bruly de Pêsche, 13 June 1940:
We moved forward a week ago and are now in a small village abandoned by its inhabitants. The first few nights I slept with a female colleague in a former pigsty◦– cowshed of wooden boards and stucco, dreadfully damp. Yesterday thank God they finished the barrack hut and now we are living in the dry. The first few days we had no water, which gave me an insight into how essential this wet element is. We cleaned our teeth with soda water, not totally refreshing.
On the first night we had a fire in our stall. The telephone and lighting wires were close together and the damp started the fire. The hissing and crackling of the flames woke me up, and still half asleep I tried to put it out with my bare hands. When that failed I used a wet handkerchief and got a shock. The same happened with several of the officers. The cabling cooked all night, an uncomfortable feeling lying in bed below it. Anyway, at least the inconveniences are over and we have settled in quite nicely.
As to our successes, our troops have got as far as Fourges (Paris aerodrome) from where I am writing this letter, but I doubt we shall be putting down roots here.
Recently I went through Sedan, Namur, Philippeville, Dinant, etc. There was much devastation. Whole blocks of flats reduced to rubble. Even worse are the highways along the route of the advance, in ditches right and left artillery, tanks, aircraft of all kinds, uniforms, ambulances, ammunition, etc., burnt-out trucks. A sweetish odour of decomposition hangs above these towns, and above the whole thing great hordes of screeching ravens circle. A desolate picture of destruction. Cattle, horses and dogs all ownerless wander between the gutted houses. In the first few days when cows were not milked we could hear them at night bellowing in pain.
The refugees make a sad picture. Large families living in burnt-out cars, old ladies being pushed in children’s perambulators; war is the most terrible thing there can be. Our boss does what he can for the poor people. Hilgenfeldt[60] has been detailed to see to it.
Every night we endure the same piece of theatre from ‘above’. Punctually at 0200 the enemy aircraft come and circle the village for three hours. A few nights ago they wrecked a house in which some of our RSD policemen were billeted. Thank God nobody was hurt; they took cover in time. We do not know if the aircraft were going for us or the highway. They are apparently invulnerable because they keep so high. If they fail to appear the boss asks: ‘Where are our house aircraft tonight?’
Every night we stand in the open with the boss and some staff officers until 0300 or 0330 watching the nightly manoeuvres of the reconnaissance aircraft until they disappear with the dawn. The landscape reminds me of a picture by Caspar David Friedrich.
The food is first class, we have enough butter and milk, we even get tomatoes and fruit now and again. We do not really go short of anything. Yesterday I was invited with Schaub to a slaughter party. About twenty minutes from here by car is our Flight-Squadron where the airmen had slaughtered two pigs. There were about fifty people gathered in a former clubhouse (almost certainly YMCA) seated at festively decorated tables illuminated by tall French paraffin lanterns. There was plentiful blood- and liver-sausage and a belly of pork. Later a simply wonderful old French wine was served, not to mention the schnapps. So you see, I am not missing out on anything. For tomorrow evening we are invited for pancakes with the RSD. They are billeted in farmhouses, eat at midday from the field kitchen and in the evening have to forage for themselves. They have picked up a lot of housewifely talent, which they are naturally hoping to show off, hence our invitation tomorrow for pancakes.
There is still so much to tell you but which I cannot for the moment. The time is not so far away however when we can sit together comfortably. Personally I do not believe that the war will last beyond June. Yesterday in Paris General Weygand stated that the Battle for Paris was lost and proposed a special peace in which Pétain supported him. Reynaud and others were violently opposed.
Letter from FHQ Bruly de Pêsche (Wolfsschlucht), 20 June 1940:
The Armistice came into force tonight at 0135. How many mothers and wives will thank God that the war with France has ended so quickly. The boss will address the Reichstag briefly. Probably it will contain his final appeal to the British. If they will not quit, he said, he would go ahead ruthlessly! I believe that he is sorry to have to wrestle the British to the ground; he would apparently find it preferable if they would be reasonable about it.
If only they knew that all the boss wants from them is our former colonies back, perhaps they would be more approachable. I am very interested to see how Britain will respond.
57
Rudolf Schmundt (b. 13.8.1896 Metz, d. 1.10.1944 Rastenburg). Generalleutnant, chief Wehrmacht adjutant to the Führer.
58
Reich press chief Dr Otto Dietrich stated at Nuremberg on 9 August 1948: ‘An hour before the departure of the Führer-train on the night of 9 May 1940 I was told to pack for a journey with Hitler’s staff to inspect a shipyard at Hamburg. At about 0100 just short of Hamburg the train was diverted westwards. I still knew nothing of our destination until we pulled into Euskirchen station in the Eifel at 0600 that morning. It was always done secretly like this.’
59
FHQ Felsennest was occupied by Hitler between 10 May and 6 June 1940. The spot height known as Felsennest was a hilltop at 440-metres altitude overlooking the village of Rodert to the northeast, and about thirty kilometres from Bonn and the Belgian border. It had been included prewar in the Westwall air defence zone and from the late 1930s had a bunker and flak installations with barracks. (TN)
60
Erich Hilgenfeldt (b. 2.7.1899 Heinitz/Ottweiler, fate after 1945 not known). Head of