They spoke about the war in Tunisia and the imminent invasion. In the Army Group B files one finds an entry that even General Cramer expected the main thrust of the Allied landings to be either side of the Somme Estuary (BA/MA, RH 19 IX/93, 4.6.44). After the war it was always maintained that Cramer had been deliberately used by the British to spread disinformation (see Ose, Entscheidung im Westen, p. 90), but there is no proof, of course.
In June Cramer returned home to Krampnitz near Berlin where he met Claus von Stauffenberg on several occasions. He knew him from the Kavallerie-Schule at Hanover and from his time at the General Staff. They had also met in Tunisia in 1943. It was through Stauffenberg that Cramer was put in contact with General Olbricht, who let him into the secret of the assassination plot. Cramer agreed that should the plot succeed he would ensure that local troops occupied the area around the Victory Column. On the morning of 20 July he went to the panzer training school and ensured that the troops were ready as planned and were occupying the correct areas. After the failure of the plot Cramer quickly came under Gestapo scrutiny. He was interrogated for the first time on 23 July, was arrested on 26 July and taken to the Gestapo prison on the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. He was accused of being a liaison man between the Resistance and the British. The flame of suspicion was fanned when his son, a Leutnant in Normandy, disappeared on 26 July (he had been seriously wounded). The interrogations lasted 10 days. Finally Cramer was brought to the Security Police School at Fürstenberg north of Berlin as an ‘arrestee against honour’ since there was nothing else to be found against him. He was discharged from the Wehrmacht in September 1944 on the grounds of his asthma and hospitalised at the Berlin Charité. He was sent home on Christmas Eve 1944 and remained there under house arrest until the end of hostilities.[158]
At Trent Park he had assured Lord Aberfeldy in the course of his repatriation that he would do everything possible to discover what plans there were for a coup, which would have his full support.[159] He had kept his promise.
‘Now it Should be Brought to an End, it is Simply Madness’ Reflection on the Final Battles, 1944–45
When the Allies landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944 and began the closing phase of World War II in Europe, the camp community at Trent Park had remained little changed for a year. In August 1943, four officers had been transferred out to the United States, and General Cramer had been repatriated in February 1944. In January 1944 Oberstleutnant Wilfried von Müller-Rienzburg[160] had arrived. The invasion undermined the monotonous and semi-monastic existence fundamentally: from the end of May to the end of September 1944, most ‘Afrikaner’ were transferred to America, only the two seniors, Thoma and Bassenge, shop manager Reimann, and the generals Broich and Neuffer remained behind to greet the stream of new prisoners from France.
The first new arrival was Oberst Hans Krug. His regimental HQ had been overrun by British troops on 7 June 1944. At the end of the month the defenders of Cherbourg arrived, at the beginning of August those overwhelmed by the American offensive west of St Lô, and finally the survivors of the Falaise pocket. They came from surrendered fortifications or had simply fallen into enemy hands during Wehrmacht retreats gone awry. By the end of 1944, 32 generals and at least 14 colonels had been settled at Trent Park.[161] Many of the newcomers would be transferred out after a period ranging from a few days to several months. By the year’s end, the five ‘Afrikaner’ had been joined at Trent Park by 20 further high-ranking prisoners.
Despite the new personnel, the basic conflicts remained unmellowed. Some lacked interest in politics and strategy or distanced themselves in varying degrees from Hitler, Nazism and the war crimes, recognising that the war was lost and hoping for a quick end to the now senseless fighting. The BBC German Service conflict flared up from time to time (Document 43).[162] General Menny was relieved to be transferred to the United States after a four-week stay at Trent Park. ‘The spirit in the Generals’ Camp (Clinton) is excellent, and morale exudes confidence despite our difficult situation. Above all conduct here is respectful and decent. Unlike Trent Park one does not have to get all worked up over worthless generals, who kow-tow to the British and worship everything English and drag everything German through the mud. I remember with reluctance the foul, hate-filled atmosphere which prevailed at Trent Park under the leadership of the characterless General Thoma.’[163]
The constant comings and goings brought fresh information and impressions to the centre.[164] Most officers were troubled by the oppressive material superiority of the Allies: they had looked on helplessly as their units were crushed by the enemy war machine, watched the old cultural landscape of northern France collapse in ruins as thousands of German soldiers died in it. The collapse on all the fronts now seemed unstoppable; Germany had lost the war. Most were agreed on this fact (Document 26).[165] Only Konteradmiral Kähler, who had been captured by the Americans at Brest, said that he still believed in final victory (Document 41).[166] When in autumn 1944 the Wehrmacht sprang a surprise by holding the Allied advance at the German frontier, it generated a seed of hope within a number of generals that the enemy coalition might break asunder, and there could be, as in 1762, another ‘miracle of the Brandenburg Dynasty’.[167]
Generalleutnant Menny noted in his diary:
When the front in the West collapsed, when France and Belgium were lost in a few weeks, we all believed that the end of the war was near. Oppressed by the grim encirclements in France we considered that a long resistance along the Westwall was no longer possible. But it turned out differently, for a miracle has occurred. Hope now revives for a possible victory, and we wish for it with all our hearts even if it means that we must spend an age in captivity. I stick firmly by my old theory that the political differences and diverse interests between British and Russians will bring a favourable change […] we must wait![168]
160
Oberstleutnant von Müller-Rienzburg, 1943, CO pilot training school A/B7, later allegedly a Luftwaffe liaison officer. According to the British he was ‘shot down in his Fw190 of II/SG4 in Italy’ and spent a few months at Trent Park in the spring of 1944.
161
The actual number of Obristen (colonels) is not known: for them Trent Park was a transit camp. In addition to these men must be added from the Mediterranean Generalmajor Kreipe, kidnapped from Crete by the British, and two regimental commanders of 362.Inf.Div. captured at the end of May 1944 in Italy and who spent a brief period at Trent Park that June.
162
In autumn 1944, with one exception, all generals and admirals captured at Brest (Ramcke, von der Mosel, Erwin Rauch, Otto Kähler and Karl Weber) as well as von Wülfingen, von Trescow and von Heyking, were all opposed to listening to the BBC news. GRGG 210.11, 12.10.1944, TNA WO 208/4364.
163
BA/MA N267/4. Oberst Köhn spoke in similar vein about Thoma’s joy when St Malo was finally surrendered, ‘This Thoma is very dangerous, he is a man who should be hanged as a traitor.’ GRGG 177, 22.8.1944, TNA WO 208/4363. Memoirs, 1896–1944 (written in November 1944), pp. 25, 25a.
164
For a thoughtful overview on the last battles for the Third Reich from multi-perspectives see Kunz, ‘Wehrmacht und Niederlage’.
165
The conversations were so pessimistic in character that even to the comparatively phlegmatic Konteradmiral Hennecke it seemed he was listening to Englishmen rather than Germans. GRGG 158.13, 14.7.1944, TNA WO 208/4363.
166
Konteradmiral Otto Kähler was the only prisoner at Trent Park who commented positively on Himmler’s speech of 18.10.1944 proclaiming the setting up of the
167
Thoma rejected as eyewash the propaganda comparisons of the desperate current military situation with Frederick the Great because the latter was a war between crowned heads and not peoples. Diary, 6.6.1944, BA/MA N2/3. On 24.1.1944 Crüwell observed
168
BA/MA N267/4 Menny was at Trent Park between 25.8.1944 and 23.9.1944 before his transfer to Clinton, USA. These lines date from late autumn 1944.