He pulled a small gift wrapped box from his pocket and handed it to Erica.
Smiling, she thought secretly, ‘Oh no, not another brooch’. She unwrapped it and opened the box. Her eyes went wide. It was a beautiful engagement ring! Then she heard Jeremy’s words.
“Will you marry me, Erica?”
She was overcome with emotion. Tears brimmed in her eyes. It was several seconds before she could answer, “Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.”
Jamie MacLellan’s last letter of 1940 to his president.
Dear Mr President
This past year has certainly been a momentous one! In April the phoney war exploded into real and brutal warfare. In only eleven weeks, Nazi Germany invaded, defeated and occupied six countries. They also inflicted a serious defeat on Britain. I have heard that Adolf Hitler was prepared for up to one million German deaths in the battle for France. In the event, the deaths were fewer than fifty thousand. It says a lot for German tactics — and France’s sclerotic leadership.
At the end of those lightning campaigns there was no longer such a thing as Nazi Germany. It is just plain ‘Germany’ now. Incredible!
It was announced last week that a peace treaty with France has been agreed upon and that they will simultaneously become the newest member of the European Alliance. This development is a considerable boost to the project. The combined population of the member states will be over one hundred and sixty million. This is equal to that of the Soviet Union, and thirty million more than our own USA population.
I have been told that a terrible row developed in France, started by General de Gaulle. Apparently he demanded that France nominate him to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Alliance. This is despite him originally fiercely opposing the concept. Marshall Petain and Admiral Darlan gave him an unequivocal ‘NON’. The end result was that de Gaulle talked himself into being fired and he has now retired from the army. Apparently he is highly respected as a soldier, but is known to be petty, mean spirited and vindictive. The same person told me that he suspected de Gaulle will now go into politics.
It seems that there is consensus that the Alliance headquarters should be located in Luxembourg. It is reasonably central in Western Europe and that particular choice avoids members claiming Germany is dominating the Alliance. Also, I was surprised to hear that English will be the language of choice for the Alliance. I know for a fact that the British military establishment favour joining the Alliance, and perhaps their government will now finally commit themselves. Especially now that the French situation has been resolved.
Each member country will establish multi-national military bases in their respective countries. Military personnel from the different countries will be rotated at these bases to get used to working with each other. It sounds a good and practical idea to me.
The Spanish Ambassador to Berlin told me in confidence that General Franco is so keen to join the Alliance that he is introducing more liberal policies in Spain. They have even offered to ratify the centuries old ‘Treaty of Utrecht’ confirming British ownership of Gibraltar, thus eliminating a potential point of dissension between two Alliance members should Spain become a member. Franco wants to rule with a lighter touch than before. Obviously communism is still outlawed there. I know the Germans would like to see Spain and Portugal in the Alliance. The Portuguese dictator is only holding back his country’s application so as not to offend General Franco.
Even Hungary has expressed interest in the Alliance but as of today I have not heard how this has progressed.
Mussolini continues to sulk because Italy has not been invited to join. His prestige has suffered in his home country since Germany renounced the Pact of Steel alliance with Italy. I may be hearing the first serious muttering of dissent in that country. When I have heard something definite I will let you know.
Shipments of arms for China have begun. I expect we shall see what impact this has within a few months.
Despite their reapproachment with China, the Germans are still anxious to remain at least on speaking terms with the Japanese. They see Japan and a stronger China as eastern bulwarks against the Soviet Union.
I have some leave due to me next month and I thought I would use the opportunity to tour the occupied and previously occupied countries and find out what local opinions and feelings are.
I hope you have a good new year, Mr President.
CHAPTER THREE - CHINESE NEW YEAR
General Erwin Rommel was intently watching the Chinese tanks and supporting troops on exercises somewhere to the south of the city of Wuhan in Nationalist China.
Rommel, together with another one thousand German military personnel, including pilots and flying instructors, had been seconded to the Chinese army more than five months earlier. This followed the arrival of the first shipments of German military aid. Another nine hundred ‘specialists’ from the French armed forces were also in China with their German comrades. A further twenty observers had been sent by the armies of the other countries of the European Alliance.
The current war between China and Japan, (there had been an earlier war in 1894/5), had started in July 1937. For a long time Japan had pursued an aggressive imperialistic policy of expansion to secure access to raw materials and other economic resources, including food and labour. This eventually led to war with China.
Within China there had also long been a civil war between the Nationalist Government under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and communist insurgents led by Mao Zedong backed by the Soviet Union. In 1937 the two factions had nominally united to counter the Japanese invasion. However the two sides continued to clash, and with increasing intensity from late 1940.
The American President, Franklin Roosevelt, sent a special envoy to Chiang to express his concern that such internal hostilities just made things easier for the Japanese. No results came from this.
In earlier years, between 1933 and 1938, Germany had seconded two Generals to act as Chief Military Advisors to the Chinese army. The first of these was General Hans von Seeckt, followed by General Alexander von Falkenhausen. Both had stressed the need for the best Chinese officers to be trained in modern warfare, particularly combined operations. Germany was now able to build on this in 1941.
The standard issue rifle for the Chinese armed forces was the German Mauser. The army had only a handful of light tanks and field guns, all of which were obsolete. There were only a few aircraft operational. The Chinese army in 1941 far outnumbered the Japanese, but they were under-equipped and generally poorly trained.
The superior Japanese forces had occupied a large area of northern and central China, and much of the Eastern coastal areas, but this had resulted in over-extended lines of communication. During their advance the Japanese army acted with unbelievable savagery and barbarity. The most notorious atrocity came to be known as the ‘Rape of Nanking’. During a six week orgy of uncontrolled violence in the city, Japanese soldiers murdered some three hundred thousand people, and raped close to eighty thousand girls and women.
By the end of 1940 they were experiencing serious difficulties in administering and garrisoning the seized territories. The war had become something of a stalemate.
In an unprecedented feat of logistics Germany had delivered an enormous amount of war material to China in the first five months of 1941. This included seven hundred surplus German aircraft — light bombers, dive bombers, fighters and trainers — as well as a further one hundred captured French fighters. Seven hundred tanks, one thousand trucks, five hundred artillery pieces, one million rifles, thirty thousand machine guns, and thousands of tons of ammunition were also delivered.