The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-06-05
Lochner Recalls Fatefu| August Night in Germany

avenue of transmission. Within
the next 10 minutes we had tel
ephone calls in for practically
every capital in Europe, hoping
that somehow, somewhere we'd
get through nevertheless. In
vain. The telephone operators
invariably came back with the
sterotyped information, there
is a temporary disturbance IN
the line"
Then came a lucky break:
Across the street from us, in
the offices of the French Havas
News Agency with which Asso-
ciated Press for years eXchang-
ed news, the direct wire into
the Paris headquarters Of the
Agency had not been cut. An
oversight, but one which proved
of incalculable TO us.
FILE AT PARIS
Our Havas colleagues permit
ted us to file our copy into Par
is. To the amazement of the
Germans, America next morn
ing had a full story Of develop
mentS of the war that dldn t
come off as scheduled. They
couldn't imagine how we had
done it. We used the incident TO
emphasize how stupid it is TO
try to isolate Germany from the
world. BY the time the war
really started a week later, a
control system was officially set
up, amounting to a sort of honor
system Of Self-censorship, under
which we were able TO get out
news until the day Of our ar
rest and internment Dec. IL,
1941.
The night of May 8, 1910,
will also hnger in my mind as
a dramatic one. 1t was the night
before Hitler's armies inundat-
ed Holland and Belgium and be-
gan to pound relentlesSly at
the Maginot Line. 1t so happen
ed that on that evening the
christening Of little Hohenzoll"
ern Prince Wilhelm Heinrich,
second son of Prince Louis
Ferdinand, Of Ford fame, took
place. (The Prince once worked
in the Ford factory.
The first dramatic moment
came when the late Danish
minister in Berlin, Herluf Fan
lie, who had been sent by the
King and Queen Of Denmark TO
represent them at the ChriSten-
ing, tried to tell Prince Louis
Ferdinand something about the
German invasion of Denmark.
He could not go on. The aged
diplomat broke down in tears.
HOLD CHAT
Later in the evening Crown
Prince Frederick w il h I'm,
grandfather to the young bap-
| tizee, sat down in a corner to
chat with Mrs. Albert SChrad,
er, wife Of the then American
naval attache in Berlin, and my
wife. Both expressed the fear
| that on the very next day the
great offensive in the West
would begin, and that neutral
Holland and Belgium would DC
the victims. SChrader and ! both
had absolutely reliable informa-
ton, and our wives knew what
they we're talking about.
The Crown Prince since the
b G 2 inn in & of the war had
lived in sec.usion, a virtual her
NIT, at Cecilienhof Castle on
the outskirts Of Potsdam. He
simply would not believe the
ladies. | am sure he was sim
cere about it, The two women
challenged him to a bet, but he
replied CALAMITY that he could
not expect ladies to pay a bet
that he felt sure they'd lose.
That was one of the strange
things about the war against
Holland a n d Belgium: practi-
cally every foreign correspond
ent in Germany knew it was
coming. yet very few Germans
had any inkling of it. The
Crown Prince represented the
average German.
We left the christening party
at midnight. Shortly before !
a. m. my office called; Were
either by telephone or by tele-