The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-17
Hitler Laughed
 At FDR's Death
(NEA Telephoto)

[ today he had counted on the Luft- waffle to play the main part in de- feating the invasion. When the necessary planes did not appear, Reichmarshal Hermann Goering be- gan right away to slip in Hitler's esteem.
 The stenographers, Heinz Buch- holz and Gerhardt Herreselle, also made these disclosures:
 When Hitler learned of President Koosevelt's death, he laughed glee- fully Hike devil".
 Hitler and Admiral Karl Doenitz turned down a Japanees request for Germanys U-boat fleet.
 The shorthand reporters attend ed the daily conferences at Hitler's headquarters during the Normandy campaign. They said he was lot by news of the Allied land- ing.
 They said Hitler had counted on having 1000 to 1,20C fighter planes to hurl againstt he invasion forces. Goering reportedly had assured him the fighters would be on hand.
 up to the time of the invasion Goering had been Hitler's No. con- fidante, but from then on the Fuehrer steadily lost confidence in him." Buchholz said. After the Luftwaffe's failure Hitler person ally took charge of airforce produc- | ton. Hitler many times and in increasingly obvious manner showed his lowered respect for Goering. Usually he just ignored the Reichs- Marshal and often just pushed him aside when Goering tried to ex- press his opinion at conferences.
 Buchholz said Hitler was at his Berghof estate above Obersalzberg when the Allies landed in Nor mandy last June 9th. The short hand reporters, who were tempor- arily billeted in the duplicate Reichschancellory establishment out siGe Berchtesgaden, heard the news in the early morning When they reported to headquarters soon af- rewards, they heard the reports had been coming in all night and they assumed Hitler had heard them.
 Buchholz and Herrgeselle said Hitler, Field Marshal Willem Keitel, chief of the high command, and others at the headquarters were quite excited in the first few days but not panicky or surprised. They had expected the landing, although thoU hod vNt haHo oh1o tn where 1t would take place. They said after the Luftwaffe's dissraceful performance Hitler or dered the 9th and 10th SS Divisions moved westward from the eastern front for a counter offensive. They were to join other Elite SS Divisions and the five to six Panzer Divisions counter blow. But Allied A;rforce bombings of railroads and highways formed the two divisions to take two | weeks to switch from one front to the other. By that time more AL lied troops had poured in.
 Hitler and the high command, the shorthand reporters said, were handicapped in their decisions on disposing their reserves by the con- tinued presence in England of "an- other army group" They appar- ently meant Gen. George S. Pat tons Third U. S. Army, which landed in France July Fourth.
 My informantS said Hitler was highly agitated by the way the Allied airforces paralyzed his com- munications, forcing him to move only by night and even then with limited success. They said he made one last desperate effort to save his roads by ordering that all main highways to Normandy be lined sol- idly with fax guns. That, too, failed.
 The Germans made their final all-out try at AvrancheS. After their counter-o offensive failed to cut Patton's narrow corridor, Hitler re- portedly blamed the German fail- ure on the deliberate or helpless incompetence" of his field com- manders.
 The shorthand reporters said Hit ler'S headquarters was much more surprised by the 1922 landing in North Africa than that in Nor mandy. At the time the headquar- ters was being transferred by train from East Prussia to Munich. Bucholz said the news reached Hit Ter at five a. m. near Leipzig. The previous day there had been reports of large convoy movements and much speculation about whether the Allies would land in Africa, southern France, Corsica. or Sicily.
 once the landing spot was known Hitler was worried about the fate of Field Marshal Erwin Rommels army" Bucholz said.
 Especially he worried about SUD- plies, about which there always were complaints to the Italians Hitler believed Mussolini did his best but couldn't make the Italian naval and military authorities obey him."
 They said Hitler was deeply dis appointed when he saw Germany