Evening star., 1945-06-16

short vacation before resuming h
ermany.
their Job and they have done the
job given them.
Ardennes Break through.
Q.-To return to the Ardennes
offensive, we have from time to time
been given an estimate Of the Ger
man aim behind that offensive. Has
there been any clarification or any
change since we have come into the
possession Of further information.
A.-Ill tell you that whenever you
attack, you have got dreams, then
you have got hopes. then you have
got expectations and then you have
got Just what you have got to get. ]
mean, there are many things-let
us take an example: When We went
into Africa, as I say, in the desperate
hope to make friends Immediately
one of our great hopes was that the
French feet would sail out OF Toulon
and say:
Hello. Come on. Let's have q
good time" In the Ardennes, you
will find that one or two of the
commanders said they had so and
so or no success. Others believed
they could 60 somewhat beyond
that. Unquestionably, Hitlers de-
termination was to make COM
plete break-through and get to
Antwerp. Which, of course, would
have completely isolated troops to
the north. and anything like that
would have been q decisive blow
for them. Their real soldiers knew
they could not do it. There is evil
dence all the way through that
certain of the commanders went in
knowing that 1t was just desperate
gamble, but just hoping for the
best, that's all.
G. Did the German command
make any requests to you for a
parley before Gen. Admiral Hans
Georg) Won Freidberg came through
the lines in May7
A. Not directly. As you saw In
the papers. Count Bernadotte tof
the Swedish Red Cross was run
ming back and forth. No doubt,
the first proposal was the one by
Won Freideberg.
@. From high ranking profess
sional soldiers now in your pos
session on the enemy side, what
do you gather of the ac-
tual military capacity Of Hitler from
a military standpoint?
Hitler's Intuition.
A. They unquestionably don't re-
spect his strategic brain very highly.
No question about that. (Col Gen.
Gustav Jodl was his personal chief
of staff. Some were quite loyal. I
think Jodl guided him some. You
will find definite evidence that, for
example, in 1943, Hitler's intuition
ran the 1943 campaign, and that in
cludes his actions in Africa, which
We have talked about, I think. The
attempt to reinforce his Tunisian
garrison after 1t was useless; the
action in Italy, where he hung on
and sent in additional troops, and
all through the Russion front. They
said 1943 was Hitler's completely.
At other times he listened a little
more to his general staff.
Q.-You said they don't respect
strategic brain" instead of
didn't" Do you think Hitler is
still alive?
A.-Let me answer that in a gen.
erality. I told Col. (R. Ernest)
Dupuy tof supreme headquarters
public relations staff that as far
as was concerned there was no
censorship on anything I said to-
day. I do want to ask all of you
to pass through him any direct
quotes SO that you can correct
any errors I might make, at least,
In grammar.
I know nothing about Hitler. I'm
not trying to be facetious. I accept
ed rs a fact all the evidence which
seemed to me to be fact, but I have
met my Russian friends, who were
right there, and they definitely said:
I'm our high command we have
grave doubts" but, on the other
hand, the Russians agreed with me
that If Hitler is not dead he
must be undergoing the worst pos
sible punishment for a man who has
excerised arrogant and arbitrary
power over 250,O00, 900 people who
trembled over his approach, and now
TO be hunted in disguise and under
ground. I can imagine no worse
punishment for a man OF that kind.
It would seem to me that a man of
hat kind, with what he Is faced
With, would choose death.
Q. Gould We 60 from the past
10 the future? When do you ex-
pect to meet with the control
A. OF course, some one would
bring that up. I can't say exactly.
Let me say-in meeting all these
problems Of peace, these things do
move slowly. You people who have
been at war all these times, you
read your own papers and you find
that day after tomorrow We are
going to launch an attack from
Algiers clear up to Marseille, and
you get bit of a chuckle and say:
That fellow knows nothing about
It," These problems of peace move
slowly, too.
Without the incentive OF COM
pelling danger. people want to sit
back and look over the side and
examine it carefully and see what
We are doing, ! have no doubts
myself that the control council is
going 10 work. It will take some
I