Churchill hints at early end to Nazi war
Prime Minister sees troops in France
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Prisoners’ views on revolt vary
Young Nazis, plain soldiers differ
By B. J. McQuaid
With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
Reactions among captured Germans to reports on the attempt on Hitler’s life and of revolutionary developments inside Germany fall into three main classifications:
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Dyed-in-the-wool young Nazis of the SS {Elite Guard) stamp. They discredit and minimize the reports much the same as official German propagandists.
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Plain soldiers of the Wehrmacht. They have a philosophy of war in some prospects not unlike that of the average American G.I.’s, namely, to “get this thing over and let’s all go home.” They are noncommittal, often falling back on the familiar theme that as “the little men” of Germany they never had a voice in shaping their country’s politics, and hence accept no responsibility for what happens from now on nor for what has happened.
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Large numbers of impressed foreigners in Germany’s ragtag, bobtail Normandy armies, as well as Austrians and Germans from sections like Bavaria which have never been more than superficially loyal to Hitler. In most cases they go further than the most optimistic speculations outside Germany concerning the extent of the seriousness of the revolt and declare that the whole Nazi applecart is about to tip over.
It is reassuring to find little disposition on the part of our military leaders in France to put any great faith in the reports, from the point of view of easing their own task. There was a brief wave of high optimism among troops in some sectors, but this quickly gave way to renewal of that cold determination to beat the hedgerows and that realism which accepts the great probability that in addition to whatever turmoil threatens within, Germany will require more stout blows from without before the war can be considered “in the bag.”