The Pittsburgh Press (August 9, 1943)
Coup to oust Hitler reported imminent
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
London, England –
Rumors that a military coup may soon dislodge Adolf Hitler from power in Germany spread through Europe today and informed sources said major diplomatic moves will probably develop this week, possibly involving Italy’s withdrawal from the war.
Allied observers discounted suggestions that the sudden convening of German military leaders and high Nazi officials at Hitler’s headquarters last week presaged Hitler’s fall from power, but it was generally agreed that they dealt with the worsening situation on both the German home and military fronts.
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill were understood in London to be considering new peace proposals from Italy and the possibility – remote though it appeared – that Hitler might be ousted led to speculation that they might confer with Premier Joseph Stalin to clarify Allied policy.
Wilson Broadbent, diplomatic correspondent of the London Daily Mail, said consultations among the British, American and Russian governments were “about to reach the final important stage.”
With the Allies smashing final Axis resistance in Sicily and with vast areas of northern Italy’s three most important industrial cities in ruins from Saturday night’s air raids, London sources believed that the stalling of the two-week-old Italian government of Marshal Pietro Badoglio may be nearing an end.
An underground radio station identifying itself as “Free Milan” was heard broadcasting:
We must make peace straight away if we want to save ourselves. The people who succeeded in chasing Mussolini will rise again and chase Badoglio to obtain peace… Either we make peace or we die!
Offer turned down
Badoglio was reported to have offered to surrender if the Allies would agree not to use Italy as a base for an attack on Germany. The Allies presumably replied with an adamant demand for Italy’s unconditional surrender. The nature of any new Italian peace offer was not known.
Observers in Stockholm speculated that Nazi fears of a military coup in Germany to overthrow Hitler, or a demand from the military for a guarantee that the Nazi Party would cease interference in the prosecution of the war prompted the council at Hitler’s headquarters, but they acknowledged that this might be wishful thinking.
Reports listed
A wide variety of reports of business transacted or discussed at the Nazi conference reached London. Among them were:
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Hitler sought to pressure Jap Ambassador Hiroshi Ōshima, who attended, into persuading his government to attack Russia. Madrid heard that a neutral diplomat in France offered to wager that Japan would declare war on the Soviets within a week.
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The conference ordered German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to keep Italy fighting as long as possible to enable the Germans to prepare military positions in northern Italy and shorten defenses in the Balkans.
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The military command proposed shortening the Russian front by a withdrawal to the Dnieper River Line, or even farther west.
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The conference entrusted the Nazi Party with the task of strengthening home morale in the face of intensified Allied bombing raids.
Army leaders confer
Italian frontier reports said that German Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces, went from the meeting to Verona in northern Italy to confer with high Italian Army officials, presumably to inform them of how much aid Germany could provide should Italy remain in the war.
Keitel and the Italian officers may have also dealt with the replacement of Italian forces in France and the Balkans with German troops. Confirmation was said to have reached Berne that the Germans were already taking over from the Italians in southeastern France.
Ribbentrop and Italian Foreign Minister Raffaele Guariglia were understood to have gone to Verona following initial conferences in Rome, which Berne understood is to be declared an open city.
The Daily Sketch gossip columnist said German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels has been in Rome to consult Badoglio and Italian propaganda chiefs.
Makes perfect sense, like 1918 the writing is on the wall
