The Eve of Decision I

The memory of death and destruction (see p. 18), a sense of imminent crisis clung to travelers who came out of Germany. Swedes returning home in unusual numbers limned a portrait of a nerve-taut nation, racked but ready for fateful decisions.

A Nation's Talk. In underground shops and shelters, in shattered homes and streets, the Germans' first topic of talk was the bombings. A trailing second place went to what everyone called "the imminent Anglo-Saxon invasion." A lagging third was the once all-absorbing Russian front.

Adolph Hitler no longer was idolized as he was even a few months ago. The German people, expecting invasion, harried by bombs and grieving over the dead in Russia, resented the Fuehrer's reluctance to visit stricken cities or the Eastern Front, his isolation in bomb-safe Berchtesgaden with chosen aides and such infrequent visitors as gaunt Benito Mussolini (see cut).

Such Nazi bigwigs as Goring, Goebbels, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Rommel and Rundstedt carrying the burden of war and defeat, also resented the Fuehrer's withdrawal. They stamped down sparks of unrest. Old rumors cropped up about violent disagreement within the ruling clique, and experienced correspondents thought that now the rumors were probably true. But Naziwise Swedes saw no chance of such disagreement leading to breakdown until "the invasion is consolidated and Allied advance guards are well on the way to Germany's frontiers."

A Nation's Trust. On one thing all observers agreed: German industry and morale were far from smashed. German civilians were not panicky; they were doggedly determined to carry on through this and worse to come. All Germans put their trust in their still wellarmed, well-disciplined Wehrmacht.

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