Derek Pennington: The German Peace

Von Altendorf failed to mention that at one point Sikorski had been so overcome with emotion, he actually started weeping. Most embarrassing. Most un-German!

The new Soviet leaders had now delivered on two of their promises, the demise of Stalin, and a free Poland. ‘ Operation nothing’ had been a complete success.

Their third commitment, to meaningful arms reduction talks, was on the agenda. The date for the first meeting between the two countries was set for early March. Khrushchev, Molotov and Marshall Zhukov would represent the Soviet Union. Von Brauchitsch, von Altendorf and von Mannstein would be there for Germany.

The venue would be the same as before, the old palace outside Istanbul.

There were no pre-conditions. Any subject concerning armaments could be tabled for discussion. This did not mean that in practice everything actually would be open for negotiation. The Soviets did not have a history of openness.

Von Altendorf saw little problem with the actual principle of arms limitation being agreed upon. He was, however, sceptical about the Soviets accepting the need for indisputable verification. This would require independent inspectors on their territory. Completely unacceptable to the paranoid Soviets.

Allow foreign subversives on the sacred soil of Mother Russia. Never!

They would just have to see how it all worked out at the conference. At least they were talking!

Churchill was extremely pleased to hear about the impending Polish re-unification and the arms limitation talks. The missing pieces to the ‘ Polish crisis’ puzzle had now been supplied. What an unbelievably cheeky ploy! And it had worked!

His admiration for the Germans was almost unlimited. Once again he reminisced about how close the British and Germans had come to tearing each other apart a few years ago. Madness!

He earnestly wished his German counterparts good luck in their talks with the notoriously difficult Russians. He would follow their progress with great interest.

He made a mental note to invite the German Chancellor for a state visit to Britain, if the impending general election was won by his Conservative Party and he remained Prime Minister.

Eden wouldn’t be happy about him remaining Prime Minister, of course. Maybe he should think about stepping down and letting Eden take over the show? But maybe not just yet!

There was also another small matter he wished to discuss personally with the King.

Once he had worked everything out, President Truman felt like an amateur compared to the German politicians. If he was right, they had just pulled off a magnificent coup for the western world. Indeed the whole world, if the Soviets were serious about arms limitations.

Poland was now one country again, and a potential source of confrontation with the Soviets had been eliminated. He was happy for that country. The world was also a little safer.

He had sent his personal, and his country’s, sincere congratulations to the Polish Government, and an ambiguous congratulatory note to Germany. Just to let them know that he knew.

‘I sure am glad they are on the right side’, he thought. ‘And it was only a few years ago it looked like we would be going to war with them. Remarkable people!’

The prototype medium bomber/photo reconnaissance jet aircraft was towed out of the hanger at Junkers own airfield. In its military colours it looked sleek, and at the same time, menacing. The distinctive tear-drop shaped fuel tanks fitted under the wingtips spoke of its long range abilities. This was the aircraft that would be the king of the skies, if it lived up to its design specifications. It had been decided to call it the Kaiseradler — the Emperor Eagle .

Once it was ready for production, it would be manufactured in both Germany and Britain. The British partners of Junkers had respected the German name, but needed a more appropriate name for their own version. As a gesture to Australia, who had such great faith in the project they had already placed a firm order for at least forty aircraft — the aircraft’s first export order — the British had christened it the Canberra.

The Aviation and Defence Ministers watched as it powered into the sky. ‘ It certainly looks a thing of great beauty,’ thought Kesselring, ‘ So purposeful’.

As it was the aircrafts maiden flight, no great display of its potential was expected. The test pilot’s instructions were to just fly around, come back in one piece, and tell us about the problems!

Twenty minutes later it was safely back on the ground. Kesselring and von Mannstein joined the technical staff of Junkers to hear what the pilot had to say.

The pilot had nothing but praise for the machine. It was vice free and handled like a fighter! Though he had been tempted, he restrained himself and flew it only in terms of his instructions. He confirmed that he had found only the smallest of problems, every one of which could easily be remedied. The Kaiseradler was a winner!

The two satisfied Ministers drove back to Berlin.

The only surprise for the Germans from the arms limitation talks had been the relatively friendly attitude of the Soviets. The paranoia and cold suspicion of previous years was replaced with less obvious paranoia and only lukewarm suspicion. The reluctance of the Soviets to disclose their hand remained unchanged.

Von Brauchitsch thought that perhaps it was a case of Russia’s new rulers needing more time before they felt secure enough to take the sort of decisions now required. He began to think this meeting may have been a wasted exercise.

At least Poland was once again complete. The Soviets had expedited their withdrawal from the country, and Polish troops had followed behind them in a restrained and orderly fashion. Once all of the Soviet troops were out of the country, Sikorski, being a good Catholic, had ordered a thanksgiving evening of prayer, followed by a day of national celebrations. Apparently the populace had celebrated in style! Polish vodka was better than Russian vodka!

Many Germans from different walks of life, had been invited to the celebrations, something that would have been absolutely unthinkable six or seven years earlier.

Von Brauchitsch dragged his thoughts back to the present. At the last meeting of the Governing Council, anticipating exactly this time-wasting behaviour of the Soviets, they had decided on a bold offer. He was now about to make it before everyone fell asleep.

He waited for this new fellow with the hairy eyebrows — Brezhnev his name was — to finish speaking. He surreptitiously caught the eye first of von Altendorf and then von Mannstein. They knew he was ready to try and kick-start things.

At long last Brezhnev stopped droning on. There was silence for a few minutes.

Von Brauchitsch had their attention. He spoke loudly and purposefully.

“Gentlemen. We have met today in an attempt to eliminate the curse of high defence spending”. They waited for his next words. “I have a proposal to make.” He saw that he had the interest of the Soviets.

“With immediate effect Germany is willing to unilaterally reduce by half, its arms production for the next three months. We also invite the Soviet Union to send a team of inspectors to verify this.

If, after the three months inspection period has expired, the Soviet Union has made no move towards taking the same action, we can all presume that arms limitation talks are premature, and leave such things for renegotiation at some future date.”