Word: wehrmacht
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Against the Bulge. The Red High Command struck on a 150-mile front in White Russia, against the Wehrmacht's easternmost bulge. Crisscrossed by swift rivers, small lakes, marshes and dense birch and pine woods, these lush plains accounted for most of the Russian soil still held by the invader. There last week the blue dusk of early northern summer lasted all night...
...decisive battle for Europe will come in a few weeks-not in Normandy, but somewhere between Normandy and Paris. German generals, now running the war without interference from Adolf Hitler, stake all on the Wehrmacht's ability to halt the Allied armies of western Europe in one thumping, head-on collision. If this gamble is lost, all will be lost. But the hope is that a smashing success will send the Allied armies back into the sea. A new invasion from British bases then would be at least two years away. And even if there were no German victory...
Just four years had passed since German might and Allied weakness forced young Leopold (then 39) to surrender himself and his armies to the Wehrmacht...
...first reaction was elation. The papers said that the Anglo-Saxons had stirred up a hornet's nest. Their spearhead would be broken and the Wehrmacht would be free at last to teach the Russians the futility of further efforts to advance. The fond dream of a negotiated peace began to come alive. Quislings sent brave greetings to the Fiihrer-duly published- and the people recalled the devastating powers of mysterious secret weapons...
Second Thoughts. Next day a fear began to gnaw. General Kurt Dittmar, No. 1 military commentator, went on the air. "The Atlantic Wall never became an inflexible structure of steel and concrete," he patiently explained. Defense in depth was the Wehrmacht's plan, he added reassuringly. The Volkischer Beobachter shouted: "In this fateful hour, the German nation is rallying around the Fiahrer. . . . Success for the Allies would simply mean the end." The forgetful radio declared that the invasion had come because Moscow wanted...