PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ABWEHR (the German Secret Service) during WWII and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people. He gives this secret information especially to SHARKHUNTERS. Here he tells us:

HARRY's NOTE - Let me preface this by saying that I've known PETER HANSEN for 12 years and his history is invaluable, since he was there and on the inside, so to speak. Here he responds to the comments of KARL KETTLER (4927-1996) from KTB #136

While I do not have the slightest idea who this man is or what he has been in the past, quite obviously he is one of those died in the wool, unmitigated Nazis! The crowd that still loves Adolf Hitler for building the autobaun and eliminating unemployment by means of rearming Germany for his sinister purposes. This crowd is probably still yelling and chanting the old party songs like:

'We shall continue to march on and on, even if everything falls to pieces around us! Today Germany belongs to us, but tomorrow - the world!

The gross fellows who approach everybody in line with their slogan

'If you do not care to be our friend or brother, we shall bash in your head!'

Unquestionably, even in Karl Donitz as Chief Commander of the Navy in 1944 had actually stood up to the political pressure and refused the illegal demands of the SS and Nazi Party regarding the three naval officers involved, they would have been killed anyway, though by getting shot rather than being hanged with piano wire and filmed for the sadistic pleasure of Adolf Hitler and his minions. But fine legal distinctions never stood in the way of the Nazi politicians if they insisted to have things their way.

Senior naval judiciary official Bernhard Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, KorvettenKapitdn Alfred Kranzbuhler (Class of 1927) and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (Class of 1906) would not have been considered with any thought towards clemency by any naval or military court under the then prevailing circumstances, but they would not have been treated like criminal animals either. Even if Mr. KARL KETTLER evidently believes all traitors and anybody disagreeing with his outdated ideas should have been killed, regardless of circumstances.

Colonel Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg was very much aware of the fact, that in case of failure, thousands would be killed to revenge his action. Unfortunately, several previous attempts had failed for different reasons earlier and after the Allied Landings in France, the invasion had already taken place and succeeded, questions had arisen if there was still any justification to expose these people to the anticipated SS/SD butchery.

Claus von Stauffenberg said: 'It must be done, even if we fail, for the sake of history and Germany."

Obviously, the views of Mr. KARL KETTLER are different and evidently have remained unchanged since 1944. The leading man of the 'plotters' decided that it was better and preferred to bring about an end with terror instead of letting the German people face relentless terror without an end in sight.

One must take into consideration that almost 50% of the millions killed and maimed in all countries involved were killed and maimed during the very last year of the Second World War. This included also many thousands of American G.I.'s and fliers too, etc. Most of whom would have survived if the 20th of July rising had succeeded. In addition, also many civilians, deportees, Jews, concentration camp prisoners and political prisoners of the various types would have likely remained alive too.

Mr. KARL KETTLER drags in the old red herring of the Nazis taking power legally in Germany in 1933, though they never received a majority of the votes. He also points out interestingly that less than 1% of the German citizens were or had become Nazi Party members.

Then he raises the issue of the soldiers oath of allegiance. When the German President, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler sneakily promoted himself as his successor and at the same time, merged the presidency with his position as Reichs Chancellor. By this illegal stroke of underhanded manipulation, the Reichswehr and Reichsmarine were literally forced to adhere to a new oath but this time, not to serve and defend the German Republic, but Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer personally and the rest was dropped from the oath formula from then onwards. Why should officers and soldiers be bound to such fraudulently obtained obligations?????

Unfortunately, Adolf Hitler had made a deal with the leadership of the Reichswehr to get their assistance and conformity to eliminate the leadership of the S.A. (the Storm Troopers) because the military feared an uprising by this 'second army' of the Brown Shirts, replacing the Reichswehr's influence. The so-called Night of the Long Knives, the Roehm Putsch, was the result of this deal. Here the then still small SS was used to eliminate the S.A. leadership and kill a bunch of other politically unwanted people in the process. The shooting list were composed by Hermann Goring, the then still head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler who soon pushed him out of that positionn, and Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister. Many of these victims had nothing to do with the S.A. nor had they done anything else, except got the Nazi powerbrokers mad at themselves by opposing one or another of their schemes and crimes. Hermann Goring had also initiated the concentration camps in Prussia and Northern Germany, while Himmler started the Dachau camp in Bavaria while still sidelined to Munich and before he managed to push Goring out of the Gestapo management and get Goring's man Diehis sidelined, placing Heydrich in his position.

Similar and even more crude AND more underhanded methods were used to punish and exterminate people associated with the 20th of July attempt to displace the Nazi Government. While Mr. KETTLER states probably some folks got put into the execution chambers innocently or even inadvertently, quite a few simply were on the hate lists of Hermann Goring and Heinrich Himmler and were added to the lists of condemned.

Mr. KETTLER also states that Claus Count von Stauffenberg and his supporters should have considered that in case of failure, numerous officers and civilians would be extinguished in revenge, though even 5,000 killed were in the end a drop in the bucket for the Nazis compared to the millions who were killed on all sides. However Claus von Stauffenberg was painfully aware of this possibility but felt regardless of success, the chance had to be taken and the attempt made to stop the senseless bloodshed.

Mr. KETTLER indicates that over eleven thousand (11,000) Germans belonging to the Armed Forces were shot or otherwise eliminated due to judgments rendered by various military courts, This represents more than a very full strength infantry division!!! What he is not mentioning is however the almost incredible total of a further 38,000 plus (more than thirty-eight thousand) German soldiers of all grades and units whose death sentence was commuted and they were given 'Frontbewahrung' instead, either in the many penal companies on the Eastern Front or otherwise after reduction to the lowest rank, probationary assignments with a bomb disposal squad or in the Navy, by posting to a mine clearing unit or similar job. Of course, only a small percentage of these 'clemency' probationary cases did eventually survive and become pardoned.

Furthermore, Nazi Party courts for civilians and foreign workers were established by Martin Bormann's party organization and directed by his various regional satrapes, the Gauleiters, now acting like governors of state, condemned and executed another batch of more than 12,000 civilians, most of them women for often the tiniest infractions of hundreds of prohibitions like telling political jokes, complaining about the various Party functionaries called 'Goldfasane' or Golden Pheasants by the population.

Many of them also for tuning in 'foreign' broadcasts and listening to them secretly like the various BBC services, Swiss or Swedish radio stations or the Voice of America programs. These Nazi Party functionaries were excused generally from military service and were eagerly watching, reporting and punishing the 'homefront' population.

One has to also compare these thousands of killed soldiers and civilians with what actually transpired in the British forces of all kinds, including the various Commonwealth troops and crews. Here 306 men were executed and about twice as many pardoned and otherwise punished or jailed. Most of them for criminal offenses incidentally. But what about the various American forces in Europe? While a rather small number of men were condemned to death, virtually all of these cases were reprieved and reduced in severity upon review by higher command courts EXCEPT one single man, that unfortunate Private Eddie Slovick who had been hospitalized and thereafter deserted and went underground, hiding out in a bordello.

When caught, General Dwight Eisenhower insisted upon the death penalty to be carried out as a warning and to set an example for others -- but after the war, the widow sued the US Government and the US Army successfully and Eddie Slovick was not only rehabilitated (honor restored) but the widow was granted death benefits equivalent to a soldier killed in action or in an accident situation plus indemnification for pain, his loss as a breadearner and a lifelong veterans family pension. No further comment is required.

However, it is absolutely wrong and totally misleading to compare the mass killings in Germany with the execution of the Atomic Bomb spies, the Rosenberg couple, who were KGB agents and fanatic, diehard Communists, proud to serve in the interest of Soviet Russia and Communism, instead of misguided folks, ignorant draftees or simple minded victims of political circumstances beyond their influence and control. This example of comparison made by Mr. KETTLER is patently false.

I do agree with Mr. KETTLER that nobody who has not personally lived through and experienced the years of 1943, 1944 and 1945 within Germany can even halfways understand and appreciate what truly transpired and actually took place. But to place the blame on the French revenge Treaty of Versailles is way off the mark and nothing more than a political red herring largely. It would take too much time and space to refute these largely propaganda statements concerning matters many years past at that point of time. What happened really was the very simple approach of the Nazis that the end justifies the means, no matter how beastly, dirty and illegal they were. For justification regulations, laws and commands were issued, twisted in whichever way it seemed to suit the political powers in being and gave the paper appearance of legal correctness, twisted to political requirements.

During the years in question, it would have been possible to reach an armistice EXCEPT for that insane declaration of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in 1943, in order to throw a headline bone to the reporters and of which not even Winston Churchill was informed in advance -- UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!

This was literally water on the totally dry propaganda wheels of the Nazi administration after Stalingrad and the defeat in North Africa not to mention the BLACK MAY of the U-Boats (the Stalingrad at Sea) combined with the mass bombing attacks on German cities. No doubt that some armistice agreement would have been reached except for the unconditional surrender idea. Thus many more millions were killed including thousands of American G.I.'s needlessly, except for this inane policy that Franklin D. Roosevelt and his kitchen cabinet developed.

In view of the fact that previously in history 'Unconditional Surrender' had only been used once, in the American Civil War, the War between the States where the Northern States defeated the Southern rebel States and imposed such an unfair settlement relentlessly so that even today, a lot more than one hundred years later, Yankee is a curse in the Southern States and the effects of this counterproductive policy can still be felt in many ways and in different respects in the USA instead of having ended this unnecessary and bloody conflict in a way to heal the fissures, they were artificially stimulated and made even more painful and counterproductive.

How could anybody with any sense and historical experience possibly expect anything else in Germany. To the contrary, the repercussions would have to be even worse yet, by imposing such vengeful, fanatical decisions. And as always and everywhere, the little people paid the price for it.

Finally, Mr. KETTLER objects to the facts in the case of Hermann Goring because of his service in World War One and the merits he acquired then. The Nazis were the first people who declined to recognize past merits in anybody if that person stood in their way or was opposed to their intentions.

Why should it be otherwise for Goring??? Creator of the Gestapo in Prussia; Initiator of the concentration camps in Northern Germany, the most corrupt, self-serving thief the world has ever seen. The corrupt big mouth who promised so many things and rarely was able to arrange them. The supply of the encircled armies in Stalingrad by airlikewise of the Afrika Corps in Tunisia - the list is long.

Goring grabbed so many positions and was lazy by nature, thus he was unable to really fill any competently, despite many assistants. Goring got seasick aboard the old battleship SCHLESIEN, then commanded by Captain Wilhelm F. Canaris and was 'awarded' by a young Leutnant (Ing) the title of 'Reichsfischfuttermeister' to be added to his string of so many others. Gbring hated the German Navy since and put whatever obstacles he could into their way and instigated against their operations. While he put up a jocular front like some oldtime actor, in reality he was a formidable enemy to have in Germany. His boasts that he alone would defeat the Royal Air Force over Britain initiated the defeat of the Luftwaffe instead.

He acquired his popular nickname of 'Reichsmeier' because he stated fatuously that any hostile aircraft or bomber that dared to fly in over Germany would be eliminated and at the latest destroyed on the return flight to never return to his operational base, or I shall change my name to Meier! The harried civilian population promptly called him the 'Reichsmeier'

Suffice it to add that when Admiral of the Fleet Erich Raeder retired in January of 1943, he told his successor Admiral Karl Donitz: 'May God protect the German Navy and you too, from Goring and his manipulations!'

Raeder, a conservative man of very religious bend, knew what he was talking about!

Thanks for your thoughts PETER. Although this was initially meant as a response to KARL KETTLER's comments, it is filled with a lot of history and information.

Since we have used these pages for PETER's comments, it is obvious that we do not have space in this issue for the updated story of U-570, the only submarine in history to surrender to an airplane. Watch for that in KTB #139 next month.