Figure 1.-- There was nothing that enthused Hitler more than motorich around the Reich and seig heiling adoring crowds. There are countless images of him in his colkldction of big Mercedes doing just that. This was during the good days into the early war years. When German armies enconntered real resistance and the bombs began falling on German rather than other cities, Hitler suddenly was no where to be found. Propaganda Minister Goebbels commented on this. He leaded with the Führer to visit the bomb-damaged cities. Hitler flatly refused. The comparison with Churchill could not be more dranmatic--and revealing.

There was quite a huge difference in how the leadership of Britain and Germany reacted to the bombing of their cities. The Germans heavily bombed Britain in the Blitz (1940-41) and then returned with the V-weapons (1944). The British were not sbe to heabily bomb Germany until RAF Bomber Command received modern bombers like the Lancaster. The American joined in the campaign (1943). Churchill and the King and Queen regularly engaged in walk troughs of bomb danged neighborhoods, with very few security personnel accompanying them. We constantly hear today that bombing can not crack civilian morale. Notice that you never see images like this of Hitler, Göring, Mussolini, Emperor Hirohito, or the Japanese prime-ministers that replaced Tojo comenserating with the people and vuisiting war damaged neigborgoods. There was nothing that enthused Hitler more than motorich around the Reich and seig heiling adoring crowds. There are countless images of him in his colkldction of big Mercedes doing just that. This was during the good days into the early war years. When German armies enconntered real resistance and the bombs began falling on German rather than other cities, Hitler suddenly was no where to be found. Propaganda Minister Goebbels commented on this. He pleadedb with the Führer to visit the bomb-danaged cities. Hitler flatly refused. The comparison with Churchill could not be more dranmatic--and revealing. Some clarification is neededv here. A reader write, "Interesting. I never thought of Hitler or other dictators having a guilty conscious. Only reason not to visit with the bombing victims." We did not mean to suggest that Hitler had a guilty conscious! I We certainly do not believe that he did. In fact, we think hev only regretted not being able to kill more people and destoy more cities, esoecially Paris and London. We think the reason for not visitinmg havily bombed cities was very different. He probably saw as the bombing was destroying German cities a sign that Germany was losing the war he launched. He not doub was seeing this in daily military briefings. And he did not want to be further reminded or associated with his failure and have to answer to the German people for his failure. At the end of the War in his Berlin Bunker he blamed the German people for their weakness and non living up to his standards and of course the Jews. With the matter of walkabouts, the question of security arrangemehts arise.

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Created: 6:53 PM 1/19/2023
Last updated: 6:53 PM 1/19/2023