War Diaries (May 15) (nonfiction)

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War Diary entries for May 15.

Previous: May 14 - Next: May 16

Diaries

Franz Halder: May 15, 1940

Tel. call from OKW: British agents in civilian clothes are setting fires to British warehouses in Amsterdam. Want us to prevent it

—Franz Halder (war diary)

Anonymous Dutch diarist: May 15, 1940

The [Dutch] air defense people ordered us to build barricades in the street in front of our house. Everyone had to help loosen tiles, stack them and take out all kinds of junk. I even saw parts of bed frames in the street. It was just ridiculous, absolutely laughable; it looked as if it’d been done by children. Later, we heard that citizens weren’t even allowed to do this. Anyway, what were these barricades to the Germans? They would easily push everything aside with their powerful vehicles. Now they are proper soldiers; not like our boys, who couldn’t control their nerves and just kept shooting at random.

The way the Germans acted was so proper, so magnificent, so disciplined; they command nothing but respect. The locals could learn a lot from the Germans. Just look at them marching by, on foot or on horseback or with their guns, looking so beautiful, so healthy, and with such cheerful faces; they’re big and sturdy and very neat, making you think, inadvertently, some army the Dutch have! The people here are so rude and impolite, while the Germans are so proper and polite! It’s easy to see the difference. This is the Netherlands, how dare they fight such a powerful, strong people? No wonder they had to give up fighting after four days, the difference was too great.

And what about our officers — well, not all of them, of course — stirrers and rabble-rousers. I’ve always been one for the military and considered them our protectors, but I’ve had more than enough of them. I have no respect for them anymore. They have really frightened me. When I think of everything that’s happened, I feel so embittered. I would love to let them have it. I’m livid, my heart is on fire. But Nat. Socialism says we’re not to repay evil with evil! How is this possible if you harbor feelings of revenge for all the humiliation we’ve had to endure? It’s nearly impossible, yet we must.

We need to rebuild, that’s what’s required of us. The fact that there are still people who support the Queen is incomprehensible to us; a queen who has fled her country because she feared for her life, who has abandoned her people in need; who has let her soldiers bleed to death and sought refuge herself! Surely, a mother doesn’t abandon her child? The Germans wouldn’t have harmed her; they are much too honorable for that.

—anonymous Dutch diarist

George Beck: May 15, 1944

Sack of clothing and cig parcels up, but none for me, terribly disappointed for I’ve had none for months. Latest news “Heavy fighting now going on in Italy, men and materials being thrown in”. Coast of France bombed and Portugal warned by Britain against helping Germany. Newspaper full every day about the expected second front. Germany is certainly shaking.

—George Beck,1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, prisoner of war (diary)

Henry L. Stimson: May 15, 1945

Well when this meeting adjourned, I called in George Marshall, and he and McCloy and I talked out the proposition of the coming Asiatic campaign. That involves trouble. T.V. Soong has turned up here and has been to the White House to try to persuade the President that the easiest way for America to win the war over Japan is to fight it out in CHina on the mainland of Asia - the very thing that I am resolved that we shall not do unless it is over my dead body; and there is also a slight difference of opinion in the Chiefs of Staff between the Navy and the Army. Marshall has got the straightforward view and I think he is right, and he feels that we must go ahead. Fortunately the actual invasion will not take place until after my secret is out. The Japanese campaign involves therefore two great uncertainties: first, whether Russia will come in though we think that will be all right; and second, when and how S-1 will resolve itself. We three argued the whole think over and over for at least an hour.

—Henry L. Stimson (diary)

S-1 refers to S-1 Executive Committee, a United States government entity during World War II responsible for the early stages of the Manhattan atomic bomb project.

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