In January 1933,
fourteen years after the defeat of Germany in the First WorId War,
AdoIf HitIer came to power.
In vioIation of the VersaiIIes Peace Treaty,
Germany at once began rearming.
In March 1936,
in vioIation of the treaty, Germany reoccupied the RhineIand.
In March 1938,
in vioIation of the treaty, Germany absorbed Austria.
In September 1938, with the Munich Pact,
EngIand and France yieIded to Germany
Iarge areas of CzechosIovakia, under AdoIf HitIer's threat of war.
With this pact, Germany guaranteed peace in Europe,
and the independence of the rest of CzechosIovakia.
In March 1939,
Germany vioIated the pact and occupied the rest of CzechosIovakia.
Germany was aIso threatening PoIand.
And now, on March 31, 1939,
the British government, at Iast resoIving to haIt HitIer's Germany,
gives PoIand an unconditionaI guarantee of miIitary assistance.
This guarantee wiII Iead to the outbreak of the Second WorId War.
CoIoneI GeneraI WaIter von Brauchitsch,
commander in chief of the German army.
GeneraI Franz HaIder, chief of staff.
Lieutenant GeneraI AIfred JodI, operations chief of the OKW,
HitIer's supreme headquarters command.
CoIoneI GeneraI WiIheIm KeiteI, chief of the OKW.
AdmiraI Erich Raeder,
commander in chief of the German navy.
Summoned by the Fuehrer,
these officers are here for a meeting on the British miIitary guarantee.
You have heard...Ribbentrop's news?
Yes, mein Fuehrer.
My will...is fixed and unshakable.
You will proceed with the planning for Case White.
Mein Fuehrer, the starting date?
September 1 .
Does the Fuehrer's decision present problems for the military?
Joachim von Ribbentrop, HitIer's foreign minister.
Vain and incompetent, he has succeeded
in earning the disIike of aImost everyone in the German government.
My Luftwaffe will be ready September 1 , mein Fuehrer.
lf necessary, even sooner.
FieId MarshaI Hermann Goering,
commander of the powerfuI German air force.
In the Third Reich, second onIy to the Fuehrer.
With all due respect to the field marshal, mein Fuehrer,
you give us only five months to prepare for general war.
- lt would require at least a year. - We do not have a year!
lt is my belief
that if the attack on Poland
is started with sudden, heavy blows that gain rapid success,
general war will be avoided.
But if England and France do march...
l'll cook them a stew they will choke on!
- Glory be, it does exist! - What exists, Madeline?
This Hitler business. l read about it in the papers, but...
Well, it seems too ridiculous and crazy to be real.
lt's real, all right.
Commander Victor Henry, United States Navy.
Stateroom 63, A deck.
Thank you.
General von Roon.
l can't believe it. We're actually going.
Madge Tolliver was in Berlin for the Olympics.
She keeps saying how wonderful it still is, and how cheap.
She says we'll just love it. Oh, here it is, Pug.
- Surprise! - Warren!
Hi, Mom!
- Hi! - Hey, cutie!
What the devil?!
Why aren't you in flight school?
Just blew in. Are you kidding? You think l would have missed this?
- l hitched a ride on a PBY. - Pug, isn't it a wonderful surprise?
Saturday night in New York?
Watch out, all you big-city girls, Warren Henry's in town.
What do you say we get this party under way?
Has Byron heard about the move?
We haven't heard from your brother for months.
The last letter we got, he'd quit his studies in Florence,
and he's vagabonding around Europe.
- Got bored with the fine arts. - Oh, now, Pug, don't carry on so.
Byron's a strange fish, but there's brains underneath.
l know.
That's the problem.
Well, here's to the new tour of duty.
- Yes, and good luck in Berlin. - Cheers!
Well, l got a Navy car. Can l drive you someplace?
My date's not till 5:00.
Take me to the Rockefeller Center,
- the National Broadcasting Company. - What for?
l'm gonna look for a job.
- Does Dad know about this? - Are you crazy?
Besides, it's just for the summer.
Bye!
They're good kids.
- When the cat's away, huh? - l've been smoking for years.
Well, to whom?
To the kids.
Yes. Our abandoned nestlings.
All right, to the kids.
Oh, l really do feel adventurous, Pug, sailing on a German ship these days.
l wonder if there are any Nazis right here at this bar.
Let's go out and look at the Statue of Liberty.
No, sir, l want another drink. l've seen the Statue of Liberty.
Look, as long as we're aboard this ship,
we have to assume that everything we say is being recorded.
That means at the bar, at the table, in our stateroom.
Did that ever occur to you?
Well, yes, sort of, but...
ln the stateroom too? Always?
You mean...
You don't mean day and night, Pug, really!
lf they didn't, they'd be sloppy. The Germans are not a sloppy people.
Well, then, mister, keep your distance on this boat, that's all l can say.
And l intend to spend the entire trip chastely brushing up my German.
lt's gonna be the same in Berlin.
Honestly!
Oh, hell.
lt really doesn't make much difference anyway, does it?
Can l have my other drink now?
- Hi. Byron Henry? - Yeah.
Natalie Jastrow. Hop in.
This is Leslie Slote.
l don't need a driver in Warsaw. lt's all horses.
l don't have to hear about that.
Here we are.
AJ?
Oh, good. You're back.
- Aaron, this is Byron Henry. - Columbia '38, is it?
- Yes, sir. - Welcome to Siena.
Well, here's to Byron Henry,
notorious hater of the ltalian Renaissance.
Where did you hear this?
My old friend Cesare Milano at Columbia.
He mentioned it in passing, in a letter he wrote to me about you.
Well, l guess l have no choice but to drink to it.
What have you got against the ltalian Renaissance, Byron?
Oh, l suppose l just had too much of it.
l started out fascinated, and l ended up just snowed under and bored.
lt's the mixture of paganism and Christianity.
lt sort of sticks in my craw.
You asked what l had against the ltalian Renaissance.
l told you.
Now, don't fold up on us, Byron.
Other people have taken your position.
A good name for it is Protestantism.
Byron, l understand your father is a Naval officer.
Yes, sir. He's in Washington in war plans.
War plans, gracious! ls that as ominous as it sounds?
Every country draws up theoretical war plans in peacetime.
Tell me, does your father think war is imminent?
He didn't mention it in his last letter.
Leslie is in the Foreign Service, which makes him an expert on these matters.
He thinks my uncle should go home. We've had an argument
about that now for days. Of course, he's going on to Warsaw.
Well, for what it's worth...
...l think there's gonna be a war.
You do?
- l'd be interested to know why. - l just toured Germany.
Everywhere you drive, you pass trucks full of troops,
and railroad cars loaded for miles with artillery and tanks.
Byron, with such displays, Hitler won Austria and the Sudetenland.
And he never had to fire a shot.
Dr. Jastrow, when l was in Germany,
l saw signs on park benches and trolley cars about the Jews.
- And l saw burnt-out synagogues. - Yes.
l'm surprised that you speak as calmly as you do about Hitler.
Being Jewish, l mean.
lf Hitler wins out, the Jews will simply fall back
to the second-class status they had for so long under the kings and the popes.
We survived 1 7 centuries with that.
We have quite a store of wisdom and doctrine for coping with it.
Aaron, this Olympian attitude of yours completely exasperates me.
That you could rely on Adolf Hitler's prudence for Natalie's and your safety,
strikes me as grotesque.
l think Natalie's parents would agree.
Natalie can go home tomorrow if she wishes.
But l think, perhaps, she finds working here in Siena as my secretary
more stimulating than Miami Beach.
l'm thinking of going home all right, Leslie, but not because of Hitler.
There are a few things that bother me a bit more than Hitler at the moment.
- Look, we are not... - l daresay.
Come on, dear. Let's go.
Upstairs here is where we do most of our work.
- This is quite a library. - A fair collection of early Christianity.
Now, Byron, l understand you took a Naval Reserve course
and obtained a commission. ls that where your interests lie?
No, sir.
The commission was more to please my father.
l assume that when Dr. Milano
suggested you visit, he mentioned that l might have something for you.
Yes, he did.
My next work is called The Arch of Constantine.
You do know who Constantine was?
The first Christian Emperor of Rome, l believe.
A-plus, Byron.
l need some research on the Emperor's wars.
Would $20 a week interest you?
- l've flunked more history courses... - l see. You don't want the job.
No, sir, l didn't say that.
Would l be living and working here in the villa?
Certainly.
You'd be working right here in this room.
That's Natalie's desk there, and yours would be here.
l think l'll try it, sir.
Oh, you will...
although you say you have no aptitude. Why?
Well, for the money,
- and, of course, to be around you, sir. - To be around me?
Oh, to be sure. All right, Byron, why don't we give it a try.
Waiter, waiter!
Oh, captain, baked Alaska!
We try to make the last night of the voyage a memorable one, Mrs. Henry.
And it is the Fuehrer's birthday.
No, Mr. Tudsbury, there will be no war between England and Germany.
Well, we're all the same stock. All North Europeans.
lt would be a sad thing for brothers to fall out.
Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it, Pam?
Remind me to include it in my next broadcast.
Oh, nobody wants war now anyway. Absolutely nobody.
lt would be so silly nowadays.
Does your wife speak for the United States Navy, commander?
She speaks for Piper-Heidsieck '34.
l've just had the pleasure of lecturing at your Naval War College.
Really? What was your impression?
Your Navy is the one fighting force in the world today
which can compare professionally with the Germany army.
l would put in a word for the Royal Navy and the RAF.
lt is already well-known that the Royal Air Force
have lost air parity to the Luftwaffe.
As for the Royal Navy,
that is the province of Commodore Grobke's U-boats.
Not a bad navy, but we have damn good U-boats.
You had U-boats last time.
We did fine, until America came in.
Were you in the Atlantic then?
- Destroyers. - l was below.
Maybe this is not the first time we meet?
Maybe.
My dear Mrs. Henry, may l have the honor of this first dance?
That is, commander, with your permission?
By all means, captain.
Tell me, general, will your Fuehrer attack Poland?
His whole brilliance lies in his bloodless victories.
The Polish Corridor is an idiotic anomaly.
- The Fuehrer will find a solution. - No war over Danzig?
No war.
None, that is, that Germany will start.
Well, l suppose you're on a school vacation?
Yes, for quite some time. l'm 28.
l'm sorry. l thought you were about my daughter's age. She's 19.
Many make that mistake. l suppose because l'm always with my father.
l help him with work. His eyes aren't good.
- That must be interesting. - Depends on the subject matter.
Nowadays it's somewhat of a broken record.
Will the ''Little Tramp'' go, or won't he?
Oh, lovely. Divine, my dear Mrs. Grobke.
Most energetic dancer, your wife, commodore.
Thank you. Gentlemen, excuse us, please.
Gad, Henry, the woman's tireless.
Makes one wonder how that Grobke fellow's held up as well as he has.
A great deal of sea duty, no doubt.
Well, fraternizing with Jerry, were you?
Strictly in the line of duty.
He's invited me out to inspect the sub base at Swinemünde.
- Anyway, l doubt that Grobke's a Nazi. - You do?
Well, those U-boat fellows are all right, l suppose,
as much as any Germans are.
- May l have another dance later? - Of course, thank you.
l shall get myself a white wig and a cane.
They look so shattered when l refuse.
And as for that hateful conga...
The Fuehrer's Ball.
l've been covering that fellow Henry since the day he marched into Austria.
Something right out of Plutarch, that was.
A zero of a man, with no schooling, of no known family.
At 20, a dropped-out student, a drifter, a failure.
Henry, l watched that man march in triumph through the streets of Vienna
where he had sold postcards and gone hungry,
the sole heir to the combined thrones of the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns.
That grotesque travesty is the central truth of our age,
and the only reason for this damned ball.
- You created him, you know. - l beg your pardon!
The Fuehrer. You and the French.
Your insane Treaty of Versailles partitioned Germany
and made an economic and political madhouse of Europe.
Did you think that would last?
You generated a volcanic resentment in our people.
Hitler is the political eruption.
ls the German army with him?
He has rearmed us. He has given us back our self-esteem.
- And terror. And concentration camps. - All forms of politics are dirty.
Democracies, dictatorships, variations on one theme: Please the mob.
Meine Damen und Herren, ladies and gentlemen.
l propose a toast.
A toast to Germany's great leader, Adolf Hitler,
on his 50th birthday.
And to his life's aim, peace.
Attention, breakfast wiII be served in the main Iounge in 1 5 minutes.
Thank you.
- Good morning. - Good morning.
- Would you mind if l joined you? - Oh, yes, thank you.
l feel so stupid preparing to smile at 40 feet.
Doesn't your father believe in before-breakfast walks?
Talky? He hates exercise of any kind.
Besides, right now, he has a touch of gout. lt's his curse.
- ''Talky''? - His middle name is Talcott.
Ever since school he's been ''Talky'' to his friends.
Guess why.
Where's your wife, commander? Also not a walker?
Oh, she's busy packing.
Not that she'll walk to the drugstore if she can catch a ride or hail a cab.
Will you be coming back to the United States?
lf Father is thrown out of Berlin, which seems inevitable, we will.
Why?
l have a son l should like you to meet.
Unlike his father, he's quite handsome.
- What does he do? - Naval officer, like his father.
A sailor! Never. A girl in every port.
- Don't you have any other sons? - As a matter of fact, l do.
But...
- he'd be a bit young for you. - Maybe not.
l never do seem to hit it quite right.
l say, commander!
Just had a word with that Grobke fellow.
Managed to horn in on your little trip to Swinemünde.
- l hope you're not put off. - Not at all. Glad to have you.
Talky, l thought you were packing. We dock any minute now.
That's exactly why l'm here. l've made a muck of it.
You know l can't handle things of that kind.
Well, what are you standing there for, you lazy creature?
Say au revoir to Commander Henry,
and go below and get my things together.
- Shall we see you in Berlin? - Of course.
l shall be pumping him for the latest military intelligence.
And learning nothing, l'll be bound.
Auf Wiedersehen, commander.
Go on.
Tudsbury, l have notions of matching your daughter up with a son of mine.
Oh, have you?
l warn you, Pamela is a handful.
Why, how can you say that? l've never met a gentler or pleasanter girl.
Still waters. l warn you.
See you in Berlin.
General von Brauchitsch is expecting you.
The chief of staff is with him.
You had a pleasant American journey? Feel refreshed?
- Yes. Thank you. - Good.
You will take full charge of operational planning for Case White
and report back Friday.
What assumptions are being made about the Soviet Union?
Stalin shot most of his first-class general officers in the Purge.
l don't rate the Red Army very high.
lt can field 300 divisions.
Yes, but will Stalin allow us to roll across Poland
to his border unchecked?
l am not an optimist about that.
What if their alliance with England goes through?
That is politics. We have our orders. And you have yours.
l will report back on Friday, of course. But l can give you my estimate now.
Case White will be an all-out two-front war from the outset.
The fatal error of Kaiser Wilhelm.
The Kaiser was not a political genius.
This man is.
He will pull off another political miracle.
Good. So we plan for a miracle, huh?
We plan to smash Poland in two weeks, and...
And hold in the West.
Hold in the West, with what we have?
That is the miracle we plan for.
AII previous studies inadequate.
Assumptions about Soviet Union,
in view of the proposed AngIo-Soviet AIIiance, are highIy hazardous.
We are going out on very thin ice.
Come in.
- Colonel Forrest, the military attaché. - Welcome.
- l'm Bill Forrest. - Pug Henry.
l'm right next door.
- Uniforms every day here? - No, no. l just came from a review.
- You suit up only for occasions here. - Good.
Such as...this one.
We get to meet Hitler right away?
Just luck. lt's a big crush for the Bulgarian minister.
We'll just pass by and shake hands.
lt ought to give Mrs. Henry a thrill.
ls this usual? An attaché at a head of state reception?
Not very, no.
And the queer thing is, those cards came from Wehrmacht headquarters.
Compliments of a General von Roon.
Well, Pug, aren't you gonna say anything about my new outfit?
l think it's just perfect. You never looked better.
Well, it isn't my choice,
but Sally Forrest says Hitler is mad about pink.
lt makes Washington seem dull and tame, doesn't it?
Fantastic-looking, isn't it?
Beats Radio City Music Hall.
Oh, Pug.
Oh, look. You can see him now.
Oh, that prison haircut. l declare!
He's such a simple-looking man. The rest are all so gaudy.
Colonel William Forrest und Frau Forrest.
There's Ribbentrop and Goebbels.
- Would you like to meet them? - Please!
Come on.
- General. - Commander Henry.
General von Roon, how nice to see you again.
Excuse me.
Well, thank you for getting us here.
What do you think of the Fuehrer?
Not much like the image in the New York newspapers, all horns and a tail.
No, not at all.
l understand you're an excellent tennis player.
Oh? Was that included in my dossier?
Very little was not included.
Perhaps we can have a game sometime.
l'd like that.
Oh, Pug. Pug, it's perfect. You'll never believe it.
l know it's your lunch hour, but l was afraid somebody would snap it up.
lt even has a tennis court.
Pug, you don't think Hitler had anything to do with this, do you?
Well, l mean, do you think he really remembered?
lt's such a pleasure to do business with Americans.
My brother has a real-estate business in Chicago, that is where l learned.
Someday, perhaps, l will go back.
On top of everything else, there are five bedrooms upstairs
and three marble baths.
And wait till you see the garden.
Look. lsn't this the most beautiful drawing room you've ever seen?
Look at the paneling.
Here... Here is the garden.
And behind the house there are tennis courts,
which l'll show you in a moment. Here.
This way.
Now, this way.
Down there is the lake.
lt's a lovely little lake. You can see it.
- Who owns this? - Ludwig Rosenthal.
A well-known sugar merchant. Very large firm.
What's the catch?
What, ''catch''? What do you mean?
Why is the price so low?
- Well, there is this new ruling. - What ruling?
l'm not very clear about it.
Something about Jewish people owning real estate.
Well, does this man know that you're showing me this house at this price?
Naturally.
When can l meet him?
l have taken the liberty to ask him to come out.
He should be here at any moment. Excuse me.
Seventy-eight dollars a month? lt's ridiculous!
Well, that's what l thought.
lt's a lovely house, Herr Rosenthal.
Thank you.
We are fond of it, my wife and l.
We have spent a lot of time and money on it.
The truth is, Mrs. Henry and l are...
Feel a bit awkward about leasing it.
But why?
You are very desirable tenants.
- lf a lower rent would help... - Lord, no. The rent is incredibly low.
Do you actually get the money?
Of course.
With the agent's commission deducted and certain municipal fees,
l will receive every penny.
Knoedler told me that some ruling compels you to rent it.
l assure you, Commander Henry, that won't affect you as a tenant.
But just what is this new ruling?
Well...
...it's an emergency decree.
You understand?
l am sure eventually it will be rescinded.
Meanwhile, this property
can be sold at any time without my consent.
However, if there is a tenant in residence with a diplomatic immunity,
that cannot be done.
Hence the modest rent.
May l ask you a question, Herr Rosenthal?
Why don't you just sell out and leave Germany?
My family
has a business more than 100 years old.
My wife and l are born Berliners.
This is home.
l have lived through other bad times.
l was shot through a lung in Belgium in 191 4.
A man goes through a lot in his lifetime.
Well, Mrs. Henry loves the house,
but we just hate to take advantage of someone else's misfortune.
You'd be doing just the opposite.
You know that now.
l wish we hadn't taken it.
You do, truly?
lt never really struck me before.
lt never seemed to really be happening.
That fine man. lmagine...
Renting out this beautiful home for pittance
in order to keep it from being sold over his head
to some fat Nazi, no doubt, lying in wait to pick it up cheap.
Well, do you want me to call it off? He really wants us in, you know.
Oh, l know he does. That's what's so scary.
l'm never gonna be happy in this house.
Or in this country.
lt's such a barn. l'll need a troop of servants.
Oh, we'll get them. No problem.
They're all Gestapo spies, you know, every last one of them.
Oh, Pug...
l wish you'd been ordered to a battleship.
So do l, honey.
So do l.
Byron, have l grown another head?
Was l staring at you?
Only for two weeks now.
Maybe you remind me of somebody l know.
Possibly your mother?
You writing another letter to Slote?
Aaron needs those notes this afternoon.
Do you suppose you could fit them into your busy schedule?
Do you like your job?
lt's a job. Why?
Seems like you're kind of wasting away here.
Really?
My, what a tragic fate.
l'll tell you, Byron, you do peculiar things when you're in love.
But why you're doing this, l really don't know.
Me? l'm broke.
For you. Forwarded from Florence.
Another letter from Slote?
My folks are in Germany now.
My father's a Naval attaché in Berlin.
What's Slote got to say this time?
l'm going to Warsaw.
Aaron.
You've been in Siena nine years and have never been to the Palio?
- l have never attended the race. - That is incredible.
lt's nothing but a relic of the medieval burlesque races.
ln some towns they raced donkeys or buffaloes.
ln Rome, they raced Jews.
Moreover, my friend the archbishop tells me
the crowds are so unruly, you risk being jostled or even trampled.
Then why the sudden interest?
Because LIFE magazine wants me to write an article about it.
For a very substantial sum of money.
AJ, Leslie writes that he wants me to come to Warsaw.
That's not very consistent of him, is it?
Urging us to go home and inviting you to Warsaw,
when the war talk gets worse every day.
You said there's nothing to worry about.
Natalie, is it ladylike to pursue Leslie Slote?
- ls it wise tactics? - That is my business.
Leslie is a very cold-blooded customer.
l'm going.
A Jewish wife is not suitable these days to a diplomat's career.
lt's as simple as that.
You'll be in Greece. lt's the perfect time.
l postponed my trip to Greece.
This Palio thing gets in the way.
Look, l have an idea.
l haven't time to research the Palio and attend that silly race.
Why don't you do all that,
and then you rough draft an article and we'll split the fee. How's that?
How much?
You'd receive $1 ,000.
A thousand dollars?
Say, l could buy a whacking good trousseau for that.
- A trousseau? ls that still in the wind? - Yes.
Can l use Byron for the research?
l don't see why not.
Then l'll go to Warsaw in August, after the second Palio. Agreed?
lf the war news doesn't get worse. Yes.
Fine.
Well, is it all set?
- What? - Warsaw.
Oh, that's postponed, at least until the end of August.
What are you grinning about?
What?
Who, me? Grinning?
Wonderful, Pug!
Good shot.
Guess what. Byron finally wrote us a letter.
Yeah. OK.
Fault.
Lots of good news, dear.
Set point, Rhoda.
Tough luck, general. Take a couple more.
No, no. This set.
- Got time for another? - Unhappily not. l must be going.
Well played. Now you can read your letter.
Aaron Jastrow?
He's the fellow that wrote that book, A Jew's Jesus.
Oh, yes. You said you liked it, didn't you?
Yeah, l read it twice.
Well, if Byron Henry's working,
it's the biggest news about him since you had him.
There seems to be bigger news. Looks like he's interested in a girl.
- What kind of girl, ltalian? - No, a New York girl.
lt's that author's niece. Her name's Natalie. Natalie Jastrow. Right there.
This thing is kind of far along.
l think maybe l'll write him.
What do you think you're gonna say?
lt doesn't make any difference that she's Jewish,
although it may raise questions about the children's faith.
Children? Pug, he doesn't say a word about marrying her.
lt's the way he writes about her.
lf she's Aaron Jastrow's niece, she's probably top-drawer and brilliant.
The point is,
what chance has a marriage like that got to work nowadays?
At least l want Byron to think.
That comes hard to Byron.
Another letter from your folks in Berlin?
What's so funny?
l guess you just have to know my father.
Oh?
He got the wrong impression from my last letter.
You don't say. About what?
Nothing you'd be interested in.
Though it's too bad there isn't a chance.
Good news!
The archbishop has arranged for seats for us
behind the judge's stand for the second Palio.
- l thought you weren't gonna attend. - This makes it much more attractive,
so book my airplane tickets a week later for Greece.
The... August 23, l think.
Wonderful. That's when l'll fly to Warsaw.
''What follows gets into prognostication
''so may be judged frivolous or journalistic.
''However, to this observer,
''all the evidence indicates that Adolf Hitler at this time
''is negotiating a military alliance with the Soviet Union.''
Henry, do you really intend to send this stuff
to the Office of Naval lntelligence?
That's the way l see it, sir.
My job here is reporting on Germany's combat readiness and political trends.
Henry, anti-communism is the lifeblood of Hitler's politics.
The German people's fear of the Bolsheviks put him in power
and keeps him there.
When Grobke took me to that submarine base,
l saw some very interesting things.
When l left there, it was quiet as a graveyard.
No night shift.
l don't think Hitler's people are behind him for full mobilization.
And the way l see their industrial picture,
they can't get into Poland without first nullifying the Soviet Union.
Well, all l can say is, if l send in this report,
l'll be laughed out of the Foreign Service.
And l don't think it'll do your career much good either.
- l wouldn't want to look like a fool. - Good.
Leave the global masterminding to the men who are paid for it.
Now, there's your report.
Yes, sir.
Unthinkable!
- Why? lsn't it militarily sound? - Militarily, militarily, militarily.
A pact with the United States would be equally sound.
But Poland doesn't lie between Germany and the US.
lt would be a political miracle.
Well, isn't that your Fuehrer's specialty?
Sheer fantasy, commander. Crude melodrama.
lf you say so.
l'm afraid you do not understand European politics.
ls Germany prepared to fight an all-out war on two fronts?
Number one, war is not inevitable.
Number two, two fronts are also not inevitable.
Well, Victor, let's hope l am better on a horse than on the tennis court, huh?
With Case White, the invasion of PoIand, onIy 20 days away,
MussoIini sends his son-in-Iaw, Count GaIeazzo Ciano,
the ItaIian foreign minister, to HitIer's mountain retreat.
Mein Fuehrer.
Graf Ciano.
Fräu Eva Braun.
Charming and urbane, with the abiIity to speak fluent German,
Ciano has been charged with a mission of reIaying to HitIer
II Duce's decision not to enter into any armed conflict over PoIand,
despite the vaunted Pact of SteeI between their two countries.
HitIer discIoses the pIans for Case White to Ciano.
He must attack by September 1
because the autumn rains start October 1 5th.
He needs six weeks.
Two weeks to smash PoIand, two to four weeks for mop-up.
Ciano warns HitIer that ItaIy is unprepared for war.
He expIains that the Pact of SteeI
was signed in anticipation of war in 1942, not 1939.
He proposes another Munich-styIe conference.
Maybe the West wiII give in again without a fight.
- Unthinkable! - Why?
Your chargé is exactly right. Read Mein Kampf.
- l did. - You haven't grasped it.
He says himself somewhere that a pact with Russia
will be the end of Germany.
l did a little ungentlemanly spying aboard Grobke's flagship.
l saw some operational figures.
He'd like me to think that he has 70 submarines operational.
l doubt that he has 50.
- Well? - So,
it's just part of the general German unpreparedness.
Hitler can't go to bat if there's a risk Stalin will come against him.
Just so. And we've got an alliance with Stalin practically sewed up.
So Hitler's stymied. So no war.
So why hasn't this alliance been announced?
What do you think, Pamela?
l think if that report would jeopardize your career and make you unhappy,
then, by all means, tear it up.
That's hardly the point, is it?
As far as l'm concerned it is.
Victor, don't send that report.
lf you do, you'll make a complete ass of yourself.
Come in.
The courier, commander.
- Yes, sir. - When are you leaving?
l'm about ready to seal the pouch now. l leave for Tempelhof in ten minutes.
Hold the pouch open for me and wait outside.
Yes, sir.
Telephone orders from Keitel at Supreme Fuehrer headquarters.
''Battleships and submarines proceed to war stations.
''Dispatch telegrams to commence army mobilization.
''Move army headquarters to Zossen at once for operations.''
Did General Thomas
present the army's warning memorandum to Keitel?
Read it to him.
And his response?
His response?
Britain is too decadent, France too degenerate,
America too uninterested to fight for Poland.
And the Soviet Union?
What is his opinion of the Soviet Union?
lssue the orders.
lmmediately.