Free Dönitz: The Last Führer by Peter Padfield Page B

situation by cable, made the extraordinarily bold decision to strike against the French transports with his squadron alone. The ships were cleared for action, boats, wooden furniture and other inflammables offloaded into a German passenger liner which had been diverted to the harbour because of the threatening situation, while reluctant Italians were prodded by the German Embassy into providing coal. At last at dusk the lighters arrived and coaling began in an atmosphere of feverish excitement.
    So I experienced the last day of peace before the First World War. As before the beginning of the Second World War, the hours immediately between peace and war were unforgettable … in such fateful periods men’s consciousness and subconsciousness are particularly receptive. 68
    Coaling was completed at midnight. An hour later, after washing down, the two ships weighed and left, steering with screened lights first north, then westerly for a position between Sardinia and the French North African coast. After sunrise any smoke seen on the horizon caused them to make large alterations away.
    In London that day the government was at last able to unite on the decision that honour—because of its obligations to France—and self-interest both dictated; for the King of Belgium had appealed for help against German violation of his country’s neutrality. The Foreign Secretary told a packed House of Commons that he did not believe that ifGreat Britain stood aside she would at the end of the war be in a position to undo what had happened, ‘to prevent the whole of the west of Europe opposite to us—if that had been the result of the war—falling under the domination of a single power, and I am quite sure that our moral position would be such as to have lost us all respect’. 69 He carried the House, and afterwards composed a simple ultimatum to the German government timed to expire at midnight (Berlin time) on the next day, August 4th: unless the invasion were halted Britain would be at war with Germany.
    The invasion could not be halted. The railways and strategically located sidings could not be moved, the plan was inflexible. France had to be crushed inside six weeks so that the effort could be shifted east against Russia before that ponderous colossus should overwhelm Austria and the few German divisions holding the East Prussian borders.
    Nevertheless the ultimatum came as a profound shock. Until then all had gone well; the new-found unity of the nation was a particular success. Socialist leaders who had been denouncing the ‘patriotic’ parties and war only a week before had been wooed by ministers and had submitted without a struggle, suddenly discovering that they were, before everything, Germans. They had swung round almost
en bloc
, declaring in the
Reichstag
that the war was a ‘just cause’ and plighting their union with the government. As if this was the moment for which they had been waiting, the people followed; everywhere was a fervent, fierce nationalism; for the time for reason was past. ‘Brilliant mood,’ the chief of Wilhelm’s naval cabinet had noted in his diary after the Russian declaration, ‘the government has succeeded very well in making us appear the attacked.’ 70
    Wilhelm had roused himself temporarily to play up to the mood, but his private world dream had become a nightmare. Those who saw him after the British ultimatum were shocked at his appearance.
    In the early hours of August 4th the
Goeben
and
Breslau
neared the Algerian coast, the battlecruiser steering for Philippville, the light cruiser for Bone.
    The picture is clear in my memory as in the grey morning light the hills, houses, light towers, moles and harbour works with ships of Bone came in sight. Obviously as a young soldier I was impressed with this first war action. 71
    The enemy were caught off guard as the
Breslau
closed and opened fire, and some 40 miles to the west the
Goeben
’s far heavier broadside came as an equal surprise.