the ex-Corporal

"...[T]he whole Reichstag and an astounding array of Generals had been summoned to hear his speech.  Appropriately this glittering event took place in the Kroll Opera House.  Hitler's speech was a long one and he used it to claim personal credit for the victories of 1940.  'I advised the German forces of the possibility of such a development and gave them the necessary detailed orders,' said the ex-Corporal to one of the most dazzling arrays of military brains ever gathered under one roof....

"When the applause of that multitude of Generals, politicians, and foreign dignitaries died away, Hitler began to distribute the honours. He created no less than twenty-seven new Generals.  Mostly they were men who had commanded armies or panzer groups to win for him the great victories in Poland, Norway, and the west.  But artfully Hitler arranged that yes-men such as Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel who had told Hitler, 'my Führer, you are the greatest military commander of history' got double promotions and seniority.  While Gustav von Wietersheim — whose motorized infantry corps had consolidated the panzer thrust by which Guderian skewered France — was passed over because he had argued with the Führer in 1938....

"So many new promotions were announced that there was not time for the Generals to receive Hitler's personal congratulations.  As each name was called, a General stood up and gave the Nazi salute....

"By the time that Hitler had finished creating Generals, and no less than a dozen Field Marshals, there could have been few men in the opera house who did not understand that this was a cunning piece of megalomania that, while thoroughly debasing the coinage of high rank, defined Hitler as the man who owned the mint.

"It was an unprecedented step.  The Kaiser made only five Field Marshals in the whole of the First World War.  Even General Erich Ludendorff had failed to find a baton in his knapsack.  Now Hitler made twelve after less than a year of war, and the fighting had covered only a few weeks. But the new Generalfeldmarschalle were delighted.  In Germany such exalted rank, from which the holder could neither be retired nor demoted (or even promoted), brought the provision of an office, a secretary, a staff officer, motor vehicles and horses, and full pay and privileges.  And all this for life or until defeat.  A Field Marshal ranked above Reich Chancellor in the protocol lists but not above Führer, which was a new post invented by Hitler for himself."


--Len Deighton, Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain, 1977