Hitler's Paladin

As striking to European military observers as Adolf Hitler's calling 1,000,000 men to arms last week, was the fact that he recalled to the colors one man, Colonel General Werner von Fritsch, rated Germany's most able commander.

Like Tennis Player Baron Gottfried von Cramm who talked too much about his political opinions while touring the world, General von Fritsch, who opposed sending German aid to Rightist Spain and more than once told Hitler that Germany is not yet sufficiently prepared to fight a war, was smeared by accusations of homosexuality. Whereas Cramm was sent to jail, Fritsch, of a size too big to jail, merely had to resign as head of the army (TIME, Feb. 14).

This was not wholly ill fortune for him. His eclipse saved him from any blame for the breakdown in the German motorized divisions during the invasion of Austria. Whether because of Fritsch's personal popularity with the army clique* or because the Nazis felt he would soon be needed to run Germany's war machine, a "Court of Honor" recently cleared his personal honor.

Last week the Dictator made him Honorary Commander of the Twelfth Artillery Regiment, an honor usually reserved for high visiting dignitaries.

Every man of the Twelfth Artillery Regiment and a great galaxy of German Army chiefs turned out in Berlin for the rehabilitation of Fritsch, his return to a status in which he can again become, as he was for some years, the general around whom other German generals rallied in their frequent moments of friction with the Nazi Party. The generals, especially Fritsch, have always in the past opposed bold Nazi strokes--like remilitarization of the Rhineland--which might lead to war should the Hitler bluff be called. The recall of Fritsch, however, was susceptible of another interpretation: that the army may think the time is approaching when it will be prepared to back up a Hitler bluff successfully with arms.

*At one time Dictator Hitler received a letter supporting Fritsch signed by every German general of a division.

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