Interview by Andrea Di Marcantonio
“If one looks back at the short period of time of the Badoglio government, one must remember that the Italian longing and need for peace was no secret to the German command. Since the German retreat at el Alamein in November 1942 and the collapse of the Italian Army on the eastern front, the Italians had repeatedly stated their weariness of battle and had made certain suggestions. In steadily increasing numbers, measures were being taken by the German military command out of fear for the Axis loyalty of Italy. As the course of events showed, the view on betrayal dominated all other German reflections, nourished by the fall of Mussolini and his style of leadership.”
Quoted in "Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943-1945" - Page 50 - by Charles T. O'Reilly - History - 2001
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Walter Warlimont 8
German general 1894–1976Related quotes
As quoted in Modern Political Ideologies, Third Edition, Andrew Vincent, West Sussex, UK, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 156
Letter to General Karl Wolff. Quoted in "The Secret Surrender" - Page 165 - by Allen Dulles - History - 2006
Van Paassen interview (1936)
Context: We know what we want. To us it means nothing that there is a Soviet Union somewhere in the world, for the sake of whose peace and tranquility the workers of Germany and China were sacrificed to Fascist barbarians by Stalin. We want revolution here in Spain, right now, not maybe after the next European war. We are giving Hitler and Mussolini far more worry with our revolution than the whole Red Army of Russia. We are setting an example to the German and Italian working class on how to deal with Fascism.
“To the German commander.
Nuts!
From the American commander.”
His famous reply to the German demand for surrender of the surrounded US 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge (22 December 1944), as quoted in Bastogne : The Story of the First Eight Days In Which the 101st Airborne Division Was Closed Within the Ring of German Forces (1946) by Colonel S. L. A. Marshal, Ch. 14 http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/Bastogne/bast-14.htm; delivering the message Colonel Joseph H. Harper was asked "What does that mean? … Is this affirmative or negative?" and replied "Definitely not affirmative."
To Leon Goldensohn (25 June 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews", Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellatel (2004).
“I never submitted to the Italian government: I only had conversations with it.”
Trial proceedings (15 September 1931)