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Eavesdropping on Hitler’s Reich
Upon the collapse of Germany in 1945 Wilton Park was briefed
to receive to receive Field marshal von Rundstedt, Field Marshal
Busch, and General Kurt Dittmar, the German army’s official radio
spokesman. An acre of ground had now been fenced in, in a field
near Wilton Park, with heavy barbed wire entanglements and two
raised Bren gun platforms to guard the prisoners as they exercised.
Busch and Rundstedt were both sick men – Busch had a fatal heart
attack a few days after his arrival. Wilton Park staged an impressive
funeral ceremony for the dead German field marshal as the hearse
arrived to take the remains to Aldershot for burial; Rundstedt and
eight generals were allowed to Aldershot for the burial.
Rundstedt however sent for the commandant afterwards and
expressed anger that the field marshal’s funeral had been conducted
with none of the respects due to an officer of his rank. “None of
us,” said Rundstedt, “who were present at Aldershot today, will ever
forget what was a very bitter experience.”
Later that year the War Office transferred Rundstedt and several
other generals to Bridgend camp in South Wales.
after the war the British authorities considered the possibility of
using these often dramatic Top Secret records of conversations for
prosecuting German war criminals. Victor Cavendish-Bentinck,
chairman of the Cabinet’s Joint Intelligence Committee, predicted
on May 13, 1945 that the Wehrmacht leaders would do their level
best to show that they were not guilty of any atrocities; and that,
were it not for Hitler’s interference, they would have won the war.
He urged the War Office to do everything possible to discredit these
Wehrmacht officers and, for this purpose, to produce the proof that
they too had been guilty of atrocities. The War Office’s department
M.I.14 agreed and suggested that the War Office endorse the J.I.C.
proposal.
It is true that, as will be seen from this book, the C.S.D.I.C. had
accumulated compelling evidence on some of the worst atrocities
L St. Clare Grondona, a.a.O.
Cavendish-Bentinck, Vortragsnotiz JIC�636�45; und Stellungsnahme der
Abt. MI.14, 14.5.45 (PRO: WO.208�3466).