The looming war

My father was called up in 1938, and then demobilized. Hitler annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia, snubbing his nose at the whole world. The only thing holding him back from attacking Poland was the threat that England and France would declare war if he did.

In 1939, overcome with homesickness, I went back to Alsace, to Harskirchen near Sarre-Union to see my cousins and help with the farmwork I loved so much. But war was imminent. The French infantry made their way laboriously on foot along the roads of Alsace, whereas the Germans, inspired by General de Gaulle's writings about the need for mobility in war, had put their troops onto trucks and built the Autostrasse to permit rapid deployment. Hitler had outlined his plans very clearly in Mein Kampf, and the stupidity of the English and French diplomats in the face of Hitler's duplicity was disgusting