(See Cover)
As they did in Brussels before Waterloo, British officers danced late in London last week. In Berlin there was no dancing. Dancing is forbidden in Germany as a frivolity out of keeping with war. In Britain they danced to show their nerve—and because they could not sleep. Berliners looked at the wreckage of their homes, remembered that they had been told their city was impregnable, said nothing. Londoners shook their fists at the sky. As sirens wailed and fires burned, as the war of mutual destruction gained fury, stolid Germans and the scarcely more volatile British alike wondered if this was the beginning of the end of their capitals.
When people wonder, their leaders speak. First to speak up last week was Adolf Hitler. One afternoon he appeared unexpectedly before a hand-picked Nazi audience in Berlin's Sportspalast and strode jauntily out on the platform. He looked chipper and fit. He had a fresh haircut, his mustache had just been trimmed. His job was to explain why Germany was being bombed with such disquieting regularity, and Orator Hitler did a good job.
"For three months I have not allowed an answer to be given because I was of the opinion that they would stop this mischief," he explained. "We will now spoil the game of these air pirates. . . . If the British Air Force drops 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 kilograms of bombs, then we shall now in a single night drop 150,000, 300,000 or 400,000 kilograms of bombs, and more."
The cheering, stamping audience shouted most thunderously when Orator Hitler sent this message to Great Britain: "I now prefer to fight until finally a wholly clear decision is reached. . . . When the British say: 'He doesn't come,' my answer is: 'Keep your shirts on. He is coming.' "
Next day Winston Churchill rose in the House of Commons to reply to Adolf Hitler—and to tell his own people what was in store for them. The Prime Minister was also jaunty. Although the House had had to adjourn for an hour during an air raid, Mr. Churchill's humor was intact. He began by paying his respects to his foe ("No doubt Herr Hitler will not like this transference of [U.S.] destroyers"), went on to express his confidence that Hitler's Empire would pass away more quickly than did Napoleon's Army ("although of course without any of its glitter and glory"). Then Winston Churchill got down to the point.
"The Germans have put forth a greater proportion of their total air strength than we have. . . . We must be prepared for heavier fighting in this month of September. The need of the enemy to obtain a decision is very great, and if he has the numbers with which we have hitherto credited him, he should be able to magnify and multiply his attacks during September. . . . Even if the average attack is doubled, or even trebled ... we can stand it."