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In Godesberg Shirer had a glimpse of Adolf Hitler. "I was having breakfast in the garden of the Dreesen Hotel. . . when the great man suddenly appeared. ... X. one of Germany's leading editors, who secretly despises the regime, nudged me: 'Look at his walk!' On inspection it was a very curious walk indeed. In the first place, it was very ladylike. Dainty little steps. In the second place, every few steps he cocked his shoulder nervously, his left leg snapping up as he did so. ... And now I understand the meaning of an expression the party hacks were using when we sat around drinking in the Dreesen last night. They kept talking about the 'Teppichfresser,' 'the carpet-eater.' . . . They said Hitler has been having some of his nervous crises lately and that in recent days they've taken a strange form ... he flings himself to the floor and chews the edges of the carpet. . . ." Shirer saw Hitler again right after Munich: his nervousness was gone.
It was gone too in the forest of Compiègne where Shirer broadcast the signing of the Franco-German armistice, and got one of his great news scoops—some three hours ahead of all newspaper correspondents. "Through my glasses I saw the Führer stop, glance at the [Alsace-Lorraine] monument. . . ."
Then he read the inscription on the great granite block in the center of the clearing: Here on the eleventh of November 1918 succumbed the criminal pride of the German empire . . . vanquished by the free peoples which it tried to enslave. "I look for the expression on Hitler's face. I am but fifty yards from him and see him through my glasses as though he were directly in front of me. I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. But today! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph. He steps off the monument and contrives to make even this gesture a masterpiece of contempt. He glances back at it contemptuous, angry. . . . Suddenly, as though his face were not giving quite complete expression to his feelings, he throws his whole body into harmony with his mood. He swiftly snaps his hands on his hips, arches his shoulders, plants his feet wide apart. It is a magnificent gesture of defiance, of burning contempt. . . ."
Scoop. Newscaster Shirer knew that the Germans had hidden microphones in the armistice car. So he looked until he found a sound truck in the woods. "No one stops me so I pause to listen. It is just before the armistice is signed. I hear General Huntziger's voice, strained, quivering. I note down his exact words in French. They came out slowly, with great effort, one at a time. He says:
" 'I declare the French government has ordered me to sign these terms of armistice. I desire to read a personal declaration. Forced by the fate of arms to cease the struggle in which we were engaged on the side of the Allies, France sees imposed on her very hard conditions. France has the right to expect in the future negotiations that Germany show a spirit which will permit the great neighboring countries to live and work peacefully.' Then I heard a scratching of pens. ..."