MUNICH, Germany, Saturday, March 12. – With a dramatic suddenness that stunned the world the German Army embarked yesterday on its first campaign beyond the Reich’s borders and without firing a shot achieved a victory that laid Austria prostrate at its feet, transformed the European equilibrium and set the borders fixed by the peace treaties into motion for a readjustment, of which the end is not yet in sight.
All day yesterday German forces, some 50,000 strong, made up of infantry, cavalry, artillery, motorized divisions, air force units and engineers with bridge building materials were moving to the Austrian frontier. Their mission was to avenge what is termed in Germany “the betrayal of Berchtesgaden” – Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg’s recent proclamation of a plebiscite on Austrian independence.
Last night, following Dr. Schuschnigg’s overthrow and a telegram from the new Chancellor, Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, to Chancellor Hitler requesting German military aid in preventing bloodshed, German troops were reported to have marched into Austria in close formation at three points – Salzburg, Kufstein and Mittenwalde.
[According to an Associated Press dispatch from Vienna, German troops crossed also at Passau, on the way to Linz, Austria, and a contingent of Reich troops, numbering about 1,000 men in trucks, was expected to reach Vienna at 6 A. M., New York time.]
Information given out at the Munich army headquarters said the troops had begun to cross the border shortly after 10 o’clock, although their coming had been heralded by Dr. Seyss-Inquart in semi-hourly broadcasts beginning soon after 7 o’clock. The broadcasts included instructions to the Austrian military and civil authorities and the population not to resist the troops.
Whether the statements of the Munich army headquarters are correct or whether insistent denials in Berlin of a German march into Austria are the real truth does not much matter, for, even if the troops did halt at the border without crossing it, theirs is still the victory. It was their march that turned the tide in Austria and, after a bloodless Sadowa, enabled the Austrian.
[The story here moves from page 1 to page 3. I seem to have missed the next section because there is an apparent disconnect here. Or perhaps the Times made a mistake. They threw these stories together pretty fast to get same-day reporting and some parts don’t make much sense. I am surprised by the number of regular typos I have corrected over the last few weeks. I pick back up in mid-sentence on pg.3. - Homer]
Mittenwalde in particular is the starting point toward Scharnitz and the Fern-Alpine passes leading to Innsbruck and beyond that city to the Brenner Pass, where, in 1934, Premier Mussolini lined up his Nazis to proclaim a pan-German Reich.
All the points where the troops were said to have crossed are on the southern border of Bavaria; troops to prevent the entry of German forces into Austria. [Huh? – Homer]
The troops involved are in the main the Seventh Army Corps stationed at Munich under the command of General Ritter von Schobert. But it also was noted that General Walter von Reichenau, known as the army’s most National Socialist general, who had been Munich commander until the Feb. 4 shift, broke off his trip to the meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Cairo, Egypt, and stopped at Munich.
Mobilization of the Seventh Army Corps apparently took place during Thursday night together with mobilization of Elite Guard divisions, Storm Troops and the National Socialist Motor Corps. When Munich awoke in the morning it saw troops and Nazi auxiliary formations on the march. And soon all the new motor roads leading to the Austrian frontier were blocked with the units, while the roar of planes overhead became incessant.
To move the troops swiftly most public and private conveyances in Munich were commandeered – automobiles and trucks of members of the National Socialist Motor Corps, municipal buses, brewery trucks and the special auto-train “Deutschland,” comprising a fleet of hundreds of trucks and including wireless, canteen and hospital trucks. Even taxicabs apparently were pressed into service, for only a a few of them remain in the streets.
This correspondent motored all day along border highways amid many difficulties and frequent submissions to questioning and search. On the road to Salzburg he overtook within one hour no fewer than 230 military conveyances. The road on which usually only one or two cars are visible at a time was one long trail of armored cars, motorized artillery, supply wagons, canteens and trucks full of infantry, together with steel-helmeted soldiers riding motorcycles with rifles slung across their shoulders.
Approximately 130 trucks and armored cars and more than 100 motorcycles took an hour to pass.
Some trucks, including those commandeered from Munich breweries, were loaded with bridge-building materials, pontoons and motor boats, indicating they were moving toward the Inn and Salzach Rivers, over which leads the path to Upper Austria and, of course, Vienna.
Both lanes of the double-track Reich motor road were often completely blocked by moving troops. And this column was merely a fraction of the host that had been traveling this road since before dawn.
One column turned off at the Reich motor road exit leading to Rosenheim and there took a country road to Kiefersfelden, right on the Austrian border one and one-half miles from Kufstein. A large number of other columns before and after continued along the motor road through to the border near Salzburg.
As one proceeded along this picturesque countryside between tall, snow-capped mountains flanking the River Inn near the border, signs of excitement, spreading like wildfire over the whole district, became evident. Chattering groups of villagers stood before inns watching the long trail of armored cars and men moving past.
Kiefersfelden is a small village from which only a few minutes’ walk brings a traveler into Austrian territory either by the broad white high road or by ferry over the Inn or again by a little longer woodland trail leading up a steep hill, the summit of which separates the two States.
The oldest Kiefersfelden inhabitant had never seen this village look anything like it did yesterday. Troops moved in by road from early morning. Shortly after noon a freight train steamed into the Kiefersfelden station containing some 2,000 infantrymen and cavalrymen. Toward sunset 2,000 or 3,000 more men with armored cars and artillery arrived there by road - some from Munich, some from Rosenheim, which must have brought the total number of troops in Kiefersfelden to some 6,000 or 7,000.
Soldiers were everywhere. Here a group of cavalry stood holding horses, armed sentries were posted at farmhouse gates. Machine guns and anti-tank guns stood on the high road. Officers dashed to and fro in automobiles and dispatch riders tore along the road. Kiefersfelden looked like a village occupied by a hostile army.
Clear against the blue sky old Kufstein castle stood out on the hill about which the Austrian frontier of Kufstein clusters. The quaint medieval fortress that once defied attack by armed forces was today a pathetic reminder of the progress of modern warfare.
Kufstein villagers had no doubt of what this mighty demonstration of forces at Austria’s very gateway signified.
“Austria is finished,” was commonly heard.
It was said the troops would remain there until Monday in the expectation that before then the Austrian plebiscite would be called off. They did not have to wait that long.
At Freilassing opposite Salzburg, at Mittenwalde and at Fuessen similar or greater forces were concentrated and by sunset the whole Salzkammergut and Tyrol frontier was ranged by an estimated 50,000 trained soldiers with all equipment.
Despite the fact that everybody near the border was aware of what was afoot, officials all day made every effort to conceal the real situation. It was described by one of them as large-scale manoeuvres. Travelers were held up and searchingly questioned by the police and frontier officials and sometimes temporarily detained. Bodies of newly called up recruits from neighboring villages marched along the highroads last evening toward the border.
As a result of these developments Munich was in an uproar all day. Although the press kept completely silent on all Austrian developments, especially on the mobilization, the news spread quickly and people gathered in the streets to discuss the situation. Women anxiously compared notes, attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of their men folk called suddenly for field duty. Rumors flew thick and fast. Later in the day all newspapers suspended publication because of the general economic paralysis caused by the shortage of men.
At midday children both in Munich and in the countryside were told that schools would be closed until further notice because they had been requisitioned for reservists. Some reservists had orders to report Saturday or Sunday.
A pathetic attempt at Austrian resistance became known here during the day. At Scharnitz Pass, where an electric railway crosses the frontier, Austrians affixed a wire to the overhead power conductor, then spanned it across the road on which it could be dropped by the turn of a lever, barring the road with a current of 2,000 volts. But it did not save Austria.
To move the troops swiftly most public and private conveyances in Munich were commandeered – automobiles and trucks of members of the National Socialist Motor Corps, municipal buses, brewery trucks and the special auto-train “Deutschland,” comprising a fleet of hundreds of trucks and including wireless, canteen and hospital trucks. Even taxicabs apparently were pressed into service, for only a a few of them remain in the streets.
The Germans weren't as powerful as the propaganda would lead them to believe.