August 9. – Ribbentrop has approved the idea of our meeting. I decided to leave tomorrow night in order to meet him at Salzburg. The Duce is anxious that I prove to the Germans, by documentary evidence, that the outbreak of war at this time would be folly.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Also on this thread:
Reich Orders All From 5 to 70 Registered To Supply Basis for Wartime Assignments – 3*
British Defenses Repel Air ‘Enemy’ Raiding in Waves – 4**
Imperial Airways Booked Up for This Year; Lacks Planes and Pilots to Expand Service – 5
Pope’s Peace Key is Renunciation – 6***
* Most children at 10 are enrolled in the Hitler Youth Movement, which in time of emergency might have special duties assigned to it.
Like taking on the Red Army.
** An imaginary enemy out in the North Sea tonight sent wave after wave of bombing planes, raiding Eastern England in the most ambitious test yet made of Britain’s air defenses.
*** The keynote to peace lies in sacrifice, without which the tenets of Fascism or even of legality will fail, says Pope Pius XII in a letter that Luigi Cardinal Maglione has written to Canada and that is being hailed in some quarters here as the Pontiff’s most important doctrinal pronouncement to date.
Ciano’s diary update at reply #2.
William L. Shirer: This is Berlin. Excellent reading. I didn’t realize he wrote The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich.