27 Nov. 45
(Secret Commando Matter), which is identified as our C-153. It
has the facsimile signature of Raeder at the end. I assume it is the
facsimile; it may have been written with a stylus on a stencil, I
can't tell. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA-43. It is headed
with the title: "Armament Plan (R. P.) for the 3rd Armament
Phase." This document of 12 May 1934 speaks of war tasks, war
and operational plans, armament targets, et cetera, and shows
that it was distributed to many of the High Command of the Navy. It
shows that a primary objective was readiness for a war without any
alert period.
I quote from the third numbered paragraph:
"The planned organization of
armament measures is necessary for the realization of this target;
this again requires a co-ordinated and planned expenditure in peace
time. This organization of financial measures over a number of years,
according to the military viewpoint, is found in the armament program
and provides: (a) for the military leader a sound basis for his
operational considerations, and (b) for the political leader a clear
picture of what may be achieved with the military means available at
a given time."
One other sentence from Paragraph 7 of that document:
"All theoretical and practical
R-preparations"--I assume that means armament
preparations--"are to be drawn up with a primary view to
readiness for a war without any alert period."--And
"without any alert period"- is underscored in the
original.
The conspiratorial nature of these Nazi plans and preparation)
long before the outbreak of hostilities is illustrated in many other
ways. Thus, in 1934, Hitler instructed Raeder to keep secret the
U-boat construction program; also the actual displacement an] speed
of certain ships. Work on U-boats had been going on, a] already
indicated, in Holland and Spain.
The Nazi theory was rather clever on that. The Versailles Treaty
forbade rearming by the Germans in Germany, but they said it didn't
forbid them to rearm in Holland, Spain, and Finland.
Secrecy was equally important then because of the pending nave]
negotiations with England. We have a captured document, which is a
manuscript in German script, of a conversation between the Defendant
Raeder and Adolf Hitler in June 1934. It is not signed by the
Defendant Raeder. I might ask his counsel if he objects to my stating
that the Defendant Raeder, in an interrogation on 8 November 1945,
admitted that this was a record of this conversation and that it was
in his handwriting, though he did not sign his name at the end.