4
Dec. 45
2 days
after the Three Power Pact had been signed,
Hitler issued instructions that Yugoslavia was
to be invaded and used as a base for the
continuance of the combined German and Italian
operation against Greece.
Following
that, further deployment and instructions for
the action Marita were issued by Von Brauchitsch
on the 30th of March 1941. It was said —
and I quote:
"The
orders issued with regard to the
operation against Greece remain valid so
far as not affected by this order.... On
the 5th April, weather permitting, the
Air Forces are to attack troops in
Yugoslavia, while simultaneously the
attack of the 12th Army begins against
both Yugoslavia and Greece."
And as we now know, the invasion actually
commenced in the early hours of the 6th of
April.
Treaties, pacts, assurances,
obligations of any kind, are brushed aside and
ignored wherever the aggressive interests of
Germany are concerned.
I turn now to
the last act of aggression in Europe — my
American colleagues will deal with the position
in relation to Japan — I turn now to the
last act of aggression in Europe with which
these Nazi conspirators are charged, the attack
upon Russia.
In August of 1939
Germany, although undoubtedly intending to
attack Russia at some convenient opportunity,
concluded a treaty of non-aggression with the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. When
Belgium and the Low Countries were occupied and
France collapsed in June of 1940, England —
although with the inestimably valuable moral and
economic support of the United States of America
— was left alone in the field as the sole
representative of democracy in the face of the
forces of aggression. At that moment only the
British Empire stood between Germany and the
achievement of her aim to dominate the Western
World. Only the British Empire — and
England as its citadel. But it was enough. The
first, and possibly the decisive, military
defeat which the enemy sustained was in the
campaign against England; and that defeat had a
profound influence on the future course of the
war.
On the 16th of July of 1940 Hitler
issued to the Defendants Keitel and Jodl a
directive — which they found themselves
unable to obey — for the invasion of
England. It started off — and Englishmen
will forever be proud of it — by saying
that:
"Since
England, despite her militarily hopeless
situation, shows no signs of willingness
to come to terms, I have decided to
prepare a landing operation against
England and if necessary to carry it
out. The aim is . . . . to eliminate the
English