covers up for him. Not out of cowardice, but if you act according to the spirit of the old field service regulation, `Abstaining from doing something hurts us more than erring in the choice of the means', and if, moreover, you keep in touch and immediately clarify difficult points so that something can be done, then we are willing to accept the responsibility, whether this is the law or not. I see only two possibilities for me and for Germany; either we succeed and thereby save Germany, or we continue these slipshod methods and then get the fate that we deserve. I prefer to fall, while I am doing something that is against the rules but that is right and sensible, and be called to account for it, and, if you like, hanged, rather than be hanged because Papa Stalin is here in Berlin or the Englishmen. I have no desire for that. I would rather die in a different way. But I think we can accomplish this task, too. We are in the fifth year of war — I repeat: The decision will come during the next six weeks. Heil Hitler!"