200th Day

On the 18th of March 1940, when the snow had scarcely gone from the pass between the Wolfendorn and Sattelberg, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sat down in a railroad car at Brennero station to plan their spring campaign against Great Britain and France. Twenty-two days later war began in Western Europe with a flanking movement into Denmark and Norway. Eighty-five days later Italy entered the war with a flanking movement against collapsing France. Ninety-nine days later France fell.

Last week, just 200 days after their first meeting at Brenner Pass, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met there again. The snow would soon begin to creep down the slopes of the Wolfendorn and Sattelberg, but that day a bright sun shone on the flower-and-flag-strewn station, made dust specks dance above the red carpets that led from Il Duce's luxurious parlor car to the Fuehrer's austere private coach. At 11 a.m. Signor Mussolini, who had been reviewing a regiment of 6-foot Sicilians, walked to Herr Hitler's car and welcomed his ally to Italy. The fat little Italian's demeanor was gay. The Austrian looked preoccupied.

Britain had not fallen in those 200 days. Britain had not been invaded. From the time France cracked, Italian newspapers had predicted the invasion of Britain with such a tone of authority that they must have been told what Hitler had told Mussolini. Last week's meeting was a conference born of failure--Hitler's first failure in World War II.

An hour and a half after Hitler and Mussolini, accompanied by their Foreign Ministers, had entered II Duce's car and drawn the shades, an aide hurried to Herr Hitler's coach and returned with Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Armed Forces of the Reich. This was a clear indication that a war council was in progress. Before leaving Rome, Mussolini had had a long talk with his military chieftain, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, who had been summoned home from Egypt and another halted invasion (see p. 34).

To the East. The Axis has already divided the world, reserving for itself Europe, Africa and the Near East (TIME, Sept. 30). It now has only to conquer its Living Spaces. Logical strategy of the Axis would be to continue hammering at Britain, simultaneously to drive toward the Near East, where are supplies of oil which Germany and Italy need to fight a long world war. Conquest of the Near East would further two other objectives: 1) force the Suez gateway to the Mediterranean; 2) flank Russia on the south. As Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini and Foreign Ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Count Galeazzo Ciano finished a luncheon of lobster salad, saluted one another and went their respective ways, all signs pointed to an early drive.

Seven Little Balkans. It was not long in beginning. German SS men have circulated freely in Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria recently on the pretext that they were directing the rehabilitation of Germans returning to the Fatherland. Last week in Hungary the Arrow Cross Party of Naziphile Ferenc Szalesi presented to Premier Count Paul Teleki a demand for a voice in the Government, which was a sure preliminary to the Nazification of the country and a probable invitation to the German Army. Hungary is the first station on the Drang nach Oesten.

In Rumania Germany did not have to manufacture an incident. Ever since General Ion Antonescu took power in Rumania the British have counted the oil wells lost to Germany unless something was done quickly. With justice or not, Rumanian officials and green-shirted Iron Guards last week accused British oil men of plotting to sabotage the wells, began rounding them up by arrest and kidnappery. With a half-dozen of them in the clink, Dictator Antonescu simultaneously became a member and the leader of the Iron Guard, invited the German Army to come in and keep order. This week the first division of 15,000 officers and men arrived by the trainload. More were on the way. In Berlin it was announced that Germany would build big naval and air bases on the Black Sea. looking east.

The British could do nothing but write poems. In the New Statesman and Nation "Sagittarius" wrote:

Seven little Balkan boys did not care to

mix,

Musso bagged Albania and then there

were six.

Six little Balkan boys a bloc could not

contrive,

Berlin called up Budapest and then there

were five.

Five little Balkan boys, rattled by the

war,

Berlin bullied Bucharest and then there

were four.

Four little Balkan boys still could not

agree,

Turkey kept on staying out and so there

were three.

Three little Balkan boys with different

points of view,

Sofia rang up Stalin and then there were

two.

Two little Balkan boys without a place

to run,

Ciano called at Belgrade and then there

was one.

One little Balkan boy stranded all alone,

One little Hellene can do nothing on his own.

Seven little Balkan boys had places in

the sun,

The Balkans they were many, but the

Greater Reich is one.

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