Tapping Hitler's Generals

They spoke about the war in Tunisia and the imminent invasion. In the Army Group B files one finds an entry that even General Cramer expected the main thrust of the Allied landings to be either side of the Somme Estuary (BA/MA, RH 19 IX/93, 4.6.44). After the war it was always maintained that Cramer had been deliberately used by the British to spread disinformation (see Ose, Entscheidung im Westen, p. 90), but there is no proof, of course.

In June Cramer returned home to Krampnitz near Berlin where he met Claus von Stauffenberg on several occasions. He knew him from the Kavallerie-Schule at Hanover and from his time at the General Staff. They had also met in Tunisia in 1943. It was through Stauffenberg that Cramer was put in contact with General Olbricht, who let him into the secret of the assassination plot. Cramer agreed that should the plot succeed he would ensure that local troops occupied the area around the Victory Column. On the morning of 20 July he went to the panzer training school and ensured that the troops were ready as planned and were occupying the correct areas. After the failure of the plot Cramer quickly came under Gestapo scrutiny. He was interrogated for the first time on 23 July, was arrested on 26 July and taken to the Gestapo prison on the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. He was accused of being a liaison man between the Resistance and the British. The flame of suspicion was fanned when his son, a Leutnant in Normandy, disappeared on 26 July (he had been seriously wounded). The interrogations lasted 10 days. Finally Cramer was brought to the Security Police School at Fürstenberg north of Berlin as an ‘arrestee against honour’ since there was nothing else to be found against him. He was discharged from the Wehrmacht in September 1944 on the grounds of his asthma and hospitalised at the Berlin Charité. He was sent home on Christmas Eve 1944 and remained there under house arrest until the end of hostilities.[158]

At Trent Park he had assured Lord Aberfeldy in the course of his repatriation that he would do everything possible to discover what plans there were for a coup, which would have his full support.[159] He had kept his promise.

‘Now it Should be Brought to an End, it is Simply Madness’ Reflection on the Final Battles, 1944–45

When the Allies landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944 and began the closing phase of World War II in Europe, the camp community at Trent Park had remained little changed for a year. In August 1943, four officers had been transferred out to the United States, and General Cramer had been repatriated in February 1944. In January 1944 Oberstleutnant Wilfried von Müller-Rienzburg[160] had arrived. The invasion undermined the monotonous and semi-monastic existence fundamentally: from the end of May to the end of September 1944, most ‘Afrikaner’ were transferred to America, only the two seniors, Thoma and Bassenge, shop manager Reimann, and the generals Broich and Neuffer remained behind to greet the stream of new prisoners from France.

^{Inmates at Trent Park, November 1944: (standing, left to right) von Choltitz, Wilck, Ramcke, Eberding, Wildermuth: (seated, left to right) von Heyking, von Schlieben, Daser}

The first new arrival was Oberst Hans Krug. His regimental HQ had been overrun by British troops on 7 June 1944. At the end of the month the defenders of Cherbourg arrived, at the beginning of August those overwhelmed by the American offensive west of St Lô, and finally the survivors of the Falaise pocket. They came from surrendered fortifications or had simply fallen into enemy hands during Wehrmacht retreats gone awry. By the end of 1944, 32 generals and at least 14 colonels had been settled at Trent Park.[161] Many of the newcomers would be transferred out after a period ranging from a few days to several months. By the year’s end, the five ‘Afrikaner’ had been joined at Trent Park by 20 further high-ranking prisoners.