17 They were not quite so thick on the ground as Teske remembers, however, as is
shown by photographs in the possession of Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager; see
also Hoffmann, Sicherheit, pp. 162—6.
18 Major (Cav. Res.) Gustav Friedrich (then in Cav. Reg. ‘Centre’) to the author 19
May and 24 June 1971, also applicable below.
19 Baur, p. 52; Henry Picker (ed.): Hitlers Tischgesprache im Fuhrerhauptquartier
1941-1942, pp. 244, 307, 386-7.
20 It is no longer possible to establish whether, on this day or on some other occasion,
Tresckow tried to conceal a bomb in the side-pocket of Hitler’s car. According
to Schlabrendorff (Offiziere gegen Hitler, p. 95) this method was not tried
on 13 March 1943 whereas Gersdorff in ‘Gersdorff I’ said that it was. Lieutenant
Walter Frentz, who was then a Luftwaffe film reporter in Hitler’s personal entourage
told the author on 1 June 1965 of a visit to the front by Hitler early in
1943, he thought to Minsk; on this occasion a package was handed to Professor
Karl Brandt, one of Hitler’s doctors, and he put it into the internal postal service
in ‘Wolfschanze’; it was opened and checked by the SD and a time bomb was
found. No one else of Hitler’s entourage who gave information to the author
remembers the incident which was certainly not an everyday one. On Gehre’s
role see Otto John: Twice through the Lines, pp. 106-7.
21 See Kriegstagebuch, Vol. Ill, p. 207.
22 Schlabrendorff, Revolt, pp. 83, 85 refers in both cases to bottles of brandy but in
later editions to Cointreau – in The Secret War against Hitler, p. 233 for instance,
where specific reference is made to the fact that Cointreau bottles are
square and the only ones of the same shape as the clams in their package. This
was confirmed by Gersdorff to the author on 15 Jan. 1965 and Schlabrendorff
verbally to the author on 6 August 1968.
23 Hans Baur (Hitler’s pilot) to the author on 10 January 1969: the heating system
in the cabin sometimes failed; there was no heating in the cockpit or luggage
hold.
