October 26
1800 Birth: Count Helmuth Karl von Moltke, Prussian Field Marshal, whose reorganization of the Prussian Army will lead to military victories which will allow the unification of Germany. "...Von Moltke was a key thinker in the move to modern warfare and a genius on matters of transport, supply and reinforcement making the Prussian/German victories of this period possible and in the long run laying the foundation for what would become known as BlitzKrieg..."
1918 WW1: General Ludendorff resigns his command, immediately before formal dismissal, to permit the desperate German government to comply with Wilson's demand. Hindenburg retains his post as German field commander, with General Wilhelm Groener (above) replacing Ludendorff as chief of staff
1918 Volkishness: Autumn Thule (Germanenorden) Grand Master Rudolf Sebottendorff entrusts Karl Harrer, a Munich reporter, with the task of forming a worker's organization affiliated with the Thule Society. (THP)
1918 WW1: The Politische Arbeiter-Zirkel (the Political Worker's Circle) is founded in Munich. Its members include Karl Harrer as chairman, Anton Drexler (above), the most active member, and Michael Lotter as secretary. This tiny group with only three to seven members in regular attendance, meets weekly throughout the winter. Harrer lectures on subjects such as the causes of military defeat, the Jewish enemy and anti-English sentiments. (THP)
1923 Weimar: Fritz Thyssen, one of Germany's richest industrialists begins the large-scale financing of Hitler and the Nazis Party. Thyssen, one of Germany's richest men, is in business with Averell Harriman and Prescott Bush (W's grampa), among others. (THP)
1924 The Union Banking Corporation is formally established as a unit in the Manhattan offices of the W.A. Harriman & Co., interlocking with the Fritz Thyssen-owned Bank Voor Handel en Scheepvaart (BHS) in the Netherlands. (THP)
1926 Weimar: Hitler appoints Dr. Josef Goebbels the Nationalist Socialist party's Gauleiter in 'Red' Berlin.
1935 Volkishness: The Order of the New Templars (ONT) presbytery at Hertesburg, near Prerow on the Baltic Sea coast is compulsorily expropriated by Hermann Goering's Reich Forestry Commission as part of the Darrs National Park. Hauerstein then establishes a new presbytery of Petena at the Püttenhof near Waging in Bavaria. (THP)
1938 Holocaust: Himmler orders the police to collect all Polish Jews in Germany with valid passports and deport them before October 29th. (THP)
1941 US savings bonds go on sale.
1943 WW2: The RAF launches a heavy night raid against Stuttgart, while the US 8th Air Force , in its greatest effort to date, delivers a devastating daylight attack on Bremen.
1944 Holocaust: Himmler issues orders to destroy the crematoriums at Auschwitz-Birkenau in an attempt to eliminate the evidence of Nazi mass murder. (THP)
1944 WW2: Rundstedt, who has been restored as Commander-in-Chief in the West, is given overall responsibility for the planned counteroffensive in the West. The armies involved are the Fifth Panzer Army, commanded by Hasso von Manteuffel, Sixth Panzer Army, under Waffen-SS General Sepp Dietrich, and General Erich Brandenberger's Seventh Army, consisting mostly of SS formations. The attack through the Ardennes is scheduled for November 25th.
1946 Twelve Polish airmen returning to base at Hucknall are attacked by a British mob. Similar attacks occur at Nottingham and Chesterfield.
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