Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

13 May 1940

Evening

Satyendra: Germany is not finding any resistance in northeast Holland.

Sri Aurobindo: The important part is the east. In the northeast they have no defence. The defence comes after the canals. It seems that Hitler did not expect any resistance from Holland. It was reported to him that the Dutch were bad soldiers and would soon give up the fight.

Purani: He has been disillusioned. In Belgium the Germans are trying to outflank the Maginot Line.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. If the Belgians had foresight like the French, they would have erected defences along their Dutch frontier.

Nirodbaran: Italy is trying to be belligerent.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. But then I don’t understand why she has sent all her ships abroad. They will all be caught if she joins the war.

Nirodbaran: No revolution is likely in Poland and Czechoslovakia?

Sri Aurobindo: Now it would be foolish. If they revolt, they will be massacred. Only after some Allied victory they may have a chance.

Nirodbaran: We don’t hear of Allied air attacks. Only Germany is taking a toll.

Sri Aurobindo: The Allies are attacking behind the German lines and bombing troops also, only they don’t speak of it. Essen was bombed. (Addressing Purani) It appears that Germany has worked out by some mathematical calculation that if they sacrifice 90,000 men they can then make a breach in the Maginot Line, while France will have to make a sacrifice of about one million to break through the Siegfried Line. I don’t understand how they calculate.