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inferiority. Keitel seemed to have understood quite early in life that he could never expect to have position and power; all he asked was a chance to stand close to the powerful in photographs. The mountaineering tools for his painful ascent were complete acquiescence to all authority, subservient adulation for all above him in rank, and a shrewdly cultivated German instinct for resentment. However, he was a gorgeous man in uniform, the model figure of soldierly erect-ness and calm bearing. One day the Fuehrer himself was to say of Keitel that he had the brains of a doorman at a movie palace, and a German ambassador to Italy was to comment that Keitel had the mathematical ability of a milkmaid.
    At first, Keitel was almost subservient to his lieutenant, but he decided soon enough that Veelee was much too offhand for his taste—even unappreciative. Worse, Veelee’s uncle, Admiral Ludwig von Schroeder, Commander of the Marine Corps, was determined that Rhode should become the youngest captain in the Prussian Army. An admiral’s whim is forged of steel, and on August 2, 1918, the promotion came through. Keitel was exasperated beyond endurance because the young man had made no effort to insure that his captain was invited to any of the Admiral’s social functions, and Keitel resented it. There was talk. The Admiral had let it be known that his nephew had displayed much “tact” with the navy but that Keitel had been too “straightforward”—the last time in his career that he was to be accused by that word. Keitel remained deeply hurt until Veelee redeemed himself by organizing the retreat of one hundred and seventy thousand marines from Flanders to the Rhine in less than a fortnight, bringing every man to the German bank of the river on the day before the final date specified by the terms of the Armistice. Keitel was proud of Rhode then, because Keitel was decorated for the operation. They were almost friendly for two months—until Veelee was posted to the headquarters of the Supreme Command at Kolberg. Keitel was the senior, but von Rhode was called. It was too much. Rhode had been moved up to where Hindenburg and the power were, and Keitel was left behind.
    The peace terms were a brutal shock to the German people. They had been taught to believe that the war had been forced on them, and after defending themselves as best they could and even going so far as to dismiss their Emperor to institute a most undesired republican form of government, they felt that they were entitled to some form of reward, not the calumny of Versailles.
    Incredibly, the German Army was to be reduced to a total of ninety-six thousand men, recruited for twelve years, and four thousand officers, serving for twenty-five years. The nation was forbidden to possess military airplanes, tanks, or any offensive weapons. The General Staff was to be dissolved and not reconstituted in any form. Dire restrictions were placed upon fortifications. There were to be no U-boats, and the navy was reduced to the equivalent of a fleet of Maori war canoes. The German Emperor was charged with “a supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties.”
    While politicians ranted, the army acted. It established a cadre upon which the future war of justice would be fought. The General Staff was re-established—disguised as the Office of Troops—and it assembled a group of staff officers who would guide a greater army. Secret courses in military science were established at universities. Officer candidates beyond the limit were trained by the Prussian police force. The treaty did not limit the number of non-commissioned officers, so the new army started out with forty-six thousand of these. By 1923 each senior officer in the miniature army was trained to command a division; each junior officer a regiment; each NCO a company; and each private was a reserve NCO.
    In 1808 Scharnhorst had instituted reforms