Stroke of Lightning

Under these circumstances, of course, the conference on mobilization matters took on highly significant features. We realized suddenly — like a stroke of lightning from a clear sky — that a matter which one had treated more or less theoretically could become deadly serious, and furthermore, it became clear to us that the preparations which we had made up to now for the invasion of Czechoslovakia had to be considered rather defective after all. I heard only later, after I had sworn an oath next day in the Reich Economic Ministry, in greater detail about the steps we had taken, which of course I cannot discuss here in detail. 

Backed by three successive aggressions (Austria, the Sudeten-land, Bohemia-and-Moravia), each of which carried the clear threat of war, the defendants worked unremittingly to increase the threat even more for the fourth attempt. A man who, as far back as March of 1938, "realized suddenly like a stroke of lightning from a clear sky" that "the matter which we had considered more or less theoretically could be deadly serious," could scarcely be presumed to be thinking theoretically any more on the twenty-second or twenty-third day of August when he arrived in Berlin and the situation "was extremely serious."... 

Fig. 6.1. Mechanism of lightning initiation (a) stepped leader formation (b) initiation of an ascending leader (c) return stroke...

Figure 3. Photograph of lightning leader and return stroke...

Takami J, Okabe S, Zaima E. Study of lightning surge overvoltages at substations due to direct lightning strokes to phase conductors, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery. 2010 25(l) 425-33. 

Fig. 11.9. Monthly number of lightning strokes observed during a year in Germany. Data taken from (Fabich 1999). Data about world-wide distribution and rate of lightning strokes may be obtained from satellite monitoring, see...

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