His fears proved well founded, though the danger came not from Allied bombers but from much nearer at hand. On 20 July 1944, Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a decorated Wehrmacht officer who was Chief of Staff of the Reserve Army, attempted to assassinate him by placing a bomb under the table in the temporary situation room where the midday conference was taking place. Ironically, the structure of the weaker building helped to save the Führer: the end walls were blown out, thus dissipating the blast. Today, that heroic action, from which flowed terrible reprisals (see Nigel Jones's article in the January issue of Standpoint), is commemorated by a plaque in Polish and German, on a rock in the ruins of the situation room.

The battle of the Masurian Lakes marked the end of the first phase of the First World War in East Prussia, the high point of that campaign being the German victory over Russia at Tannenberg in August 1914. On the eastern front, there are none of the trench networks which you find in Belgium and eastern France. This was a much more mobile theatre, with little evidence today of what it witnessed 95 years ago.

We stopped at Wielbark (Willenberg), where the German Generals von François and Mackensen closed the trap round the Russian Second Army under Samsonov, leading to the capture of nearly 100,000 men and 400 guns. Samsonov, whose plight is vividly caught in Solzhenitsyn's August 1914, is said to have shot himself near the village. About 30 miles to the west is Tannenberg (Stebark). We passed through it on the way to what for the Poles is a much more important site of war. In 1410, at the Battle of Grunwald, with help from Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Tatars, Czechs and Hungarians, they defeated the Teutonic Knights in an engagement which was huge for its time. The allies' strength is believed to have been 30,000, that of their opponents' 20,000. The Grand Master, Ulrich von Jungingen, and 8,000 of his followers, including most of the 250 or so members of the Order present, were killed and thousands more taken prisoner.

The topography of the battlefield today is much as it was in the early 15th century, a grassy hill bounded by Stebark, Grunwald and Ludwigowo, with the ruins of a Knights' chapel on the extreme right. The effect is spoiled, however, by an ugly memorial tower on the summit, a tubular construct with fins. Nearby is a circular stone table showing the disposition of forces. The battlefield of Grunwald is a national shrine to Polish valour. To find the British equivalent, you would have to cross the Channel to Agincourt or Waterloo.