Göring. A Biography

(Michael S) #1
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During the first year Stumpff recruited  officers from the
army and  from naval aviation. A rapid-training program be-
gan. When Stumpff proudly reported the training of the thou-
sandth pilot, Göring congratulated him: “Now on to the next
thousand!” he bellowed.
“You left every conference with him,” said Stumpff after-
ward, “boosted to an extra thousand .”
The real architect of the secret air force was Milch. A year
senior to his minister, he was ambitious, loud-mouthed, and
every bit as ruthless. Milch had trampled many of his business
rivals in his climb to power, and he never enjoyed Göring’s per-
ennial, inexplicable popularity. Göring could hardly overlook
Milch’s naked ambition. Several times in May and June  it
was Milch and his minister who had attended the Cabinet
meetings, and Göring heard that his Staatssekretär was saying,
“The real minister is me!” Milch suspected that Göring had suc-
cumbed to morphine again, and tackled him about it. It was a
strained, rambunctious relationship, not made easier for Göring
by the knowledge that Milch was indispensable to him. Once he
telephoned Milch, sitting in that first secret ministry building in
Behren Strasse: Milch listened only briefly to Göring’s ill-
tempered outburst before hanging up on him.
Göring phoned again. “We were cut off,” he said.
“No,” snapped Milch. “I put the phone down on you. I
don’t want our switchboard to get the impression that our min-
ister has no manners.”
What Göring never took into account, Milch explained to
this author, was time: “That was beyond him.” Milch methodi-
cally pulled together all the strands that, entwined, go to make
an air force  civil aviation, meteorological services, aeronautical
laboratories, flying schools, ground organization. In mid-August
he signed the orders setting up Fliegerwaffen schools for special-

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