noninterference with Danzig which he did not get before
he would agree to any summit meeting with Hitler.
Neither Hitler nor Göring would ever abandon these long-
term strategic aims. After one internal conference in the Behren
Strasse Air Ministry building, ex-naval aviator Friedrich Chris-
tiansen confided to his fellow officers, raking one hand across
the map of Central Europe, that Hitler had plans to expand in
eastward into Galicia and the Ukraine. “We must be so
powerful by then,” said Christiansen, “that nobody dares to op-
pose us. We’ll square things with Britain they’ll give us a free
hand in the east, and in return we’ll drop our claim to our for-
mer colonies.” Russia would just disintegrate, Hitler had said.
“And then,” Christiansen continued, his hand sweeping over all
the countries north of the Black Sea, “we’ll inherit all of these
too.”
The new secret German Air Force was cautiously unveiled.
To an English nobleman brought to him by the British air atta-
ché, Göring blandly admitted that yes, he had built an air force.
“One,” he added flirtatiously, “that I should call little.” A few
days later he enlarged on that concept to the attaché, Group
Captain Frank Don: By “little,” he meant a first line of fifteen
hundred bombers. It was a shameless exaggeration, but the offi-
cer nearly fell off his chair.
“There will be calls for an increase in the RAF,” he said.
“I should welcome any increase,” responded Göring
evenly, according to the interpreter’s recollection. “In the next
war we shall be fighting side by side to save Europe from com-
munism.”
He bade the attaché, a courteous good-bye. “Mark my
words, Group Captain!” he said.
At about the same time Hitler dropped broad hints that it was