The fighting in Spain intensified that winter as Russian, Ger-
man, and Italian reinforcements and weapons poured in. “The
situation is very grim,” said Göring in conference with his
officers early in December . “Russia wants war, Britain is re-
arming.” Germany, he said, had banked on getting four more
years of peace, but she might find herself drawn in before then.
“In fact, we’re in a war already,” he pointed out, “though not a
shooting one.”
The first Luftwaffe operational squadrons had left Greif-
swald Air Base for Spain in December Milch had taken the
salute. Göring was now seriously worried about the slender
strength of his air force. With Udet not, it will be noticed,
Milch he toured the aircraft factories and delivered a pep talk
to their bosses on February , . That month Göring
thoughtlessly scrapped Germany’s only big bomber projects to
make way for more smaller planes. “The Führer,” said Göring
when Milch found out in April, “does not ask how big my
bombers are but how many I have.”
“Göring,” remarked Milch later, “took only sporadic inter-
est.”
During conferences, the general was seen to take copious
notes. Some of these notebooks have been preserved, and while
some (from to , and one for ) do contain business-
like memoranda of meetings, many are filled just with his hand-
written lists of gifts, donors, and recipients, ranging from the
most important (“. ego; . Emmy; . Lily [possibly Lily Martin,
the widowed sister of Carin].. .”) down to the cigars and gra-
tuities for his foresters, flunkies, porters, and telephonists at the
Reichstag. Such Göring notebooks often reveal his centimeter-
precise measurements of the tapestries he coveted, and notes on
furnishings for Carinhall: