discussing with the Italian dictator Germany’s preparedness for
war, Göring explained that his air force’s re-equipping with the
Junkers bomber was not yet complete, but Britain’s own po-
sition in the air was unlikely to improve before . Meanwhile
he hoped to persuade Britain to reverse her anti-German poli-
cies.
After Rome the Görings returned to Germany. Hitler
would soon be fifty, and Hermann did not want to miss the
spectacular birthday parade. His train arrived back in Berlin at
: .. on April . Press photographers snapped him strid-
ing along the platform looking brown and fit, in a light summer
coat and soft felt hat, and jauntily swinging a gold-knobbed
walking cane.
A real shock awaited Göring at dinner with Hitler that
evening. Hitler told him that he intended to recover the free
city of Danzig by military action if Poland refused to come to
terms. (The ancient German city had been placed under a Ger-
man-Polish condominium after the war.) It was the first that
Göring had heard of Hitler’s April directive to prepare Case
White, covering a possible war with Poland. The secrecy was
Ribbentrop’s revenge: Göring had not bothered to inform him
of his “state visit” to Rome indeed, he had blandly ignored the
queries that Ribbentrop had telegraphed to Libya.
The news about Danzig flabbergasted Göring. Poland was
his preserve. “What am I to understand by this?” he gasped.
“I prepared the other situations skillfully,” was Hitler’s
measured retort. “This one will be no different.”
Word of this rebuff reached the British ambassador.
Henderson learned that the field marshal had returned from
Italy with “counsels of moderation,” but that Hitler had scolded
him about being so weibisch, such an “old woman.”
Europe seemed to be heading for another war. At :