.. on the morning of his fiftieth birthday, April , Hitler
called his commanders in chief into his study and sobered them
with a brief, blunt discourse on the need to seize the initiative.
His first half-century, he said, was now over. “I am at the sum-
mit of my powers,” he added, without emotion. “So I have de-
cided to strike now, while we still possess the arms lead that we
do.” As the Reich capital shook to the thud and blare of the five-
hour military parade that day, Göring decided not to stay in
Berlin one day longer than necessary. Göring’s aide Karl
Bodenschatz hinted to the French air attaché that Göring’s
health was “beyond repair” and that Ribbentrop had completely
eclipsed him.
For two more weeks Göring performed official functions,
such as laying a wreath on Baron von Richthofen’s tomb on
April . On the twenty-fifth he instructed Milch to take up the
staff talks with Italy and was briefed by his new chief of air staff,
the young Colonel Jeschonnek, on the planning for White.
Then, on May , , he absconded to San Remo yet again.
Göring’s esteem was at its lowest ebb. A few days later he
suffered his most humiliating reverse and again saw Ribbentrop
as being behind it. He had instructed his Four-Year Plan agent
in Spain, Johannes Bernhard, to arrange a meeting between
On April , , his fiftieth
birthday, Hitler secretly told
his three commanders-in-
chief to expect war soon
probably that year. Shown here
(left to right) are Field Marshal
Walther von Brauchitsch
(army), Reichsmarschall
Hermann Göring (air force)
and Grand Admiral Erich
Raeder (navy).