where I want her!”
After lunch he told them why Germany had no cause for
apprehension: The Luftwaffe had , men, compared with
Britain’s , and France’s ,. The enemy might blockade
Germany, but they surely would not fight. “I have only one
fear,” he bragged, according to the reliable notes that Vice-
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris took, “that at the last moment some
Schweinhund may offer to mediate.” As he concluded (“I have
done my duty, now you do yours!”), Hermann Göring waddled
importantly forward, mounted a step, and turned to face his
Führer. “The Wehrmacht,” he promised, “will do its duty.”
A rare candid snapshot of Hitler taken by Adjutant von Below
at the famous secret meeting at the Berghof, August , .
Visible among the plain-clothed generals are (left to right) Göring,
Manstein and Brauchitsch. .