fixed Yellow to begin one week later. But on the day of their
consultation an air-force courier plane of Luftflotte crash-
landed on neutral Belgian territory. In breach of all security
regulations it was carrying the Nazis’ top-secret plans for Yellow.
On the next afternoon the two staff officers assured Göring’s air
attaché in Brussels that they had managed to burn the docu-
ments in a stove. But that night the Brussels newspapers claimed
that a Belgian officer had been able to salvage the flaming papers
virtually intact.
Göring needed little imagination to know how Hitler
would react. Von Hassell glimpsed him “beside himself” with
fright. Göring tossed a file of papers into a stove to see how fast
they burned, and roasted his hands quite badly trying to snatch
them out. At Emmy’s suggestion he consulted a clairvoyant, and
this sage gentleman reassured him that the secret dossier had
been totally consumed by the flames. Göring happily reported
this to Hitler. The whole episode did permanent damage to
Göring’s prestige: Although he himself was spared, Hitler or-
dered him to dismiss the Luftflotte commander, Felmy, and
his chief of staff.
Already jittery because of the repeated delays, Hitler de-
cided to recast Yellow along unorthodox lines. Pure opportunist
that he was, he speculated that if the enemy had obtained the
charred documents, they might be misled into believing that
this was still the Nazi plan of attack.
Four days after Göring’s glum birthday celebration,
therefore, on January , , Hitler ordered the offensive
postponed until the spring, and restructured to ensure total se-
crecy and surprise.