private estate near Belgrade and for smuggling foreign currency
into Hungary and gold into Switzerland; Göring managed to
secure his release but could not prevent his being exiled. Martin
Bormann gathered evidence against Luftwaffe generals wherever
he could. Party officials whispered scandalous allegations about
General von Pohl, Göring’s representative in Italy, and Pohl’s
female dietitian. Party officials alleged too that his officers spent
hours swimming or sunbathing with their secretaries.
In France Göring’s ground troops fought well the badly
mauled th Luftwaffe Field Division made a heroic defense of
northern Caën, while the s emplaced by Flak Corps did a
lot to halt General Bernard Montgomery’s advance at Falaise.
But even at that murderous climax in France, Göring was more
concerned about extricating his last treasures to safety. On
August , he ordered Alfred Rosenberg to evacuate all the
works of art from the Nazi repositories in Paris and ship them
back to the Reich “without delay.”
The collapse in France was utter and complete. Luftwaffe
officers, taking their cue from Göring, loaded trucks with fancy
women, chaises longues, and other booty, and headed for the
German frontier, stampeding into the Reich past disenchanted
party officials, women, and children slaving to dig antitank de-
fenses. As Göring’s troops poured into Germany, the people
said that the WL prefix on Luftwaffe number plates stood for
“We’re Leaving!” Hundreds of brand-new radar sets fell into
American hands in Paris.
Himmler and Bormann reported all this to their Führer.
Weeping with rage, Göring pleaded with Hitler to let him deal
with the sinners. He began telephoning his chief judge advocate
to demand, “I want death sentences! Where are they!” He real-
ized it was hypocrisy and hated it. “So long as we were winning,”
he would remark ironically a few weeks later, “nobody got