After a long silence Göring responded, “That I cannot do,
because then the Führer would lose faith in himself.” “Since
,” he added, taking both of Kreipe’s hands in his in a part-
ing gesture, “I have felt that the Führer does not discuss every-
thing with me. Ribbentrop’s appointment [on February , ]
took me by surprise, and I have been excluded from several im-
portant political decisions since then.”
Even as Hermann Göring, his broad chest still voluntarily
shorn of medals, was coming under assault at the Wolf’s Lair,
the resurgent German fighter force was spreading profound
alarm among the Western Allies. On October , , General
Carl F. Spaatz, commander of the strategic air forces in Europe,
warned General Omar Bradley that maintaining air supremacy
was going to cost the lives of at least forty thousand more Allied
airmen. “Our daylight bombing is going to become very expen-
sive.” On November , nearly of his bombers escorted by
fighter planes attacked the Leuna synthetic-oil plant. General
Galland raised a record seven hundred fighter sorties against
them, and the new Me s shot down three bombers without
loss.
Ultimately Hitler overruled Göring and forced him to ap-
point Karl Koller as chief of air staff. For five hours Göring
wrangled with the Bavarian general on November . After their
third meeting that day, Koller entered this account in his short-
hand diary:
RM describes his entire life, his work, and achieve-
ments in rebuilding the German Air Force. Spoke in
utter dejection about the campaign being waged
against him from every side the army, SS, and
party. Says he is fed up to the back teeth and the war
situation doesn’t interest him anymore; wishes he
were dead. He’d join the paratroop army and fight