Britain also tested German machines and
crews to the limit, with Göring boasting that
he could eliminate enemy opposition within
days. Again, he miscalculated badly.
For the next five months, waves of lightly
armed German bombers were committed
over the British Isles, where they did consid-
erable damage but also suffered great losses
at the hands of Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots
in their nimble Spitfiresand Hurricanes.Em-
barrassed by this setback, Göring frequently
toured German aerodromes in France and al-
ways inquired of his men what they needed to
win. At one session, a frustrated Maj. Adolf
Gallandresponded, “Give us a squadron of
Spitfires!” Göring also committed a gross
strategic error when he shifted over his offen-
sive from RAF bases to British cities. The Ger-
mans were making steady progress toward
eliminating aerial opposition when Hitler, en-
raged by a British raid upon Berlin, ordered
German bombers to concentrate on London.
Göring, as supreme air commander, did noth-
ing to contest this change. Consequently, the
British received a badly needed respite; they
regrouped, won the battle, and canceled
Hitler’s planned invasion of England. The
Luftwaffe’s—and Göring’s—reputations for
invincibility were badly stained
In June 1941, Hitler committed his war ma-
chine to invading the Soviet Union, another
colossal blunder. By the winter of 1942 the
German Sixth Army was trapped at Stalingrad
by Russian forces, but Göring personally as-
sured the Führer that his Luftwaffe could re-
supply them by air. A large and expensive
resupply effort was then mounted at consid-
erable cost in crews and machines, but it
failed. After Stalingrad surrendered, Hitler’s
trust in Göring plummeted, and his influence
waned. Neither did the reichsmarschallsuc-
ceed in curtailing Hitler’s maniacal quest for
new and better offensive weapons, such as jet
fighters, the V-1 buzz bomb, and the V-2
rocket. Development of these exotic devices
consumed vast resources, far out of propor-
tion to their actual usefulness. Germany was
then experiencing methodically strategic
bombardment by fleets of British and Ameri-
can bombers, weapons that Göring had de-
clined to produce in the 1930s. Under the in-
spired leadership of Gens. James Doolittle,
Ira C. Eaker, Nathan Twining, and Carl A.
Spaatz, Germany’s entire national economic
infrastructure began collapsing under an in-
cessant hail of bombs. German fighter pilots
like Maj. Heinz Bär, equipped with the latest
jet fighters, fought back furiously, but their
sacrifice could not stem the tide. Germany
desperately needed more aircraft and better
leadership, but Göring—politically disfavored
and increasingly detached due to drug
abuse—offered no solutions. The end of the
1,000-year Reich was at hand.
By the spring of 1945 the once mighty Luft-
waffe had all but ceased to exist. All the while,
a heavily addicted Göring contented himself
by amassing a personal fortune in plundered
artwork and building lavish estates. He also
commandeered badly needed resources for
his own personal Luftwaffe Army, which he
used to guard his possessions. With the Third
Reich collapsing around him, Göring proffered
himself as Hitler’s immediate replacement.
Hitler was so enraged by the suggestion that
he stripped Göring of rank and arrested him.
He was thus situated when American troops
arrested him again on May 8, 1945, after Ger-
many’s surrender. Göring was subsequently
brought up on charges as a war criminal at the
Nuremberg trials. He was found guilty and
sentenced to hang, but the once flamboyant,
jovial reichsmarschallcheated fate by poison-
ing himself on October 15, 1946. Possessing
neither strategic sense nor direction, Göring
undermined the very Luftwaffe he had worked
so hard to create.See also
Bär, Heinz; Galland, Adolf; Hindenburg, Paul von; Hitler,
AdolfBibliography
Butler, Ewan. The Life and Death of Herman Goering.
Newton Abbot, Devon, UK: David and Charles, 1989;GÖRING, HERMANN