to General Franco. (“Caution,” Göring noted, “because of Non-
intervention.”)
The Luftwaffe’s plans for Green were now complete. Four
hundred fighters, six hundred bombers, and two hundred
dive-bombers and ground-attack planes would operate against
Czechoslovakia, while Junkers transports would drop
paratroops into the heart of the fortifications. Simultaneously
General Helmuth Felmy’s Second Air Fleet (Luftflotte) would
stand by to operate from airfields in northwestern Germany
against Britain as soon as Green was over.
As fall approached, Göring became restive. He had a lot
more to lose in a war than his Führer. On July , he approved
Milch’s suggestion that a British fighter squadron be invited
over to Germany for a friendly visit to the Luftwaffe. Using
Wiedemann’s girlfriend, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, he
had inquiries made in London whether he himself might fly
over to see Lord Halifax. On July , the latter, now foreign sec-
retary, received Wiedemann in secret in London and provided
the one assurance that the field marshal had asked for, that he
would not be exposed to public insult. But then, when Wiede-
mann reported this outcome to Hitler the next day on the
Obersalzberg, Hitler said that it was “out of the question” for
Göring to go to London now.
Hitler had begun waging an ultramodern war of nerves on
Prague what he called in a secret speech in August “whetting
the blade.” Göring played an active part in this, and his For-
schungsamt closely monitored its results.
This psychological warfare reached its climax when the
French air-force commander, General Joseph Vuillemin, visited
Germany in mid-August . Göring allowed him to see the
beer gardens, swimming pools, and saunas that he had provided
for aircraft-industry workers; as Vuillemin’s gaping aides