in Italy,” he writes. “Political considerations there, as Italian film
industry would otherwise collapse. It’s costing us foreign cur-
rency.... Losses in France through joint film venture.... Po-
land nothing doing. Yugoslavia refusal.... Balkans must be
conquered. In the north we are definitely catching up.”
Simultaneously with the consolidation of Germany’s politi-
cal gains after Munich, the diary shows Göring acting to force
the pace of rearmament. On October , he summoned arms
industrialists to the Air Ministry. “The Führer,” he revealed to
them, “has directed me to execute a gigantic program beside
which all our achievements hitherto pale into insignificance.”
Specifically, Hitler had ordered an immediate fivefold increase
in the air force. Discussing priorities with the OKW’s General
Keitel at Carinhall six days later, Göring said that food supplies
must come first, followed by exports but then, “Major expan-
sion of air force for attack, including reserves.”
The target now under discussion was Britain, and Milch’s
own notes for October portray Göring discussing with Udet
and him a bizarre plan to set up a private air-force navy under
Kessler, officially to be designated “commander of security
ships.” It would operate fast patrol boats of upward of one
thousand tons armed with flak guns and torpedo tubes, capable
of circling two or three times around the British Isles and, in
Göring’s words, “faster than any warship.”
On Hitler’s instructions he had revived the old Reich De-
fense Council, a body consisting of every minister and Staatssek-
retär, plus Bormann, Heydrich, the commanders in chief, and
their chiefs of staff. Chairing its first session at the Air Ministry
on November , Göring delivered a three-hour opening ad-
dress on the need to triple Germany’s overall arms level, and on
the attendant problems: lack of production capacity, manpower,
and foreign currency.