Prussia; and out there the stags and wild boar awaited with ill-
concealed impatience the arrival of the quaintly clad Reich mas-
ter huntsman.
But the nightmare remained. And one fact, as the actual
day approached, would demonstrate the depths of his despair at
Hitler’s deliberate opening of a second front. Hermann Göring
would leak to the British both the fact and the actual date of
Barbarossa an extraordinary act bordering on treason, of
which Hitler was surely not aware.
The German Army high command backed Hitler solidly in
his historic intent, and Göring could not count on the support
of Grand Admiral Raeder, either. Relations with the navy’s
commander in chief were strained. Raeder’s warships were hav-
ing to operate virtually without air reconnaissance. Moreover,
when Raeder now complained to Hitler on February as
Göring vacationed in Paris that the British bombers had be-
gun raiding the North German coast with impunity, Hitler
agreed that the navy should take over control of the Luftwaffe’s
KG, one of Göring’s proudest squadrons. Göring exploded
with fury and summoned the nearest admiral, U-boat Com-
mander Karl Dönitz, from his Paris headquarters to La Boissière.
Over coffee he heaped upon the admiral remarks that Dönitz
described in his report as “distinctly unfriendly.” “You can be
sure of one thing,” Göring snapped. “As long as I live, or until I
resign, your Grand Admiral Raeder will never get a fleet air
arm.” Pointing out that he, Göring, was “the second man in the
state,” he threatened that even if Dönitz should somehow get his
hands on KG he would not be likely to find replacements for
its long-range planes. “I need FW s too,” he shouted. “And
it’ll serve you right!”
After leaving France on February , , Göring found
that he still needed to soothe his tattered nerves by cruising