

 

Signing His Own Death

Warrant

“At last a proper war!” exclaimed General Jeschonnek as the
German armies uncoiled into Russia on June , . The chief
of air staff had good cause for satisfaction. The Luftwaffe en-
joyed total technological supremacy on the eastern front.
Milch’s diary records , Russian warplanes destroyed on that
first Sunday,  on Monday,  on Tuesday,  on Wednes-
day, and  on the fifth day, June .
Nobody expected the war to last more than a few weeks
longer, and jostling for power and position had already begun.
Alarmed by Bormann’s elevation to the full dignity of Reich
minister two weeks earlier, Göring arrived at the Wolf’s Lair, the
new Führer headquarters, on the twenty-eighth. He wanted re-
assurances from Hitler, and he got them. On the next day Hitler
signed a secret decree confirming Göring as his exclusive suc-