oil crisis and the troublesome British base on Malta. Four days
after their meeting, the British launched their triumphant off-
ensive against Rommel at Alamein. On November , British
code-breakers heard Göring’s headquarters frantically diverting
bomber squadrons from Norway to the Mediterranean. Rich-
thofen’s Luftflotte already pushed to its limits by the Stalin-
grad fighting was ordered to detach night fighters to Greece.
Disobeying Hitler’s orders (“Victory or death!”), Rommel
pulled his armies back to a line that he had secretly prepared at
Fuka. Göring, sensing another army debacle, ordered Field
Marshal Kesselring to fly to Africa. Kesselring, who was the high
command’s commander in chief south, returned to Rome late
on November and phoned the Reichsmarschall.*
: What is the situation?
: It is such that the Führer will approve all
the measures we have proposed. Down here a situa-
tion developed that flatly contradicted the orders of
the Führer. The line that is now crucial is the one at
Fuka.
: Is it well organized?
: No, but it does offer considerable ad-
vantages, so I feel that if it is manned by the necessary
forces, it will afford at least temporarily a viable resis-
tance.Worse was to follow. The Germans sighted an Allied invasion
convoy approaching through the Straits of Gibraltar. Göring
directed Kesselring that evening to order heroic sacrifices to halt
the convoy.
- Italian intelligence wiretapped this and the subsequent conversation with
Göring.