out of Stalingrad on one of the last planes, urged Hitler to pun-
ish the guilty men “Even,” he spat out, “if that means the
Reichsmarschall himself!” But Göring was not to be seen. His
diary shows that he spent much of the next week at Emmy’s
hospital bedside she had been operated on by Professor
Gohrbandt for sinus problems on February and he mani-
fested no urgent desire to face his Führer. Hitler vented his rage
on Jeschonnek instead then clapped the unhappy general on
the shoulder after the conference and reassured him, “It wasn’t
you I meant!” “I alone bear responsibility for Stalingrad,” he
frankly admitted to Field Marshal von Manstein on February
but then devalued that acceptance of the blame by adding, “I
could pin the blame onto Göring... but he is my designated
successor. So I cannot.”
Reassured by General Bodenschatz that Hitler was not dis-
posed to blame him, Göring slunk back into the Wolf’s Lair later
in February. Hitler avoided puncturing his pride. Göring’s
posture at this time is described in an insightful entry of Rich-
thofen’s diary the Luftflotte commander had arrived at
Rominten on the tenth, to find Göring just setting out to hunt
wild boar. They dined alone together and commiserated about
the soldier’s hard lot. “As you know,” said Göring, carving juicy
chunks off a leg of veal served to him as a third course, “the only
luxury I allow myself is to have fresh flowers sent in from time
to time.” He admitted having approved of the Stalingrad airlift,
but only because he expected the encirclement to be temporary.
Then the Italian Army had collapsed, and this had triggered the
catastrophe.
Richthofen ventured the remark that Göring ought to
have risked going in person to the Stalingrad battlefront. “If you
can’t trust in your own lucky star,” he said, “then you have no
right to believe in your destiny in larger things. None of our