go on like this,” an SS Obergruppenführer wrote to Himmler
on July . “Someone’s got to speak to the German people. They
won’t listen to the Reichsmarschall now. Not just because of the
obvious supremacy of the enemy air force, but because he has
failed to go into the blitzed areas and talk with the people.” On
August , Hamburg was again the RAF target. Milch sent a
frantic telegram to Göring, demanding that fighter squadrons
be brought back from Russia and even Italy. “It’s not the front
line that is battered and fighting for life,” this telegram said. “It
is the fatherland that is under grave attack, and fighting a des-
perate battle.”
Göring cast Hans Jeschonnek, chief of the air staff, as the
scapegoat for Hamburg. Jeschonnek crumpled. Beppo Schmid
saw it happening, and so did Kurt Student, whom Göring
fetched back from Italy to plot ways of liberating Mussolini as
soon as his whereabouts could be found. The destruction at
Hamburg propelled Jeschonnek into a terminal, three-week-
long bout of depression. He had recently lost his father, and his
brother and brother-in-law had been killed in action. His frail
efforts to escape from the stifling atmosphere of Robinson and
the Wolf’s Lair had been thwarted. As recently as the end of July
he had told General von Seidel that he was being given a
Luftflotte, but Göring quailed at the idea, and Hitler talked him
out of it. After an “all-field-marshal” luncheon with Hitler on
July , as Richthofen recorded, Göring had touched on possi-
ble replacements for Jeschonnek “I agree a reshuffle is neces-
sary,” Richthofen delicately recorded afterward, “but who? He
names [Günther] Korten and myself. I recoil in horror, but
have to admit I don’t think Korten is up to much.” Göring,
however, abandoned all idea of replacing Jeschonnek. On
August , Major Werner Leuchtenberg, Jeschonnek’s adjutant,
broke it to Field Marshal Richthofen in Rome that the