thirty more. At midday on the fourteenth, Göring called a con-
ference of aircraft-industry bosses at Berchtesgaden. They were
two acrimonious hours, with Professor Messerschmitt’s utopian
Me New York bomber high on the agenda. “If only,” said
Göring wistfully, “we could manage that dropping a few
bombs over there [on the United States] and forcing the black-
out on them too!” More rational minds argued, however, that
working on the would delay the Me jet, which Hitler
had now rediscovered as the cure to all his strategic problems. “I
do need that [New York] bomber,” agreed Göring with a sigh,
“but the fighter is more important.”
At that very moment an historic air battle had begun. It was the
day that the U.S. Air Force nearly fell out of the sky. Their tar-
get was once more the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt.
Word reached Göring of the drama as he drove back up the
lanes to his Obersalzberg villa. As the American escort fighters
withdrew, Galland’s squadrons closed in, hurling bombs, rock-
ets, machine-gun, and cannon fire at the three hundred heavy
bombers. This time, as Göring had ordered, the fighters were
landing all over southern Germany to refuel, rearm, and take off
again. With big gaps already torn in their tight formations, the
lead bombers of the U.S. First Air Division hit Schweinfurt at
: .. At : .., German fighters thundered in simul-
taneously to attack the withdrawing bombers. For only fourteen
losses that day Galland would claim to have destroyed of the
Americans. Proud and happy at this very real victory, Göring
telephoned Hitler at : ..
As bad luck would have it, his rival and enemy Albert
Speer was sitting next to Hitler at the precise moment that
phone call came through. Putting down his knife and fork, the
young minister slipped out to phone one of the ball-bearing