invasion, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force flew overhead from Italy
making its way into Germany, while the U.S. Eighth Air Force
flew southward by day from England and the RAF passed over-
head by night en route to bomb targets in Hungary and Austria.
May was almost over, yet still the Allied invasion had
not come. Göring, however, was satisfied that he had done all he
could to prepare for it. On the twenty-fourth, his pilots pro-
cured magnificent photographic cover of Bournemouth, Poole,
Portland, and Weymouth: These southwestern English ports
were now crammed with invasion craft, confirming once more
that Normandy, rather than the area around Calais, was the in-
vasion target.
The Allies were beginning their final push toward Rome.
On May , Korten brought Richthofen in to report on the
Italian theater. “Reichsmarschall,” wrote the field marshal later,
“was very sensible. Gets the point of everything. Knows most of
it, but unable to make decisions without the Führer....
Reichsmarschall looking good, and really sensible....
Reichsmarschall is optimistic.”
The day began with an aircraft production conference held
in the SS barracks on the Obersalzberg, chaired by Göring.
Richthofen, who attended, was struck by the contrast between
the Air Ministry veterans like Milch and the upcoming radicals
clustered around the new “fighter-aircraft dictator,” Saur.
“Milch and his people were still in their old rut,” wrote Rich-
thofen in his diary afterward. “I said so to the Reichsmarschall
afterward, and he basically agrees and wants changes.”
“From the moment that America’s entry into this war be-
came inevitable,” said Göring, according to the shorthand tran-
script, “it should have been clear to all of us that one day the en-
emy’s numerical superiority would be colossal.” The Allies had
produced an armada of heavy bombers with devastating effect.