

 

Total Sacrifice

“He would be awakened at nine,” testified Göring, describing
Hitler’s life-style to interrogators, “read the newspapers, and
then sleep some more. Then came the war conference. Ordinar-
ily this lasted for three or four hours, during which he would
get terribly excited.” The news that excited Hitler one June
morning in  was this: At : .. on the sixth,  Air Corps
had signaled, “Enemy landed with strong forces between Dieppe
and Cherbourg.” It was the long-awaited Allied invasion at last.
Prodding the map unrolled across the marble table in the
Berghof, Hitler announced triumphantly to Göring, “They’re
landing here and here  just where we expected!”
Göring beamed. For eleven months he had planned for
this moment. Victory in Normandy would restore the Luft-
waffe’s diminished prestige for good. But what he had failed to
bargain for was that the high command, befuddled by treason
and complacency, would be so undecided that they could not