Kreipe suggested the name of General Meister. “Meister,”
growled Göring, “is the same type as you. I don’t intend getting
any more black marks from the Führer.”
With Göring’s fighter defenses hamstrung by fuel short-
ages, the RAF now joined in the daylight raiding. On October
, while one thousand American heavies attended to Cologne, a
thousand more RAF bombers attacked Duisburg (and the same
number returned to Duisburg that night). Confronted now
with further “disgraceful failures” by air-force units on the
ground, Göring announced that “in headlong flight, cowardly
individuals sometimes even entire units have turned over
undamaged weapons to the enemy.” He again reminded every
soldier of his duty to apprehend such cowards. “Executions,” he
ordered, dropping a broad hint, “do not require prior authori-
zation from me.”
It was a sorry departure from the avuncular and compas-
sionate Hermann Göring who had ruthlessly carpeted generals
like Richthofen and Reichenau in for arbitrary use of their
powers of life and death over their men.
On October , , the Third White Russian Front attacked
East Prussia a gigantic force of thirty-five rifle divisions and
two armored corps. The province was defended by nine Ger-
man divisions and a brigade of cavalry. Göring returned to East
Prussia and turned up at Rosengarten wearing the clay-brown
uniform of the Hermann Göring Panzer Corps, which was to
defend this region. He ventured briefly over to the Wolf’s Lair
now very much the domain of Bormann and Himmler
then went hunting on Rominten Heath for one last time. After-
ward, he signed some documents that General Kreipe brought
over. “Very friendly reception,” observed the latter after a stroll
with the Reichsmarschall. “He commiserates with me, remarks