The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945

36. Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937–1943, ed. Renzo De Felice (Milan: 1990), 451, entry for 7 July 1940; FCNA, 112–13, ‘The War Against England’, 7 July 1940.

37. Hubatsch, Hitlers Weisungen, 71–2, Directive no. 16.

38. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 68; Shirer, Berlin Diary, 356–7. The speech in Domarus, Reden: Band II, erster Halbband, 1,558: ‘once again an appeal to reason even in England’.

39. AHB Translations, vol 1, VII/21, ‘First Deliberations Regarding a Landing in England’, 12 July 1940; Operations Staff memorandum, 13 Aug 1940: ‘the Duce could be made to understand that we are fighting this war together, and not on parallel lines’. See too Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–45 (London: 1964), 109–10; Basil Collier, The Defence of the United Kingdom (London: 1957), 499–50, App xxviii. For Hitler’s agreement see Percy Schramm (ed), Kriegstagebuch des OKW (hereafter KTB/OKW): Band 1, Teilband 1, 1940–1941 (Bonn: 2005), 23–4, entry for 12 Aug 1940

40. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 63–4: ‘He wished that Britain would terminate this war in the West because the coming conflict with the Soviet Union was unavoidable and he did not want an enemy front and rear.’

41. FCNA, 122–5, ‘Conference on July 31 1940’; Jürgen Förster, ‘Hitler Turns East – German War Policy in 1940 and 1941’, in Bernd Wegner (ed), From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia and the World, 1939–1941 (Oxford: 1997), 117–24.

42. BA-MA, RL2–IV/27, Otto Bechtle, ‘Der Einsatz der Luftwaffe gegen England, 1940–1943’, 2 Apr 1944, 1.

43. BA-MA, RL8/1, Generalkommando I Fliegerkorps, ‘Gedanken über die Führung des Luftkrieges gegen England’, 24 July 1940, 1.

44. TsAMO, f.500, o.12452, d.56, Orientierungsheft Grossbritannien, 1 June 1939, Anlage 19, 23.

45. Ibid., f.500, o.725168, d.319, Luftwehrgeographische Beschreibung von Grossbritannien, 7 Feb 1940, 99.

46. BA-MA, RL8/1, Kriegstagebuch, I Fliegerkorps, 15 July 1940.

47. TNA, AIR 16/432, Home Security Intelligence Summary, 31 July 1940.

48. TNA, MEPO 2/6335, Metropolitan Police reports, Balham HQ, 2 and 9 Sept 1940.

49. TsAMO, f.500, o.12452, d.14, Luftwaffe Führungsstab, ‘Bemerkungen zum Einsatz der Luftwaffe’, Nr. 8, 26 July 1940, 1–3.

50. AHB Translations, vol 1, VII/21, ‘First Deliberations’, 12 July 1940, 2–3.

51. BA-MA, RL8/1, I Fliegerkorps, ‘Gedanken über die Führung des Luftkrieges gegen England’, 24 July 1940, 1.

52. Ibid., 2; TNA, AIR 40/2444, Bechtle lecture, 2 Feb 1944, 2–4.

53. Boberach, Meldungen aus dem Reich, vol 5, 1,424, Report 29 July 1940; 1,441, Report 5 Aug 1940.

54. TNA, AIR 20/8693, Testimony of Hermann Göring taken at Nuremberg, 6 Apr 1946 (interviewed by Hilary St George Saunders), 2, 14.

55. von Below, At Hitler’s Side, 70; AHB Translations, vol 1, VII/21, OKW to Göring, 30 July 1940.

56. Hubatsch, Hitlers Weisungen, 75–6; AHB Translations, vol 1, VII/21, OKW (Keitel), ‘Operation Sea Lion’, 1 Aug 1940.

57. Boberach, Meldungen aus dem Reich, vol 5, 1,449, Report 8 Aug 1940; 1,461–2, Report 12 Aug 1940; Shirer, Berlin Diary, 366.

58. TNA, AIR 40/2444, Bechtle lecture, 7; Gerwin Strobl, The Germanic Isle: Nazi Perceptions of Britain (Cambridge: 2000), 100–101, 164–5, 182–3.

59. AHB Translations, vol 7, VII/107, Quartermaster Strength and Serviceability Tables.

60. Alfred Price, The Luftwaffe Data Book (London: 1997), 32–8.

61. On Göring, Richard Overy, Goering: Hitler’s Iron Knight (3rd edn, London: 2012); Stefan Martens, Hermann Göring: Erster Paladin des Führers und Zweiter Mann im Reich (Paderborn: 1985); Alfred Kube, Pour le Mérite und Hakenkreuz: Hermann Göring im Dritten Reich (Munich: 1986).

62. Ernest Evans, ‘Göring – beinahe Führer: Teil I’, Interavia, 1 (Aug 1946), 17.

63. BA-B, RL3/246, letter from Heinrich Koppenberg (chairman of Junkers) to Göring, 11 Aug 1939; RL3/247, ‘Besprechungsniederschrift 12/13 Jan 1939, Nachbau Ju88’. See too Lutz Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie und Luftrüstung in Deutschland 1918–1945 (Düsseldorf: 1998), 622–4.

64. Details from Manfred Griehl, Junkers Ju88: Star of the Luftwaffe (London: 1990), ch 3; William Green, Warplanes of the Third Reich (London: 1970), 448ff.