rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

694 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHThus though Hitler had put off for three days a decision on the invasion hehad by no means abandoned it. Give the Luftwaffe another few days to finishoff the R.A.F. and demoralize London, and the landing then could take place.It would bring final victory. So once again all depended on Goering’s vauntedAir Force. It would make, in fact, its supreme effort the very next day.The Navy’s opinion of the Luftwaffe, however, grew hourly worse. On theevening of the crucial conference in Berlin the German Naval War Staff reportedsevere R.A.F. bombings of the invasion ports, from Antwerp to Boulogne.. . . In Antwerp . . . considerable casualties are inflicted on transports– five transport steamers in port heavily damaged; one bargesunk, two cranes destroyed, an ammunition train blown up, severalsheds burning.The next night was even worse, the Navy reporting ”strong enemy air attackson the entire coastal area between Le Havre and Antwerp.” An S.O.S. was sentout by the sailors for more antiaircraft protection of the invasion ports. OnSeptember 17 the Naval Staff reported:The R.A.F. are still by no means defeated: on the contrary they areshowing increasing activity in their attacks on the Channel ports andin their mounting interference with the assembly movements. ∗918That night there was a full moon and the British night bombers made themost of it. The German Naval War Staff reported ”very considerable losses”of the shipping which now jammed the invasion ports. At Dunkirk eighty-fourbarges were sunk or damaged, and from Cherbourg to Den Helder the Navyreported, among other depressing items, a 500-ton ammunition store blown up,a rations depot burned out, various steamers and torpedo boats sunk and manycasualties to personnel suffered. This severe bombing plus bombardment fromheavy guns across the Channel made it necessary, the Navy Staff reported, todisperse the naval and transport vessels already concentrated on the Channeland to stop further movement of shipping to the invasion ports.Otherwise [it said] with energetic enemy action such casualties willoccur in the course of time that the execution of the operation onthe scale previously envisaged will in any case be problematic. 919It had already become so.In the German Naval War Diary there is a laconic entry for September 17.∗ On September 16, according to a German authority, R.A.F. bombers surprised a largeinvasion training exercise and inflicted heavy losses in men and landing vessels. This gave riseto many reports in Germany and elsewhere on the Continent that the Germans had actuallyattempted a landing and been repulsed by the British. (Georg W. Feuchter, Geschichtedes Luftkriegs, p. 176.) I heard such a ”report” on the night of September 16 in Geneva,Switzerland, where I was taking a few days off. On September !8 and again on the next day Isaw two long ambulance trains unloading wounded soldiers in the suburbs of Berlin. From thebandages, I concluded the wounds were mostly burns. There had been no fighting anywherefor three months on land. On September 21, confidential German Navy papers recorded that21 transports and 214 barges – some 12 per cent of the total assembled for the invasion – badbeen lost or damaged. (Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs, p. 102.)