American Airpower Comes of Age

AMERICAN AIRPOWER COMES OF AGE
and his staff, very optimistic. German Air Force not so hot
according to people here. I have doubted RAF, G-2 and A-2
reports all along. Now it appears that:
a. German Air Force does not have numbers.
b. Does not have crews.
c. Lacks training.
d. Does not have will to fight.
e. Has lost its morale.
Case 1 – 19 JU-88s met 12 Spitfires and all JU-88s were shot
down, 0 Spitfires lost.
Case 2 – 39 torpedo bombers headed from S[outhern] France
for the Beachhead. Ran into own flak, 20 turned back; ran
into more flak - 4 were shot down and 10 turned back.
Remaining 5 continued for a spell, got tired and turned back.
All this [obtained] from German radio. If the GAF was as
strong as indicated by G-2 and A-2:
(1) Why didn’t they hit the ship concentrations prior to
invasion? The ports in south of England were crowded.
(2) Why didn’t they hit the invasion forces when crossing
channel in 4 narrow lanes?
(3) Why didn’t they hit congestion at beachhead?
(4) Why are only 60 planes in combat readiness out of 500
concentrated to operate against us?
Answer: we accept the RAF estimate blindly. Should we? What
have RAF done to defeat GAF since Battle of Britain? Have
they tried to increase range of their fighters? Did they give us
any encouragement when we said that we were going to force
the GAF to fight us and we were going to defeat and destroy
them? Did they keep the belly tanks on the P-51s we gave
them? No. Have they used any to penetrate into the heart of
Germany? No. Could they put additional gas in their Spitfires?
No. We did and raised the range to 1,300 miles. It took us but
2 months, and yet they tell the world the strength of the GAF
and we accept their figures.
CCS meeting in London at 11:30: [present] Brooke, Portal,
Cunningham, Ismay, Secretaries, Marshall, King, Arnold, Secretaries.
Discussed:
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