The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

purges of 1936–7 in which the Red Army’s command and officer class had
been decimated. Yet because of the economic crisis, Germany’s rearmament
programme was beginning to slow while everyone else’s seemed to be
increasing. Thomas’s figures were particularly alarming for the Luftwaffe.
Aircraft production was on the decline, not the rise, and although they had
been rapidly expanding ever since 1933, and so had a large material
advantage at present, this would not last, particularly since British aircraft
production, already in the spring of 1939, matched that of the Luftwaffe.
Thus there was no time to lose. Hitler needed to make the most of his air
force and army before the Western powers caught up. And despite the
chronic ammunition shortages his air force and army were sufficiently
powerful and ready to enter into a quick war with Poland.
Many of Hitler’s generals were against war in 1939. Rearmament and
military might were seen as weapons of deterrence, whereas war could lead
only to disaster. Even Göring was of the same mind. Logic suggested that it
was mad to risk throwing everything away with a war that few believed
could ultimately be won. Yet, to Hitler, the logical option was war because
otherwise the Western powers and the Soviet Union would become too
powerful and Germany would be destroyed all over again. Hitler was not
under the illusion that Stalin would not one day attack Germany. In this, he
was almost certainly right. ‘We have nothing to lose, everything to gain,’ he
told a gathering of his commanders at Berchtesgaden on 22 August 1939.
‘Because of our restrictions our economic situation is such that we can only
hold out for a few more years. Göring can confirm this. We must act.’
The next day, Hitler was still in Berchtesgaden, at the Berghof, his villa
on the Obersalzburg in the Bavarian Alps. After supper, he and his close
entourage stepped out on to the balcony. Beyond and above the mountains a
rare natural spectacle could be seen. In a particularly intense display, the
Northern Lights were casting a deep red light across the Untersberg
mountains on the far side of the valley, while the sky above shimmered with
all the colours of the rainbow. Hitler’s face and hands were bathed in the
same red light. He became suddenly pensive. ‘Looks like a great deal of
blood,’ he said at last. ‘This time we won’t bring it off without violence.’
How right he was, although most of the blood spilled had not been
German. It was a trend that needed to continue, for if Germany was to win
it could only be achieved by a single decisive blow, Hitler believed, at the