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

distraught and begged Ulrich to get him out of there. ‘Please get me out,
any way you can,’ he pleaded. ‘People are dying all the time.’
It was no easy task getting Munz away, not least because he was clearly
not really fit to fly. The doctors objected, but by repeatedly lying through
his teeth, Ulrich persuaded them to lend him an ambulance to take Munz to
the airfield and with the help of a nurse managed to get the wounded man
on to the Taifun. It was thus with some relief that Ulrich opened the throttle
of the Messerschmitt and felt them gathering speed. ‘A little of the glory
that I youthfully saw in the campaign,’ he wrote, ‘was left amongst those
stinking rows of blood-sodden mattresses.’
In Germany, Goebbels had made sure not a syllable about possible peace
talks had made the German press, and at the same time warned them not to
speculate as to when the full-scale attack on Britain might begin. However,
Britain’s attack on the French Fleet was to be used as a prime example of
how low she had sunk. Britain had been France’s ally; but some ally Britain
had been to France. He also instructed the press to clearly support the
continuation of Germany’s ongoing struggle with Britain.
Convalescing in Leipzig, where he was recovering from the wound to
his wrist, Siegfried Knappe had also noticed the mood of the people was
very positive. Life seemed much the same as it had before the war, he
thought. The people seemed relaxed and proud of Germany’s achievements.
Siegfried, however, sensed an attack on Britain would be no walkover.
‘Although we had just thrown the British Army out of Europe,’ he noted,
‘we knew we would not be able to invade England without heavy losses.’
With his soldier’s knowledge, Siegfried was understandably cautious, but
most Germans believed Britain was finished. Certainly, Berlin was agog
with expectation. Else Wendel, like most Germans, was convinced that they
would soon invade Britain. It would obviously be a walkover and then the
war really would be over. ‘We didn’t hate the English so much now,’ she
noted, ‘but just felt rather sorry for what was coming to them.’ Germany,
she believed, had clearly proved herself to be the greatest country in the
world; as for England, she would no doubt one day be quite a valuable ally
when she had swallowed her pride and acknowledged defeat. Goebbels
would have been proud; his message was getting through.
‘If and when Germany intends to invade Great Britain,’ William Shirer
broadcast to his CBS listeners in America, ‘is still the chief topic of