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

standing of the person who had given it to him, information was often
spruced up to make it more palatable. Göring was of much the same mind
as the Führer, as Oberst Josef ‘Beppo’ Schmid, head of 5th Abteilung
within Luftwaffe Intelligence, was well aware.
There were a number of different organizations collecting air
intelligence, so the remit of the 5th Abteilung, was limited to obtaining
information about foreign air forces. And although 5th Abteilung was
directly attached to Luftwaffe Operations, Beppo Schmid held a position far
more privileged than his rank suggested because he was at the same time
also a member of Göring’s personal staff. Furthermore, as a veteran of the
Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, he had both valuable status and protection in the
dog-eat-dog world of Nazi politics.
Shrewd, cunning and charming, he had transferred to the Luftwaffe
from the army in 1935, but knew little about aeroplanes or air warfare and
had never learned to fly. Nor did he speak any languages, and like many
Germans at this time had barely travelled – and certainly not to Britain.
Known to be overly fond of drink, he gathered intelligence principally by
scouring the foreign press – handed out to him by the SD – and garnering
information from air attachés. Dolfo Galland, for one, thought he was
useless. ‘Beppo Schmid,’ he said, ‘was a complete wash-out as an
intelligence officer, the most important job of all.’ Milch also recognized
that Schmid was a man who ‘trimmed his sails to the wind’ for fear of
upsetting his boss. Certainly, Beppo knew which side his bread was
buttered. He enjoyed his position, with its access to the highest in Nazi
Germany, and the privileges that came with it. He was not prepared to
jeopardize that by telling Göring home truths his boss did not want to hear.
The other prime intelligence source came from General Martini’s 3rd
Abteilung, which handled all signals intelligence. Any updates on Study
Blue were largely thanks to Martini’s team, rather than Schmid’s, as the
British press was less useful as a source of information once war began and
because thereafter signals intelligence was the prime means of gathering
information. There were, admittedly, also Abwehr spies sent to Britain by
Canaris – the real Fifth Columnists – but these had so far proved abjectly
bad at their task. Most had been caught almost as soon as they had arrived.
The 3rd Abteilung did pass on daily intelligence summaries to Schmid’s
team, but when a new intelligence appreciation was asked for by Göring