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

‘That’s where you are wrong,’ said Göring.
Before 32 Squadron had left Biggin Hill, a downed German fighter pilot
had been picked up by the police and put in the guard room at the airfield.
The pilots found out and brought him down to the dispersal hut. He spoke
good English and they gave him a drink and then took him over to the mess
for some more. Eventually he asked for a pen and piece of paper. The pilots
asked why. ‘Tomorrow, when the Luftwaffe blackens the sky and you lose
the war,’ he replied, ‘I want to write all your names down to make sure you
are all well looked after.’
‘We laughed and laughed,’ says Pete Brothers. ‘He couldn’t understand
it. “Why are you laughing?” he asked us, and we said, “Oh, you poor
fellow! You are going to lose!” The arrogance of it – charmingly put over all
the same.’
German attitudes were changing, however. Group Captain Felkin and
his team were still in charge of interrogating all POWs and found that a
useful way of gleaning information was to put several men together and bug
their cell. Results showed that some still believed the invasion would
happen any moment and that Britain would be defeated. A fair number had
also accepted the German intelligence reports about the strength of Fighter
Command. ‘I estimate that at the most they have only 150 front-line fighters
left,’ said one Oberleutnant, who then explained, ‘Production is rather
poor.’ But others were not so convinced. ‘The English certainly have many
more aircraft than is assumed by us,’ said one bomber pilot. ‘I’d like to
know where the English get all their fighters from,’ said another.
Also increasingly common was a growing concern that they might have
missed the bus. ‘If we have to wait until spring,’ said one prisoner, ‘the
whole blessed affair must be started over again.’ ‘Well, if the landing does
not materialize and we have to wait here till next year,’ muttered a
Feldwebel, ‘it will be damnable.’ ‘I simply cannot see how we are to win
this war,’ said one pilot on 11 September. ‘At any rate, we must finish the
war somehow soon,’ said another. ‘If we are not in a position to force
England to make peace, it might develop into a kind of thirty years’ war.
That is what I am afraid of.’
Even more apparent were the growing concerns about shortages of
pilots and aircraft. One pilot reckoned losses over England were three times
higher than they had been during the western campaign. ‘The Germans