Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

believed that the invasion wouldcome in the next five days—or better still not at all. ‘I think the Allies have missedthe bus,’ he said.7Cars ferried them from Salzburg station up to the Obersalzberg. Morell gave hima fortifying injection before the meeting with Hitler.Hitler revealed that the two V-weapons were ready to open fire, beginning with asalvo of three or four hundred flying bombs against London. Goebbels suggestedlaunching them during London’s rush-hour for maximum effect.Hitler too feigned indifference about the fall of Rome. ‘The real decision will comein the west,’ he said. He blamed their setbacks in Italy on the Allies’ air supremacy,but claimed there was little he could do about Reichsmarschall Göring without damagingthe authority of the Reich and party. It was the old story. ‘I’m afraid,’ dictatedGoebbels to Otte afterwards, ‘that when the enemy attempt their invasion in thewest, their air force may give us precisely the same headaches as we’ve had in Italy.’Then blind, unreal optimism took over. ‘Let’s hope the enemy launch their invasionsoon, so that we’re able to turn the whole war around in the west.’8Thus the eve of the historic Allied invasion of Normandy passed in idle gossip atthe Berghof.9 They talked about Schopenhauer and how to write. Goebbels asked, invain, for the replacement of General Paul von Hase as commandant of Berlin; theyhad crossed swords recently.10 He also spoke out for Colonel Martin who had beenGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 827arrested in a minor corruption scandal. Hitler revealed that he was now toying withsuddenly allowing the Russians into Romania, to bring the western powers to theirsenses. ‘He considers Britain done for,’ noted Goebbels, ‘and is resolved to give herthe coup de grâce at the slightest opportunity.’ He could not resist adding, ‘As yet, Icannot quite see how, precisely, he’s going to do that.’ If he were foreign minister, heknew precisely what he would do to play their enemies off against each other. Hitlerstill clung to Ribbentrop, however, calling him an ice-cool tactician however inflexible.When Goebbels criticized Ribbentrop’s bloated ministerial apparatus, Hitler repliedthat he was reluctant to ask the minister to scale it down in case he resigned—alaissez-faire attitude which Goebbels felt disastrous under the circumstances. Strollingback from the tea-house Hitler admitted that he had considered replacingRibbentrop. Surely aware that Goebbels coveted the job for himself, Hitler mentionedhowever that Rosenberg, of all people, seemed the only possible successor.Goebbels choked. ‘That would be out of the frying pan and into the fire!’ he exclaimedto Otte, and resigned himself to letting the matter ride.Resting down in Berchtesgaden at ten P.M. he received the first indication, basedon radio intercepts, that the Allied invasion was beginning.11 He did not take it seriouslyat first. Dining at the Berghof later with Hitler and Speer there was still nosense of urgency.12 They chatted with Eva Braun about theatre and film—her favouritehobbies—then talked round the Berghof fireside of happier times. Goebbels sensedthat Hitler was drawing closer to him again. It felt just like the good old days. With anunseasonal thunderstorm lashing the windows, Hitler retired at two A.M. and Goebbelswent over to the Bormann’s for a while. At two-thirty Goebbels phoned Semler, hispress officer, to bring any telegrams up to his bedroom at nine o’clock; but at 4:04a.m. Semler suddenly phoned to say that they were now getting reports of airbornelandings on the Cherbough peninsula, and an invasion fleet approaching Normandy.‘Thank God, at last!’ said Goebbels. ‘This is the final round.’13HIS news agencies broke the news to the world before Reuter’s, the British agency,could do so at nine-thirty that morning Churchill, ‘unable to hold his water,’ as828 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHGoebbels put it, announced to the House of Commons that four thousand ships andeleven thousand planes were taking part: so this clearly was the big one. Hitler waseuphoric. ‘The invasion is happening just where we expected and with exactly themeans and methods we’ve been preparing for,’ commented Goebbels. ‘It will be thegiddy limit if we can’t see them off.’At Schloss Klessheim, Goebbels found Ribbentrop in confident mood; Göringsmiling broadly—General Korten, chief of the air staff, was stripping the Reich offighter squadrons in a long-prepared operation to switch to the invasion front14;Himmler was also smiling behind his wire-rimmed glasses, sure that his S.S. divisionswould acquit themselves well. Two first-class Panzer divisions were alreadyrolling into action, and they were expected to be within range by six P.M. Goebbelsnoticed that General Jodl was reserved in his judgement, and decided to speak intheir first communiqués only of a grave and historic struggle. As they left for Berlinat eight P.M., Lieutenant von Oven noticed that his chief was quite thoughtful.Goebbels telephoned the Berghof once during the initial invasion battle. The newswas not what he had expected. The panzer divisions had not been able to counterattackand the enemy beachhead north of Caën was already fifteen miles long andthree miles deep.15 Within a few days the false euphoria at Hitler’s HQ was dissipatedas the enemy battleships brought their firepower to bear on the defensive positionsfar inland. Unable to conceal the breaching of Rommel’s ‘impregnable’ Atlantic Wall,Goebbels dug out a December 1941 speech in which Hitler had scoffed at Britishplans to launch a big offensive somewhere. ‘I only wish,’ Hitler had then said, ‘thatthey would let me know about it beforehand; I would have the area in questionevacuated and very gladly save them the difficulty of landing.’16 His next Das Reicharticle developed the theme that Stalin alone would profit from the invasion battle,as his enemies tore each other to pieces in France.17Morale at home faltered. The public was puzzled that the submarines and Luftwaffewere failing to crush the invasion.18 In a cold fury Goebbels watched the first newsreeltakes from Normandy. The telephoto lenses lingered on beaches where Eisenhower’slanding craft seemed to block the entire water line, gunwale to gunwale.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 829Mist-shrouded silhouettes of battleships and cruisers crowded the horizon. Not aGerman plane was to be seen, and scarcely a flicker of gunfire. In the reflected glowof a table lamp Goebbels clenched his knuckles until