145. This was only partially accurate. It had, in fact, been Rommel who had placed greatest stress on the possibility of a landing in Normandy, whereas Hitler, while not excluding this, had been more inclined to follow Rundstedt in presuming the landing would take place in the Pas de Calais, at the shortest sea-crossing over the Straits of Dover (Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, 291).
146. Here, too, Hitler was over-optimistic. The weather on 6 June, though cloudy and windy, had improved from that of the day before (when it had been bad enough to cause ‘Operation Overlord’ to be postponed). While the German defenders thought the weather too bad for an invasion, Eisenhower had adjudged that it was just good enough. (Parker, Struggle for Survival, 197; Weinberg III, 684.)
147. TBJG, II/12, 418–19 (7 June 1944); Below, 374; Linge, ‘Kronzeuge’, Bl.42.
148. Based on Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, 291–2; Parker, Struggle for Survival, 197–8; Weinberg III, 686–8; Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol.6: Triumph and Tragedy, London etc., 1954,6; Oxford Companion, 853. The accounts give differing numbers of ships engaged in the landings. Parker, Struggle for Survival, 197, has 2,727 vessels approaching, multiplying to 6,939 as the smaller landing craft left their parent ships. Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, 291, has 5,134 ships and vehicles (Fahrzeuge). Oxford Companion speaks of nearly 7,000 ships and landing-craft, including 1,213 naval warships. Parker’s figure for ships on approach has been used.
149. Weinberg III, 686, 688.
150. Irving, Göring, 426–7; see also Parker, Struggle for Survival, 196.
151. Parker, Struggle for Survival, 198–9; Weinberg III, 687.
152. Weinberg III, 688.
153. See Speer, 366.
154. Speer, 366; Irving, HW, 641 (with slightly different figures from those of Speer); TBJG, II/12, 479 (17 June 1944).
155. Speer, 366; Hölsken, V-Waffen, 132. Göring had tried to blame the initial failure of the Vi on Milch. When Hitler, changing his tune completely, now demanded increased production, Göring predictably attempted to claim the credit.
156. Weinberg III, 691.
157. Die Wehrmachtherichte 1939–1945, Cologne, 1989, iii.12.8ff.: ‘Southern England and the area of London were last night and this morning bombed (belegt) with new explosives of the heaviest caliber.’ See also Domarus, 2106; and Tb Reuth, v.2058, n.125 for Dietrich’s propaganda.
158. TBJG, II/ 12, 480 (17 June 1944), 491–2 (18 June 1944). Goebbels’s dampening of expectations is mentioned in Elke Fröhlich, ‘Hitler und Goebbels im Krisenjahr 1944’, VfZ, 38 (1990), 196–224, here 217–18; and Reuth, Goebbels, 542–4. For the disappointed mood and the propaganda failure over the VI, see especially Gerald Kirwin, ‘Waiting for Retaliation. A Study in Nazi Propaganda Behaviour and German Civilian Morale’, JCH, 16 (1981), 565–83.
159. Irving, HW, 642.
160. Below, 375; Linge, ‘Kronzeuge’, Bl.42; Domarus, 2106; Speer, 366; Irving, HW, 641.
161. Hans Speidel, Invasion 1944. Ein Beitrag zu Rommels und des Reiches Schicksal, Tübingen/Stuttgart, 1949, 113–14.
162. Below, 375.
163. Speidel, 114–17.
164. Speidel, 118; Below, 375.
165. Speer, 366.
166. LB Stuttgart, 573–4; Weinberg III, 688.
167. Weinberg III, 687–9.
168. Below, 375–6.
169. TBJG, II/12, 463 (14 June 1944), 517 (22 June 1944).
170. TBJG, II/12, 516–18 (22 June 1944).
171. TBJG, II/12, 518–19 (22 June 1944).
172. TBJG, II/12, 519–21 (22 June 1944), quotation 521.
173. TBJG, II/12, 521–2, 527 (22 June 1944), quotation 522.
174. TBJG, II/12, 523–6 (22 June 1944).
175. IfZ, F19/3, Hitler’s speech, 22 June 1944 (quotations, page 7: ‘… daß das Ende im Falle des Nachgebens immer die Vernichtung ist, auf die Dauer die restlose Vernichtung’); ‘Vorsehung’, page 12, and his comment on page 47: ‘Ich babe das Leben schon im Weltkrieg als Geschenk der Vorsebung aufgefaßt. Ich konnte so oft tot sein und bin nicht tot. Das ist also schon ein Geschenk gewesen; ‘Der Jude ist weg ...’, page 39; ‘Niemals wird dieser neue Staat kapitulierern’, page 67); see also, especially, 55, 59, and 62 (‘Wir kämpfen hier für die deutsche Zukunft, um Sein oder Nichtsein’).
