Hitler's Jet Plane by Mano Ziegler Page B

child can see that that is not a bomber but a fighter!’
    Following this outburst Hitler turned his back on Milch without replying. Petersen’s neighbour leaned towards him and said, ‘And that’s shot him down in flames.’ It was the most apt description of this tragic collision of wills. A door had closed and would not re-open. Nobody knew this better than Milch who merely stood in silence as Hitler turned away from him. At this juncture Milch felt sure that he had reached the end of his career, but it did not depress him; whatever happened next, there was nothing he could do about it.
    On 24 May 1944 a further conference was convened under Goering’s chairmanship where the main topics were the Me 262 and Hitler’s angry outbursts of the day before. Goering was as graceless as only he knew how to be even though the tone of the meeting was one of sober objectivity. From statements made by Petersen and Knemeyer, Goering and Milch learned for the first time that the 262 armour and guns had a total weight of about 600 kg, all of it forward of the aircraft’s centre of gravity. It was therefore quite out of the question to do what Hitler had demanded and just jettison it to make way for a bomb of that weight slung below the fuselage. On the contrary, it would need an expensive modification to the whole design just to comply with this one order.
    According to Irving, Goering raged: ‘You gentlemen all seem to be deaf. I have repeated over and over the Führer’s perfectly clear order that he doesn’t give a hoot for the Me 262 as a fighter, he wants it exclusively as a fighter bomber... the Führer must have got a very peculiar idea about you. Everybody, Messerschmitt included, told him from the beginning that there is no doubt it can be done. Messerschmitt told the Führer in my presence at Insterburg, it was planned at the design stage that it can be made into a fighter bomber. Now suddenly it can’t.’
    Here Petersen interjected to rightly point out that the present engines were not suitable for bomber operations and required major modification. In view of the precarious situation the deployment of the Me 262 as a lightweight fighter was probably the best course although even then sacrifices would have to be reckoned with. A bomber variant was simply not on offer at the moment.
    Goering’s answer, again supplied by Irving: ‘I would have been grateful if you had made ten per cent of these statements yesterday. ’ When Knemeyer confirmed Petersen’s observations and also spoke out against a bomber variant, Goering interrupted him: ‘The Führer says, as a fighter, as far as I’m concerned, you can burn it. What he needs is a bomber so fast that it can simply roar through the great mass of fighters which will be escorting the invasion force.’ Goering now made a remark about the ‘undisciplined load of military pigs’ who had defrauded and deceived the Führer and himself. That he was the leader of these pigs was a point he appeared to have forgotten.
    He now contented himself with the bitter reflection that after Messerschmitt’s lightly given assurance at Insterburg, nobody had bothered to concern himself with what it involved, least of all Messerschmitt himself. It was primarily Messerschmitt’s job to draft an opinion of what it entailed to fulfil Hitler’s wish and set a time scale. Next down the line was Generalfeldmarschall Milch whose responsibility it had been to set it all out and at least advise his immediate superior, Goering, unequivocally about the technical situation. Milch had the competent men in his offices to do it. Both of them, Messerschmitt and Milch, had side-stepped their responsibility. It could only be explained by neither having taken Hitler’s demand very seriously at the outset, or that they considered it a dangerous proposition to explain all the difficulties which Hitler was bound not to want to hear. Whatever the reason, the child was down the well and a precious year had