Osterkamp dares to contradict Göring
, 48, is one of the very few airmen to have been an ace in both world wars. A decorated fighter pilot of 1914-18, he led during the Battle of France, then handed it over to . He is now Jagdfliegerführer 2, head of fighters, based at the Pas-de-Calais airfields.
Unlike the staffs left in the rear, Osterkamp has flown in person over England during the Kanalkampf. He has seen with his own eyes what the official figures deny.
On 1 August, Reichsmarschall gathers his commanders to launch the air offensive against the Royal Air Force. Before him, Osterkamp has a field assessment: he has counted 500 to 700 British fighters concentrated around London, in markedly growing numbers, and the new units are all receiving Spitfires which he judges equal in quality to the German fighters. Göring, for his part, keeps insisting that the adversary is bled white and cowardly.
Osterkamp must decide what to say to the Reichsmarschall, face to face.
Do you warn Göring to his face that the RAF is stronger than he believes, or endorse the Reichsmarschall's optimism?
Osterkamp applies A: he tells Göring that he has counted 500 to 700 British fighters around London, steadily growing, and that the Spitfires of the new units are the equal of the German aircraft. Göring sweeps it all away: in his view British numbers are crushed, English pilots are cowards, and the superiority of the German bombers makes enemy defence laughable. The contempt for field intelligence in favour of flattering reports will become one of the leitmotifs of the German defeat in the skies. Osterkamp nonetheless receives the Knight's Cross on 22 August 1940. Nicknamed 'Onkel Theo' by his pilots, he will later be sidelined by Göring for his outspokenness. The RAF, far from yielding, will emerge stronger from the summer.
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