Translation of document 3775-PS

REICHSJAEGERHOF ROMINTEN, KREIS GOLDAP
(East Prussia.)
                                                       21 November 1940.

Dear Erie,

I thank you for your letters and the attached items. I am sorry to learn
from it that insidious and untrue reporting of the great Swedish
newspapers gave you the impression too that the air warfare and the
destruction caused by it are about the same in England as in Germany. I
should like to point out that England has suffered terrible blows from
my air force and that a city such as the important armament town of
Coventry, was actually completely levelled, while London shows immense
destruction and earthquakelike annihilation of entire districts. On the
other hand, Mary will be able to tell you that with the exception of a
few burnt attics and a few dstroyed houses, nothing at all has been
destroyed in Berlin. The exaggeration of the British are simply
grotesque.

A comparison will be able to show how different the achieved results
are. Until 1 November 1940 the British have dropped 31 tons on Berlin,
while we have dropped during the same period 15,872 tons of bombs on
London. Up to that date (1 November 1940) the British have dropped a
total of 130 tons of bombs over Germany while we have dropped 21,500
tons of bombs over England.

It is also to be considered that the heaviest type of bombs dropped by
the British was a bomb of 250 kg which until now has been dropped in a
very few instances only, while the majority of the high explosive bombs
weighed 100 kg. The greater part of bombs used were incendiary bombs of
the 25 kg type. On the other hand, the heaviest German bomb weighs 1800
kg, while the bulk of the bombs which we have dropped, consisted of
bomb, weighing 250 to 500 kg.

While the British fly with 60 to 90 aircraft per night over Germany, and
do not dare to come at all during daytime with a single plane with the
exception of three instances when they attacked with one plane, the
German Air Force sends on the average four to five hundred planes to
England per night and attacks without interruption during the day.

A further comparison may be derived from the fact that until now London
had almost 350 air raid alarms while Berlin had not even one tenth this
number. During many nights when the British did not send any planes at
all because of the weather, such as just tonight, the German planes were
over England in all sorts of weather.

Since the attack on London on 7 September, London was not bombed for one
night only and was spared during daytime on six days. Otherwise bombs
are thundering day and night in London without interruption, while
during the war Berlin was never attacked in daytime and had one to two
nightly air raid alarms per week, on the average.

Alone from the amount of bombs dropped by either side you can see the
tremendous difference between the German and British Air Forces. Until
now in no part of the entire German Reich were damages caused which
could not have been repaired within a few hours, while in England
photographs prove that important armament factories, etc. were
completely levelled.

Besides, I have not even mentioned the innumerable ships which have been
sunk by the Air Force.

It is especially easy for Sweden to investigate the ridiculously small
damage which the British Air Force has caused in Germany.
Time and again opportunity was offered to Swedish reporters for
this purpose, the more so as we here in Germany are outraged at the
impossible attitude of especially the large Swedish bourgeois
newspapers. I do not make any single exception; even though the
Stockholm Tidningen may be slightly better, even this paper is far away
from an attitude which could be called friendly or even strict
neutrality.

I have done everything to point to this fact time and again and to warn.
I did not leave any ways unexplored. If Sweden believes that its freedom
of press, i.e., its lack of discipline is more important than its
future, then we have to accept such an attitude. Bat Sweden should not
be surprised later on if Germany’s attitude will take the consequences
from these facts one day.

*However, I would like to tell something more pleasant, namely, the fact
that your Finnish friends can be completely reassured as to their
future, even after the visit of Molotov. In this matter I have sent my
confidential agent to Mannerheim months ago and am doing it right now
again. The Finns were clever enough to realize their completely wrong
policy towards Gerniany, which nearly cost them their existence and to
change their attitude radically in the sense of a pro-German attitude. A
friendly Finland can and will never be deserted by Germany.

Furthermore, I am quite prepared to give to a small Swedish group to
which you could belong too, an opportunity to personally inspect the
so-called damage caused by the British and, on the other hand to show to
this commission how the German Air Force dealt with Holland, Belgium and
France, as we are not in the position right now to prove the damages
caused in England by our side. But I am completely convinced that this
will be,orne possible one day. Unfortunately, the British government has
a completely different attitude, because it exercises a rigorous
censorship in order to prevent that anything should become known about
German destructions in England. Nevertheless, we have received
sufficient reports from neutral side. particularly from Americans,
partly with photographic evidence, and we ourselves have made enough air
photos in order to prove how terribly severe the destructions are in
England.

                                           With kindest regards I remain
                                            Your faithful brother-in-law
                                                (signed) Hermann Goering

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* This confidentially only for you and for Mannerheim

                [Stamp] Secret Reich Letter.

                           Record

of the Fuehrer’s conference with the Japanese Ambassador Oshima, in the
presence of the Reich Foreign Minister (RAM) and Minister [Gesandter]
von Sonnleithner at the Berghof the 27 May 1944 from 16.35 to 17.45 hrs.

                           *******

The Fuehrer advised Oshima that the Japanese should hang — not shoot --
every American terror pilot [Terrorflieger] then the Americans would
think it over before making such attacks.

                                                    Berghof, 27 May 1944
                                                Signed: von Sonnleithner

Distribution:

Reich Foreign Minister (RAM)
State Secretary (S.St.)
Office of Reich Foreign Minister (Buero RAM)
Ambassador RITTER
[Further distribution illegible]