English Translation

199 -2- By looking at the whole situation and seeing the devastation in our country, I cannot find any reason to regret that Hitler has tried to break the British fighting spirit through blind-dew bomb attacks on urban and rural areas. I am now talking about the conditions at sea: in spite of serious losses, we now have almost as much space as in the event of the outbreak of war and a lot of neutral space is available to us. The fleet, which has to protect our ships and escorts, fulfils a huge task. More serious than the air attacks is the resurgence of the submarine torpedoes in the Atlantic Ocean. But this phase of distress is already over, the enemy submarine danger is constantly being dealt with, which can also be seen from the report that only in the last few days two more German submarines have been sunk. The 5o American destroyers, which are currently most urgently needed, are now put into service. The Admiralty ensures with all its forces that the supply of food and ammunition, which are necessary, will in any case be secured and will be missing. We have to expect that even more violent attacks against our supplies should come next year and we will find weapons to meet the German submarines. We must think here very far ahead. We must think of the years I943 and 1944 and of the ship's space, which we then want and must have on the seas. We must use the time available until then and we must not shy away from efforts to produce the largest amount of food, whose more evil fertile island is concerned. In this way we can free our fleet and our commercial shipping for the transport of the considerable armies which we will certainly use in these days, provided that the enemy does not surrender or collapse by now. Personally, I do not doubt that we can cope well with alien things. The very fact that the invasion planned in such an enormous scale has not been attempted, although the enemy must have an enormous interest in destroying our citadel and the fact that in all the months of our distress, as we stood alone and waited for the world, we have remained untouched, these facts represent a historic victory and a landmark in the history of our country and our supremacy. L As a result of the coming winter months and the impossibility of predicting stable weather conditions, and also because of the ever-increasing strength of our air force and our army, the danger of invasion is considerably reduced. In a country where there is an army of considerable strength and also a l.7oo.ooo man strong homeland defense, where every road and every village is filled with determined and armed men, a maneuver with parachutes, landing troops and members of 5th columns is unthinkable. Our constant vigilance and the strong commitment of our forces have reduced the prospect of the success of an invasion and there will be no relaxation in England in this regard.