IMT, XVI. For this see generally Gert Buchheit, Hitler, der Feldherr; also by the same author, Soldatentum und Rebellion, Die Tragodie der deutschen Wehrmacht (Rastatt, 1961).
Various generals said the same sort of thing, some in devastating terms. General Koller, for example, reproached Goring for 'shirking unpleasant things' (Bross, Gespräche mit Göring). Friedrich Hossbach said,
'The leadership of the Luftwaffe ... has been one of the most momentous failures of the 1939-45 war,' and spoke of a 'literally bloodstained dilettantism' (Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler 1934-1938).
Field Marshal Milch also spoke, as Goebbels confided to his diary,
'in terms of sharpest criticism about the Reich Marshal. He blames him for having let technical research in the German Luftwaffe run down so completely' (The Goebbels Diaries, entry for 9th April 1943).
For a biting general verdict on Göring's role in the Third Reich there is Raeder's memorandum written in Moscow; see the extract in Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary.
In complete inversion of the true state of affairs, Hitler on the other hand suspected for a long time that Göring's 'optimistic not to say unrealistic view' of reality was attributable to the fact that he was being thoroughly misled by the generals of the Luftwaffe.(The Goebbels Diaries, entry for 9th March 1943).