DR. LATERNSER: As chief adjutant, as you said before, to the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, you had a lot of inside information about the Luftwaffe?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: Insofar as material was available, yes.
DR. LATERNSER: Now, according to your inside information, did the chiefs of air fleets have any influence on political decisions or the conduct of the war?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: According to my information the chiefs of air fleets had no influence on any political decisions. Their job was the technical execution of the orders received, and orders on the conduct of the air war were given more and more by Hitler himself.
DR. LATERNSER: Did the chiefs of air fleets make any suggestions to use more severe methods in the conduct of the war?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I do not know of any suggestions of that kind made by chiefs of air fleets. They were professional soldiers who acted according to orders.
DR. LATERNSER: I have still one question: Was there any co-ordination between the branches of the Wehrmacht? Was this co-ordination of a purely official nature or did it go farther?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: There was co-ordination between the leading local authorities at the front; at a higher level it was effected by the Führer himself.
DR. LATERNSER: I have no more questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other defendant’s counsel wish to ask any questions? Do the Prosecution wish to cross-examine?
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I would ask that the witness be shown Document Number 1156-PS of the United States documents.
[Document 1156-PS was submitted to the witness.]
Do you recognize this document, Witness?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: No, I do not know this document.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I call your attention to the date, the 20th of March 1941, and I call your attention to the fact that it purports to be a report to Reich Marshal Göring at the 19th of March 1941 meeting.
VON BRAUCHITSCH: While in the service I attended military conferences only if they did not take place at the Führer’s Headquarters, or if they were not personal discussions. I have not seen this document and I do not know the facts.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Let me call your attention to Item 2, which refers to you, I take it, and which reads:
“The directive worked out by the Wi regarding destructive measures to be undertaken by the Luftwaffe in Case Barbarossa was agreed to by the Reich Marshal. One copy was handed to Captain Von Brauchitsch for transmission to the General Staff of the Luftwaffe.”
And I ask you whether that states the facts.
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I cannot remember these facts, neither can I give any information about the contents of the letter mentioned here.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You knew about Case Barbarossa, did you not?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I did not hear about Case Barbarossa until the beginning of 1941. I was not present at the conferences.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: But you did know that certain destructive measures were planned to be undertaken in connection with that by the Luftwaffe, did you not?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I know only of the first missions given to the Luftwaffe, and I recollect that attacks on airfields were ordered.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Did it not also provide for attacks against cities, particularly St. Petersburg?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: To my recollection and knowledge, at the time this letter was written nothing was said about these targets but only about attacks on airfields, which were the main targets of the Luftwaffe.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I will ask that the witness be shown Document Number 735-PS, in evidence as Exhibit Number GB-151.
[Document 735-PS was submitted to the witness.]
That is in evidence and appears to be a most secret document of which only three copies were made, is that correct?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: May I read this letter first before I answer the question?
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I call your attention first to the signature at the end of it and ask you if you recognize it?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: The signature is Warlimont.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Who was Warlimont?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: Warlimont was the Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Operations Staff.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you knew him well and he knew you well, is that not so?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I knew him by sight and on this occasion I spoke to him for the first time.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: On the occasion of this meeting that is recorded in these minutes, is that the occasion when you first met and spoke to Warlimont?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: When I first spoke to him officially, yes.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: That was on the 6th of June 1944, when this meeting was held?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: According to this letter, yes.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Now, I call your attention to Paragraph Number 1 of the minutes of this meeting, from which it appears that Obergruppenführer Kaltenbrunner opened this meeting with a report that a conference on the question of the fliers had been held shortly before with the Reich Marshal, the Reich Foreign Minister and the Reich Führer SS. That is the opening of it, is it not?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I know nothing of the record of this conference or even that it took place.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Who was the Reich Marshal at that time?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I remember the fact because on the 6th of June the invasion started and during the night of the 5th to the 6th I phoned Reich Marshal Göring himself at 0200 hours and informed him that the invasion had begun. In the morning he left Veldenstein for Klessheim in order to attend in the afternoon a conference there on the situation.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And this meeting is said to have been held in Klessheim on the afternoon of the 6th of June, is it not?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I said once before that I do not know anything of the meeting as such and of the subject of the discussion.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Yes, I understand, you were not present. Göring was Reich Marshal; is that right?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: Yes.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister at that time, was he not?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: Yes.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And who was the Reich Führer SS?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: Himmler.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Now, it was as a result of that meeting at which the Foreign Minister—just follow the next sentence, “. . . the Foreign Minister who wished to include every type of terror attack on the native civilian population. . . .” It was agreed that this conference, which you did attend, was to take place; is that not the sense of the first paragraph?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: In the first place, I was not at this meeting and, secondly, I do not know anything about the subject as shown in evidence here.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, were you not at the meeting with Kaltenbrunner which Kaltenbrunner called?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: I was not at the meeting with Kaltenbrunner which is mentioned here.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Despite the signature of Warlimont on these minutes which says you were?
VON BRAUCHITSCH: In spite of the signature. May I first read the whole document before I give a definite answer?
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Read the last sentence. Witness, I may be misinterpreting this. It does