[Larry deZeng]

I just reviewed KTB/OKW from 1 May to 20 May 1941 and found no mention of any conscious decision to make the London raid of 10/11 May the last one on that target (600 aircraft, 12 lost the entry says). But the raids for the 10 days prior to that and the ten days following were clearly on other targets in the U.K. (unless I missed one). The daily entries are mostly about "Marita", the forthcoming mission to Iraq, getting Vichy approval to transit Syria, "Merkur" planning, AOK 12's boast of having "342 Offiziere, 10 340 Mann Engländer gefangen" as of 13 May. On 19 May under the sub-heading "Westen", the entry reads, "Geringe Tätigkeit der eigenen Luftwaffe wegen Erholung." Now one doesn't have to read too hard between the lines to imagine that all this "resting and refitting" in the West may be related to the impending movement of the Luftwaffe's big bomber fleet to the East for "Barbarossa". So the documents you seek may be in the Luftwaffe Annex of the "Barbarossa" planning documents. There it would give a specific date for the termination of large-scale raids on the U.K. so the bomber fleet could be prepared for the transfer. I remember these planning documents from my research many years ago and they do include milestones and termination dates like that.

Larry