I subscribe to a magazine called World War 2. This issue has an article about the surrender of Hermann Goering at the end of the war. One of the U.S. soldiers who was there that day was recently interviewed and the exchange was printed in this issue of the magazine. VERY INTERESTING! There is a color picture of poor Mr. Goering giving himself up, dressed in a splendid sky-blue Luftwaffe uniform with dark blue shirt. His famous baton was in his hands in another picture, wrapped in a burlap bag for protection. I guess he didn't figure on having to kill himself at Nuremburg.
Anyway, when he gave himself up, I guess his own personal guard was there, American guards were there, and SS Guards were there. It seems Hermann was a bit nervous about thoses SS Guards, because Hitler had just recently had him arrested by the SS for getting out of line. Some of the American guards appeared to be keeping Goerings' personal guards and the SS troopers apart for fear of a firefight. Everyone on that day was still armed!
Hermann Goering gives up
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Nordwest
Source: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ww2 ... zidbrf.htmHermann Goering, long-time chief of the Luftwaffe, made the following remarks during the course of several interrogations:
"I knew first that the Luftwaffe was losing control of the air when the American long-range fighters were able to escort the bombers as far as Hanover. It was not long before they were getting to Berlin. We then knew we must develop the jet planes. Our plan for their early development was unsuccessful only because of your bombing attacks.
"Allied attacks greatly affected our training program, too. For instance, the attacks on oil retarded the training because our new pilots couldn't get sufficient training before they were put into the air.
"I am convinced that the jet planes would have won the war for us if we had had only four or five months' more time. Our underground installations were all ready. The factory at Kahla had a capacity of 1,000 to 1,200 jet airplanes a month. Now with 5,000 to 6,000 jets, the outcome would have been quite different.
"We could have trained sufficient pilots for the jet planes despite oil shortage, because we would have had underground factories for oil, producing a sufficient quantity for the jets. The transition to jets was very easy in training. The jet-pilot output was always ahead of the jet-aircraft production.
"Germany could not have been defeated by air power alone, using England as a base, without invasion -- because German industry was going underground, and our countermeasures would have kept pace with your bombing. But the point is, that if Germany were attacked in her weakened condition as now, then the air could do it alone. That is, the land invasion meant that so many workers had to be withdrawn from factory production and even from the Luftwaffe.
"We bombed cities in England instead of concentrating on aircraft and engine factories despite my original intention to attack only military targets and factories, because after the British attacked Hamburg our people were angry and I was ordered to attack indiscriminately.
"Allied precision bombing had a greater effect on the defeat of Germany than area bombing, because destroyed cities could be evacuated but destroyed industry was difficult to replace.
"Allied selection of targets was good, particularly in regard to oil. As soon as we started to repair an oil installation, you always bombed it again before we could produce one ton.
"We didn't concentrate on four-engined Focke-Wulf planes as heavy bombers after the Battle of Britain, because we were developing the He-177 and trying to develop the Me-264, which was designed to go to America and return. Because our production capacity was not so great as America's, we could not produce quickly everything we needed. Moreover, our plants were subject to constant bombing.
"If I had to design the Luftwaffe again, the first airplane I would develop would be the jet fighter, then the jet bomber. It is now a question of fuel. The jet fighter takes too much. The Me-264 awaited only the final solution of the fuel-consumption problem. According to my view the future airplane is one without fuselage (flying wing) equipped with turbine in combination with the jet and propeller.
"Before D-Day, the Allied attacks in Northern France hurt us the most because we were not able to rebuild in France as quickly as at home. The attacks on marshaling yards were most effective, next came low-level attacks on troops, then attacks on bridges. The low-flying planes had a terror effect and caused great damage to our communications. Also demoralizing were the umbrella fighters, which after escorting the bombers would swoop down and hit everything, including the jet planes in the process of landing.
"The Allies owe the success of the invasion to the air forces. They prepared the invasion; they made it possible; they carried it through.
"Without the U. S. Air Force the war would still be going on elsewhere, but certainly not on German soil."
Closeup, H.G. after Surrender to American Troops 1945:
Michael
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Nordwest
Bulldog, try the CORBIS Online-Database for some interesting Photos of Goering just after his pers. Surrender 1945:
Search for: goering+1945 (Very detailed Photos...!)
Corbis: http://pro.corbis.com/default.aspx
Example, many more at CORBIS:
Michael
Search for: goering+1945 (Very detailed Photos...!)
Corbis: http://pro.corbis.com/default.aspx
Example, many more at CORBIS:
Michael
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Nordwest
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Nordwest
I knew a Lady, in her younger Years she was a personal Secretary of H.G. in the RLM in Berlin...
After 1945, she and my Grandmother became very close Friends, for many Reasons.
I remember very much Discussions with Frau F. about Goering and the Third Reich in general, the Lady was very close related to the Family Goering, she was in Carinhall several times, spending some spare Time and Weekends at that Place.
Before she passed away, she gave me a lot of Documents, Photos, and other related Artefacts conc. to Goering in Berlin and Carinhall.
The Lady was a assured "Nationalsozialist", up to her last Breath in the Year 1998, nowadays a so called "Hardliner", she was very straight, sometimes to straight for me...
She is gone, like the "Third Reich", buried under a Stone with a Rune, Finito.
Michael
After 1945, she and my Grandmother became very close Friends, for many Reasons.
I remember very much Discussions with Frau F. about Goering and the Third Reich in general, the Lady was very close related to the Family Goering, she was in Carinhall several times, spending some spare Time and Weekends at that Place.
Before she passed away, she gave me a lot of Documents, Photos, and other related Artefacts conc. to Goering in Berlin and Carinhall.
The Lady was a assured "Nationalsozialist", up to her last Breath in the Year 1998, nowadays a so called "Hardliner", she was very straight, sometimes to straight for me...
She is gone, like the "Third Reich", buried under a Stone with a Rune, Finito.
Michael
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Nordwest
The last-last word
The final triumph was actually Hitler's. He fired Goering and had him arrested by the SS.
So, "officially", according to nazi records, Goering was no longer in the armed forces by the time he gave himself up to the Americans! His splendid uniform was indeed just a pretty costume with no official meaning by that time.
So, "officially", according to nazi records, Goering was no longer in the armed forces by the time he gave himself up to the Americans! His splendid uniform was indeed just a pretty costume with no official meaning by that time.
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Nordwest
Sure, H.G. was "Number Two", in the Third Reich, second to the "Reichskanzler" Adolf Hitler.
To sorry, I was solding many Artefacts conc. to Goering after 1995, I just needed the Money, what a Shame...
In my Possesion are the Diaries of Frau F., I did not sell, and I will never sell, her very personal Emotions about these Years, more than 500 Pages long.
All "this" does not belong in a Forum, not even at Feldgrau.
Michael
To sorry, I was solding many Artefacts conc. to Goering after 1995, I just needed the Money, what a Shame...
In my Possesion are the Diaries of Frau F., I did not sell, and I will never sell, her very personal Emotions about these Years, more than 500 Pages long.
All "this" does not belong in a Forum, not even at Feldgrau.
Michael
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Paddy Keating
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Nordwest
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Alex Coles
- Associate
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