I'm a bit late to the party here, however considering we've just commemorated the 70th anniversary of VE Day, and a big THANK YOU to all reading this who were there and made it happen, here goes...
It's too bad Goering didn't get Adolf interested in toy train collecting, who knows how things would have turned out? But Adolf wanted to collect countries, so what are you gonna do?
Goering told a story about himself to the US Army interrogators during the Nuremberg trial. Considering who it came from, take it for what it's worth.
"In the early Twenties I was going to join the Masons. The night I was going to the Masons meeting I had a few hours to kill so I went to a local bar. Well, there was a hot blonde in there, I picked her up, and we spent the evening together. Needless to say I missed the meeting."
"The next night I went to hear Hitler speak. I was very impressed and decided to join the Nazi party. So when you come down to it the reason I'm here is because of a hot blonde!"
Yeah, right.
This thread peaked my interest so I did a search on the Axis History Forum. Found link to this:
http://www.bills-bunker.de/113101.html
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I've heard that the late Ronald Reagan was a model railroader. Didn't MR have an article about Rod Stewart's HO layout not long ago? Speaking of Hitler's plans, there was an article in Trains maybe 20 years ago about his 3-meter gauge railroad that was in the planning stages. I recall the admiring tone the author of the article had. I sure remember a picture of Goering, where I saw it I don't recall but he's wearing lederhosen, standing above the tracks of what looks like an O-gauge layout at Karinhall and passing under him was a Swiss Crocodile locomotive.
This may be of interest. At the Meadowbrook classic car show in Michigan a few years ago was Hermann's armour plated Mercedes 540K roadster. Painted light blue metallic, in excellent shape except for a bullet mark on a one inch-thick door window. The car was captured by the 101st Airborne at Berchtesgaden and obviously someone pulled out a 45 and said, "We'll see about that armour plating!" Numerals of the 101st were stencilled on the bumper as the C.O. of the division used the car himself. It also has one of those convoy lights in front that looks sort of like a German helmet. I'd like to own a supercharged Mercedes roadster from the 1930s, just not that one.
54light15 I sure remember a picture of Goering, where I saw it I don't recall but he's wearing lederhosen, standing above the tracks of what looks like an O-gauge layout at Karinhall and passing under him was a Swiss Crocodile locomotive.
(This was in the linked material from the Goering-Maerklin page.)
That sure looks like Franz von Papen with Goering to me.
I too recall reading (somewhere) about Hitler's interest in a three-meter gauge railway. Just how practical that would have been is a mystery to me, but then Hitler liked big stuff anyway, those two 31" bore cannons "Gustav" and "Dora" used on the Russian Front were built on his instigation. In the end they did perform well but were just too big and impractical to use.
The 3 meter gauge railroad was part of Hitler's dream of world domination, but was never built beyond a single prototype.
Locomotives and rolling stock were proportionally larger. One photograph I have seen within a BBC documentary about World War 2 shows a steam locomotive that towers above a conventional 4'-8.5" standard gauge loco.
Rail and roadbed would have had to be able to handle the excess weight, too.
54light15 Speaking of Hitler's plans, there was an article in Trains maybe 20 years ago about his 3-meter gauge railroad that was in the planning stages.
Trains Magazine August 1984 Hitler's Super Railway
Contemporaneous praise for Mussolini making the trains run on time is surprisingly scarce. The New York Times makes only a single contemporaneous mention of the trains running on time. The noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was quoted in the New York Times ["NIEBUHR HOLDS MAN DEPENDENT ON GOD"] on December 14, 1931 "Regardless of the compliments tourists give him for running the trains on time, the rule of mussolini is the greatest outrage carried on against liberty"
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/it-trains-ran-on-time.htm
As the first Facist dictator, Mussolini did things on a larger than O scale.
AnonymousAmerican spelling "Goring". Goring committed suicide before the hangman could get him. No lost to civilization, but I wonder where the toys are now.
Johnny
Here is a link to a blog post.
http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.ca/search?q=+nazi
Frank
"If you need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm."
Victrola1 Contemporaneous praise for Mussolini making the trains run on time is surprisingly scarce. The New York Times makes only a single contemporaneous mention of the trains running on time. The noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was quoted in the New York Times ["NIEBUHR HOLDS MAN DEPENDENT ON GOD"] on December 14, 1931 "Regardless of the compliments tourists give him for running the trains on time, the rule of mussolini is the greatest outrage carried on against liberty" http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/it-trains-ran-on-time.htm As the first Facist dictator, Mussolini did things on a larger than O scale.
Americans weren't going to praise Mussolini for making the trains run on time, the trains ran on time here in the US anyway and we didn't need a dictator to make it happen!
It should be pointed out that der Dicke Hermann was not just a buffoon, but a central figure in planning the Wannsse Conference where the "Final Solution" was planned in 1942.
November 9th is the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust. We must never forget! Never again!
charlie hebdo It should be pointed out that der Dicke Hermann was not just a buffoon, but a central figure in planning the Wannsse Conference where the "Final Solution" was planned in 1942. November 9th is the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust. We must never forget! Never again!
Yeah, he is an odd duck.
Himmler, Hitler, Et al. Looking at THEM, it is not hard to believe they were White Nationalist Anti Semites.
Goring was such a "Jolly Character", it was easy to forget what a complete monster he was.
Juxtaposed was his brother Albert. He was a PRINCE oh a guy and helped many of the people that were "at risk" citizens of Nazi Germany.
Amazing how this topic came back from the dead!
Goering's jolly character. He knew it and played the role for the German public. As he put it...
"The Fuehrer was too remote, Goebbels was too fanatic, Hess was too weird, and Himmler was too scary. So the people clung to me!"
OK, if you say so Herr Reichsmarschall. You're an SOB anyway.
One thing that rubbed Hermann the wrong way. Veterans of Baron von Richtofen's "Flying Circus," which Goering ended up commanding, always said the Baron was the best leader of men they ever knew. Goering was good, but not in the Barons league.
The Reichsmarschall lost a lot of his popularity when the RAF and later the AAF started unloading on Germany.
CSSHEGEWISCH The Reichsmarschall lost a lot of his popularity when the RAF and later the AAF started unloading on Germany.
"If a single enemy bomb falls on the Reich my name's not Goering! You can call me Meier!"
So the Germans started calling air raid sirens "Meier's Hunting Horns."
Not sure on this, but I think "Meier" was a German buffoonic comic character."
One thing about Hermann is that he had somewhat of a sense of humour. When the nazis got ahold of the "Nazis dancing to Lambeth Walk" film short, Goebbels was foaming at the mouth after seeing it. Goering was amused but wisely kept it to himself. I thnk I've posted it on the Trains forum before but it is on You Tube.
Flintlock76 CSSHEGEWISCH The Reichsmarschall lost a lot of his popularity when the RAF and later the AAF started unloading on Germany. "If a single enemy bomb falls on the Reich my name's not Goering! You can call me Meier!" So the Germans started calling air raid sirens "Meier's Hunting Horns." Not sure on this, but I think "Meier" was a German buffoonic comic character."
Actually it was an anti-Semitic piece of sarcasm. Although Meier or Meyer was a common German family name, some made an association with Jewish people.
So that's what it was! Thanks!
There's a story about Goering's sense of humor from the Goebbels diary. Goebbel's people were making a war film, and in the movie a Luftwaffe fighter pilot hooks up with a gorgeous nightclub singer and very obviously spends the night with her, leaving her apartment the next morning.
Some very upright Ober Kommando Wehrmacht generals saw the sequence and were outraged and wanted the sequence removed. Goebbels thought it was a good sequence and wanted it to remain, so he called up Goering to get his opinion.
Said Goering, "Well, if he doesn't want to spend the night with a beautiful singer he can't be much of a fighter pilot!"
That probably goes for all fighter jocks, whatever uniform they wear!
Now here's an interesting "what-if."
After Manfred von Richthofen was killed in April 1918 a Captain Wilhelm Rheinhard assumed command of the Baron's fighter group. In July of that year both Rheinhard and Goering were invited to test fly a prototype fighter, the Dornier-Zeppelin D.1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier-Zeppelin_D.I
Goering flew the plane first, then Rheinhard. While Rheinhard was pulling the plane out of a dive the top wing came off, the plane crashed and Rheinhard was killed. So, Goering assumed command of the Richthofen group.
Imagine how different history might have been if it was Goering who was killed.
Years after the First World War Goering tried to get a bit of mileage claiming he and the Red Baron were close friends. Surviving members of the group always said (privately) that wasn't true. While von Richthofen certainly knew Goering, as he knew all the pilots in his group, Goering's claim they were good buddies was a bit of a stretch, to put it politely.
jsanchezActually Hitler had plans for super railroads which he actually helped design, I believe they would have been built to a 10' or wider gauge and capable of hauling vast quantities of freight and people. They were supposed to help with developing the conquered terretories, Russia, Poland ,the baltic states etc. Hitler also enjoyed traveling in private railcars and signed numerous treaties and conducted many official state duties in railcars.
There was a good-sized article about them in TRAINS, some years ago.
Flintlock76Goering flew the plane first, then Rheinhard. While Rheinhard was pulling the plane out of a dive the top wing came off, the plane crashed and Rheinhard was killed. So, Goering assumed command of the Richthofen group.
Anyone who remembers the "Blue Max" movie will remember a very similar incident which was a 'conspiracy of omission', as I recall to get rid of an 'inconvenient' famous individual without spoiling his memory or his propaganda value. Not at all the same thing as the Hobey Baker conspiracy.
Gauge for the Breitspurbahn (which in German means simply 'broad-gauge [rail]road') was a nominal 3 meters, just under 10 feet. I don't know if formal plate limits were devised, but most of the published material that has survived indicates they would be at least proportionally similar to what is practical on standard 1435mm gauge. This aspect is considerably more important than the nominal track gauge -- railroads can build very large and effective power even for metre gauge (steam and diesel -- see Brazil or the GELSA locomotives), but can be hobbled if gauge is a limit on clearance width, as it was on both British standard and Brunel wide-gauge lines (and exported to many nations by Britain as 'the nation that invented railways')
If what I've read is true the author of the novel "The Blue Max," Jack D. Hunter, knew about the Goering-Rheinhard incident and used it in the novel. However, the novel's different than the movie. In the novel Lt. Bruno Stachel (played by George Peppard in the movie) takes the experimental plane up first, then tells his squadron Commander Captain Heidemann it's a no-good deathtrap. Heidemann disbelieves Stachel and is killed. Stachel was intended by Hunter to be the lead character in a series of novels set in post-war Germany leading up to the Nazi era.
The ending of the movie's a LOT better! I remember seeing it in 1966 and the sardonic laughter from all the men in the theater after James Mason tells George Peppard "It's all right Stachel, you can take her up now. And let's see some REAL flying!"
Overmodgauge is a limit on clearance width, as it was on both British standard and Brunel wide-gauge lines
Keep in mind that the K.P.St.E. (KPEV, Royal Prussian Railway) was designed in part for potential military use to the west and east, with a larger plate limits.
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