Army pilot recalls flying captured Nazi leader Goering for interrogation

[Bootie]

Capt. Bo Foster had an extraordinary mission: Fly captured Nazi leader Hermann Goering to the 7th Army's headquarters for interrogation.

Then he took one look at the one-time heir to Adolf Hitler and commander of the fearsome Luftwaffe — all 300-plus pounds of him — and knew he needed a bigger plane.


It was May 9, 1945, the day after World War II ended in Europe. Goering, Foster and a group of officers from the Army's 36th Infantry Division gathered on a tiny airstrip outside Kitzbuhel, Austria, to transport the highly-prized war prisoner back to Germany in an unarmed, two-man reconnaissance plane.


"They wanted to get him back where he could be debriefed. There was a strong rumor that in a mountainside in the Alps right down there in Bavaria there was a concentration of (German) military," Foster said. "He just acted as though it was a nice, friendly trip."


http://www.startribune.com/nation/114858509.html

 

[Corsaire31]

It should have normally been a 4 man plane ?

 

[PoorOldSpike]

 

[AirborneBob]

Would you belive I have skiied in Kitzbuhel...beautiful slopes! Unfortunaetly I wasnt aware of its signifcance at the time...oh well, another opportunity lost!!:baby:

 

[ACSpectre]

He'd come a long way from his days as a WWI Ace!!

 

[PoorOldSpike]

Goering in 1918, age 25.
Note the Pour le Merite medal (The Blue Max) below his collar

 

[AirborneBob]

That was a few schnitzle ago...

 

[PoorOldSpike]

Goering 1943

Goering with his Field-Marshals baton in 1940, and caption (right)- "President Harry S. Truman examining baton which once belonged to Nazi General Hermann Goering, June 45"