Re: Hitler, his Yacht and an Enigma ...

Hi John..

Must be our day for exchanging emails...this must be at
least #5.

Can't remember what my wife said to me about dinner tonight
but I clearly recall being on board the Grille in about
1946 when the yacht was berthed at Hartlepool in northern
England. At the time the vessel was described as "Hitler's
yacht".

I also recall, on a different occasion, being in a large
open Mercedes with a machine-gun mount in the rear seat
that was being toted round the country and described as
being [one of several, I assumed] used by Hitler. The
point was made that each door of this open car was made
of armour plate, on ball-bearing hinges, and weighed an
immense amount so a visitor should avoid having his/her
hands trapped/amputated when closing it!

Enigma wheels: in case anyone brings up the subject there
are two wheels in [I'm ashamed to say] our own museum
that are wrongly-labelled as being "special rotors used
by Hitler" ...this is a sheer calumny and I have been
trying unsuccessfully to get the curator to remove the
tag since I first saw it in 1999. The two are patently
Zusatzwalzen from an M4 but as they're sealed-in behind
heavy plate glass it will probably require a government
edict to get at 'em...

The reason I bring up this last item: I can conceive of
someone viewing our mis-labeled exhibit, going home to
find a 'Greek' wheel in his cupboard and self-declaring
it to have been used by 'der Führer'! the presence or
absence of an alpha or gamma symbol would support/kill
this theory!

David 

At 13:37 03/10/2008, John Alexander wrote:

>A strange  question maybe ...
>
>Does anyone in the group have information relating to Hitler's Yacht(s)?
>
>A website refers to one boat called 'Grille' or 'Grasshopper' and  
>another 'Ostwind' .. others?
>
>He had several over the years but I am mainly interested in whichever  
>yachts / boats he used towards the end of the war.
>
>Reason:  An inquiry asks for information relating to a single Enigma  
>rotor that is purportedly from Hitler's yacht and captured at war's  
>end.  It is labeled as being from Hitler's yacht but that label means  
>nothing by itself.
>
>The item is apparently a Kriegsmarine-type Enigma rotor but  I'll  
>keep the serial number out of it for the time being.
>
>Seems wholly likely that Hitler would have suitable comm's facilities  
>aboard his yacht(s).
>
>While I ask the person involved for more information, I felt I should  
>also ask here.
>
>All information will be duly passed along and greatly received.
>
>Regards
>
>John Alexander

************************************************************
David Hamer                              [email protected]
http://home.comcast.net/~dhhamer       [email protected]
************************************************************   


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