The "plot" to kidnap Hitler…

Just bumping this up as a heads-up for those who may be interested in the BBC South East region tonight.

Hi
Well the old grey cells kept bugging me and I found this, but i am sure somewhere at pro this was in a file.
cheers
Jerry

quote

CE+IB, Fw-200C-4/u-1

‘the seat contained a parachute and on the right hand side below the window was a red lever,secured by a red seal,to an open escape hatch in the floor”

from book hitler squadron

http://books.google.ca/books?id=eUgibPp3dwkC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=escape+hatch+in+himmler+condor&source=bl&ots=UzDJfYBmil&sig=upmu_LkHTzAFqcU2J3NPHlXQNLU&hl=en&ei=JzouTazhG4_6sAPu8KCyBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=escape%20hatch%20in%20himmler%20condor&f=false

getting o/t
but came across this

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=237

A recent email alerted us to a little known fact that Britain acquired a sole Fw 200 Condor and nearly used it in action. The email – which we’ll keep anonymous – reads as follows:

Gentlemen,

In passing, the UK immediately prior to WW2, had acquired a single FW 200 by ‘back door’ methods (dont ask!). One operation was planned using it, to land Commandos at Merignac airfield in occupied France, and destroy those identical German [aircraft] on the ground. The planning group did their planning work ‘down the tunnel’ at Maidstone in Kent. The plan involved a German Condor outbound from Norway being shot down by a flight of Spitfires specially based in the extreme north of the Shetland Islands, at an airstrip called Baltasound.

The plan was aborted when near to ‘go ahead’, as the recovery of the Commandos at the end of the [operation] was seen as far too problematical.

Authority: My Father, an R.A.F. S/Ldr., who was on the planning team

As long as the wind was the prevailing SWesterly then the landing would be uphill.

Cheers Mr

The site plan is A3 so bit difficult to scan and post here.

Fairy Nuff. Home ICT seems to have standardised early and heavy on A4 (or US Letter or US Legal). Anything esle just gets harder and more annoying to deal with

It looks as if the longest runway available was around 2,000 yards.

So Historic buffs how much deck required to land a Condor?

Or even how much to crash land since we wouldn’t need to get the thing airborn again afterwards?

Am not sure if this gets me out of Pergatory, but found the Lympne site plan.

It looks as if the longest runway available was around 2,000 yards.

The site plan is A3 so bit difficult to scan and post here.

Sorry you think so, Peter. And I am sorry if it offends you. However, in deference to your objection I will modify the quote to remove the word ‘will’ which was an unintentional addition on my part and a corruption of Mr Stenger’s original quote.

However, just to correct one of your earlier comments it is not “my” slogan, and neither is its use by me here hardly original or unique. It was thought up by Victor Stenger and has been used in a thousand and one other places, by posters on many other forums, and even on London buses, I think…?? So, you could take up the issue with Mr Stenger. However, the intention of this thread was to talk about the alleged Hitler kidnap plot as recorded in the National Archives.

Certainly, there seem to have been plots a-plenty to have Hitler killed. As we know, some came close to success. Thus, perhaps it should not be surprising that there were other plots to perhaps have him removed by other means.

Not exactly a plot to kidnap Hitler but actually a plot to kill him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venlo_Incident

Cafe Backus is less than 20 miles from where I live (I’d have to do some then-and-now pictures, but there are some great pictures of it in the web). It happened shortly after the war started and led to a number of casualties and the arrest of two SIS agents; surprisingly they survived the war and returned to the UK.

In the 50s through to the 80s every ex-serviceman from RAF-Laarbruch passed the cafe when heading for the motorway on their way home to the UK (between Straelen and Venlo). I guess that some of them knew of the historical significance of the place.

Now that I have let off some steam in one of my ealier posts in this thread, I still think that Andy’s ridiculous slogan is totally unacceptible.

No you did your purgatory time when you when banned from this site because of an administrative error. 😀

As for the warm place, going on the behaviour of the true believers, I am inclined to think it would be a better place than the destination they are aiming for. :dev2:

Not a problem for most of us though is it? If ‘hell is other people’ then there will be one petty lonely person in the afterlife and a a number of very bitter ones.

Purgatory? Purgatory? I’m only in purgatory? What a relief.

No you did your purgatory time when you when banned from this site because of an administrative error. 😀

As for the warm place, going on the behaviour of the true believers, I am inclined to think it would be a better place than the destination they are aiming for. :dev2:

Purgatory? Purgatory? I’m only in purgatory? What a relief.

I thought from previous posts that I had been give a “Go straight to Hell” ticket!!! 🙂

I will emark upon a personal crusade today to find it!

Good man! Have a week off from purgatory for your troubles

I will emark upon a personal crusade today to find it!

Crusades?

Regards,

kev35

You mean where feudal kings got to send their troublesome and belligerent knights off to pillage someone else’s lands. The ‘church’ got to expand its influence and church and merchants made a stack of cash bankroling the invading hoardes?

Crusades = bad. I would certainly agree with. Crusades = method for those at the top to increase their influence. I’d agree personally. Crusades = proof that faith is bad. Again too much of a stretch for me.

Any luck with that site plan?

“You’ll never guess who we have captured down on the marsh, sir!”

Or if he landed in the patch of a Cpl Jones type, “You’ll never guess who got the cold steel up ’em sir!” :diablo:

Maybe, just maybe, that was the intention…..:diablo::diablo:

I believe that the trapdoor parachute assembly was installed into a JU 52 he used to frequent. Saw it on tv recently in the USA, seems the whole seat would drop through the floor and it had the chute built right into it. Supposedly something about the design made it highly unlikely the user of it would have survived though.

There is nothing in the file at Kew about any “trapdoor” parachute. However, unless Adolf had decided to exit the Codor over France he would have been going to pretty certain death in the English Channel. However….had he jumped over the Kent coast can you imagine the local Home Guard picking him up?

“You’ll never guess who we have captured down on the marsh, sir!”

Anyway…..about this Hitler bloke….

Hi
Now I am pretty sure that this hitler bloke did offend a few people…

I seem to remember a file at the PRO, about this,didn’t hitler have some sort of ‘trapdoor parachute’ fitted to the condor ?
cheers
Jerry

I suppose late 1940 he wasn’t quite as nutty as he was late 44:eek:

I am sure that was probably so, Baz.

However, since this was late 1940 early 1941 I suppose the idea of “getting Hitler” must have had an immense appeal – though I doubt the consequences/what happens next had really been thought through to any extent beyond his transfer to London in a Morris 8 Box touring car!