78 years ago today...

[PanzerMeyer]

The nearly-successful bomb plot to kill Hitler at his command center in East Prussia occurred. von Stauffenberg is by far the most widely well known conspirator but there were many others who were involved who came from both the military and civilian sector.

What really bugged me the most about the movie "Valkyrie" is that it portrayed all of the conspirators as having noble motives for being involved in the bomb plot. The fact is that many of them had no moral issues with the regime but were angry and frustrated with Hitler for his incompetence in running the German war effort so they wanted him out. Oh well, it was a Hollywood-produced movie so you can only expect so much historical accuracy right?

[Cr33p3r]

You might be interested in Anthropoid starring Cillian Murphy about the Heydrich assassination. In the film which is pretty accurate, the boy bringing food to the assassins was in real life a young girl and was my Great Aunt Tessie. She also escaped Czechoslovakia in reality.

I read Rommel's biography in college for a class and his role in the Hitler assassination attempt was discussed. Interesting piece of history.

[PanzerMeyer]

The saddest and sobering fact about the Heydrich assassination is that it solved absolutely nothing. The Holocaust continued uninterrupted and Heydrich was quickly replaced by Kaltenbrunner and the reprisals against the Czechs got even worse.

[Bones]

You might be interested in Anthropoid starring Cillian Murphy about the Heydrich assassination. In the film which is pretty accurate, the boy bringing food to the assassins was in real life a young girl and was my Great Aunt Tessie. She also escaped Czechoslovakia in reality.

I read Rommel's biography in college for a class and his role in the Hitler assassination attempt was discussed. Interesting piece of history.

Didn't a great uncle of yours have something to do with resisting the Nazis in Czechoslovakia too?

v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

Oh, forgot to say "thanks" for sharing that really fascinating family story Creeper.

In regards to Rommel, he did indeed know about the July 20 bomb plot but did not report it to the Gestapo and that sealed his fate. Compared to the other conspirators though he got off rather "easy" by being given the option to commit suicide and given guarantees that his family would be safe.

[Cr33p3r]

No worries Panzer. Yes, I hope to visit Czech Republic one day and go to Lidice. they have a really nice memorial to the residents who were wiped out in reprisal, 30 of which were children. Its supposed to be quite a moving memorial. that church where the assassins were holed up also is now a museum and the basement window stone blocking still has holes in it from the gunfire.

Bones, Kind of. It was my Great Aunt who was part of Czech resistance who I mentioned above. My grandfather was a B17 navigator who got shot down over German in September 1944. He parachuted safely but was killed by local German farmers who were sympathetic to the Nazis. He is now buried in Farmingdale Cemetary on Long Island. I have pics and even copies of documents and awards he was given. So, two different people

My Uncle who passed away in his 90's served also in the AAF in North Africa working on B-17's that were being ferried to Russia under a lend-lease program.

[Bones]

Ah, yes, that was the one...got stories mixed up.

The VP of my company passed away in his 90s a few years ago. He was a B-17 bombardier. He had a few stories to tell me but I wish I could have gotten more. I asked if he ever saw an Me-262 and he said yes. They were all like "WTF is that?!?" since no one had ever seen a plane without a prop before. But he said the P-51s shot them down no problem anyway.

He noted a few things about the P-51. One, they would fly high above the B-17s to conserve fuel and watch over them, but when their tanks were empty, they would drop them and sometimes forget the B-17s were underneath. Oops. They also found out too late that the P-51 actually had just as much a bomb payload as a B-17 did, but the range wasn't there.

Ever hear of a baka bomb? He piloted one once and parachuted out over the English Channel. He said after that he never wanted to do it again.

Another time his B-17 was so shot up they made it back to England but was going to be short of the runway so they started bailing out to lighten the load. A few crewmembers parachuted out but ended up hitting buildings on final and got killed doing so.

He made it through all 25 of his missions, and was in the mission to bomb the bearing plant in Bremen. It was no bueno. The former foreman of our company was German and was growing up in Germany during WWII. Ironically enough the VP was bombing him down below and now they were working together.

After his 25 was up he came back to the US and became an instructor bombardier. He left the USAAF as a Captain.

v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

My grandfather was a B17 navigator who got shot down over German in September 1944. He parachuted safely but was killed by local German farmers who were sympathetic to the Nazis.

I got a lump in my throat when I read this. My condolences.


I know the US Army did put quite a few German civilians on trial after the war for killing downed airmen and some of them got the firing squad.

[Cr33p3r]

I got a lump in my throat when I read this. My condolences.
I know the US Army did put quite a few German civilians on trial after the war for killing downed airmen and some of them got the firing squad.

Thanks I appreciate that. The sad part is that this occurred about 3 months before my father was born so he never knew is real dad. This will sound like a Danielle Steele novel but my grandfather had gotten his cousin pregnant before heading off to fight. Then, he was shot down with my dad about to be born to a single mom. So, my true grandmother and her sister and her husband all went away for a month. She had the baby and gave it to her sister secretly.

So, my dad grew up with an overcritical mom (who was really his aunt) and an Aunt who doted over him (who was really his true mom). She died when I was like 5 yrs old so she got to hold her grandson. This all came out with the reading of the will and was hush. I only found all this out about 30 years ago from my dad at the Thanksgiving dinner table of all places with my perceived grandmother (who was really an aunt) sitting there.

I know TMI with all this but wanted to complete the story. I had to redraw my family tree.