User:Trident13/Train

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The Transport of Adolf Hitler consisted mainly of using cars and aeroplanes, but when he required a head quarters location which was remote from the eleven he had built for his personal use, or during the winter when the roads in the Alps were covered in snow, he would use a train with the code name Amerika.^[1]

[edit] Cars

Parade of SA troops past Hitler, inside his Mercedes 770 W07. Nuremberg, November 1935.

Hiter's prefered mode of transport was the car. From the 1920's onwards, he was accompanied by a bodyguard for security reasons, but whether by advise or choice prefered to use open-topped cars for access to the public.

On 29 January 1929 Hitler personally ordered a Mercedes-Benz Model 15/70/100 6-cylinder 4/5-passenger car for delivery direct to Munich. Probably his last personal car, order number #43966 was not the biggest car, but larger than the contemporary S and SS models. On 30 July 1930, the then called Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ordered a similar 6-cylinder 6/7-passenger car for delivery to Berlin.^[2]

By the mid-1930s, Hitler's tranpsort had developed the need for armour, and resultantly scale to facilitate the heavy armour plate. The prefered vehicle was the Mercedes-Benz 770 W07 model, as previoulsy used by the Kaiser. After Mercedes revised the model to create the W150 in 1938, in 1941 Hitler ordered at least two 770K's for his personal use. Equiped with an over-stretched 20ft chassis, were added 2,000lbs of 1/2" thick armor plate and 500lbs of 1 1/4" thick bullet proof glass, the later reportedly tested by Hitler personally through a single shot with his Luger P08 pistol.^[3] Behind the rear seat is a leather covered sheet of armor that could be cranked up manually.^[4] The single-overhead-cam straight-8 engines were superchargered, creating 230hp through dual spark plugs. 4-wheel independent suspension with coil springs and hydraulic shocks were standard equipment on contemporary Mercedes, with Hitler's cars having the addition of independent front and back power brakes that could be lubricated en route by a pedal on the driver's side. However, due to the additions the cars weight came to over 10,000lbs, resulting in sluggish acceleration and 3mpg, meaning that the over sized 52gallon fuel tank delivered a range of around 150miles.^[3]

Of the cars that survive, two have well noted histories:

• The Mannerheim car: to cement the Finno-German alliance, Hitler presented one 770K to Field Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim. After Russia attacked Finland, Mannerheim moved it to neutral Sweden for the war period - he used a Packard V12 for his inaguration in 1944.^[5] The car was confiscated for unpaid taxes after the war and sold in 1948 to Christopher G. Janus, managing director of Eximport Associates of Chicago, in lieu for a shipment of ball bearings. Janus shipped it to American on June 29, 1948, where by mid-August it started a career as part of a recruitment drive for the U.S. Air Force.^[3] After initial launch at Times Square and display at the New York Museum of Science and Industry, the car was driven to the Springfield fairgrounds through crowds of 5,000people, where access was 50 cents for Adults and 25 cents for children. In a subsequent national tour it raised in excess of $100,000.^[3]
• The 101st Airborne car: in May 1945, the US 101st Airborne Division liberated Berchtesgaden, location of Hitler's Berghof home and Eagles Nest. After being exported to America with the division, it apprently spent time in South Africe before return to the United States.

Later W150 model Mercedes Benz 770, as used by Hiter and on display at the Canadian War Museum

In 1966, Arizona real estate developer Tom Barrett bought both cars for his private collection, but sold both at auction in 1973. The better condition Mannerheim car sold for $153,000 to Earl Clark for display at his his Lancaster, PA park called Dutch Wonderland.^[6] The 101st Airborne car sold to George Wallace's 1964 campaign manager Billy C. Tanner for $93,000, who sold his option to mobile-home manufacturer Don Tidwell. Clark quickly sold the Mannerheim car onwards in a publicity stunt auction held at Dutch Wonderland, where with some Nazi memrobelia it sold to Robert Pass of St. Louis, Mo, reaching a new world record fee for an historic car. Pass sold the car for $141,000 in February, 1975 to A. J. Frascona, a car dealer from Wauwatosa, Wis; from where it bought and put was on display at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino by owner Ralph Engelstad.^[7][4] After his death in 2002, the car was sold to the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, CA.^[8]

The Prospect Association owned another supposed Hitler car, which mounted on a semi-trailer toured North America, taking 229,000 paid admissions at one exhibition. Pete Sevich bought the car in 1957 for his World of Mirth shows in Pennsylvania, after the owner put it up for sale in Texas with the best offer over $3,500. He sold the car in 1966 to showman Bill Hall, who later took the car off exhibition and sold it for $30,000 having discovered it as a fraud.^[4]

The only other known genuine Hitler car is on display at the Canadian War Museum. First shown to pay off war debts, the car was sold in 1956 and 14 years later it was acquired by the museum after it was shown at the Montreal exhibition Man and His World.^[4] In 2000 it was considered for disposal after the Director of the museum Jack Granatstein argued that displaying the car gave the wrong image and glamourized Nazism, and estimated that the car might bring C$20 million at an auction — money he said would help build a new museum, which was needed at the time. The car had been a popular exhibit at the museum for 30 years, and the suggestion resulted in a series of angry calls and e-mails from the public forced Granatstein to abandon the idea.^[9]

[edit] Aircraft

Classical Junker JU 52 as used by Hitler

Hitler's prefered mode for long disatnce travel was the classical tri-motor Junkers & Co Ju 52. Always accompanied by a fighter escort, the plane was one of the few variants in the Nazi [[[Luftwaffe]] portfolio which could allow for a single engine failure and still fly on at least two engines. It was Hitlers policy to persue development of twin-motor bombers which would create a larger airforce quickly, over the allies strategy of developing larger quad-motor aeroplanes to allow long distance bombing deep into occupied Europe, which effectivly lead to him using the Ju 52.

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SPECIAL TRAIN (Sonderzug)

Adolf Hitler's private train was pulled by two locomotives and including two armoured railroad cars. The train was originally named 'Amerika' and after the United States entered the war the name was changed to 'Brandenburg' and was last used by Hitler on January 15, 1945, when he left the Führer Headquarters at Adlerhorst at 6pm and arrived back in Berlin the next day. This train was used by Hitler during the attack on Poland and during the war a total of thirteen H/Qs were built for Hitler including the underground bunker at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The balcony was added in 1937 by Albert Speer who had just been created Inspector General of Buildings in Berlin.^[10]

[edit] References