Remains Of The Third Reich

[russell sprout]

Hi, Just thought i'd start a new thread to see if anyone knows of any undiscovered sights in Germany etc as we've all heard of the secret underground hangers full of King Tigers etc dotted around.

To start with i can contribute with Gutersloh and Detmold Airfields, both German nightfighter bases. Gutersloh has a cracking room in the officer’s mess building in which Goering used to stay, one of the oak beams in the ceiling has been rigged with levers and pulleys to collapse under control by using a switch underneath the floor boards. It was rigged up out of Aircraft parts by the German Airmen as a practical joke after Goerings speach about the roof collapsing if any enemy bomber makes it to the Reich. The room now houses an impressive collection of relic aircraft parts, machine guns and swastika marked wing panals that have been dug up over the years on the Airfield.

As for Detmold, during the early 1980's one of the old aircraft hangers was demolished to make way for a new building, from the rubble during the excavation came the remains of a ME262 jet fighter along with a nice MG121 wing machine gun that now hangs on the wall in one of the Army Air Corps hangers at Wattisham Suffolk, Also in the rumble came the entrance to an underground store, NO REALLY ) No tiger tanks but a store full of vintage motor bikes, not sure if an were Wartime issue but my father who was a member of the motor bike club at the time picked up a nice 1930's German Tornax racing bike for a tenner which was painted maroon, the standerd colour of all bikes commandeered by the Germans during the early part of the war......... anyone know of any other finds of treasure in theThird Reich????

[Greg]

Hi Russell,

I did a lot of looking around like that on the US Army kasernes I was stationed at, but never found anything significant. One of the places I was stationed was Hanau, where Fliegerhosrt Airfield is located. It was a dirt runway night fighter base during WWII. The locals had stories of vast underground hangers in several levels, still full of planes in the 1980s, etc. Some investigators put enough credence in the stories that they got permission to bring in ground-penetrating radar, which did reveal some medium size underground cavities. They drilled and put a TV camera down into the biggest one, but it was empty. Speculation was that it was actually a fuel storage tank.

Here's a website with some info about what's still in some caves and bunkers in Germany. http://www.thirdreichruins.com/

Greg

[Si1964]

I can't confirm this story, but here goes, durning the war the allied forces by passed Osnabrück because it was heavily/well defended by Waffen SS troops. After the war late 40's some of the barricks/buildings where the SS had been based, were used by US forces based there.

Underneath these buildings was an underground network of tunnels etc, they where so well booby traped that several soldiers were killed trying to search them. Eventually this was called to a halt and have been sealed up until this day {well that was the late 70's}.

If true and not hear say, just imagine what may lay down there!!!

Hey Greg you use to guided tours then!!

[russell sprout]

I think most German Barracks had underground tunnels/Air raid shelters connecting the buildings together, think it was Montgomery Barracks Munster, during the early 1990's that i saw that the parade square fenced off, apparently due to underground rooms caving in, think it was rumoured to be an underground hospital, would love to know the facts, heard so many similar stories, heard one about flooded underground tunnels underneath barrack buildings in Dusseldorf that are unexplored. Hohne Garrison camp next to Belsen concentration camp has a large buliding called the 'round house' It's now the Garrison NAAFI shop but during the war i believe it was a large HQ/ Conferance building, but that also has several floors underground.

[airtrooper]

When I was based in Detmold in the late 80's there was a gun from one of the uncovered aircraft on the wall in 4 AAC RHQ along with several wartime photos, etc. of the kasserne.
A few years later when in UK I mentioned this to the Brigadier, commander aviation UKLF. He told me he had been there when the aircraft were dug up during the building of the new aircraft hanger. He told me there had been a store of some kind also uncovered but declined to go into detail as to what was inside it !!!!

[steve h]

i remember reading about an airfield that was taken over and used by the allies, the americans i think. anyway, some time during the post cold war drawdown, they stopped using it, and cleared the site. during the clearance, they pulled out two rows of, they thought, back-to-back modern steel lockers the aircrew had been using for flying clothing etc. between the two rows of modern lockers they found several german wooden lockers untouched since the german pilots had fled the airfield. contained everything from personal items, uniforms, flying clothing, even side arms and ammunition.

just wish i could remember more details or where i read it....

[N.C. Wyeth]

For a while now, a few friends and I have been studying the various "treasure stories" about this place (and it's surroundings). Soon, we will all be gathering together, and will attempt to chase a couple of them down in person . . .

Anyone else have a good tip or two about the place that they would care to share? I promise a fair share of anything we find . . .

[Jägermarty]

Hi Russell,

I .

Here's a website with some info about what's still in some caves and bunkers in Germany. http://www.thirdreichruins.com/

Greg

this^^^
amazingly good website!

[florian_geyer72]

For a while now, a few friends and I have been studying the various "treasure stories" about this place (and it's surroundings). Soon, we will all be gathering together, and will attempt to chase a couple of them down in person . . .

Anyone else have a good tip or two about the place that they would care to share? I promise a fair share of anything we find . . .

Hi NC,

Nice picture of the last Hq of the 506 PIR - 101 US AIRBN. near Zell am Zee.



Regards.

F.

[juoneen]

Back in the early 70s, a friend joined the airforce, and ended up in germany. He found the luftwaffe had used the base also, and all the underground storage, and emplacements had been closed off. He wondered what was still down there...so he and his friends tunnelled down to the closed off area, and found a german motorcycle ,w/ side car, german helmets, uniforms, stick grenades, among other finds. I dont think he got caught. (his last name was whitlock)

[Gran Sasso]

In my hometown is a golf-coourse for the US-soldiers, the area was a dump at the end of war. The Americans have trown there everything that was of no use anymore, or what they wanted to get rid off, and covered it with earth.

App. 15 years ago they decided wo remove a piece of metall, wich was peking out off the gras, and always damaged the mower (? - small tractor wo cut the gras) - it was the bumper of a Willy´s jeep, still with the jeep attached...

[Asbjoern]

Dumpinkplacec

Yes, while most rumors on secret warehouses filled with planes and tanks (or the Bernsteinzimmer etc) are pure fantasy the hoard hidden in old dumping places is reality! During the last years a lot of big items turned up as many military facilities where closed and "converted" Beside the tanks from Vilseck barraks (The Pz IV from Duxford, a real JPz 38 (t) now also in england, plus fragments of a Pz II and a Hornisse) stuff turned up in Hannover (french tracked SPG from WW I) or near Berlin (two Lorrain Ammo-carrier). On the Franfurt airfield they found some airplane engines under the concrete etc etc ...

Jens