My motorcycle tour of Europe (inc WW2 then and now pics)

I'm surprised they weren't all officers. Some seem to be some privates. I see cooks (one with a huge knive) and even a Chasseur, one tankiste still in his leather suit and a couple of medics. There seems to be at least one General ! When seeing the almost perfect aspect of their gear, I'd say these pics were taken during the Summer of 1940. Other nationalies are seen as well, probably Belgians and the Great coats could be British. No Americans (they weren't at war yet, and no Russians (those poor guys wer enot sent to castles)

 

I've run out of 'Likes' for the day.

 

I did it for you !

 

Thanks guys, glad your enjoying my efforts.

 

Before I move on to our 'next port of call', here are some videos of Colditz Castle...

The POWs courtyard
http://vid270.photobucket.com/albums/jj112/panzer1944/European%20Trip%202014/POWsCourtyard1_zps521fdcc1.mp4

Walking from the POWs courtyard and in to the main courtyard - just as a swarm of tourists were arriving ...
http://vid270.photobucket.com/albums/jj112/panzer1944/European%20Trip%202014/POWCourtyardtoMainCourtyardavi_zpseb9195db.mp4

 

After leaving Colditz we headed west towards the Harz Mountains and to the site where an ME262 production factory was constructed inside of the Walpersberg mountain. The Nazis planned to build up to 1200 of the jet powered aircraft a month at the factory.
After final assembly they would then be winched up the side of the mountain and flown off using a purpose built runway constructed on top. In reality only 20 to 30 completed planes where ever actually produced before the war ended.

This is a drawing showing the layout of the wartime facility.


We arrived at the factory, which is just outside the town of Kahla, around mid afternoon and set about exploring what remains of it. In fact very little actually does remain as the Russians made a good job of destroying most of it after wars end!

A 'Then & Now' of the final assembly hangar.



A period photo of the runway on top of the mountain

 

Another period photo


The remains of some of the buildings today




We also came across this huge concrete and steel door half buried in the ground.

 

I am green with envy !!! I have always wanted to see this place !

 

I can honestly say I'd never heard of it before so I've learnt something.

 

The factory was called 'REIMAHG' which is an acronym for 'Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering'. A few years ago I went to a lot of trouble to track down a copy of the only book I know of on the subject, called 'From Sandpit To Armament Factory', privately-published in Canada by a gentleman called Claus Reuter.

The authors' views seem to be David Irving-esque ; he obviously feels that the 'wrong' side won !

 

Lots of pics of it on the excellent Third Reich in Ruins.
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/thuringen.htm
Looked at that site lots of times but never noticed REIMAHG before.

 

The speed and scale of construction of REIMAHG is quite astounding. Building work only began in April 1944 with forced labour, POWs, civilians, and members of the Hitler Youth and League of German Girls being used to get the site up and running. By the end of the war there were 15,000 people working on finishing the factory and its facilities.
Whilst wandering around we came across an entrance to a tunnel system which just begged to be explored!

Pegasus at the tunnel entrance.

 

I found the following three good photos of the tunnel system on the interweb as the ones I took were far too dark!

Close up of the tunnel entrance.


Looking in to the tunnel system from the entance (About 100 feet in, two other tunnels branched off to the left and right, all of which eventually came to an end around 50ft further on).


This is looking back towards the tunnel entrance.

 

I found this original technical design drawing spray painted on to the tunnel wall.

 

Mein gott! You've found an original production drawing of the uber-rare Messerschmitt-Flugelmeier-Kleinsdorf MFK-198-A1! Note the advanced asymmetric stealth airframe that couples the most advanced in modern fly-by-wire design with a fuel-efficient single-engine powerplant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the photo of John's bike with that steel door strapped to the back.......

 

While I was walking through one of the tunnels and busy filming it on my phone I didn't notice a large hole that some clown had dug in the floor....you can guess the rest!

Luckily, the hole was only 2 feet deep, so other than scuffing my motorcycle leathers, I did no real damage. The videos audio also contains a number of expletives that I blurted out as I went down the hole!

I think you've read the same ME262 book that I have, Alan!

Believe me, Martin, that door would be in my garage now if I could have transported it back.

 

Leaving Walpersberg we headed 50 miles further west and to the campsite we would be staying at for the night. On the way the weather started to turn bad and by the time we reached our destination it was pouring with rain, so there was nothing else to do but sit under a canopy at the sites reception building, drink beer and wait for the rain to ease.

Waiting for the rain to ease.


Next morning we would set off for Wewelsberg...