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Re: Why booby trap a plane then push it in the lake?

Posted by Lynn with the answers you seek on Wed Jan 02, 2002 07:57:24 AM

In reply top Or is it ? posted by Dave on Wed Jan 02, 2002 04:04:26 AM

Well, it's a little-known fact that the Allies were employing specially trained perch as underwater sentinels in several lakes scattered around Germany. The Germans became aware of this, and utilized a number of novel methods of dealing with the slippery threat, among them dumping explosives-laden aircraft into the lake with the intention of detonating said aircraft and instantly destroying the vast majority of the finned agents. This counterinsurgency plan was instigated by Hitler himself sometime after the attempt on his life in July of 1944. Whispers were circulating regarding the wisdom of such a waste of materials...thus, at a meeting on 28 September 1944, it was suggested to Der F?hrer that simply dropping a couple of pressure-fuzed SC500s into the lake would take care of the situation nicely. Hitler, however, flew into a rage at the mere mention of such a contrivance, insisting that the bombs were necessary to hold in reserve for the continued operations against English teahouses. He then closed the meeting by jumping upon the conference table to perform a very awkward and mercifully brief "can-can" rendition before he was restrained and led to his chambers. It was left to G?ring, whom Hitler had referred to repeatedly as a "la-ti-dah poofdah" during the course of the meeting, to implement Der F?hrer's directives against the enemy perch. The men at unit level found the entire situation ludicrous, as you might imagine, but to disobey such a F?hrerbefehl would certainly result in a train ticket to the Ostfront, so they gingerly placed the aircraft into the freshwater lake with the intention of retrieving them again, drying them off, changing the serial numbers, and reintroducing them to service. The end of the conflict put paid to those plans, however, and the aircraft have remained in their watery resting place ever since.

So, now you know. :)

Lynn

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