doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com "Hermann Goering's Shotgun"

Stumbled upon this website, posted over at gunboards.com

Figured you folks would find it of interest.

http://www.hermanngoeringshotgun.com/

Goring (with the umlat over the o- which makes his surname sound like Goering)did cheat the hangman after the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials-- an American G-2 officer who was fluent in German was assigned to interview him, as he awaited his execution. Goering was a large framed man who put on considerable weight, even while the line troops of the Wehrmacht and even Waffen SS units were hard pressed for rations, especially after the crushing defeat at Stalingrad-- Goebbels, Himmler, Rommel- were all fairly trim and well fitted men in comparison.

Goering's estate was named Karinhall- a vast hunting preserve and he indeed did love to hunt and entertain their- and awarded the prized "Ritter kruze"-- Knight's Cross with various annenda of oak leaves, diamonds, etc- to his Ace Luftwaffe pilots--

If you want some accurate insight into Goering and his role as Reichmarshall and CO of the Luftwaffe, read the book "The Eagle Has landed"--Goering was petty and small minded from that account of him- which I believe to be somewhat true.

The rumor has it that Goering bribed the G-2 Officer to bring him a cyanide pill from his baggage stored out of his cell-hidden inside a bristle hair shaving brush with a false bottom apparently- and that in exchange for that, he gave the officer details as to where some of his treasure and personal belongings were secretly hidden. Goering did this to avoid death by the noose, as he feared his bulk and the drop would cause his head to be torn off his body in the process. He also said that only the firing squad was appropriate for soldiers and airmen who served their Country in combat--

Krieghoff did make some drillings as survival weapons for the Luftwaffe pilots- cased, 12 gauge with a metric rifled barrel underneath, double triggers and ejectors- it is possible that as Goering would have awarded that contract himself, Krieghoff may well have made him a shotgun at "no charge" in return for that bit of business-

But to document that shotgun as shown on that website as being one that belong to Herman Goering, just because of the initals HG-- there were/are many German males with the same initals I should guess- Hugo Glazer, Heinrich Glanyz, etc--

I would really want at least three older experts on German and Austrian guns from that 1940-1946 era to examine any weapon purported to have once belong to any of "Hitler's Henchmen"--

RWTF,

Thanks for the book tip but are you certain of the title. Since Jack Higgins WW2 thriller by the same title, there have been a number of books by the same name relating to several subjects as diverse as The Eagles Pop Group to a book on Horseriding.

Have you a publishers or an authors name, or an ISBN number or any other infor?

Thanks,

Harry

RWTF, you have a good knowledge about H.G. also that he was the absoluut "J�germeister" in Nazi Germany.
If you want to know more about his hunting skills there are 2 books who give the most detailed info about his hunting grounds called "ROMINTEN" in the second book it is Walter Frevert,letster Forstmeister der Rominter heide, Ostpreussen who tell you the compleet story.Sorry the books are written in German
http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=3112297
http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=3112277
Marc.

Several years ago,Jackson Auction Company,a local auctioneer,sold a couple of shotguns that had supposedly been "liberated" from Goering's residence.I have the catalog but can't put my hands on it for details. They were a hammerless and a hammer gun as I remember with the usual engraving.Hermann would not have inspired much confidence in me as a leader with his badly out of shape physique and gaudy uniforms.Not to mention his drug addiction. I imagine that the german airmen didn't really feel free to criticize given the atmosphere in Germany at that time.He would have been a laughing stock at any other time and place.

--Obgleich ich das Deutsche spreche, das eing wenig besser ist, als ich text lesen kann, abhangig von Schriftart, kann ich jene Bucher aur H. Goering bestellen, das, Sie wo in Belgien tun Sie Phasen vorschlugen, wenn ich bitten kann? Danke sehr --der Fox

There have been two gun as I recall at auctions (one from Juila I think years ago) that had a possible link to Goring,both had the Goring Family Crest (like many of his items)

http://www.germaniainternational.com/images/hgoringdessertfork02.jpg

I suspect he had lots of shotguns,and rifles !
I also bet there are ten times as many that are not his and presented as they where.

It is indeed the Jack Higgins book, made into a great movie starring Micheal Caine as Oberst Leutnent Steiner- a true soldier and a Fallschirmjaeger (paratrooper), with his father a ranking Wehrmacht General Oberst--Robert Duvall plays the Oberst in the Abwehr, who develops the plot to capture Churchill in Nov 1944 when he was planning a week-end retreat to the North Coastal area of England. Himmler approved this plan, thought with Winnie as hostage they could sue for peace and end the war they were losing daily by then--

Some of the idea for this came from the successful rescuse of Hitler's Henchman pal Benito Mussolini-in Septemeber of 1943- Mussolini was held prisoner in a Italian Alp area retreat, thought to be invincible from ground forces. Oberst Otto Skorzensky and his men did daring jump, overpowered the guards and rescused El Duce- Hitler personally decorated Otto with a Knights Cross with diamonds and oak leaves-

Donald Sutherland plays the IRA operative who works as a game keeper for the Abwehr on a marsh estate area where Sir Winston is due to visit- great plot, the last movie I believe directed by John Sturges--

The Luftwaffe comes into play a bit, and a Ace fighter pilot is chosen to fly the aircraft for Steiner's mission- He has been denied the Knights Cross, for Luftwaffe pilots this was usually presented by Goering personally at a weekend event- involving hunting and a lot of schnapps too- at Karinhall- This pilot was denied this prestigious award, as he made the mistake of telling Goering face to face that the British Supermarine Spitfire was a bit better at close quarters dogfighting, better turn and bank agility I heard that the ME 109 Series German fighter planes.

There may well be some truth to that, in the Pacific theatre our pilots and aviators learned that the fast Jap ZEKE- Zero fighter had one major weakness (besides no armor- like the famed Republic P47 Thunderbolt carried for example)- if a pilot could push a Zero in making a right bank turn, often the Zero would stall and be a 'sitting duck"-

The plot fails, but Steiner and his men were sentenced to a suicide torpedo team as punishment for an incident which shows to me that not all the Germans, civilians or military, were despots like Hitler, Himmler and Goering- Steiner, as a decorated Lt. Col. encounters a Waffen SS unit under command of a General, loading jewish civilians onto a train somewhere in Poland- a girl tries to escape and Steiner protects her, holds the SS General at bay with his Walther pistol- to save his men who stand with him in this brave action, from being shot by the superior number of SS forces, he surrenders- He is then later picked for this "suicide mission" and his General father is held prisoner by Himmler as 'insurance"

Great story- Jack Higgins is one of the best, and his research into this scenario is First Rate- see the 1976 movie "Der Adler ist gelandet" The Eagle has landed-- much better than the earlier 1968 movie with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton- "Wo Adleren sich traven"- Where Eagles dare-

OMG, this is the sixth Hermann G�ring gun in America brought to my attention during the last 3 years! One appears to have been fabricated by G�ring's favorite gunmaker post-45, one had a presentation plate that clearly refers to another "HG", the rest are only engraved with the initials "HG" like this one. All were liberated by some American soldier somewhere in Germany in 1945. Now, it is sort of a "running gag" in movies and screenplays on the immediate post-war period , some witty German small boy selling stuff with happenchance initials like AH, HG, HH to a silly GI, swearing it certainly was the personal property of some NAZI great. A similar thing happened a few years ago when someone "found" the "diaries of Adolf Hitler". I guess from the number of "H.G."s listed in my local telephone directory, the total German population and the number of hunting licenses issued in 1938 there must have been about 2800 German hunters then named HG. Handwork, especially engraving, was cheap then. FI the ca1930 WUM export catalog lists a comparable sidelock o/u ejector at $ 405.-, highest quality engraving of a very similar pattern would have set you back additional $89.50.
Hermann Goering never had personal belongings signed with a mundane "HG"! Instead, all the things documented to him are engraved with his personal crest or coat of arms. This consists of an iron-clad arm holding a ring, topped with a winged helmet. Apparently G�ring designed this crest to remember his WW1 days as a fighter pilot ace. His nickname then was "Der Eiserne" = The Iron One.

Here it is painted on the skull of a famous stag trophy he shot near Rominten, now in the Munich hunting museum.


Examples of his crest on guns may be seen in Jon Speed: Original Oberndorf Sporting Rifles, page 268 on the floorplate of a Mauser actioned rifle, and in DWJ 11/2004, page 50 on the toplever of an o/u sl doublerifle.
IMHO all the guns without this crest, only signed "HG", never passed the hands of the then Reichsj�germeister!

Just another fake story.