How to hide an airplane factory

[ColoradoSkier]

Wouldn't work these days, but this was pretty clever.

http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/08/19/1034/

[Sound_Man]

I was stationed less than a mile from here http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Nuremberg,+Nuremberg,+Bavaria,+Germany&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hl=en&cd=1&geocode=0,49.450520,11.080480&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.176833,68.994141&ll=49.425574,11.114302&spn=0.019875,0.047765&t=h&z=15&om=1
The "road" called Gross Strasse was an air field that would be flooded during the day and drained into those lakes at night. At the south west corner if that runway there was a large man made mountain/hill that was hollow inside and thats where the planes were stored during the day. That is now a huge convention center and a mall. This gave Gen Patton fits because he couldn't find out where all the planes were coming from. That whole area was full of tunnels to go from Merril Barracks to the other buildings in that area. Pattons soldiers found those tunnels and set charges on them under those lakes and flooded them. In some of the buildings on Merril Barracks you could still see the tunnel entrances that had been sealed with concrete. What I was told was that air field could be drained in less than two hours and filled in about one hour.

[ColoradoSkier]

Very cool. I really need to go back to Europe...

[Sound_Man]

There is a lot of history in that area. Soldiers field where Hitler gave many of his speeches to his soldiers is on the other side of one of those lakes. There is a fairly famous video of the swastika that was on the building being blown off of it and crashing to the ground. I thought that it was funny that the German government would let the US forces in that area use that field for our 4th of July celebration every year when I was there. Here is a link to the building http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Nuremberg,+Nuremberg,+Bavaria,+Germany&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hl=en&cd=1&geocode=0,49.450520,11.080480&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.176833,68.994141&t=h&om=1&ll=49.430598,11.124516&spn=0.004968,0.008422&z=17

[ColoradoSkier]

Drove past Nuremburg when I was there. Didn't actually take the time to see any of the military history stuff. Do wish I had gone to see the Berchtesgaden area and the Eagles Nest. Even so, I had a great time and really want to go back.

[Sound_Man]

I was in Germany for almost ten years... Loved it there and traveled as much as I could to try to see as much as I could. The history in that country is a lot older than ours and pretty well conserved considering they were bombed into the stone ages a couple times.

[ZappBranigan]

I was stationed less than a mile from here http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Nuremberg,+Nuremberg,+Bavaria,+Germany&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hl=en&cd=1&geocode=0,49.450520,11.080480&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.176833,68.994141&ll=49.425574,11.114302&spn=0.019875,0.047765&t=h&z=15&om=1

Geez, I wish I'd known that when I was there. I was about 25 miles to the West in Ansbach from 87-89. Didn't see any of the WWII sites in the area, I just assumed all the fighting was further North or further West.

[ColoradoSkier]

I was there for 10 days. No way to see it all. Did see a few cool things though.

http://static.flickr.com/166/372120507_3a2bda76c1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullockfam/372120507/)

http://static.flickr.com/149/372108607_3183e5a11c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullockfam/372108607/)

http://static.flickr.com/180/372126144_39624c6a93.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullockfam/372126144/)

http://static.flickr.com/123/372130349_c05877037f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullockfam/372130349/)

[ni0h]

Cool camo and all, but somehow, it seems to me that if our enemies had had the ability to strike on our mainland, they would have been justified in carpet-bombing Burbank, since we were making the legitimate military target indistinguishable from civilian homes. I wonder if we'd have whined about it afterward.

It reminds me of some bad guys we're dealing with now.

[Eric]

The "road" called Gross Strasse was an air field that would be flooded during the day and drained into those lakes at night.

I drove down that road this summer, much to the amusement of a local because apparently you're not supposed to drive on it. I wish I would have known about it being a runway when we were there.

There is a lot of history in that area. Soldiers field where Hitler gave many of his speeches to his soldiers is on the other side of one of those lakes. There is a fairly famous video of the swastika that was on the building being blown off of it and crashing to the ground. This is the stage we were looking for and eventually found it. I have a picture standing right where Hitler stood.

Then we cruised back to Rothenburg which is an OLD walled-in city. Definitely worth seeing.