[Eric Rader]

Danke-- I thought he received both the swords and diamonds later, after this "incident at Karinhall. Possible that he declined any requests for American influenced piano tunes and confined his "recital" to renditions of German, Austria and Polish composers. Hitler was well known to have favored Rickard Wagner's compositions and operas-- But I am sure he might have also appreciated Beethoven and Bach, if not Chopin and Lizst. Who can say??

In the novel "The Eagle Has Landed" (Der Adler gelandet Ist)-- written in the 1970's as a great fictional account of a attempt to kidnap British Prime Minister Churchill while at one of his retreats during WW11 from 10 Downing St. in London, a Luftwaffe pilot is recruited to fly in a special ops. unit (Fallschirmjager) similar to scope as Otto Scorzensky (sic)and his Kommando team that rescued Mussolini from captivity in a mountain redoubt in 1943.

Part of that story details the pilot being denied his Knight's Cross at Karinhall by Goering, apparently the pilot, a survivor of the Battle of Britain, was outspoken to Hermann( Fettig Bubi) or "Fat Boy"--Goering about the better aerodynamics in the air of the Supermarine Spitfires as opposed to the ME-109's, which he flew.

The book is great fiction indeed, many bits of undercover espionage and black ops. are "in play"-- But as I know little about Goering's temper or outlook on outspoken Luftwaffe pilots (Adolf Galland comes to mind) I wonder if you could give me more insight into such a scenario. Fact or fiction? And the same applies to the story I related about the piano concert at Karinhall. Eric