Lone Sentry Blog

Associated Press has published an interview with Mayhew “Bo” Foster, the U.S. pilot who flew Nazi leader Hermann Goering to the 7th Army’s headquarters for interrogation in a Piper artillery spotter plane: Pilot Recalls Nazi Leader’s Capture.

It was May 9, 1945, the day after World War II ended in Europe. Goering, Foster and officers from the Army’s 36th Infantry Division gathered on an airstrip outside Kitzbuhel, Austria, to transport the war prisoner back to Germany in a two-man reconnaissance plane….

Goering, 52, had surrendered to the U.S. Army’s 36th Infantry Division the day before, and was now being delivered to Foster for transport….

The main problem, Foster said, was getting the two of them off the ground. Goering weighed 300-plus pounds, and the nimble, lightweight Piper L4 that Foster piloted in his artillery spotting missions wouldn’t support both him and Goering.

They’d have to upgrade to an L5, a slightly larger aircraft Foster hadn’t flown in years….

There was just a single jeep at the airstrip to meet the arriving flight. Foster rode with Goering to the gates of the 7th Army Headquarters and formally turned him over to the intelligence officer without ceremony.