Red Baron vs. Rickenbacker?

This is pretty ironic, if true.

Why is it ironic? Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

That's right and, as an added example, Eisenhower isn't an Irish name, either.
(^-^)))

George Z..


"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

This is pretty ironic, if true.

Why is it ironic? Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Why is it ironic? Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.

Quite true. Still, I'm curious.

Cub Driver wrote:

This is pretty ironic, if true.

Why is it ironic? Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

Reminds me of an incident described in Hub(ert) Zemke's (auto) biography
"Zemke's Wolfpack." The 56th was moving into a new base (I can't
remember if it was Horsham St. Faith, Halesworth, or Boxted), and taking
it over from the RAF. 5 or 6 56th pilots including Zemke had flown in,
and Zemke introduced them to the RAF officer waiting to turn the base
over. Along with Zemke, Schilling and Goodfleisch the others were also
of German ancestry, and the RAF officer joked that he felt like he was
turning the base over to the Luftwaffe ;-).

ISTR reading in one of Roger Freeman's books on the 8th AF that Zemke
had an uncle killed in the German military in World War 1, and a couple
of cousins in the Wehrmacht were killed on the Eastern Front in World
War 2 while he was flying in the ETO.

Guy

Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

Dan, I recall reading many years ago that Adolph Hitler's real name
was Alois Schickelgruber.

Do you know if that's true?

I gather it's well established that Josef Stalin's real name was
Visarionovich Dzugashvili (although probably NOT spelled that way).

He adopted "Stalin" because it means "steel." Did Hitler choose
"Hitler" for some similar reason?

vince norris

In article ,
vincent p. norris wrote:

Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

Dan, I recall reading many years ago that Adolph Hitler's real name
was Alois Schickelgruber.

Do you know if that's true?

IIRC, Alois was his father. His given name was Adolph Schicklegruber,
he later changed it to Hitler, his mother's maiden name.

I gather it's well established that Josef Stalin's real name was
Visarionovich Dzugashvili (although probably NOT spelled that way).

He adopted "Stalin" because it means "steel." Did Hitler choose
"Hitler" for some similar reason?

Mostly because it sounded better. ("Heil Schikelgruber!" just doesn't
have the zing, does it?) IIRC, Spike Mulligan had a lot of fun playing
with the name, though that might have been Spike Jones.

"Steve Hix" wrote in message
...
In article ,
vincent p. norris wrote:

Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

Dan, I recall reading many years ago that Adolph Hitler's real name
was Alois Schickelgruber.

Do you know if that's true?

IIRC, Alois was his father. His given name was Adolph Schicklegruber,
he later changed it to Hitler, his mother's maiden name.


His father was illegitimate and carried the name Schicklegruber
until 1876 when he had established his claim to the surname Hitler.
Adolf was born in 1889 and never used any other name than Hitler.

Keith

"Steve Hix" wrote in message
...
In article ,
vincent p. norris wrote:

Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

Dan, I recall reading many years ago that Adolph Hitler's real name
was Alois Schickelgruber.

Do you know if that's true?

IIRC, Alois was his father. His given name was Adolph Schicklegruber,
he later changed it to Hitler, his mother's maiden name.

I gather it's well established that Josef Stalin's real name was
Visarionovich Dzugashvili (although probably NOT spelled that way).

He adopted "Stalin" because it means "steel." Did Hitler choose
"Hitler" for some similar reason?

Mostly because it sounded better. ("Heil Schikelgruber!" just doesn't
have the zing, does it?) IIRC, Spike Mulligan had a lot of fun playing
with the name, though that might have been Spike Jones.

It was Spike Jones, and I think the name of the piece was something like "Right
in the Fuhrer's Face", although that might just be a line in the song.

George Z.

"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
...
Thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--of
Americans have fought against their own or their parents' homelands.
They included William Patrick Hitler, who served in the U.S. Navy in
WWII.

Dan, I recall reading many years ago that Adolph Hitler's real name
was Alois Schickelgruber.

Do you know if that's true?


Its untrue, that story was spread by black propaganda units
in WW2

I gather it's well established that Josef Stalin's real name was
Visarionovich Dzugashvili (although probably NOT spelled that way).

He adopted "Stalin" because it means "steel." Did Hitler choose
"Hitler" for some similar reason?


No his parents were Alois and Klara Hitler, his nephew,
William Patrick Hitler was a US citizen and served in the
USN during WW2

Keith

Dan, I recall reading many years ago that Adolph Hitler's real name
was Alois Schickelgruber.

We all believed that at the time!

Hitler's father was born Alois Schikelgruber, his mother being
unmarried. A gent named Hitler (perhaps his biological father?)
adopted Alois and gave him his name.

So Adolf was born a Hitler. Imagine how different the 20th century
might have been, had he been a Shickelgruber!

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com