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"They used to say a Boche pilot could spot a courier... like a hawk does a rabbit!"
Indiana Jones[src]

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Goering) was a fighter pilot serving in the Luftstreitkräfte, the aerial warfare branch of the German military during World War I. Following Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Göring became a high-ranking officer in the Nazi Luftwaffe, later promoted to Reichsmarschall, the highest rank in German Military history. He was the main commanding officer of the unified Wehrmacht forces and a top official directly reporting to Hitler during World War II.

Biography[]

In September 1916, Göring piloted a biplane across enemy lines in the Verdun battle area. He spotted a motorcycle courier and turned to give chase. Using his machine guns, he fired upon the courier as the courier zipped down a country road.

When the courier reached some farm buildings, Göring dropped a first bomb, which missed the motorcycle, and then a second bomb, which wrecked a building, and knocked over a large tank, and caused the motorcycle to crash, throwing the driver into a crater. Looping around, he saw the courier lying still. Giving a salute to the courier, Göring flew off. After the biplane left, the courier picked himself up and drove his motorbike to the French artillery area to continue with his mission.[1]

Göring was later present at a lunch in 1917 were also partecipated Indiana Jones and Manfred von Richthofen and his brother Lothar.[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Hermann Göring

The officer at the bookburning rally who may be Göring.

Though unnamed and uncredited in the episode "Verdun, September 1916",[1] the mustachioed German biplane pilot is identified in the comic adaptation as Hermann Göring by the nameplate on his aircraft.[3] Historical photographs of the real Göring from this time do not show that he had facial hair. Göring reappears in "Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen" where he was played by Karel Dobrý.[2]

Göring may have also been among the unidentified Nazi officials shown observing the Berlin bookburning rally with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[4]

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