Our Brush With History! By W8QCS Bruce Batchelor - Reprinted in part from World Radio
Magazine July 2005 - Bruce tells a fascinating story in the summer of 1937 working The
Infamous German Air Ace Hermann W. Goering 1893-1946 pre World War II. Here it is!

Getting my first ham radio ticket at the tender age of 15, I went down to the local post office building
and along with about 40 others, took the Class B Ham Radio test. Only about 15 of us passed theexam. I went home on cloud nine, it was the happiest day of my life. I was now more “High tech”
than most anyone I knew. My FCC license, W8QCS, soon arrived in the mail. Now just like KDKA,
I had my own personal call letters.
We lived in Columbus, Ohio. I had built a two-tube fifty-watt transmitter and the high voltage DC
supply it required. My antenna was strung between our chimney and two nearby telephone poles.
At last I was ON THE AIR!
I soon got together with one guy in particular and we would become lifelong buddies. He was Clyde
Miller, W8PFA. Clyde had been on the air about a year longer that I and his Dad was also interested
in the game. His station was superior to mine, using a Hammarlund Comet Pro receiver with a 150
watt multi-band transmitter.
One weekend I got permission to stay over at Clyde’s and we were going to have a all night DX
session. Taking turns on the key we proceeded up the band and worked every station that we could
hear. By about 11-30 PM I decided it was time out for our midnight snack; we had logged at least
15 or more contacts. I had taken an RC Cola and a banana with me.
The food and drink gave us a boost of energy and we started Hamming it up again. New contacts
were harder to find; most good Hams were in bed. It was past 0230 and Clyde gave up, saying, “Youtry a CQ Bruce” I sent a long slow one and stood by for a call return.
Then, to our great surprise, a booming signal was calling W8PFA W8PFA DE D4FND D4FND (thecall sign is to the best of my recollection) K. We had a very powerful German contact! We
exchanged the usual signal reports locations and names. He was in Berlin, his name was Hermannand he understood English perfectly.
I told Hermann my best Ham buddy in
Pittsburgh was named Herman Ludwig,
W8MTV. We used to go to the GBU(German Brotherhood Union) Hall on
Friday nights to dance with the girls. WhenI mentioned GBU, he became very
friendly. He said, “I am an officer for theGerman Air Corps. Continued...
“I am testing a 1KW transmitter built for
the German Navy. Location downtown
Berlin the antenna is a rhombic beam
strung on the tops of the buildings. It isbeamed to North America.” Hermann I
said, you have the strongest signal I haveever heard on the 40 Meter band. Continued page two.

He thanked me and said “I am being called away now and must leave.” Before I signed off, I asked“what is your full name?” Not expecting an answer, he sent “My full name is Hermann Goering”
73 SK - Thus Clyde and I decided we were done for the night and went up to bed.
It would take a year or so before I began to realize what I had done at the time, Hitler was in thenews reels saying he was going to take Germany back for the Germans. It was no longer fashionable
to brag about talking to Germany on the radio. In fact, I was careful to say nothing until much later.
I concluded that “downtown Berlin” had to be The Nazi Reich stag, Hitler’s Berlin HQ. Also thebeamed signal to North American covered the North Atlantic perfectly and any submarine wolf
packs or Navy vessels Berlin chose to contact! By this time Goring was back in the news again.
Hitler had promoted him Reich Marshal for the German Luftwaffe. In less than 25 years, he hadcome from a 19 year old fighter pilot ace of WWI to their number “One” leader, behind Hitler.
In closing, I would remind you that Goering used his Ham Radio knowledge right up to the end. At
his Nuremberg war crimes trial following
WW2, he knew his only outcome would
be death or life in prison. He chose death.
Shortly after his trial started, he tappedon his headset and said, “Tote, Kaput”(dead, not working). Whereupon, one of
his assistants exchanged head sets withhim. Goering, under the guise of nervous
tension, proceeded to unscrew the ear
piece of one phone, quickly removed avial of cyanide, popped it into his mouthand crushed the glass in his teeth. In lessthan three minutes he was dead in hischair. Allied security had overlooked abreach any Ham could have known.
I don’t know if Field Marshal Goering had a Ham ticket, I do know that at that time he could haveoperated any radio in Germany with no questions asked.
Bruce said, my friends, Herman and Clyde are now Silent Keys. At age 85, I am the sole survivorof this brush with history. (W8QCS) Op note; Mr Batchelor could have very well worked a “slim”
pirate operator as known today. He was not positive of the D4FND reply either. But.....on the otherhand, just maybe? Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

W 8SU 2005