You could meet any one person from WWII...

This is a very intresting queston. I would have to say Churchill. He kept England in the the war. He also predicted what would happen with Hitler taking over as far back as the 30's. It would be great just to shake his hand.

 

My Granddad...

he didn't paly a role of any importance in WW2, but was alive then. And because I never met him...

 

Iósif Stalin. I am so interested in that genious... and eveil butcher... (I don't remember if I mentioned it before...)

 

My first choice would be without a doubt Adolf Hitler. He is one of the most interesting people, and definitely the master manipulator, of the 20th century.

Some others:

Rommel
Wittmann
Rudel
Skorzeny
Monty
Yamamoto
Patton

 

I would have to say I would most like to meet patton in person. Not only is he one of America's most famous generals, but he was known to be quite a character.

Coming in second would have to be Der Fuehrer himself. I would like to meet the man/legend/monster.

 

I'd like a month to chat with Churchill. I figure it would take that long to discuss of the incredible history he had experienced as well as influenced. Considering he was a calvary officer in the 4th Haussars seeing action in the Indian north-west frontier and the Sudan at Omdurman. As a correspondent during the Boer War he was captured by the boer's and managed to escape. He became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911 and was influenitial in it's modernisation, seeing over the formation of the Royal naval Air Service. Also, as a member of the War council he advocated the Dardenalles Campaign and the disasterous Gallipoly invasion And that's not even getting into WWII!
----------Also what a treat it would be to chat with Albert Speer, his herculean efforts truely kept Germany in the war, and his position in the inner circles of power within the Reich has to have amazing insight to it's workings.
As to real soldiers I have to mention Panzer Meier, Sepp Deitrich, Joahim Pieper and Herman Bix.
I'd be remiss if I ignored "The Baron", Manfred Von Richtofen, Adolf Galland and Erich Hartmann.

The Blue Max

 

Let's *bump* this one up for the newer members - and some of the older hands too, who may wish to change their original choice !

Mine'd still be Guy Gibson, propping up the bar in the Saracen's Head Hotel, Lincoln, surrounded by his 'inner circle'.

He'd probably be totally obnoxious, but I'd like to see what the man was like !

 

Kurt Meyer, but that would mean learning German.

Brig. John Durnford-Slater (CO No.3 commando) would be another option. Actually I can't think of many people I would like to meet particularly.

 

Gee...I would like to meet a lot of them but two guys stand up among others-Otto Kretschmer and Heinz Guderian.

 

Vera Menchik-Stevenson, the first female Chess grand master, who was taken from earth by a V-1.
She was a most fascinating personality.

 

Rudolf Hess, definetly. Then I could make THE question: why did you fly to England???

Other:
- Klaus von Stauffenberg
- von Paulus
- Gordon Gollob
- Walter Nowotny
- Rudel
- Goering
- Can't remember the name of German night fighter pilot, who became an ace, flying FW-219s Uhu...
- Ribbentrop. Why did he say that he didn't know about Russian concentrating 1 million soldiers near Poland border in Nuremberg Judgement?
- Wilm Rosenfeld.
- the Heinkel 111 pilot (and co-pilot) who incidently bombed London in that rainy night... and changed the course of the Battle of Britain.
- Harris, from the RAF's Bomber Command. (dont remember the first name)
- Douglas Bader.
- the german pilot (of Ju-52) who last flew away from Stalingrad before the Russians take Ptominik.

and millions of other.

 

I know this is probably not the person on anyone's list but, Abraham Simpson off of The Simpsons.

 

who to meet in ww2..what a great question! For me it would be Hugh Dowding to see how he coped with the incredible pressure of that 1940 summer..after that,im gonna be a copier (understandably)and go for Rommel ,to see if he did try to kill Hitler.

 

Who was Hugh Dowding?

 

Hugh 'Stuffy' Dowding was Commander-in-Chief, Fighter Command from 1936-1941 and can fairly lay claim to the unofficial title of 'The man who won the Battle of Britain'.

If you get an opportunity to see the 1969 movie 'Battle of Britain', Laurence Olivier gives a superb performance as Dowding which shows his strengths - and also the reasons why he could offend others in the RAF hierarchy.....

 

Wow, there are so many but to limit it to my top three would be in order.

1) Yamamoto Isoroku - just to ask him why he left Nagumo in charge of the Kido Butai. The man had been an outspoken critic of the Pearl Harbor plan from the start, why leave him in command if he wasn't 100% for it it in the first place. I know that for most duty comes first but when he met the minimum standards for success he bailed. Also cancelled an air strike scheduled for Midway on the return.

Frank Jack Fletcher (Adm) - Two why's... Why did you turn to refuel on way to Wake thus costing any chance to effect the relief of the Marines there? Why did you cut and run on the Marines after 24hrs at Guadalcanal, your destroyers were no where close to being low on fuel?

Emporer Hirohito - what was the real reason he didn't attempt to reign in the Army in the early 30's before their momentum carried them too far into the situation where there was no real way to honorably back out?

 

It's a long time since I first contributed to this thread, but I'd still like to meet Guy Gibson.

I'd also be interested to have a talk with AVM D C T ( 'Don' ) Bennett, AOC of 8 Group Pathfinder Force. The youngest Air Vice-Marshal in the RAF ; a man who inspired fantastic loyalty in his men and envy and loathing among his peers, superiors and politicians.

 

With time I´ve found some new "interesting" persons I´d like to talk to (before being transferred to a concentration camp for my views...):

Reinhard Heydrich
Martin Bormann
Adolf Eichmann
Heinrich Müller

 

Well, I'd like to have met Rommel, simply to have a discussion on strategy with the man must have been interesting. Douglas McArthur definitely, because of his flair and notoriety for flamboyance, and also the fact that he liberated the Philippines.

Others I'd like to have met-
Michael Wittmann- the most famous panzer ace
Erich Hartmann- 352 kills, heck, I find it hard to count that high
Winston Churchill- amazing man, and excellent quotes.

 

Hmm, well a load of aces I suppose. including Finlands Juut, I can't spell it. & Buhligen, Tuck, Bar & Nishizawa. & Preddy

On the ground, Patton & Rommel. No politicians please.

Would like to meet Willy Messercmitt & ask him bout the landing gear. One former scmitt engineer was asked about that, he replied;you have no idea what it was like to work for professor Messerscmitt.