Hitler's secret weapons

"In October 1944, Luigi Romersa, a young Italian journalist, was sent to Germany by Mussolini to gather information on Hitler’s secret weapons. During that very spring, at Klessheim Castle near Salzburg, Hitler had tried to reassure Mussolini on the final outcome of the war. He had confided to him that he possessed a bomb that would “upset the world”, and a number of other secret weapons that would soon be ready for use.

Mussolini, who had felt partly lonely and partly reassured by Hitler’s words, decided that he wanted to know more about these new and revolutionary weapons. He summoned Luigi Romersa, a young reporter at Corriere della Sera and a staunch supporter of the regime, who not only had been a war correspondent but was also a pilot. Mussolini gave him two letters: one for Goebbels, the other for Hitler, and sent him on a mission to discover some facts. Romersa travelled by car to Berlin where he met Goebbels. The Minister for Propaganda read Mussolini’s letter and phoned Hitler’s HQ at Rastenburg: a flight was arranged to take Romersa to East Prussia where he met Hitler in person. At Rastenburg, the young journalist gave Mussolini’s second letter to the Führer. From that moment on, all doors were open to him.

Luigi Romersa was the only foreigner who was granted access into German secret military bases and into the factories where a new generation of weapons was coming into being. He witnessed various tests and also visited Peenemünde, the impenetrabile rocket launchpad where a pool of scientists led by young Wernher von Braun worked relentlessly. The young journalist saw how a series of V2 rocket were assembled and launched. Il Duce’s envoy gained the trust and the respect of the German scientists and of the military officers he met. He took detailed notes, photographed everything he saw and started to meet Wernher von Braun regularly.

Of all the weapons of new design, the most important was no doubt the A-bomb, or “disgregating bomb”, as it was called at the time. Romersa witnessed an experiment which took place on Rügen Island in the Baltic Sea. On October 12, 1944, he was one of the few that saw the massive destructive power of the new bomb. Accordino to Romersa’s notes, the Germans had not yet managed to build a detonator, a key element for the functioning, and they worked frantically to solve this problem.

Romersa’s mission later continued between Austria and Germany. He collected drawings, photos and notes on everything he saw. In Bremen he met Captain Schriever, nicknamed “The Martian”, creator of a “flying saucer” able to reach the speed of 2000 km/h. The inventor showed his drawings to Romersa and discussed the pros and cons of the new machine with him. On returning to Italy, Romersa presented a 40-page-report to Il Duce. When Mussolini asked him for a personal opinion on what he’d seen, Romersa replied that it was too late: the German special weapons project was too much behind schedule to influence the course of the war in any way. The scientists should have needed 6 or 7 more weeks. Il Duce replied that he considered a victory to be still feasible. A few weeks later he was dead, while the Germans were fighting the Allies on Italian territory.

A few years after the war Romersa wrote many books about WW2, among them his memories: “Hitler’s secret weapons”.
The Romersa memories fit perfectly with the recent research of prof. Karlsh about the Hitler’s bomb.

A documentary about this story, “In mission for Mussolini” is available here:

http://onebigtorrent.org/torrents/10288/Mission-for-Mussolini

I have seen the show- very interesting as are all those on WWII. Is it possible that Romerso (who died in 2006) was the last living person to have talked to Hitler- albeit briefly. I am not counting Hitler youth who may have gotten a “good luck” in 44/45 but an adult who was interacting with Hitler. It would seem that talking to Hitler in 44/45 was a ticket to the grave as the last year for all Germans even generals there was a good chance that you would be killed- even by your own SS if not Allied forces. Any thoughts anyone?