{"id":111392,"date":"2020-03-03T11:41:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T16:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=111392"},"modified":"2020-03-03T11:41:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T16:41:34","slug":"column-the-musings-of-a-simple-country-man-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=111392","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: The Musings of a Simple Country Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Hobie Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tree Rings, An\nAdmiral\u2019s Granddaughter, Hitler and Brookfield<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hobie Morris<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is a true story with many unexpected twists \u2013\nand circles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brookfield \u2013 a powerful wind and a mighty crash. A huge hard\nmaple, weakened by age breaks and topples. Soon I begin the hard work of\ncutting and splitting firewood. As I rest on the 3 foot stump, I\u2019m curious\nabout its age. I begin counting its growth rings, eventually coming up with\nabout 150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To trained eyes (dendrologists) tree rings tell volumes\nabout climate conditions: changes that effected the tree\u2019s growth from a pencil\nthin sapling to a majestic forest giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalfjord, Norway \u2013 giant trees growing in this far northern\ncoastal area mysteriously show no growth rings for 1945. Why? A local scientist\nsuggests a possible explanation. Germany\u2019s most powerful WWII battleships were\ntwo monsters: the Bismark and the Tirpitz. By 1944, the Bismark lies at the\nbottom of the Atlantic but the Tirpitz remains a real threat to Allied military\nplans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz is not as famous in German\nhistory as Otto Von Bismark \u2013 the iconic \u201cIron Chancellor\u201d. Turpitz became the\narchitect of Germany\u2019s pre WWI naval expansion. Germany\u2019s defeat in 1918,\nincluding the scuttling of its fleet, was a crushing but only temporary\nsetback. With Adolf Hitler\u2019s rise to power in the 1930s, an impressive new\nchapter opens in its naval power. The monsterous battleship Tirpitz honored\nGrand Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grand Admiral Tirpitz daughter marries Ulrich Von Hassell. Between\n1932-38, Von Hassell is Germany\u2019s Ambassador to Italy. Like many other Prussian\naristocrats, von Hassell initially supports Hitler. Eventually he changes his\nopinion and begins, with others, to plan a conservative counter coup to depose\nHitler. Plans are discussed and some are attempted. In July 1944, one almost\nsucceeds!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Von Hassells had a very attractive daughter named Fey. In\nher 20s she marries an Italian count (Detalmo Pirzio-Biroli) from an\ninfluential Italian family. There is a palazzo in Rome and a magnificent villa\nat Brazza near Udine. The Birolis have two boys, Corrado and Roberto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asks\n\u201cWhere is Tirpitz?\u201d For most of the war, the Allies have tried and failed to\nlocated and destroy this constant threat. Even in hiding in Norway\u2019s fjords, it\nsuccessfully averts being sighted until October 1944. Reconnaissance aircraft\nfinally spot the Tirpitz in its heavily camouflaged lair in the Kalfjord area. The\nclever Germans try to hide it more but then decide to move the great ship to\nTromso and it is here that British heavy bombers (Lancasters) sink the Tirpitz.\nBut why no tree growth rings in 1945 in the Kalfjord area?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 1944, Hitler is almost assassinated at his East\nPrussia Headquarters, \u201cWolf\u2019s Lair\u201d. While only slightly injured by the bomb,\nhe swore immediate revenge on the plotters and their families saying \u201c I shall\nexterminate this whole brood of vipers once and for all!\u201d And Hitler did \u2013\nincluding Ulrich Von Hassell in September, 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Fey\u2019s husband is in Rome plotting Italy\u2019s future after\nMussolini, Fey and her boys are living at Brazza in North East Italy. While the\nGerman army occupies the area, Fey is seemingly safe from Hitler\u2019s diabolical\nvengeance \u2013 until the Gestapo is told of her presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fey is taken to Innsbruck and interrogated. Her boys are\ntaken from her and she will not see them again for a year. For the next 8\nmonths, Fey and others called \u201cprisoners of kin\u201d, allegedly associated with the\nHitler plot, were ferried around Austria and Germany as the Allied armies\npressed in for the kill. These were desperate days as they were rapidly\nconvoyed each short step ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibly this was done without Hitler\u2019s knowledge. It is\nsuspected by some historians that club foot Heinrich Himmler is keeping Fey and\nthese others \u201csafe\u201d so they could be pawns in the twilight days of the Third\nReich. Maybe even to save Himmler\u2019s hide after Hitler\u2019s death. When Himmler\u2019s\nplan fails he orders all the \u201cprisoners of kin\u201d liquidated. In the closing days\nof the war, they are bussed over the Alps into Northern Italy. Gestapo guards\nare overheard discussing how to kill them. A German army officer, also a\nprisoner because of anti-Nazi views, brow beats the Gestapo guards to convy the\nprisoners to a nearby village controlled by the army. A Wehrmacht officer,\nanxious to avoid a massacre, has the SS guards arrested and frees Fey and the\nother prisoners. It will be a long time before the 26 year old beauty\u2019s life is\nrestarted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fey\u2019s WWII adventures (and post war years) are widely known\nthrough her autobiography, many books about her, and more recently a book\ntitled \u201cThe Lost Boys: A Family Ripped Apart by War\u201d by Catherine Bailey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now to the fog of war and why there are no 1945 growth\nrings. How do you hide a monsterous battle ship in a Northern Norwegian fjord? Mix\nsome chemicals together and \u201cfog\u201d the battleship in from preying eyes. And this\nthey successfully did \u2013 but at a cost. The chemicals cost area trees a year of\ngrowth and no ring to prove it! Now you know the rest of the story \u2013 almost\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            *          *          *          *          *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the finale: Fey Von Hassell was a personal friend of\nmine for many years. Many correspondences traveled between Brookfield and the\nbeautiful Udine area of Northern Italy. They shared with us in carefully,\nsingle spaced, typed, long letters many war recollections and her insightful\nobservations of the world she witnessed well into her 90s. We feel so\npriviledged to be a footnote in a life story that indeed has many amazing\ntwists, turns, and circles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: Hobie\nMorris is a Brookfield resident and simple country man.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tree Rings, An Admiral\u2019s Granddaughter, Hitler and Brookfield By Hobie Morris What follows is a true story with many unexpected twists \u2013 and circles! Brookfield \u2013 a powerful wind and a mighty crash. A huge hard maple, weakened by age breaks and topples. Soon I begin the hard work of cutting and splitting firewood. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23677,22367,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-history","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}