San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/26/2012 -- Late afternoon on April 25, 1945 a "spotter" aircraft, surveying damage done in Germany's Berchtesgaden/Obersalzberg area by British Lancaster bombers, observed a labor camp near Adolf Hitler's mountain home, the Berghof.

The American 910th Mobile Antiaircraft/Tank Battalion, attached to the 101st Airborne Division, was notified and given the assignment of locating and freeing the camp's inmates.

Robert Thomas, a World War II veteran and war historian, relates what happened next. "The American military unit located the camp, pulled off the locked gate, and freed the starving prisoners. One English speaking inmate was so grateful for his freedom that he told of work on an underground vault behind Nazi deputy Hermann Goring's home."

According to Thomas the inmate had briefly changed places with his brother days before. When the work was finished all the laborers were killed—except him, as no one realized that he had also seen the site.

After informing the Americans he offered to personally show them the compound's various buildings. The Goring vault area, covered over with grass and trees, soon yielded its secrets to a bulldozer.

Photos of some of the war trophies found within, plus a 145-piece silverware set once owned by Hitler's mistress Eva Braun and now on sale to collectors, can be viewed at Thomas' website http://www.theberghof.net

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Adolf Hitler's Mountain Retreat Was Actually Captured by the Famed 101st Airborne Division.

San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/23/2012 -- The Mobile 910th Antiaircraft/Tank Battalion, attached to the 101st Airborne Division, arrived early on the morning of April 26, 1945 at the Village of Berchtesgaden, Germany—one day after British Lancaster bombers attacked the Berchtesgaden-Obersalzberg area.

Histories of the closing days of World War II often fail to mention this or the key historical artifacts captured in the action.

"There were four trucks and twenty-four men, and their assignment was to locate and free inmates of a labor camp seen near Berchtesgaden by spotter aircraft checking results of the previous day's bombing," says Bob Thomas, a veteran serving at the time with George Patton's Third Army.

"The 910th was definitely the first Allied unit to reach the village and capture Hitler's mountain home, the Berghof. They departed early in the morning of May 3, 1945. A German SS detachment arrived on the scene on the morning of May 4th to loot and set fire to the property," adds Thomas.

He also notes that during that afternoon the Third Infantry Division reached the burning Berghof—making it third in line to reach Berchtesgaden, eight days after the arrival of the 910th. The French Second Armored Division also arrived the same evening. The 101st Airborne Division, parent to the 910th, arrived on May 5, 1945.

Detailed information and photos of war trophy items taken plus the discovery and capture of Hermann Goering's hidden treasure vault can be found at http://www.theberghof.net.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm