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On page 194 of Jonathan Trigg's The Defeat of the Luftwaffe, he claims Hermann Goering said:

I have frequently taken a look inside such sets. It does not look all that imposing, just some wires and a few other bits and pieces. The whole apparatus is remarkably primitive.

Unfortunately, the alleged quote is not referenced. Does anybody know where it comes from?

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  • You have used an unusual spelling Just to be sure: are you referring to Hermann Goering?
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Jun 20, 2018 at 13:25
  • @PieterGeerkens yes, of course, my bad
    – hyportnex
    Jun 20, 2018 at 13:28
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    Goering would not have appeared on radar, he is too small.
    – SPavel
    Jun 20, 2018 at 13:39
  • Do you mean radar or radio?
    – AllInOne
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:21
  • @AllnOne according to Trigg's book the comment was in the context of radar.
    – hyportnex
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:40

1 Answer 1

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This quote also appears in David irving's The Rise and fall of the Luftwaffe. His reference is footnote 12:

  1. Ibid., pp. 5482 and 5473. Cf Milch’s report on Göring, 17 May 1947: ‘Almost proudly he boasted to anybody he met that he was so untechnically minded that he did not know how to switch on his radio set; one of his servants had to do it for him.’

The Ibid refers back to another footnote

  1. Messerschmitt: memo on industrial conf with Reichsmarschall at Karinhall (FD.4355/45, vol. 2). And especially Göring conf, 18 Mar 1943, stenogram (MD:62, pp. 546Iff). Those present included Göring, Milch, Martini, Dornier, Rottgardt, Plendl, Lüschen, Hertel, Heinkel, Messerschmitt, Franke, Kammhuber, Peltz and Nallinger. Cf diary, 18 Mar 1943: ‘At Karinhall: the chiefs of development. Major onslaught!’
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    The first distinctly reminds me of all the managers 2 decades ago who'd brag about having their secretaries type up all their emails for them; to him it probably sounded like a humblebrag about what a big shot he was, but everyone else only hears "I'm such moron, it causes everyone around me extra work when they could be doing something productive."
    – T.E.D. ♦
    Jun 20, 2018 at 14:30
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    Thank you. As a former radar engineer the way I see it is that if the quote really means what it appears to mean and Goering really said it one can only shake one's head in total disbelief that these people ..., well, you get my point.
    – hyportnex
    Jun 20, 2018 at 14:41
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    The MD in the reference is the so-called "Milch documents" relating to Field Marshal Erhard Milch. A microfilm copy of these is held by the Imperial War Museum library in London, and the original files were returned to the Bundesarchiv in Germany.
    – sempaiscuba
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:11
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    @T.E.D.: The man was a brilliant aviator in WW1, when wooden planes held together by wire were the latest and greatest technology. I would take some of his claims on "technical illiteracy" with a grain of salt; deliberately self abasing to ease the comfort of his confidants.
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Jun 20, 2018 at 17:05
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    On another note, it's sad when we have to use a book by the gutter slime Irving to prove any kind of point.
    – Mark W
    Jun 21, 2018 at 3:00

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