Posted 9 years ago
Geary1
(1 item)
The Legend of Lost Liquor:
The Desert Fox and his elite Afrika Korps came across a vast wine and spirits cellar during one of their forays back and forth across North Africa. Perhaps the cellar was near Tripoli or Tobruk or even El Alamein. It included a million and a half liters of top quality Scotch whiskey, Jamaican rum, London gin and French cognac-all stored in hugh oak casks. This was a legitimate prize of war and the Field Marshal surely saw to it that every trooper of the Korps had the chance to wet his whistle a time or two with some of this superb liquor. Soon as the opportunity presented itself, the remaining casks-still more than a million liters worth- were sent back to Italy in the empty holds of Axis supply ships. There they were warehoused in the seaside village of Nettuno, close by the Anzio beach resort area. And so the situation remained for many months. Meanwhile, on 22 January 1944, the United States VI Corps, including the 3rd US Infantry Division, of Fifth Army assaulted the beach at Anzio. One of the early objectives in the breakout operation was the village of Nettuno. There they captured an authentic war trophy amounting to some 250,000 gallons of best quality booze. In due coursethe well known Delva Distillery was commissioned to bottle the liquor captured at Nettuno and eventually made its way to free Europe and the American Soldier. I obtained the two bottles, one Old Tom Cat Gin and one Jamaican Rhum, while stationed in Germany. My two bottles have been stored properly, with original corks and are not leaking. The contents may still be potable.
Great find & story. Having lived in Jamaica for 14 1/2 yrs., I can't but wonder which distillery ? Guess you don't know.
I also obtained a bottle from this lot in Germany! It was stored for years and finally dispensed to we the rank and file back in...I think the late 70s...Anyway, I picked up a bottle of Scotch. Unfortunately I decided to make a career out of the military, and after being jostled around as in a few moves, the bottle developed a leak. I sadly opened it and shared with all there - it was smooth to the point of being a bit too mellow.
Chris
Lucky you Chris ! (I guess!). I quit hard stuff on requests from friends about 1990. They were smarted than me, but I was smart enough to take their advice . Now, for a last beer !
Just ck'd. & Rommel was a tea-totaller until given given a choice to change by the Nazi's
I was lucky to obtain 6 bottles of rum, scotch and gin. I purchased it at our Class VI store in Zweibrucken, Germany in 1977 or 1978.
My GO friends talked me into opening the bottles. I remember liking the rum and gin the most.
When I bought the bottles, they still had dried mud and straw on the bottles. Several of the bottle labels were well worn.
They wouldn't be safe around a lot of my friends.
I too was stationed in Germany in the 70s. Our class VI in Pirmasens only allowed the purchase of two bottles of the Rommel stash. I was able to purchase a bottle of rum which I nolonger have and a bottle of cognac which I do have. While I was overseas my mother store the bottle straight up and down to where the cork dried up and about half of the cognac evaporated. It now has a new cork and is stored on its side as should be. Most of the original label on the front is intact and the back has the diamond of the Chemical Corps that tested the liqour to ensure that it was still good. One of my prize possessions from Germany.
I too was Army, stationed in West Germany a couple times in the '70s, last go around was in '75-'77, duty station was Rhein Main AB, Army Passenger Liason Office at RMAB terminal, picked up a couple bottles at class VI in '76 at Rhein Main AB, Gin, still have the empty bottle, Scotch, still have it, it's been refrigerated all these years, the cork has never dried out, kept bottle horizontal.