Hitler’s Fake Suicide Mission Prank

In 1937, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels reportedly pranked their supporter businessman Ernst Hanfstaengl with a fake suicide mission during the Spanish Civil War. Hanfstaengl received sealed orders to parachute into Spanish territory for Francisco Franco, while the crew secretly circled Germany and fed him false reports that they were nearing Spain. The pilot then claimed engine trouble and landed safely near Leipzig. The prank terrified Hanfstaengl, and he defected from Nazi Germany soon afterward.

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