Hermann Goering's "Blue Goose"
In 1936, Mercedes-Benz introduced the 540K special, designated 540Ks. Based on the shorter 2980 mm wheelbase chassis, its body was carefully crafted. Its price tag of 28,000 Reichsmarks, some RM6,000 above the price of standard models, meant only 32 were ever built.
In 1937, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering ordered a 540Ks, in his favourite colour of "Luftwaffe" blue with his family crest on both doors. It included armour-plated sides and bulletproof glass. Nicknamed the "Blue Goose", Goering was often photographed in the car.[8]
On May 4, 1945, the US Army, C Company, 326th Engineers, 101st Airborne Division 'Screaming Eagles' entered Berchtesgaden, and on finding the car took possession. Major General Maxwell Taylor used the car as his command vehicle in West Germany until it was commissioned by the US Treasury. Shipped to Washington, D.C., it successfully toured the United States in a victory bond tour.[9] In 1956, the car was auctioned off by the US Army at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland and sold to Jacques Tunick of Greenwich, Connecticut, with a high bid of $2167.
In 1958, Tunick sold the car to the private collection of veterinarian Dr. George Bitgood Jr., who had it repainted in black and the chrome re-plated. Kept private, Bitgood only displayed it once, at the 1973 county fair in Durham, Connecticut. After Bitgood's death, the "Blue Goose" was shown by his family in June 2002 at the 101st Airborne Reunion at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The car was then sold to Carnlough International Limited of Guernsey, on the agreement that it be restored to its condition "as found" at Berchtesgaden.[10]
