Scarboro’s Hitler link?
‘Seeing Hitler in Scarboro’ is a surreal thought’
Was Scarborough’s Grand Hotel spared Luftwaffe attack in the war because Hitler planned to use it as his UK base? Leisure guide.
Adolf Hitler may have planned to transform a Scarborough hotel into a strategic base for the Third Reich if he had successfully invaded Britain.
Despite a wave of destruction left by the Nazis in Scarborough, the Grand Hotel was left untouched during the terrifying raids.
It is rumoured that Hitler had earmarked the historic hotel as his headquarters for the Third Reich and that the Luftwaffe pilots had been told to avoid the 12-floor hotel.
Mike Covell, a local historian in Hull, said: “This a story I first heard a few years ago, I’d been trying to get to the bottom of it all. It seems every avenue of research I’ve travelled down I’ve hit brick walls and people have gone quiet.
“The town was targeted and yet these rumours were circulating that he didn’t want [the Grand Hotel] touched – that he wanted to take over the hotel and use it as a base.”
On March 18 1941, almost 1,400 buildings were damaged or destroyed and 28 civilians and military people were killed with hundreds injured.
He added: “If you can imagine you are flying over Scarborough the seafront stands out but the biggest building is the Grand Hotel.
“Normally they would bomb a big building with fire bombs and actually use it as a beacon to light up the area. So it’s quite strange that one of the biggest buildings was left unscathed and untouched whether that was intentional or bad luck for the Nazis.
“I find it fascinating. I love stories like this that are quite quirky. Seeing Hitler in Scarborough is such a surreal thought.”