Fragment of 'Hitler's carpet' on display in military museum

A FRAGMENT of carpet purportedly from Adolf Hitler’s bunker in Berlin has been discovered during a clean-up at a Yorkshire museum.

The piece of floral-decorated carpet was found in an envelope when an archive room at the Green Howards Museum in Richmond was emptied for re-decoration.

Staff at the museum believe that the carpet, which has a pattern of yellow flowers and blue leaves on a fawn background, was brought back to Britain by a Green Howards soldier who was serving in Germany during the Second World War.

Checks have been made in the archives and details found when the carpet was donated to the museum in 1985 by a woman who had worked in the Women’s Voluntary Service.

Museum director Lynda Powell said: “We don’t know exactly which Green Howard ‘liberated’ it from Berlin in 1945, but it is likely to have been a member of the 1st Battalion, which was in the city in 1945.

“We were surprised at how domestic the carpet’s pattern is - certainly a contrast to the images we have of the bunker.”

The museum is dedicated to the Green Howards Regiment, which can trace its origins as far back as the late 17th century.

It was amalgamated with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and the Prince of Wales' Own Regiment to form the Yorkshire Regiment in 2006.

The piece of carpet is going on public display for what is thought to be the first time when the museum, which is in the centre of the North Yorkshire market town, re-opens today.

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