HITLER’S telephone has made nearly £200,000 at auction for its vendor from the Dawlish area.

Ranulf Rayner, 82, and from Ashcombe, will net a sizeable chunk of the sum after the Fuhrer’s ‘weapon of mass destruction’ went under the hammer in the US for $243,000 over the weekend.

An anonymous bidder blew a small fortune on the blower, pictured, which Mr Rayner inherited from his dad who was given the war trophy by the Red Army just days after Hitler killed himself in his bunker in bombed-out Berlin.

Mr Rayner always hoped the curious relic would find a home in a museum.

It was expected the distinctive red phone – which features the Nazi eagle insignia and the leader’s engraved name ­ – would go for as much as £250,000.

Punters did not put such a high price on the lot which the auction house insisted had an ‘unshakeable provenance.’