One Ar 234 variant under construction that the Allies found particularly fascinating when they overran the factory building was the “crescent-wing” version. This model was composed of an Ar 234B fuselage mated to a concave-curved swept wing configuration. The powerplant powered was a pair of BMW 003R combined-turbojet rocket-assisted engines. The BMW 003R combined the turbojet with a liquid-fuel rocket ignition system that provided three minutes of enhanced power for takeoff, climb or “war emergency power” to escape enemy aircraft. Despite this prototype finally being scrapped, the crescent-wing idea was actually used by the British in the 1950s when they designed the Victor V jet bomber.
Interesting to note was that despite all the knowledge already gathered by Allied intelligence on the existing German aircraft designs, the Me 262 was still their main quarry during Lusty. This is perhaps best explained by Gen. James H. Doolittle:
“We definitely wanted all the rocket stuff, such as the V-2 and the guys working on that project. And for sure, any and all jet or rocket types were wanted. I have to say that, although I was not part of this program, I can understand why the 262 was the most wanted aircraft, even though it was in fact not even the most technically advanced of all the German aircraft types.
“I would also say that, because of the constant interaction between the 262s and our bombers and fighters, it was more of a case of wanting to know better the ‘Devil you know’ as opposed to the demons you only know about. Our fighter pilots all wanted to fly this thing. Hell, I was no exception. I did take a good look at those things when they brought them back home. I would have to say that the Germans really had their act together.”{3}
Even before the shooting stopped, the race began to gather as many of the aircraft as possible. Me 262s and Ar 234s were scattered all over Europe, and the British had managed to capture about a dozen of the Arados, while the Soviets only captured one example. Four of the captured Ar 234s were packaged up and loaded onto the HMS Reaper, joining the V-2s, Me 262s, Me 163s, and other prizes.
Three Ar 234s were given to the U.S. teams, with two going to the U.S. Air Force and one being delivered to the U.S. Navy, although this aircraft proved to be non-airworthy and was never able to be adequately repaired. One of the three USAAF aircraft was tested at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and upon completion was delivered to the Smithsonian Institution’s Air & Space Museum, where it is now on permanent display. It is possible that this example in America is the only existing example of an Ar 234.
The knowledge collected by the Lusty teams advanced American technology at a great pace and saved a lot of time working out trial and error issues within the U.S. jet and rocket programs. However, having the machines in hand was only half the battle. Having the men behind the technology was also required, and another group of hunters were actively on that trail.
Operation Paperclip was just one of many Office of Strategic Services (OSS) programs led by World War I Medal of Honor recipient Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan. The OSS had many diverse missions during the war, from assassination to intelligence gathering, and working with various resistance units all over the world, becoming the genesis for future U.S. Special Forces. The OSS, through Paperclip, recruited German scientists from all areas of expertise for employment by the United States after World War II. The operations as a whole were overseen by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA). Just as Operation Lusty was to deny German technology to the Soviets, Paperclip was the mission to prevent German scientists, engineers, and technicians from also falling into Soviet hands.
Although the JIOA’s recruitment of German scientists only officially began after the war in Europe officially concluded, American agents from the counterintelligence corps were already combing the prisoner of war compounds, hospitals, and refugee camps, looking for anyone who may have been on the list. Ironically, most of the Germans who were able were already of the mindset that capture by the Americans or British was preferable to being in Soviet hands, and thousands tried to flee west. Included were many top jet and rocket engine designers, the very people the Americans wanted the most.
It is with some irony that U.S. President Harry Truman did not formally order the execution of Operation Paperclip until August 7, 1945, long after the vast majority of the most wanted were already in the hands of the OSS. Also, Truman’s order expressly forbade the inclusion of anyone found “to have been a member of the Nazi Party, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism.”
Truman’s ill-conceived order would have had tragic results for the United States, since among the Germans were rocket scientists Dr. Wernher von Braun and Dr. Arthur Rudolph, and the physician Dr. Hubertus Strughold. The end result of following this order would have meant that the United States (and by proxy Great Britain and France) would have either been delayed by decades in developing supersonic aircraft, nuclear-powered submarines and surface ships, stealth aircraft design (such as it was then), rocket and missile technology, submarine and ground-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, high-altitude pressure and g-force data, and the delay (if not failure) in creating the Redstone, Gemini, and Apollo space programs.
In essence, violating a presidential directive allowed the free west to compete with, and eventually destroy, the Soviet-dominated Communist bloc of Eastern Europe. Disobeying Truman’s order probably prevented the Soviets from having such a technological advantage that a Third World War might have been unavoidable. Such is history.
To circumvent President Truman’s anti-Nazi order, and the Allied Potsdam and Yalta agreements, the JIOA worked independently with master forgers, many of whom were Germans on the U.S. payroll, to create false employment and political biographies for the scientists. The JIOA also expunged from the public record the scientists’ Nazi Party memberships and régime affiliations. After the paperwork was completed, the U.S. government granted the scientists their security clearances to work in the United States. Paperclip, the project’s operational name, derived from the paperclips used to attach the scientists’ new “clean” histories to their “U.S. Government Scientist” JIOA personnel files.
Throughout history, conquering nations occupied and appropriated everything within their dominion. Collecting German technology following the war was just a continuance of the age-old practice. The great difference was that the American and British methods were, for the most part, devoted to preventing future wars, healing fresh wounds, building strong alliances with a newly defeated enemy, and preventing the spread of Communism.
It seems ironic that the technological advances with which Hitler and the Third Reich sought to win a desperate war ended up being the genesis of a new world order that has, for the most part, preserved the world from another global catastrophe. It is in this regard that the Germans who flew the world’s first combat jets were not just pioneers of aerial warfare, but also, in their own way, played a role in the future of world peace.
Appendix 1
My Last Mission
BY JOE PETERBURS
On 10 April 1945, airfields throughout England were launching some 1,300 B-17s and B-24s against targets in Germany. Targets included aircraft factories, ordinance depots, and Me 262 bases in the Oranienberg, Berlin, Brandenburg-Briest, and Magdeburg areas. The bombers were being escorted by 843 Mustangs (P-51s) and 62 Thunderbolts (P-47s). The 20th Fighter Groups assignment was to escort some 430 B-17s from the 1st Air Division whose targets were in the Oranienberg area. The 1st Air Division bombers were joined by 31 B-17s from the 398th Bomb Group led by Lt. Col. E. B. Daily. The bombers were all assembled and headed toward Germany and their targets at Oranienberg by 1205.