Attempts to organize A-4 mass production began with the October 23, 1941, order forming the Arbeitsstab Wa A-Vorhaben Peenemünde (Ordnance Office-Peenemünde Project Working Staff). This committee was partially superseded in July 1942 by Detmar Stahlknecht’s Nachbaudirektion (Production Planning Directorate), which was renamed the Technische Direktion Serie (TDS: Technical Directorate for Mass Production) in early 1943, paralleling Wernher von Braun’s position as Technische Direktor (TD: Technical Director) for development. Both reported through Gerhard Stegmaier, the Leiter (Chief) of the Development Works (acronym EW/L), to the Commander (HAP/L or HAP/Kdr.). With Speer’s order on December 22, 1942, to form the Sonderausschuss A4 (A-4 Special Committee), the two preceding production organizations faded away by the autumn of 1943. The Committee was expanded to become Sonderausschuss V-Waffen (Special Committee for V-Weapons) in August 1944 but used cover names—usually Sonderausschuss z.b.V. Paul Storch’s Sonderausschuss elektrischer Zubehör für R-Geräte (Special Committee for Electrical Equipment on R[ocket]-Devices) apparently led a separate existence from roughly mid-1943 to mid-1944.
A May 17, 1943, order from General Fromm, effective June 1, renamed the center Heimat-Artillerie Park 11 (Home Artillery Park 11) or HAP 11, with Karlshagen replacing Peenemünde as the official location. After the August 18 air raid, the VW and EW were merged, preparatory to moving production underground. On September 4, Fromm named Dornberger Beauftragter zur besonderen Verwendung Heer (Army Commissioner for Special Tasks), or BzbV Heer. The rocket general had received the title Der Beauftragte des Wa A für das A4-Programm (The Ordnance Office Commissioner for the A-4 Program) in June, but now he was removed from Ordnance and Wa Prüf 11 altogether.
Dornberger also received the title Artilleriekommandeur (Artillery Commander) 191 or Arko 191 after Hitler gave him tactical command of the A-4 on October 4, 1943. To that title was added the adjective Höhere (Higher), probably in December, making him Harko 191, but soon thereafter he lost the position. Meanwhile a December 1 Hitler order created Generalkommando LXV. AK z.b.V. (General Command, LXV Army Corps for Special Tasks) to control all V-weapons. After SS Major General Hans Kammler seized the A-4 mobile units at the end of August 1944, he reconstituted them as Division z. V. (zur Vergeltung, “for Vengeance”). About the same time Himmler named him Sonderbeauftragter 2 des Reichsführers-SS (Special Commissioner 2 of the Reichsführer-SS), acronym Sb 2.
On December 15, 1943, the liquid-fuel rocket program was removed from Wa Prüf 11 and constituted as Wa Prüf 10; solid-fuel rocketry remained under the old designation. Wa Prüf 10 became Wa Prüf (BuM) 10 in July 1944 or thereabouts, reflecting the separation of the Ordnance Development and Testing Division into two divisions, Ballistik und Munition (Ballistics and Munitions) and Waffen und Gerät (Weapons and Equipment), paralleling an earlier split of the Industrielle Rüstung (Industrial Armament, that is, Procurement) Division in 1940.
During the last two years of the war a number of limited-liability companies (Gesellschaften mit beschränkter Haftung or GmbH), technically private but government-owned, were created for the rocket program. The first was Mittelwerk GmbH (Central Works, Ltd.), on September 24, 1943, followed by the Wasserbauversuchsanstalt GmbH (Hydraulic Engineering Experimental Establishment, Ltd.) for the wind tunnel group that was evacuated to Kochel, Bavaria. A Steinbruchverwertungs-Gesellschaft mbH (Quarry Utilization, Ltd.) was created in late 1943 or early 1944 to run the Vorwerke (Engine Test Works) at Schlier and Lehesten, but it was later absorbed by the Mittelwerk. On August 1, 1944, the development sections of HAP 11 became the Elektromechanische Werke GmbH (Electromechanical Industries, Ltd.), acronym EW The remaining Army base administration became the Versuchsplatz Karlshagen (Karlshagen Test Range).
On January 13, 1945, Speer ordered the formation of the Arbeitsstab Dornberger (Dornberger Working Staff) within the Armaments Ministry (which was called the Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition from March 1940 to September 1943 and the Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion thereafter). On February 6 Kammler subordinated the Working Staff Dornberger to himself. Göring had named him the head of a Programm “Brechung des Luftterrors” (Program for Breaking the Air Terror) on January 26, as well as V-1 commander. In the latter capacity, he folded the V-1 units into an upgraded Armeekorps z.V. (Army Corps “for Vengeance”). After the evacuation of Peenemünde to Thuringia, the EW became the core of the Entwicklungsgemeinschaft Mittelbau (Central Construction Development Cooperative). With the further evacuation of five hundred personnel to Bavaria, the Peenemünde organization can be said to have effectively dissolved.
Significant Abbreviations Used in the Notes
Arch.: Peenemünde Archive Report
Arm.Min.: Armaments Ministry
BA: Bundesarchiv Koblenz
BA/MA: Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv Freiburg
BDC: Berlin Document Center
CTR: Chemisch-Technisches Reichsanstalt
DM: Deutsches Museum Munich
EW: Entwicklungswerk or Elektromechanische Werke
FE: Fort Eustis
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act
FSP: Fertigungsstelle Peenemünde
HAP: Heeresanstalt Peenemünde
HAP 11: Heimat-Artillerie-Park 11
HVP: Heeresversuchsstelle (or -Versuchsanstalt) Peenemünde
INSCOM: U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
IWM: Imperial War Museum
KG: Kreiselgeräte GmbH
KL: Konzentrationslager
LC: Library of Congress
LZ: Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH
NA: National Archives
NASM: National Air and Space Museum
OKH: Oberkommando des Heeres
OKW: Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
OHI: Oral history interview (deposited at NASM)
OSI: Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Justice Dept.
RLM: Reichsluftfahrtministerium
RSIC: Redstone Scientific Information Center
SRCH: Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville
VW: Versuchsserienwerk
WD: Walter Dornberger
WvB: Wernher von Braun
Photographs
