The Rocket and the Reich: Peenem

^{A Wasserfall test rocket on the launch pad in 1944. This joint Luftwaffe-Army anti-aircraft missile became Peenemünde’s second major project in the last two years of the war. (Deutsches Museum Munich)}

^{The ruthless builder of the Auschwitz gas chambers and the Mittelwerk, SS-General Hans Kammler, became the dominant personality in the Army rocket program after the assassination attempt against Hitler in July 1944. (Archiv Jost W. Schneider)}

^{The first A-4b is prepared for launch in late December 1944. Originally called the A-9, the winged A-4 was revived late in the war. (SI neg. no. 76-7772)}

^{A new start: Peenemünde’s core personnel is reassembled at White Sands, New Mexico, in 1946. Seventh from right in the front row, with his hand in his pocket, is Wernher von Braun. Fourth from left in the front row, in the short white jacket, is Arthur Rudolph, the production manager at Mittelwerk who was forced to leave the United States in 1984 for his role in the use of slave labor. (SI neg. no. 77-14246)}

^{In the New Mexico desert, a captured rocket is prepared for a mission to the upper atmosphere in December 1947. The A-4/V-2 became the foundation of guided-missile development by all the major powers after World War II. (SI neg. no. 80-4734)}

Notes

The abbreviated German date system has been used in the notes for clarity and brevity: day.month.year. Where possible, names have been given in primary document citations, although the originals may have been addressed to or from the acronym of a person’s office. When the original author of a document is known and the document was signed by someone else, the actual author’s name is given in brackets. Full citations of secondary works can be found in the Bibliography.

Prologue: Summer 1943

1. Huzel, Peenemünde, 44.

2. Ibid., 30–38; Schubert chronicle, 17.6.43, 11.7.43, and 16.7.43, in BA/MA, RH8/V.1210.

3. Huzel, Peenemünde, 38–40.

1. The Birth of the Missile

1. Willy Ley, “Review in Retrospect” (ms., 1947), NASM, Willy Ley Collection, box 2701, folder 200.

2. Schneider, “Technik,” 236; Hölsken, V-Waffen, 15; Müller, “World Power Status,” 182; Ley, Rockets, 168–74.

3. WD, V-2, 19; WD, “Denkschrift,” c. late 1943, DM (page 6 missing from copy in NASM, FE496); Ordway and Sharpe, Rocket Team, 17; Winter, Prelude, 51; Carroll, Design, 59–61; Homze, Arming, 8–10, 21–22, 39–41.

4. Oberth, Rakete; Neufeld, “Weimar Culture,” 725–30; Winter, Prelude, 22. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.

5. Neufeld, “Weimar Culture,” 729–30; Winter, Prelude, 21–22; Goddard, “A Method”; Goddard, “Liquid-propellant Rocket Development” (1936).

6. Neufeld, “Weimar Culture,” 731–41; Winter, Prelude, 35–37; Ley, Rockets, 105–23.

7. Neufeld, “Weimar Culture,” 725–28, 742–52.

8. Oberth, Wege, 199–200.

9. WD, “Denkschrift,” c. late 1943, 6–7, NASM, FE496, and DM; Schneider, “Technik,” 236; WD, V-2, 19; WD, “European Rocketry,” 249; Keilig, Deutsche Heer, 211/19, 211/68, 211/145, 211/302, 211/373.

10. Philipps, “Karl Becker,” 293; Ebert and Rupieper, “Technische Wissenschaft,” 469–70; Keilig, Das Deutsche Heer, 211/302, 211/373; Winter, Prelude, 52. That Becker had been aware of the spaceflight literature for some years is shown by Cranz’s skeptical discussion of Oberth and Goddard in volume 2 (1926) of his textbook, Cranz, Lehrbuch, 2:402–19, 437. Becker had assisted in revisions to volume 1.

11. WD, V-2, 20; WD, “Lessons,” 18; WD to Oberth, 12.6.64, in an unpublished Festschrift for Oberth in NASM file “Hermann Oberth”; Reisig OHI, 1989, 57–58; WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 8, 20, SRCH, WvB Papers. Whether Dornberger was actually hired first to look into liquid-fuel rocketry or only later was assigned to that task is unclear from the contradictory accounts in his book and memoir articles. In general, Dornberger’s various memoirs are absolutely indispensable but not highly trustworthy. His memory was faulty on many details, and he suppressed or distorted damaging information, most notably regarding his dealings with Hitler, the SS, and concentration camp prisoners.

12. Neufeld, “Weimar Culture,” 730–31. On the military-industrial complex and rocketry, see McDougall, Heavens.

13. Winkler, “Rückstoss-Arbeiten Winkler,” 8.5.43, DM; Kunze, “Zusammenarbeit,” 71–75. The powder rocket manufacturer Friedrich Sander, who had been involved in the Opel–Valier stunts, may have secretly built and launched a liquid-fuel rocket in 1929, but nothing further came of that work. Winter, Prelude, 37; Sänger-Bredt and Engel, “The Development,” 221–22.

14. Franklin, American, 18–19; Rudolph OHI, 7–8; Essers, Max Valier, 247–65; Riedel, “A Chapter,” 208–12; Riedel, “Raketenentwicklung mit flüssigen Treibstoffen” (ms., 1950), 9–10, IWM, German Misc. 148. See Winter and Neufeld, “Heylandt’s Rocket Cars,” for a fuller examination of this group.

15. Oberth to Dickhuth-Harrach, 11.1.34, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1226; Ley, Rockets, 124–27; Winter, Prelude, 38–39.

16. Ley, Rockets, 127–32; Barth, Hermann Oberth, 139–53; Neufeld, “Weimar Culture,” 738–41.

17. Becker to Wimmer, 12.5.31, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1226; Nebel, Narren, 72–75; Oberth to Dickhuth-Harrach, 11.1.34, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1226. Nebel’s memoirs are of questionable reliability, but some of his wilder stories are confirmed by other sources.

18. Magnus von Braun, Weg, 87–193; WD, V-2, 27; Ley, Rockets, 133–35; Ritter/CTR to Stucktay/Notgemein. d. Dt. Wissenschaft, 5.11.30, in IWM, MI 14/801(V).

19. Ley, Rockets, 136–39; WvB drawings of Mirak, 3.8.30, and Kegeldüse, 12.9.30, in SRCH, WvB Papers.

20. Becker to Wimmer/Wa Prw 8, 12.5.31, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1226 and IWM, MI 14/801(V). See also Wimmer to Becker, 6.5.31, in latter.

21. WvB, “Behind the Scenes of Rocket Development in Germany 1928 through 1945” (ms., late 1940s), 6, SRCH, WvB Papers. A heavily edited version was published as “Reminiscences of German Rocketry.”

22. Marionoff, quoted in Winter, Prelude, 42; WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 6–7, SRCH, WvB Papers; Rolf Engel interview by Neufeld, 1991.

23. Ley, Rockets, 140–51; Winter, Prelude, 43.

24. Ley, Rockets, 140–54; WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 6–7; Winter, Prelude, 41–43; Nebel, Narren, 99–116; Sänger-Bredt and Engel, “Development,” 218–21.