55. Stud (Schneider) to Röhm through Wehrmachtsamt, mailed 10.3.34, and Becker (Schneider) to Wa Wi, 3.5.34, in IWM, MI 14/801(V).
56. Marginal notations of von Horstig and Schneider on Nebel to Reich Finance Minister, 20.2.34, Schneider Aktennotiz, 28.5.34, and Ohnesorge/Post Ministry to Seldte, 15.6.34, in IWM, MI 14/801(V).
57. Von Horstig (Schneider) to Abwehr, 4.6.34, Schneider Aktennotiz, 28.6.34, and Zwengauer (Dornberger) to Abwehr, 7.7.34, in IWM, MI 14/801(V); Nebel, Narren, 139; Gartmann, Men, 97.
58. Nebel, Narren, 139–40; Dornberger Aktennotiz, 10.7.34, in IWM, MI 14/801(V).
59. On Nebel, see IWM, MI 14/801(V), BA/MA, RH8/v.1226 and NA, T-175/155. Engel has made contradictory statements about his group’s fate. In one version, Walter Thiel and Wernher von Braun, among others, pressured him to work for Ordnance. He was then forced to close the group when Hitler issued an order giving the Army a monopoly over rocketry. But no written evidence for such an order exists. Horeis, Rolf Engel, 51–52; Gartmann, Men, 97–98; and Päch, “Rolf Engel,” 234. In the other version, he was threatened by a Gestapo representative, but surveillance stopped when a fellow student leader introduced him to Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SS Security Service, or SD, and administrator of the Gestapo. The group folded when he was transferred to the Nazi student leadership in Munich in 1935. Engel interview. Engel’s “Lebenlauf” of 16.2.40 in his SS officer file, BDC, shows that he probably became an SD informant in 1936.
60. Wa Prw 1 material on Brügel, 22.6.34–30.6.35, in NASM, FE366/3.
61. Rudolph OHI, 17–28; Franklin, American, 38–43; Ordnance–Pietsch contract and statement, 15.5.33, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1225; WvB evaluation of Rudolph motor, 18.8.34, in NASM, FE727/c; Rudolph file, BDC.
62. Material on inventors is in BA/MA, RH8/v. 1221–26, some of which is in NASM, FE366. The Oberth material is in RH8/v.1226. See also WD, “Denkschrift,” c. late 1943, FE496.
63. WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 11, SRCH, WvB Papers.
64. WD, “German V-2,” 395; AG f. Industriegasverwertung to Schneider, 10.11.32, in NASM, FE724/a.
65. Wa Prw I-Heylandt correspondence, 1.10.32–15.12.33, in NASM, FE724/a.
66. Riedel, “Raketenentwicklung,” 24, IWM, German Misc. 148; WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 12–13, SRCH, WvB Papers. WD, V-2, 27, erroneously places Riedel at Kummersdorf in late 1932.
67. WvB, “Beiträge,” 29–31; WD, V-2, 23–26; WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 11, SRCH, WvB Papers.
68. WvB memo, 14.12.33, in NASM, FE727/c; WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 11, SRCH, WvB Papers.
69. Wa Prw I correspondence and documents on aluminum firms, 13.4.33–15.9.33, in NASM, FE744; WvB, “Beiträge,” 30.
70. WvB, “Beiträge,” 31–35; WvB memo, 14.12.33, in NASM, FE727/c.
71. Chefkonstrukteur/Wa Prw 3 to von Horstig, 28.6.33, in NASM, FE74/b; WvB, “Beiträge,” 35, 43; WD, V-2, 32–33.
72. WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 11–12, SRCH, WvB Papers; WvB, “Beiträge,” 37, 43–44; Riedel, “Raketenentwicklung,” 24–25, IWM, German Misc. 148. The oft-repeated assertion that the A-1 was abandoned because it was “nose heavy” is misleading.
73. WvB, “Beiträge,” 26–28; Reisig, “Peenemünder ‘Aggregaten’,” 44–45.
74. WvB, “Beiträge,”; WvB doctoral exam records, 16.5.34–27.7.34, in Humboldt University archive, Phil. Fak. 759.
75. Keilig, Das Deutsche Heer, 211/19; Schumann, “Wehrmacht,” 137; WD, V-2, 29.
76. Schneider order, 30.11.34, and Allgemeines Heeresamt to von Horstig, 11.12.34, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1945; WD denazification questionnaire, 14.7.47, in NA, RG 319, IRR files, WD dossier; Rudolph OHI, 51–52; WD, V-2, 36; Ordway and Sharpe, Rocket Team, 23–24.
77. WvB report on A-2 launches, 28.1.35, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1945.
2. The Founding of Peenemünde
1. Schneider order, 15.1.35, in BA/MA, RH8/v.1945; WvB, “Denkschrift,” 18.1.35, in NASM, FE727/a.
2. WvB, “Denkschrift,” 18.1.35, in NASM, FE727/a.
3. Von Horstig to Becker, 4.2.35, and related documents in BA/MA, RH8/V.1260; Riedel, “Raketenentwicklung,” 32–33, and figs. 55, 56, 56a, IWM, German Misc. 148; WvB to von Horstig, 23.11.35, in NASM, FE727/a.
4. Zanssen note, 20.5.35, and marginal comment by “D.” on von Horstig (Zanssen) to Wimmer/RLM Tech. Office, 22.5.35, in NASM, FE746; Baeumker to Becker, 10.10.34, in IWM, MI 14/801(V).
5. WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 16, SRCH, WvB Papers; von Richthofen to von Horstig, 6.2.35, Zanssen (WvB) report, 16.2.35, von Horstig (Zanssen) to RLM/LC II, 19.2.35, and Junkers report of 18.12.34 in BA/MA, RH8/v.1221.
6. Zanssen and WvB report, 26.3.35, on Schmidt visit, in DM, (FE722); Schmidt, “On the History…,” in Benecke and Quick, History, 375–84.
7. Walter-Ordnance correspondence, 15.10.34–29.11.34, in NASM, FE727/c; H. Walter, “Development of Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets in Germany,” in Benecke and Quick, eds., History, 263, and I. Sänger-Bredt, “History…,” 326, idem; Becker (Zanssen) to RLM, 9.4.35, and WvB note to Zanssen, 30.6.35, in DM, (FE722).
8. Constant, Origins, 178–204; Zanssen note, 20.5.35, and Aktennotiz, 22.5.35, in NASM, FE746.
9. Von Horstig (Zanssen) to Wimmer, 22.5.35, in NASM, FE746.
10. WvB, “Stellungnahme,” 27.6.35, and von Horstig minutes of 27.6.35 meeting in NASM, FE746.
11. WvB, “Stellungnahme,” 27.6.35, NASM, FE746.
12. WvB NSDAP file card, BDC; WD denazification questionnaire, 14.7.47, NA, RG 319, IRR files, WD dossier; Nuss, “Einige Aspekte,” 440–42. Dornberger in V-2, 20, and “German V-2,” 394–95, asserts that when Ordnance had gone looking for contractors in the early 1930s, no one was competent or interested. That is at best a half-truth, as the fate of the Heylandt group demonstrates. See also Klein, Vom Geschoss, 94.
13. Von Horstig minutes of 27.6.35 meeting in NASM, FE746; von Richthofen minutes of 27.5.35 RLM/LC II meeting in NA, T-971/73 (no frame nos).
14. Draft agreement, 2.9.35, of Ordnance, RLM, Heinkel and Junkers, WvB to Lorenz/RLM/LC I, 25.10.35, Kirchhoff to WvB, 10.1.36, Kirchhoff to DVL, 10.1.36, and WvB to Lorenz, 24.4.36, in NASM, FE746; WvB to von Horstig, 23.11.35, in NASM, FE727/a.
15. WvB minutes of 16.10.35 meeting in NASM, FE746. Ernst Heinkel claims in his memoirs that he “met” von Braun in November and set up a rocket aircraft project as a private venture that had little or nothing to do with the Luftwaffe and Ordnance. The foregoing document shows this story to be nonsense. Heinkel, Stürmisches Leben, 448–50; Constant, Origins, 197–98.
16. Constant, Origins, 198; Heinkel works to WvB, 5.12.35, and WvB to Alpers/RLM/LC II, 14.12.35, in NASM, FE746.
17. WD, V-2, 38, 40.
18. WvB, “Behind the Scenes,” 18, SRCH, WvB Papers; WD denazification questionnaire, 14.7.47, in NA, RG 319, IRR files, WD dossier; WD, V-2, 40.
19. WD, V-2, 40–41.
20. Von Richthofen minutes of 6.1.36 meeting, in NA, T-971/73 (no frame nos.); “Lageplan-Skizze” of 18.1.36 in BA/MA, RH8/v.1945; WD, V-2, 37–38; Rudolph OHI, 33–35.
21. WvB, “Reminiscences,” 135. Unfortunately the corresponding page is missing from the manuscript version. This published version was heavily rewritten by an editor and no doubt overdramatizes the story even more than the original.