Volume 46 - No. 14
April 14, 2016
by Friedrich Gomez
During the closing days of the Second World War, the United States would soon experience a state of shock at discovering just how advanced the Third Reich’s German scientists were. Their achievements in warfare science was, literally, leaps and bounds ahead of us. As one source put it, “Hitler’s incredible capability to successfully launch V-2 missile attacks on British soil in the mid-1940s clearly reveals just how much more advanced they were than our Allies.” From the standards of that era, this is a most remarkable achievement in rocket science. German rocket science was so advanced that it would eventually prove to be the initial blueprints for both the Soviet Union and the United States in their race-to-space explorations. There would be a rush to capture German scientists.
There was only one problem. The U.S. President made it clear in his ruling: no one actively associated with the Nazi Regime will be allowed to enter the confines of the United States. It was a huge dilemma: if we honored the letter of the law, we would forfeit all the advancements of German science that our adversaries would, certainly, exploit to the fullest. If we circumvented the presidential ruling, we would be accountable for discrimination in applying justice to some but not to others. Our secret governments, viz., our CIA and domestic FBI, would certainly ‘do whatever is necessary for the greater good of the people’ which translates to “bleaching the records of these brilliant World War II scientists,” as is necessary so as to preserve our military competitiveness with Russia. It was deemed a necessary step. The V-2 missiles would eventually prove be the precursors to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) of modern American and Russian armaments.
The sophistication of the German’s Third Reich V-2 rocket (Vergeltungswaffe-2) was almost science fiction brought to life. Just think, this revolutionary arsenal resulted in the world’s first ballistic missile attacks when they rained down on London, England, in September of 1944. And these “vengeance weapons” from the skies were almost immune to enemy fire. As one historian states, “It was virtually impossible to intercept. Upon launch, it rose six miles vertically, cutting off its own fuel according to the range desired.” Dr. Friedrich Kirchstein even developed the V-2 radio for motor cut-off. The deadly speed was 4,000 mph and range was an unbelievable 200 miles!
Dr. Wernher von Braun headed rocket science development that eventually terrorized London, and the entire country, killing over 2,700 civilians and injuring over 6,500. Von Braun would later testify to his American interrogators that his primary interest of rocketry was not to devastate but to develop man’s capability to travel into outer space. This caused Jewish comedian and satirist, Mort Sahl
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(born 1927-present) to attribute his celebrated remark to Wernher von Braun, “I aim for the stars, but sometimes hit London.” Mort Sahl’s political wit was so wellrespected that John F. Kennedy would eventually ask Sahl to write jokes for his campaign speeches.
Nevertheless, such astonishing achievement in rocket warfare was of primary interest to the allies. As the war was drawing to an end, the United States would commence a frenzied rush to gather as many German scientists as possible, under the code name “Operation Paperclip.” This meant ‘everybody for themselves,” as even Allied Forces raced to compete against each other in the mad rush to ‘grab what you can, as quickly as you can,’ in the form of World War II German rocket engineers and theoretical
scientists.
Major-General Hugh Knerr, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe, wrote of the urgency in trying to seize a scientific goldmine: “If we do not take the opportunity to seize the apparatus and the brains that developed it and put the combination back to work promptly, we will remain several years behind while we attempt to cover a field already exploited.” Giving credit where credit is due, Germany’s scientific community during the Second World War was vastly superior over their Allied counterparts – even if that credit is begrudgingly granted because of their work under Hitler’s regime. This rush to gather Third Reich scientists was tantamount to the frantic era of our early Gold Rush days, but vastly more important if we were to survive the Cold War
‘Operation Paperclip’ Continued on Page 2
era.
What was discovered in schematic charts and diagrams was a science far beyond anything we, the Russians, or the British, were even close to imagining, let alone, in pursuit of. U.S. Air Force Deputy Commander, Major-General Hugh Knerr wrote a shocking truth in a handwritten report, “Occupation of German scientific and industrial establishments has revealed the fact that we have been alarmingly backward in many fields of research.”
Now that the war was at end, our cooperation abruptly ended with our Russian and British Allies. Especially in regards to the Russians. Our U.S. Operations’ mission was (unofficial), but clear: “To exploit German scientists for American