Wartime Wednesday: Operation Paperclip

 

Wartime Wednesday: Operation Paperclip

My father-in-law worked for IBM, and from the late 1960s through 1975 worked at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama on the Apollo program. One of his projects was the communication ring on the Saturn V rocket, a rocket that NASA had thanks to German-born aerospace engineer and rocket designer Wernher von Braun who’d been relocated to the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip. I often wondered how my father-in-law felt about working with a man who’d once been a member of the Nazi party, although it was later determined he joined to advance his career and avoid jail.

When the Allies advanced into Germany, they discovered a plethora of advanced research and scientific talent. (Unsurprising, since German rockets and bombs had been pummeling Europe for most of the war). But the U.S. realized they could use the German expertise in the fight against the Japanese as well as provide a boost to military research. In July 1945, the Joint Chiefs of Staff created Operation Overcast, later merged with and called Operation Paperclip. Army and Navy teams were sent to “locate and acquire information, hardware, and people.” A mission assigned to Colonel Holger N. Toftoy, chief of U.S. Army Ordnance Technical Intelligence in Europe, was to find and ship components for 100 V-2 missiles.

Thousands of German scientists and engineers in the fields of rocketry, aviation, chemical and

biological warfare, medicine, petroleum were interviewed immediately after the war with the intent to offer them six-month and one-year contracts for employment in the United States. Japan surrendered a mere three months later, but knowing the advantages of a long-term relationship with the scientists the program continued, only now as a one of permanent immigration: the adversary now the Russians and the resulting Cold War.

Needless to say, the program was highly classified as the military did not want the general public to know they had brought ex-Nazis to America. The initial group was composed of 125 individuals, including von Braun, and they were set up at Fort Bliss (Texas) to develop a cruise missile. Four years later, the group moved to Redstone Arsenal where the Army’s nuclear-armed ballistic missile program was located. After the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, von Braun and his team were tasked with getting the U.S. into space.

Ultimately over 1,500 specialists and their families were brought to the United States. As the years passed, most became naturalized American citizens and were absorbed into the military as well as industrial and academic positions. Did the project advance American science, technology and national security? Yes, but did the ends justify the means? Some of the individuals recruited had perpetrated war crimes and should have been put on trial. Instead, their records were covered up with the excuse of being desperately needed to fight communism.

With the declassification of the files in the 1980s, the program came under scrutiny by the general public with mixed response.

__________________

Norwegian Nights (The Resistance Chronicles, Book 2)

Can their marriage endure a debilitating injury, a devastating loss, and a world war?

The second anniversary of Germany’s occupation of Norway has passed with no end in sight, so Gustav Westgard and his wife are still exiled on Shetland. He’s convinced Oda’s miscarriage would have been prevented back in Norway and decides he must return to his homeland to do whatever possible to rid the country of its invaders. Will he live to see liberation?

Grieving the loss of her baby, Oda turns toward her heavenly Father as Gustav retreats inside himself. Rather than try to stop him after she discovers he plans to join the Norwegian resistance, she stows away onboard the ship taking him home. Can she convince him that they are better united in a cause than apart?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/bwl5qv

Sources:
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/project-paperclip-and-american-rocketry-after-world-war-ii
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/operation-paperclip
https://mjhnyc.org/events/from-wwii-to-the-space-race-the-story-of-project-paperclip/
https://www.nasa.gov/people/wernher-von-braun/
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-werner-von-braun-sent-america-to-the-moon
https://wsmrmuseum.com/2022/03/28/operation-paperclip-at-fort-bliss-1945-1950/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

Photo Credits:
Dr. Wernher von Braun: Courtesy http://www.nasa.gov
V-2 Rocket: https://wsmrmuseum.com/
German Scientists: By U.S. Army - Officials of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency