Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction Du Branch Patrimoine De I'edition

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction Du Branch Patrimoine De I'edition Strategy for Terror: An analysis of the progress in Allied responses to the emergence of the V-2 Rocket, 1943-1945. by Gavin James King B.A., University of Ottawa, 2002 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In the Graduate Academic Unit of History Supervisor: Marc Milner, Ph. D., History Examining Board: Marc Milner, Ph. D., History Steven Turner, Ph. D., History Lawrence Wisniewski, Ph. D., Sociology Gary K. Waite, Ph. D., History, Chair This thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUSWICK October, 2006 © Gavin James King, 2006 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49691-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49691-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada ABSTRACT The V-2 rocket, developed in Nazi Germany during the late 1930's and early 1940's, was the world's first ballistic missile. Between September 8, 1944 and March 5, 1945 some 517 V-2 rockets fell on Greater London, the weapon's primary target. Although considered a technological milestone, military historians have generally dismissed the V-2 as a costly enterprise that failed to deliver any strategic benefits. The thesis argues that Hitler and the Nazi leadership backed the rocket program because it offered a powerful vehicle to wage psychological warfare and proved a valuable propaganda tool. More substantially, based upon research of original British government documents, the thesis demonstrates that the threat of long range rocket bombardment succeeded in raising a major strategic challenge for the British government. It is shown that the British government perceived the threat of rocket bombardment far more seriously that the establish literature would suggest. The threat from the weapon, elevated by uncertain intelligence, was understood to be as much psychological as material in nature. It was feared that any material destruction from a rocket bombardment of London would be greatly magnified by the psychological trauma that would accompany this revolutionary form of attack. Planning to meet the contingency of rocket attack took place at the highest levels and included the drafting of extraordinary measures. li TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Chapter 1: A Historiography of the V-2 1 Chapter 2: Vengeance 30 Chapter 3: The First Rocket Scare, 1943 47 Chapter Four: A Renewed Threat, 1944 75 Chapter Five: Conclusion 96 Bibliography 101 Curriculum Vitae iii Chapter One: A Historiography of the V-2 Throughout the Second World War both the Axis and the Allies sought to develop new weapons and devices that would give them the winning edge. As the war began to go against Germany, Hitler increasingly staked his hopes for victory on his scientists and their ability to develop new weapons of war. The V-2 rocket was one such weapon; the second of Hitler's so called 'vengeance weapons.'1 However, unlike its contemporary the VI, the V-2 rocket was much more than simply a bomb with wings. It was a technological giant leap, the cumulative result of decade's enthusiasm and research into liquid fuelled rockets. Designed by a team of German scientists led by the young Wernher von Braun and army General Walter Dornberger, the forty-six feet high and 13.6 tons ballistic missile carried its one ton warhead approximately 180 miles. Between September 8, 1944 and March 27, 1945 some 517 V-2 rockets fell on Greater London, the weapon's primary target. The attacks cost Britain 2724 dead and twice that badly injured; light casualties when viewed in context.2 However, these figures belie The V-2 is actually the missiles propaganda name. The 'V stands for vergeltungswqffe or 'vengeance' To its developers, and to the German Army, the V-2 was known as the A-4 rocket. Pocock, Rowland. German Guided Missiles of the Second World War. (New York, 1967) p. 12 2 Magenheimer, Hemze. Hitler's War. (London, 1999) p. 253 what was the A4 rocket's primary function. It was foremost a terror weapon, intended to deliver onto Britain a psychological blow whose detriments would far surpass the weapon's material destruction. Unlike any bombardment weapon before it, the rocket could strike its victims from a great distance without warning. Moreover, crashing down at 3, 500 miles per hour there was no defense against it. The long range rocket heralded the arrival of a new and terrifying form of warfare. The following chapter will provide an overview of the V-2's operational history and explore its historiography. It will demonstrate how the history of the V-2 is characterized by a division between those books that place it in the history of rocket development and space travel, and those concerned only with its effect on the Second World War. To the former, the V-2 is afforded considerable status as the first rocket capable of reaching outer space. It is hailed as the blueprint for future rockets, including the Saturn 5 which sent men to the moon. For others there appear two distinct approaches to the history of the V-2. The first looks at why the Third Reich decided to embark on the development and production of long range rockets in the first place. Generally, the military efficiency of the rocket program is examined in order to determine whether the money, material and scientific expertise devoted to the V-2's development and production were worth it, or whether these resources could have been better utilized elsewhere. The second approach to the history of the V-2 looks at the rocket's impact on the Allied side, specifically the British. This approach tends to focus on how British intelligence discovered the German rocket program and how they sought to counter its threat both before and after the first V-2 attack. While some books on the Von Braun and Ordway. History of Rocketry and Space Travel. (New York, 1975) p. 108 2 V-2 and the war take both these approaches, most tend to focus on one or the other. The general story of the development of the V-2 is relatively straightforward and uncontentious. During the interwar years German interest in rocketry surpassed that of any other nation. This was in no small part due to the Versailles Treaty, which had banned Germany from possessing long range artillery and an air force, but said nothing of rockets. As early as 1932, Walter Dornberger, an artillery officer with funding from the German War Office, began work on the development of liquid fuelled rockets aided by young physicist and rocket enthusiast Wernher von Braun. Encouraged by the rocket team's progress, in 1936 the War Office agreed to build a secret research facility at Peenemunde, a small island off the Baltic coast. Though no plans for collaborative research were made, the cost of building and running the facility was to be shared equally between the War Office and the Air Ministry. By 1937 the rocket team successfully launched the first liquid fuelled rockets and began to make plans for a much larger device, what would eventually become the V-2.5 In 1939, Hitler observed the first test firings of a large rocket engine but was not impressed. Nonetheless, research into long range rockets continued under financial constraints. Hitler's interest in the long range rocket was rekindled in the spring of 1942 as it became clear that the war would drag on longer than expected. More importantly, Britain's area bombing of German cities, beginning with Lubeck in March of 1942, infuriated Hitler, who ordered 'terror' attacks of a retaliatory nature.6 After he had serious second thoughts about value of developing a long range rocket, in July of 1943 4 Existing rockets used solid fuel which, at that time, had considerable limitations. von Braun accurately calculated the basic characteristics of what would become the V-2 in 1937, outlining its range, accuracy and warhead in a memorandum to the War Office.
Recommended publications
  • Reginald Victor Jones CH FRS (1911-1997)
    Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Reginald Victor Jones CH FRS (1911-1997) by Alan Hayward NCUACS catalogue no. 95/8/00 R.V. Jones 1 NCUACS 95/8/00 Title: Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Reginald Victor Jones CH FRS (1911-1997), physicist Compiled by: Alan Hayward Description level: Fonds Date of material: 1928-1998 Extent of material: 230 boxes, ca 5000 items Deposited in: Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge CB3 0DS Reference code: GB 0014 2000 National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, University of Bath. NCUACS catalogue no. 95/8/00 R.V. Jones 2 NCUACS 95/8/00 The work of the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, and the production of this catalogue, are made possible by the support of the Research Support Libraries Programme. R.V. Jones 3 NCUACS 95/8/00 NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THIS COLLECTION MAY YET BE AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION. ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE FIRST INSTANCE TO: THE KEEPER OF THE ARCHIVES CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE CHURCHILL COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE R.V. Jones 4 NCUACS 95/8/00 LIST OF CONTENTS Items Page GENERAL INTRODUCTION 6 SECTION A BIOGRAPHICAL A.1 - A.302 12 SECTION B SECOND WORLD WAR B.1 - B.613 36 SECTION C UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN C.1 - C.282 95 SECTION D RESEARCH TOPICS AND SCIENCE INTERESTS D.1 - D.456 127 SECTION E DEFENCE AND INTELLIGENCE E.1 - E.256 180 SECTION F SCIENCE-RELATED INTERESTS F.1 - F.275 203 SECTION G VISITS AND CONFERENCES G.1 - G.448 238 SECTION H SOCIETIES AND ORGANISATIONS H.1 - H.922 284 SECTION J PUBLICATIONS J.1 - J.824 383 SECTION K LECTURES, SPEECHES AND BROADCASTS K.1 - K.495 450 SECTION L CORRESPONDENCE L.1 - L.140 495 R.V.
    [Show full text]
  • American Intelligence and the Question of Hitler's Death
    American Intelligence and the Question of Hitler’s Death Undergraduate Research Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with honors research distinction in History in the Undergraduate colleges of The Ohio State University by Kelsey Mullen The Ohio State University November 2014 Project Advisor: Professor Alice Conklin, Department of History Project Mentor: Doctoral Candidate Sarah K. Douglas, Department of History American Intelligence and the Question of Hitler’s Death 2 Introduction The fall of Berlin marked the end of the European theatre of the Second World War. The Red Army ravaged the city and laid much of it to waste in the early days of May 1945. A large portion of Hitler’s inner circle, including the Führer himself, had been holed up in the Führerbunker underneath the old Reich Chancellery garden since January of 1945. Many top Nazi Party officials fled or attempted to flee the city ruins in the final moments before their destruction at the Russians’ hands. When the dust settled, the German army’s capitulation was complete. There were many unanswered questions for the Allies of World War II following the Nazi surrender. Invading Russian troops, despite recovering Hitler’s body, failed to disclose this fact to their Allies when the battle ended. In September of 1945, Dick White, the head of counter intelligence in the British zone of occupation, assigned a young scholar named Hugh Trevor- Roper to conduct an investigation into Hitler’s last days in order to refute the idea the Russians promoted and perpetuated that the Führer had escaped.1 Major Trevor-Roper began his investigation on September 18, 1945 and presented his conclusions to the international press on November 1, 1945.
    [Show full text]
  • Jürgen Habermas and the Third Reich Max Schiller Claremont Mckenna College
    Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2012 Jürgen Habermas and the Third Reich Max Schiller Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Schiller, Max, "Jürgen Habermas and the Third Reich" (2012). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 358. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/358 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Introduction The formation and subsequent actions of the Nazi government left a devastating and indelible impact on Europe and the world. In the midst of general technological and social progress that has occurred in Europe since the Enlightenment, the Nazis represent one of the greatest social regressions that has occurred in the modern world. Despite the development of a generally more humanitarian and socially progressive conditions in the western world over the past several hundred years, the Nazis instigated one of the most diabolic and genocidal programs known to man. And they did so using modern technologies in an expression of what historian Jeffrey Herf calls “reactionary modernism.” The idea, according to Herf is that, “Before and after the Nazi seizure of power, an important current within conservative and subsequently Nazi ideology was a reconciliation between the antimodernist, romantic, and irrantionalist ideas present in German nationalism and the most obvious manifestation of means ...modern technology.” 1 Nazi crimes were so extreme and barbaric precisely because they incorporated modern technologies into a process that violated modern ethical standards. Nazi crimes in the context of contemporary notions of ethics are almost inconceivable.
    [Show full text]
  • PEENEMUENDE, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, and the V-2 MISSILE, 1924-1945 Michael
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: ENGINEERING CONSENT: PEENEMUENDE, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, AND THE V-2 MISSILE, 1924-1945 Michael Brian Petersen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Jeffrey Herf Departmen t of History This dissertation is the story of the German scientists and engineers who developed, tested, and produced the V-2 missile, the world’s first liquid -fueled ballistic missile. It examines the social, political, and cultural roots of the prog ram in the Weimar Republic, the professional world of the Peenemünde missile base, and the results of the specialists’ decision to use concentration camp slave labor to produce the missile. Previous studies of this subject have been the domain of either of sensationalistic journalists or the unabashed admirers of the German missile pioneers. Only rarely have historians ventured into this area of inquiry, fruitfully examining the history of the German missile program from the top down while noting its admi nistrative battles and technical development. However, this work has been done at the expense of a detailed examination of the mid and lower -level employees who formed the backbone of the research and production effort. This work addresses that shortcomi ng by investigating the daily lives of these employees and the social, cultural, and political environment in which they existed. It focuses on the key questions of dedication, motivation, and criminality in the Nazi regime by asking “How did Nazi authori ties in charge of the missile program enlist the support of their employees in their effort?” “How did their work translate into political consent for the regime?” “How did these employees come to view slave labor as a viable option for completing their work?” This study is informed by traditions in European intellectual and social history while borrowing from different methods of sociology and anthropology.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern History
    MODERN HISTORY Albert Speer (1905 – 1981) Examine the degree to which Albert Speer was culpable in Hitler’s organization and implementation of crimes against humanity from 1937 to 1945. In the perspective of Israeli historian Omer Bartov1: “…our understanding of the Third Reich, revealing it as a consensual dictatorship whose popularity was rooted in…the profits of crimes against humanity on an unimaginable scale.” There is no doubt, based on the historical evidence, that Albert Speer2 (1905-1981) was intimately culpable, to some degree, in Nazi Germany’s appalling crimes against humanity from 1937 to 1945. At the Nuremberg Trials3 in 1945, Speer was convicted and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment - largely on the basis of evidence showing his participation as Reich Minister for Production and Armaments, in the use of deportation and forced labour. The Court found Speer innocent on Counts One and Two; ‘planning, initiating and waging war of aggression’ and ‘crimes against peace’ respectively, and guilty on the counts of ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’. The charges which Speer faced at Nuremberg did not include reference to his earlier involvement, as Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945) (Chief) First Architect of the Third Reich, and responsibility for re-planning Berlin in the ‘Germania’ project, which resulted in the forced removal of Jewish citizens from their homes in the city for the new Reich capital. Speer’s level of involvement in enslavement, the persecution of the Jews and his level of knowledge of the Holocaust remain subjects of historical debate. The unanswered question, as to which Speer was given the benefit of the doubt at Nuremberg, is whether he had any knowledge of Hitler’s initiated crimes against humanity and the awful fate that awaited Jews who were deported and ‘resettled’.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Dictionary of Air Intelligence
    Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence Jon Woronoff, Series Editor 1. British Intelligence, by Nigel West, 2005. 2. United States Intelligence, by Michael A. Turner, 2006. 3. Israeli Intelligence, by Ephraim Kahana, 2006. 4. International Intelligence, by Nigel West, 2006. 5. Russian and Soviet Intelligence, by Robert W. Pringle, 2006. 6. Cold War Counterintelligence, by Nigel West, 2007. 7. World War II Intelligence, by Nigel West, 2008. 8. Sexspionage, by Nigel West, 2009. 9. Air Intelligence, by Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey, 2009. Historical Dictionary of Air Intelligence Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, No. 9 The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 2009 SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trenear-Harvey, Glenmore S., 1940– Historical dictionary of air intelligence / Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey. p. cm. — (Historical dictionaries of intelligence and counterintelligence ; no. 9) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-5982-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8108-5982-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-6294-4 (eBook) ISBN-10: 0-8108-6294-8 (eBook) 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Archie to SAM a Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air Defense
    Archie to SAM A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air Defense Second Edition KENNETH P. WERRELL Air University Press Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama August 2005 Air University Library Cataloging Data Werrell, Kenneth P. Archie to SAM : a short operational history of ground-based air defense / Kenneth P. Werrell.—2nd ed. —p. ; cm. Rev. ed. of: Archie, flak, AAA, and SAM : a short operational history of ground- based air defense, 1988. With a new preface. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-58566-136-8 1. Air defenses—History. 2. Anti-aircraft guns—History. 3. Anti-aircraft missiles— History. I. Title. 358.4/145—dc22 Disclaimer Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Air University, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency. Cleared for public re- lease: distribution unlimited. Air University Press 131 West Shumacher Avenue Maxwell AFB AL 36112-6615 http://aupress.maxwell.af.mil ii In memory of Michael Lewis Hyde Born 14 May 1938 Graduated USAF Academy 8 June 1960 Killed in action 8 December 1966 A Patriot, A Classmate, A Friend THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Contents Chapter Page DISCLAIMER . ii DEDICATION . iii FOREWORD . xiii ABOUT THE AUTHOR . xv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION . xvii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION . xix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . xxi 1 ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II . 1 British Antiaircraft Artillery . 4 The V-1 Campaign . 13 American Antiaircraft Artillery . 22 German Flak . 24 Allied Countermeasures . 42 Fratricide . 46 The US Navy in the Pacific .
    [Show full text]
  • Prophecy Fulfilled: Toward New Horizons and Its Legacy
    Prophecy Fulfilled: "Toward New Horizons" and Its Legacy Edited and with an Introduction by Dr. Michael H. Gorn Air Force History and Museums Program 1994 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Prophecy fulfilled: "Toward new horizons and its legacy" / edited and with an introduction by Michael H. Gorn p. ca. Includes text of Where We Stand and Science, the Key to Air Supremacy. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Aeronautics, Military-Research-United States. 2. Aeronautics. Military-United States-Forecasting. 3. Air power- United States. I. Gorn, Michael H. 11. Where we stand. 111. Science, the key to air supremacy. UG643.P76 1994 358.4'00973-dc20 94-4 1410 CIP Where We Stand was written in 1945 and issued as an AAF Report in 1946. Science, the Key to Air Supremacy, originally published in 1945 as part of the multi-volume Toward New Horizons, was reprinted by the Air Force Systems Command History Office in 1992. Many of the illustra- tions in this version of Science, the Key to Air Supremacy were adapted from the 1992 edition. Foreword Since the days of ancient warfare, commanders have relied on science and technology for success in war. Their use in military affairs increased dramatically after the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, particularly in the nineteenth century. For example, chemists and metallurgists contributed greatly to World War I, while World War I1 is sometimes referred to as the physicists' war. During the fifty-year conflict known as the Cold War, scientists from diverse disciplines collaborated to multiply the effectiveness of military force and meet national security needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Pdf Softwarebasis Für Viele Weitere Forschungsarbeiten Auf 273 Frank F
    Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse Abhandlungen München, Neue Folge 178 Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse Abhandlungen München 2014, Neue Folge 178 Anpassung, Unbotmäßigkeit und Widerstand Karl Küpfmüller, Hans Piloty, Hans Ferdinand Mayer – Drei Wissenschaftler der Nachrichtentechnik im «Dritten Reich» Joachim Hagenauer Martin Pabst Vorgetragen in der Gesamtsitzung der BAdW am 19. Oktober 2012 ISSN 0005 6995 ISBN 978 3 7696 2565 3 © Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften München, 2014 Layout und Satz: a.visus, München Druck und Bindung: Pustet, Regensburg Vertrieb: Verlag C. H. Beck, München Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier (hergestellt aus chlorfrei gebleichtem Zellstoff) Printed in Germany www.badw.de www.badw.de/publikationen/index.html Später sagte er mir einmal, daß sich ein Eintritt in die Partei wohl früher oder später nicht vermeiden liesse, um seine Fähigkeiten in den Dienst der Technik zu stellen. Man könne sich «nicht in den Schmollwinkel zurückziehen». Ein Kollege über Karl Küpfmüller Prof. Piloty ist der Typ des Intellektuellen, der bewusst mit seiner Kritik zersetzend und herabsetzend wirken will. Er versucht dabei, diese Kritik mit seiner Besorgnis um die Zukunft zu tarnen. Unter Bezugnahme auf die Besorgnis bringt er ständig Bedenken gegen die Politik des Führers und seiner Mitarbeiter vor. Der Gauführer des NSD-Dozentenbunds über Hans Piloty Eine Bestie wie Hitler sollte den Krieg nicht gewinnen. Hans Ferdinand Mayer Inhalt 1. Verhaltensoptionen in der NS-Zeit – eine vergleichende Betrachtung am Beispiel von drei Wissenschaftlern der Nachrichtentechnik 7 2. Lebensläufe und Karrieren: Karl Küpfmüller, Hans Piloty, Hans Ferdinand Mayer 11 3. Die wissenschaftlichen Leistungen der drei Nachrichtentechniker 41 4. Technik und Ingenieure im Nationalsozialismus 50 5. Gemeinsame Wege in Wissenschaft und Forschung – getrennte Wege in der Politik: Das Verhalten von Küpfmüller, Mayer und Piloty im NS-Staat und Krieg 58 6.
    [Show full text]
  • The 500Th Bomb Group Day by Day – Part 2 - Combat
    The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 2 - Combat 1 Nov 44 Early this morning a single B-29 took off from Isley Field on a very important mission. She would be the first B- 29 to fly over Tokyo. The plane, ironically named “Tokyo Rose”, was an F-13 photographic reconnaissance variant, and her mission was to take aerial photographs of the Tokyo area. The weather was clear over the Japanese capital today and “Tokyo Rose”, loitering unmolested at 32,000 feet, was able to collect about 700 valuable photographs which were used by the XXI Bomber Command as the basis for mission planning. The build-up of American B-29's on Saipan had not gone unnoticed by the Japanese. They were well aware that their homeland was now within bombing range. They had already begun organizing so-called Special Duty Attack Units of long-range bombers, mostly Betty's at first, with the specific mission of attacking the B-29 units in the Marianas. These units were based in Japan and did not have the range to reach Saipan directly, but as long as Iwo Jima remained in Japanese hands, they could stage thru there. The Special Duty Attack Units had not yet completed their organization and training as of this date, but today's reconnaissance flight over Tokyo goaded the Japanese command into immediate retaliation. The 2nd Independent Air Unit based at Hamamatsu and the 4th Independent Air Unit based at Shimoshizu were ordered to strike Saipan. The 2nd IAU sent nine “heavy bombers” and the 4th dispatched four “headquarters reconnaissance planes”, all to stage thru Iwo Jima.
    [Show full text]
  • The Current-Source Equivalent
    Scanning Our Past Origins of the Equivalent Circuit Concept: The Current-Source Equivalent I. INTRODUCTION technical work, Mayer’s personal life perhaps had more im- As described in my previous paper [1], the voltage-source pact. As described in [8], [10], [11], Mayer secretly leaked equivalent was first derived by Hermann von Helmholtz to the British in November 1939 all he knew of Germany’s (1821–1894) in an 1853 paper [2]. Exactly thirty years later warfare capabilities, particularly concerning electronic war- in 1883, Léon Charles Thévenin (1857–1926) published fare. Because he represented Siemens as a technical expert the same result [3], [4] apparently unaware of Helmholtz’s in negotiations with companies outside Germany, he had the work. The generality of the equivalent source network was opportunity to travel widely about Europe. While in Oslo, not appreciated until forty-three years later. Then, in 1926, Norway, he typed and mailed a two-page report of what he Edward Lawry Norton (1898–1983) wrote an internal Bell knew and mailed it to the British Embassy in Oslo. Because Laboratory technical report [5] that described in passing the Mayer wrote it anonymously, the British, led by Reginald usefulness in some applications of using the current-source Jones, had to determine the report’s accuracy. Jones found form of the equivalent circuit. In that same year, Hans what became known as the Oslo Report to be a technically Ferdinand Mayer (1895–1980) published the same result [6] knowledgeable person’s description of what he/she knew (al- and detailed it fully. As detailed subsequently, these people though it contains some errors) [11].
    [Show full text]
  • Arrest the Reichsmarschall!
    11 prologue Arrest the Reichsmarschall! The place reeked of evil. Standing in the wet darkness of this wrecked bunker in Berlin, Captain John Bradin of the U.S. Army snapped his cigarette lighter shut, scooped an untidy armful of souvenirs off somebody’s desk, and groped his way back up the dark angular staircase to the daylight. In the warm sun the haul seemed disappointing: a brass desk lamp, cream-colored paper with some handwriting on it, blank letterheads, flimsy telegrams typed on Germany Navy signals forms, and a letter dictated to “my dear Heinrich.” Bradin took them home and forgot about them. Forty years passed. In Berlin the bunker was dynamited, grassed over. The lamp ended up disman- tled on a garage floor, the yellow sheaf of papers moldered in a bank vault in South Carolina. Bradin died without knowing that he had saved vital clues to the last days of Hermann Göring’s extraordinary career—papers that reveal all the hatred and envy that his contemporaries in the Nazi party had nursed toward him over twelve years and their determination to see his humiliation and downfall in these last few thousand minutes of Hitler’s “Thousand-Year Reich.” The desk that Captain Bradin had found was Martin Bormann’s. Bormann 12 göring had been the Nazi party’s chief executive—Hitler’s predatory Mephistoph- eles. The handwriting was Bormann’s too—desperate pages that mirrored the atmosphere of hysteria in the bunker as the suspicions grew among its inhabitants that Göring had betrayed them. The first telegram that Bormann had scrawled onto the cream-colored paper was addressed to SS Obersturmbannführer [Lieutenant Colonel] Bernhard Frank, commander of the SS detachment on the mountain called the Obersalzberg that was Göring’s last retreat: Surround Göring villa at once and arrest the former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring at once.
    [Show full text]