Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr¹ von Braun (March 23 1912 – June 16 1977) was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. Originally a German scientist leading Nazi Germany's rocket program before and during the Second World War, he entered the United States at the end of the war through the then-secret Operation Paperclip. He became a naturalized US citizen and worked on the American ICBM program before joining NASA. Today he is generally regarded as the father of the United States space program.

Surrender to the Americans

The Soviet army was about 160 km from Peenemünde in the spring of 1945 when von Braun assembled his planning staff and asked them to decide how and to whom they should surrender. Afraid of the rumoured Soviet cruelty to prisoners of war, von Braun and his staff decided to try to surrender to the Americans. After using forged papers to steal a train, von Braun led 500 people through war-torn Germany toward the American lines. The SS had meanwhile been issued with orders to kill the German engineers and destroy their records. The engineers, however, had hidden these in a mineshaft and continued to evade their own army. After they had finally managed to surrender to an American private, the American command realized the importance of the engineers and immediately went to Peenemünde and Nordhausen to capture the remaining V-2s and their parts before destroying both sites with explosives. Over 300 train-car loads of spare V-2 parts ultimately found their way to America. Much of von Braun's production team, however, was captured by the Russians. The V-2 rocket plans that had been hidden near Bad Sachs in Germany were later recovered by members of the 332nd Engineer General Service Regiment.

Related Topics:
Soviet army - 1945 - Nordhausen - Bad Sachs - 332nd Engineer General Service Regiment

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~