Ian Fleming's real first career....

[Peter Lemkin]

Many of the members have strongly suggested that a group of them had captured many of the lead V-2 rocket scientists near the Furherbunker [Nazi codename = SIII/Olga], not too far from Nordhausen, where the V-2s were build by slave labor; and that the official capture of the rocket scientists in Oberammergau was staged later by the Americans.

FWIW In our family circles there was a (former?) German officer who was a rocket scientist who had worked on the V-1 project and was captured by the British then sent to Australia to work on the Woomera rocket project. Woomera was a British base at the time. The British also had much of their nuclear program nearby using Maralinga as drop zone. When the British had finished with him they gave him to the Americans and he was given a job working for NASA.

Hmmmm....very interesting. At least that was a 'transfer' presumably for 'favors' within the Commonwealth. It is a tad more difficult for me to understand why the UK handed over [apparently] many of the scientists and secret Nazi projects to the Americans - one wonders what kind of 'deal' or 'pressures' had been worked out.

Officially, both the Americans, French, Soviets, and UK had their own competing teams [often multiple teams for each country] searching for the same scientists, the same secret projects, etc. I have long been researching this and can name the groups. I also have declassified documents showing that, in one case, the UK was demanding the Americans hand over one person they felt the Americans surely had [but were not admitting they had] for trial for war crimes, into UK hands and prison. The 30AU is the only such group I know if that had a few [I'd guess less than 5%] Americans embedded within it - yet seems to have turned a very large portion of what they 'found' and 'captured' over to the Americans. Yes, the UK owed much to the Americans for being in the War on their side, but everyone wanted the spoils of War for themselves. The French did quite badly, presumably due to 'Vichy' and other allies got very little, as far as I can tell. It is very complicated, for at the same time, some within the Allied camps were aiding Nazis in escape and survival clandestinely outside of Europe.

My focus has long been on SS General Hans Kammler - a name not well known, but by the end of the War definitely in the top ten most wanted Nazi list....yet he seems to have disappeared. Oh, officially there are five different versions of how and where he committed suicide or asked to be shot by his aide de camp on May 9, 1945 south of Prague, CS [the locations vary, but are fairly near each other]. However, I have documents that strongly support him still alive after this date and other information that says he was likely not in Prague at the end of the War.

It is well known that a large number of rocket scientists [and other scientists/engineers/technicians/torture experts/espionage experts/etc.] fell into American hands under what was first called Operation Overcast [changed later to Operation Paperclip]. The Soviets and UK got smaller, but not small, numbers of others. France got some. The rest got almost none for all their hard work in the Allied effort in the War. Kammler was unique in that he was just about the only person in the Reich at the end of the War who know all of these projects and persons, where they were, where the documents about them were, etc. Kammler was definitely not part of 'Paperclip', but many directly under him were. While one can understand the desire to get the secret weapons projects, it is much harder to understand the desire to have the hardened Nazi experts - and then to let many of them become rich and famous - some rising to the top of, for example, NASA.

Gen. Walter Dornberger was directly under Kammler and was the head of the Nazi's rocket programs [there were several interconnected programs]. He wound up soon after the war in Bell Aviation as vice President!....at first in the NE of the USA and then in Ft. Worth, just next to Dallas. In 1963, working directly for Dornberger was a CIA-connected engineer named Michael Paine, at who's home in November was staying one Marina Oswald and child - with all of Lee's belongings in the garage, so they could be 'salted' for the patsy set up. An interesting and not accidental association! Remember too that Garrison discovered to his puzzlement that many around Oswald suddenly got jobs at NASA in their 'security' division, just before the Assassination. Small world!

Mae Brussell was the first to really demonstrate that there was a Nazi connection to the JFK assassination....and there was - although the trail is not direct and can be misleading if one doesn't understand the deep political machinations before, during and after the War......but I digress.

Oh, one last thought on this, some of those within 30AU who have spoken out [most have/had not - but kept their silence on all missions] have stated that they do not believe Kammler died, but was somehow gotten into American hands. If anyone might know, the 30AU were a likely group to know. Of all of the hunt teams, it is generally acknowledged that 30AU was the best of the best.

It should come as NO surprise that Fleming's novels have such interesting story lines - he was drawing from his own real-life experiences!