The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil.

[Nathaniel Richerson]

This item may be of interest to Mr. Guyatt or Mr. Lemkin. A new Kammler book is supposed to be released on October 8th by Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery, and Keith Chester called, "The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil." Reuter is a national security author who has previously coauthored with John Yoo and has his own history with the issue. Lowery is a bio weapons and terrorism expert. Keith Chester is has written on a wide range of topics but his "Strange Company" is an excellently sited work on the on Foo-Fighters, rockets, orbs,, and drones above Europe's skies from 41-45.

Description from your un-friendly Internet book dealer:

[FONT=&amp]He's the worst Nazi war criminal you've never heard of

Sidekick to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and supervisor of Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, General Hans Kammler was responsible for the construction of Hitler's slave labor sites and concentration camps. He personally altered the design of Auschwitz to increase crowding, ensuring that epidemic diseases would complement the work of the gas chambers.

Why has the world forgotten this monster? Kammler was declared dead after the war. But the aide who testified to Kammler's supposed "suicide" never produced the general's dog tags or any other proof of death.

Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery, and Keith Chester have spent decades on the trail of the elusive Kammler, uncovering documents unseen since the 1940s and visiting the purported site of Kammler's death, now in the Czech Republic.

Their astonishing discovery: US government documents prove that Hans Kammler was in American custody for months after the warwell after his officially declared suicide.

And what happened to him after that? Kammler was kept out of public view, never indicted or tried, but to what end? Did he cooperate with Nuremberg prosecutors investigating Nazi war crimes? Was he protected so the United States could benefit from his intimate knowledge of the Nazi rocket program and Germany's secret weapons?

The Hidden Nazi is true history more harrowingand shockingthan the most thrilling fiction.
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About the Author

[FONT=&amp]Dean Reuter is General Counsel of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy and a fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. He was the editor of Liberty's Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security.

Colm Lowery is an award-winning lecturer in biomedical science at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, where he lectures in molecular biology and its application to bio-warfare and bioterrorism. He has published over forty peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and review articles.

Keith Chester is an investigative researcher and author. In 1999, he began researching aerial phenomena reported by Allied military pilots during the Second World War, an effort that culminated in the publication of Strange Company in 2007, the same year his focus turned to the mystery surrounding SS General Hans Kammler.
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[Peter Lemkin]

I know Colm. At one time, long long ago, he and I were planning of doing a book together on Kammler and 'things Kammler'. We never did for a variety of reasons. I know one of the documents he will likely present in his book. I have others. Kammler did NOT die on May 9, 1945 [the 'official' story], but was taken prisoner secretly [VERY SECRETLY!] by the Americans. I know the story - or all but a few pieces of it. I'm working on my own book and am not too worried about others books. There is much to tell there - and it leads into so many [most] things post-war; the Nazi-CIA nexus; the growth of the national security state and where we find ourselves today..... Colm and the others seem to approach the subject from the 'right'; and I from the 'left'....but some of the facts I'm sure will overlap and some may not.......Colm and I parted company long ago and I only know what he knew then. Most of the 'information' on Kammler one can find on the internet is speculation or bullshit or both. It took me two decades to really get a grip on the story. I was also the first to get U.S. Govt. documents proving Kammler alive and in U.S. custody [secretly]. Since, others have found other documents that verify this and add some details, locations, etc. Kammler, at the end of WWII was THE HEAD OF ALL Nazi Secret Weapons systems! Even the faking of his death south of Prague on May 9th is an interesting story, involving a Nazi spy and princess and other 'players'. Skorzeny knew Kammler well and kept in contact with his wife [as did the Princess] after he 'disappeared'. Reality is much stranger than fiction!.... More another time....

[Jan van den Baard]

Hi
A few years ago, one of the public german tv channels showed a documentary on hans kammler. i it it was made clear kammler went to the usa shortly after the war and lived there till his death.
forgot the title of the docu though.

[Fred Steeves]

Since, others have found other documents that verify this and add some details, locations, etc. Kammler, at the end of WWII was THE HEAD OF ALL Nazi Secret Weapons systems!

I haven't heard this name pop up in some time. Fascinating character, and fascinating story to boot.

Maybe a bit off topic but then again maybe not so much: Do you think it a coincidence that ufo sightings and associated folklore began in earnest in the late 1940s, right after guys like this were beginning their new lives here in the States?

[Peter Lemkin]

Hi
A few years ago, one of the public german tv channels showed a documentary on hans kammler. i it it was made clear kammler went to the usa shortly after the war and lived there till his death.
forgot the title of the docu though.

Sorry to disappoint, but I think the version where Kammler was brought to the US is not a true path. It was put out by two sons [both now dead] of one of the spookiest spooks EVER to operate for the USA. I have lots of documents on him. He likely was involved with some capture and interrogation of Kammler, but either he or his sons spun a false trail [I believe] that he brought Kammler back to the USA. In fact, no one knows what happened to Kammler...his trail in documents just vanishes about the beginning of 1946 at the moment. What happened after that is still a big mystery. By that time they had 'exploited' Kammler as much as I think they thought they could....and anything could have happened to him from murder to suicide to? One thing I know as I know his family - Kammler for all his horrible traits, loved his wife and children...yet he apparently never contacted them even though he was alive. We do not yet know if he was not allowed to or he chose not to for some reason or did secretly that we have not yet deciphered.

I'm not up for going into the topic of vertical lift-off craft of circular shape, as most people have completely wrong ideas about them. Yes, they were being tested by the Nazis and yes, they had some that flew [poorly] at the end of the war. The USA took one and the plans back to the USA and had a better version built by a Canadian company. They flew some of them out of Area 51 as stealth vehicles. Nothing extra-terrestrial about them....in fact, that myth was developed by the military and intelligence to cover up when anyone saw these secret test craft. They are no longer tested nor used. I have a photo of one in a hanger in Prague. That photo made it to Nick Cook's book cover. My photo shows a very proud engineer standing stiffly next to it.....

That film was made by a friend of mine and paid for by ZDF [German equiv. of PBS]. Most of the information in that docudrama is correct, a few things are not. It is not easy to pin down real definitive information on Kammler - and it changes (toward the truth) from time to time. Everyone of many countries and groups have the own reasons to both withhold information or present false information......

[James Lateer]

Having read books about Dornberger, von Braun, Schellenberg, General Karl Wolff, "Gestapo" Heinrich Muller, Goering, Martin Bormann, Otto Skorzeny, Horst Kopkow, Reinhard Gehlen, Adolf Heusinger and the five best books on Operation Paperclip, I would mention Hans Kammler as follows:

Kammler did not figure prominently in any of the books that I have read. It says in his Wikipedia article that he was not mentioned anywhere regarding secret weapons under Hitler until 1942.

He seems to have been involved in construction, so that was different than operations of camps, missile development, etc. He was a civil engineer.

Of course, before I read the book on Horst Kopkow, I never heard of Kopkow either.

Kammler is mentioned 17 times in the book "V-2" by Dornberger. I own that book but have never read it because it was published in 1954. Therefore, it only deals with World War II information. If it was allowed to be published in 1954, then it would have been "sanitized" by the publisher Bantam Books. In that time frame, any "inside information" about fugitive Nazis or Nazi scientists was suppressed IMHO.

That's not to say that I would doubt that Kammler could have been brought to the US.

The involvement of authors Reuter, Lowery and Chester in this book about Kammler is more significant IMHO. They seem to be "molecular biology" related people, not rocket experts or jet plane experts. There is a lot to cover up in the biology role of ex-Nazis. Not so much in their role regarding rockets.

Also, anybody connected to an Anton Scalia Law School at George Mason University should send up red flags. Just from the above circumstances, I would begin looking at this new book as being disinformation, rather than true information. I'm not sure why anybody inside the "National Security State" establishment or a National Security Institute at George Mason would be publishing an expose on ex-Nazis.

Could it be that the authors would be switching identities of ex-Nazis and what each ex-Nazi actuallly did? Maybe claiming Kammler did such and such, when actually it was "Gestapo" Heinrich Muller, (a much more controversial Nazi)?

But I will have to read this book to get a better feel for its value. You can't judge a book by its cover and you surely can't judge a book without reading it.

James Lateer

[Peter Lemkin]

Having read books about Dornberger, von Braun, Schellenberg, General Karl Wolff, "Gestapo" Heinrich Muller, Goering, Martin Bormann, Otto Skorzeny, Horst Kopkow, Reinhard Gehlen, Adolf Heusinger and the five best books on Operation Paperclip, I would mention Hans Kammler as follows:

Kammler did not figure prominently in any of the books that I have read. It says in his Wikipedia article that he was not mentioned anywhere regarding secret weapons under Hitler until 1942.

He seems to have been involved in construction, so that was different than operations of camps, missile development, etc. He was a civil engineer.

Of course, before I read the book on Horst Kopkow, I never heard of Kopkow either.

Kammler is mentioned 17 times in the book "V-2" by Dornberger. I own that book but have never read it because it was published in 1954. Therefore, it only deals with World War II information. If it was allowed to be published in 1954, then it would have been "sanitized" by the publisher Bantam Books. In that time frame, any "inside information" about fugitive Nazis or Nazi scientists was suppressed IMHO.

That's not to say that I would doubt that Kammler could have been brought to the US.

The involvement of authors Reuter, Lowery and Chester in this book about Kammler is more significant IMHO. They seem to be "molecular biology" related people, not rocket experts or jet plane experts. There is a lot to cover up in the biology role of ex-Nazis. Not so much in their role regarding rockets.

Also, anybody connected to an Anton Scalia Law School at George Mason University should send up red flags. Just from the above circumstances, I would begin looking at this new book as being disinformation, rather than true information. I'm not sure why anybody inside the "National Security State" establishment or a National Security Institute at George Mason would be publishing an expose on ex-Nazis.

Could it be that the authors would be switching identities of ex-Nazis and what each ex-Nazi actuallly did? Maybe claiming Kammler did such and such, when actually it was "Gestapo" Heinrich Muller, (a much more controversial Nazi)?

But I will have to read this book to get a better feel for its value. You can't judge a book by its cover and you surely can't judge a book without reading it.

James Lateer

There is some incorrect in your post. The authors are not [with the exception of Colm L.] involved in biological research. They will NOT, I'm sure, be mentioning anything about Kammler & biological research. How many times a person is mentioned in a book[s] - which you put such high value on, is to me of no value. Often those least mentioned are the more or most important - as from day 1 they kept their names and involvement hidden along with documents, witnesses willing to talk, etc. about their involvement. One of the authors is a 'UFO expert' of the kind I have no regard for. All of them know the basic story of Kammler up to the end of the War. He WAS in charge of ALL secret weapons systems AND did build and was in charge of all Nazi underground facilities AND was the person who designed the expansion of and crematoria of Auschwitz [and many other things he did]. Kammler was Dornberger's boss. Dornberger was vonBraun's boss. Dornberger on 11.22.63 had one Michael Paine working directly under him in his offices in Ft. Worth. Kammler's interrogator later was a part of the JFK assassination - the details I'm not going to go into here publicly at this time. Hitler and Borman used Kammler [and a few others] to move valuable assets of the Reich out of 'harms way' - that was another of his jobs. These hidden places and pathways are recorded on certain maps - the location and ownership and provenance I know of, but can not disclose now. Kammler does not hardly show up in any histories of WWII - but that doesn't lessen his importance. He was kept super secret even during the War - despite his being a high level general of the SS and a frequent personal visitor to Hitler. In fact, in the last year or so, he was one of the few Hitler still trusted. I'm prepared to be underwhelmed at this coming book with the exception of one document I have knowledge of that Colm obtained [and was to be the centerpiece of our book], but don't know HOW he plans to present it without someone going to prison...but I digress. They better have good lawyers at their publisher! There are a few good books on Kammler up to the end of the War - very few!....there are none yet on his 'story' from about March 1945 to at least November 1945 in print. Dornberger did some negotiations for Kammler and the 'rocket team' generally with the Allies in Lisbon at the German Embassy there - I think with representatives of Dulles. Certain banks who's names I won't mention still retain accounts that Kammler could access. Attempts have been made to find out the sums in these accounts and for persons with legal title to deal with them - but the banks, certain intelligence entities and old Nazis threaten whenever this happens. Also, some of the secrets Kammler hid from the Allies are STILL hidden underground and I know where a few of these are. Their 'state-of-the-art' science no longer exists, but are still of HUGE historical significance and show the lies of the 'winners' on certain things...just one being the state of the Nazi nuclear program. U-234 ties in with Kammler too. Kammler was and is, IMO, the most important figure of the end of the Nazi regime. The Wikipedia page on him is mostly wrong and deliberately so, and everyone here should know that on sensitive national security and military secrets Wikipedia is the worst source possible, as it is controlled by the very people least likely to allow the truth of such matters! The Wikipedia page on all major US assassinations and covert operations are also terrible for the exact same reason. Anything I would put to correct an entry would be quickly removed and I would soon be banned from doing any more entries.

There have only ever been a very few real experts on Kammler - and most [to all] have been unknown to the public. The few 'public' ones know little to nothing. I know almost all of the real experts and have interacted with most of them. A few have died in recent years and the rest of us fight for their notes and documents. One, for example, was named Kristian Knaack who I'm sure none have heard of. A friend of mine got most of his notes and work when he died, but the most important single item was 'missing'. Some of these persons had intelligence backgrounds themselves - some did not. Agoston, who inspired the book by Nick Cook [who I also know] was himself an intelligence operative - but you have to search and search to even find that out! His book was mostly disinformation on Kammler and Nick fell for some of it - not all. Few sought publicity and what few have tried have been drown out by disinformation [still active] on the subject. I can personally attest to several nation's intelligence services maintaining a very high level of alert and interest on the man and this subject after all these years...they want these secrets kept secret!

When I first went to NARA to get all Kammler documents, I was told they had none. I was stunned and in disbelief - the 4th or 5th highest Nazi at the end of the War and the one in charge of all underground and secret weapons systems - one once considered for conviction at Nuremberg in abstencia and NO documents! Later, under conditions I can't reveal here, I had a group of friends who were temporarily working inside NARA under a Congressional mandate to locate all CIA-Nazi collaboration. They [not NARA] sent me 22 pages on Kammler and told me there were lots more in a special bunker the entrance of which was guarded by CIA and military. I have recently learned that many of the Kammler documents are at a 'Proving Ground' military facility not too far from D.C., but no one can have access physically nor by FOIA. The same goes for the interrogator of Kammler who later played some role in the events leading up to Dallas [and knew Richard Case Nagell...] Nagell when asked by Dick Russell once said [paraphrasing] 'a lot of Nazis and Nazi-related U.S. persons were involved'.

[James Lateer]

Here are the paragraphs from the book V-2 by Walter Dornberger which mention Hans Kammler:

Page 209
Early in September 1943, soon after the raids on our intended centers of production, a new name appeared on our program. Himniler had appointed SS Brigadier Dr. Kammler, head of the building branch of the SS Head Office, to take charge of building needed for production under the A-4 special committee of the Ministry of Munitions. The efficiency of the program hitherto entirely run by the Army had already been vitiated by the introduction of the special committee subordinate to the Ministry of Munitions. What was the idea of splitting the program still further by appointing a "commissioner" directly responsible to Himmler?

Page 211

The result was intrigue and intensified struggles for power. Higher levels were drawn into the conflict. Decisions were finally taken, to the accompaniment of peppery observations on the inefficiency of the other parties concerned, not so much by the most competent authority as by the most powerful oneby the man who could rely on support in high places.
It was on September 6, 1943, while on a duty trip to Berlin, that I first met Dr. Kammier, the new commissioner for building.

Page 222

DR. KAMMLER,
SPECIAL COMMISSIONER
From November 1943, Dr. Kammler frequently attended our test and practice shots. He took part in conferences as Himmler's representative and came to the firing practice without being asked. He talked to individuals, listened to opinions and differences of opinion, insinuated himself into the confidence of the too trusting. Finally he took a hand in the game himself and started playing one man off against another. Gradually he collected the trump cards.
I saw the danger. On May 31, 1944, 1 sent in a memorandum
through Colonel General Fromm, once again requesting that I be given unequivocal authority over the whole project, from research to field operations.

P 223

DR. KAMMLER, SPECIAL COMMISSIONER

manded the subordination of the various commissioners and departments to a single strong personality. He called for the appointment of a Commissioner General. Kammler believed he had won the game.
I drafted a reply for Keitel to send to Himmier, to the effect that the branches still outside my control ought now at long last to be subordinated to me, as I had proposed on May 31. However, the reply which Keitel actually sent was of a different nature. It was diplomatic and noncommittal. Keitel wrote that believed the present organization would bring success.
The decisive factor in the formulation of this letter was the attitude of the Army Weapons Department, which was opposed to the appointment of a Commissioner General, believing that such an appointment would lessen its own influence.
The department had taken steps to guard against the imminent danger. On June 1, 1944, the development works proper of the Peenemunde Army Establishment had been made a private concern under a managing director who had been borrowed from Siemens and was practically a stranger to our work. The difficulties were tolerated because the measure would prevent the seizure of Peenemünde by any military or semi-military organization. The danger now came from another direction; The interest taken by industry and the Technological Office of the Party had ceased after the air raid. From a military point of view an entirely new organization was being built up.
Kammler took the position that since Colonel Zanssen was unacceptable to the SS, he could not act as my representative at conferences and tests at the SS practice ground at Heidelager, where, at Hitler's orders, practice firings had been carried out since November 1943. As I have mentioned before, the Army Weapons Department by this time had grown tired of the struggle and Zanssen was dropped.

P 224

I saw the trouble coming. When the fresh reorganization took place in July 1944, I openly and emphatically denounced the measures as a crime at such a time, critical as it was both politically and by reason of the failures at Heidelager. I was sent for, reproved, and reprimanded. Change the situation I could not.
Kammler's stay at Heidelager had given him some insight into our domestic disputes. He went on collecting material. For some months he had been label-

P 225

DR. KAMMLER., SPECIAL COMMISSIONER

Professor von Braun as too young, too childish,supercilious and arrogant for his job. Degenkolb There remained myself. On July 8, 1944, 1 was described by Kammler, in the presence of General Buhle and two other generals, as a public danger. He said I ought to be court-martialed. He said that for years 1 had been weakening Germany's armament potential by tying enormous armament capacity both in men and material to a more than questionable attempt to bring a chimera into existence. It would be a crime to devote another penny to so hopeless a project.
Kammler had put his cards on the table. On July 20, 1944, after the attempt on Hitler's life, Himmler took over Fromm's department. By August 4, Kammler, now a SS lieutenant general, had been given provisional supervision of the A-4 program. On August 8 Himmler appointed him his special commissioner for the entire program, with full powers, over his own signature: "

P 250

MY MOST DIFFICULT DECISION

On August 8, 1944 when Himmier appointed SS General Kammler Commissioner General for the A-4 program, it looked as though the struggle for control had come to an end.

I felt like a man who has devoted years of toil and affection to making a superb violin, a masterpiece which needs only tuning, and who then has to look on helplessly while the instrument is grabbed by a tough, unmusical woodman and scraped with a jagged lump of wood. I was in a state of appalling weariness and despair.
In a few words Kammler had been given the powers that were absolutely necessary to carry the program from the development stage to actual operations. I could never have been granted such powers in the conditions then prevailing in Germany. Struggles for dominance within the Armed Forces and between the Ministries, and Hitler's innate distrust of the officer caste, made it impossible. But Himmler was universally feared.

P 251

MY MOST DIFFICULT DECISION

receive recognition from the world for our invention of the long-range rocket, I ought. not to desert the ship now. I ought at least to stick to the helm as regards technology. I should even try to help Kammler. A layman without inside knowledge could never cope with the technical difficulties of so delicate a mechanism as the rocket, which was not even fully developed. He would be unable, without serious setbacks, to manage the organization built up by my staff, which demanded so much engineering knowledge, tact, and finesse, which was quite unlike anything else and included so many outside departments, institutes, and factories throughout Germany and the occupied territories. If everything did not go as we had planned it, we might expect the collapse of the whole project.
I disagreed. in my opinion they misread the situation. There would be no more negotiating in the program now, no more searching for ways and means. There would be orders, with Kammler's will reigning supreme. I thought I knew my man.
All the more reason, they argued, for vying to save what could be saved. Irrespective of our own views and wishes, the A-4 had to be brought to perfection and delivered fit for action. The organization we had brought into being had to work. There must be no failure. We must not lay ourselves open to blame for any future breakdowns. My colleagues urgently begged me once more not to leave them in the lurch.
My mental conflict was a long one, but through many sleepless nights I fought my way to the decision to stay on. I could see the trouble ahead, the hard and desperate fights with Kammler. I could no longer forcibly impose my own will, for there was no power to back me now. Since the events of July 20, the Army departments at home, right up to the Armed Forces High Command itself, had been cowering before the SS and Himmler. Reluctant they might have been, but they yielded. I could gain nothing with Kammler by persuasion either; he was not open to it.
I knew that the A-4 was still unfinished. There would be complaints and accusations. We should have to work on, making improvements and more improve-

P 253

252
ments. If everything we had achieved io far was not to count for nothing I should have to change my tactics. I would have to offer my assistance. I would have to try to make whatever I wanted look like Kammler's own idea. I would have to put words into his mouth. I would also have to avoid the least appearance of wishing to steal the glory for which be longed so fiercely. I would have to stay in the background. I would have to exploit his position, his energy, and his powers on behalf of the A-4. Everything must seem to happen by his will and desire.
The first two months after, Kammler's appointment were hard and bitter ones. I had to endure a whole series of humiliations. I had to submit to a chaotic flood of ignorant, contradictory, irreconcilable orders from this man who was neither soldier nor technician. They took the form of as many as a hundred teletypes a day.
At first I could only look on helplessly while the influence of my staff was weakened by gross interference and efficiency dropped. I also had to stand by calmly as, among my own men, the chaff separated itself from the wheat, and driftwood I had trusted Boated over to the opposite bank. In this situation I could let no one share in my innermost plans. I had to stick it out alone until I had won. Kammler's confidence and convinced him that I was not dangerous and did not intend to obstruct, criticize, or harm him, but on the contrary could be helpful and useful to him.
In those two months I reached the limit of man's endurance. But I had made rockets my life's work. Now we had to prove that their time had come, and to this duty all personal considerations had to be subordinated.
In the middle of September, Juttner, now Commander-in-Chief of the Home Front, took a hand. He demanded a clear definition of duties. After long discussion I tame to an agreement with Kammler. The order setting out once for all the limits of authority on each side was issued on September 30, 1944, and bore, as a military novelty, three signatures. Juttner, who knew Kammler, would not sign it until we two had attested

P 254

dinate to the Armed Forces High Command. General' Heinemann promptly resigned. Kammler now stood immediately subordinate to Hitler. He controlled all the V-weapons. His position was that of a' full general. Truly a fantastic career for a man who had never done a single day's military service nor been subjected to any military instruction whatsoever!

He ruthlessly removed all unit commanders who disagreed with him and his methods. A few weeks after the first operation, every staff officer and all unit cornmanders down to battery level had been changed.
Kammler no longer wanted mere batteries for the operations. He wanted whole regiments. The batteries were reorganized into regiments.
From September 4 onward rockets were transported to the front. In September three hundred and fifty were delivered, in October five hundred, then between six hundred and nine hundred every month. Breakdowns occurred. Storage and rain caused the bearing bushings in the servomechanisms to swell. Replacements were not forthcoming. We decided to go in for fast transport. Rockets were 'no longer stored in the ammunition dumps. Immediately they came off the production line at the Mitteiwerk, express transport took them to the front and they were fired within three days. Failures dropped.


P 256

The introduction of our experimental rockets into the production line at the Mitteiwerk meant delay in delivery of the standard article, and for the first few months I had to struggle with Kammler, who was in charge of operations, every single time an experimental series was needed. For him the only important thing was the number of operational shots. He wanted to report as many as possible to higher authority, and 'whether they were effective seemed for the moment to be a matter of indifference. At this time we were in constant fear that further development and experimentation would be stopped altogether.
Reports on results gradually began to come in; the withdrawal of the fronts called for longer ranges; as new missile units were formed there was a demand for rockets for training. Kammler then realized that
we needed more missiles. But to the very end of operations their number, in relation to the many tasks that still had to be done, was infinitesimally small.
The firing of some experimental series was dragged out over weeks. Alterations and improvements took months to come through. On the other hand, the front


p 258

In the middle of January 1945 Heidekraut had to be evacuated. In deep snow the Training and Experimental Unit, with all its vehicles and equipment, moved to the Wolgast woods, which it left in the middle of February without having managed to fire a single rocket. Their last move was to the neighborhood of Rethen on the Weser, where their aim ran north along the coast of Schleswig-Holstein. But even here no more rockets took off. The time for A-4 practice by the troops was over. On April 3, 1945, Kammler ordered the Training and Experimental Unit to be converted into an infantry battalion for his Army Corps. The order was never carried out.

P 277

On January 12, 1945, at Speer's orders, "Working Staff Dornberger" was set up as part of the Development Department of the Ministry of Munitions with the object of breaking Allied air superiority. Its ten members were all men of practical experience. If the situation could be saved at all, these experts were the men to do it.
Alas, we had forgotten Kammler. The Ministry of Munitions, the only organization that still put up any resistance to him, had not invited him to the preliminary talks. When he heard of my appointment he…

P 278

From the Ministry of Munitions I could direct civil authorities and industry to take whatever steps we thought necessary, and as Kammier's executive I had similar powers vis-à-vis the military authorities. We were now in charge of all V-weapons and all antiaircraft development except actual AA guns. Now at long last, in these final months of the war, I possessed the powers I had so long dreamed of and vainly fought for in connection with the A-4.

P 283

This bitter truth and the whole gravity of the position had to be brought home with all emphasis to high authority, and all delusive hopes firmly trodden upon. I had a talk with Kammler. I told him what I had found and gave him a complete list of the various types of weapons, showing their performance, delivery dates, and potentialities. Whether there was any point in our continuing work at all, I said, depended on how much, time we had, left. We were going to have to ask where and for how long the Government believed it could resist the Allies now converging from both sides on central Germany.
Kammler did not fail to appreciate the gravity of the position, but he was even then incomprehensibly optimistic. He thought we could still count on at least 6 months to get our weapons into action but even that would be too short to get real results. In this situation it was fatal to go on with so many projects. We should have to cut and combine ruthlessly.

P 284

We were able to work like this for a month. After that, however, it must have been quite clear even to the humblest mechanic that none of these guided antiaircraft rockets would ever go into action. Even if the High Command had succeeded in holding the American and British on the Rhine and the Russians on the Vistula, bombing alone would have delayed until the spring of 1946 delivery of any of the rockets in sufficient quantity to protect vital objectives in the front line and at home and give any substantial relief in the air war. Not until then, and until we had achieved remote control at night and in cloudy weather, could we have hoped slowly to regain command of the air over Germany.
We lacked 18 months of development at top priority. We lacked the lost years between 1939 and 1942.
Kammler refused to believe in an imminent collapse. He dashed to and fro between the Dutch and Rhineland fronts and Thuringia and Berlin. He was on the move day and night. Conferences were called for 1 o'clock in the morning somewhere in the Harz Mountains, or we would meet at midnight somewhere on the autobahn….

P 285

Kammler stilt believed that he alone, with his Army Corps and the weapons over which he had absolute authority, could prevent the imminent collapse, postpone a decision, and even turn the scales. The transporters still moved without respite to the operational area. Convoys of motor vehicles bridged the gaps in the railways. Kammier's supply columns, equipped with infrared devices that enabled them to see in the dark, rumbled along the Dutch highways.
When the only railway supply line to The Hague firing base had been blown up by Dutch resistance groups and the local commander was short of men to protect it, Kammler took over with reserve and training units brought overnight from Germany, together with improvised contingents of the launching troops. He managed to hold the line clear. But what were the exertions of a single berserk warrior and his weak detachments against the menace advancing irresistibly from the west with a power beyond calculation?
The V-weapon corps continued to engage the Allies until the end of March. Its losses were very light. Then - Kammler, completely misreading the military situation, turned it into an infantry corps and hoped, by transferring it to the Harz area, to be able to prevent a junction of the American and Russian armies.
His corps had bombarded London, southern England, and Antwerp with V-weapons from bases in Holland until March 27. V-I's had also taken part in the Rhineland and Ardennes fighting. When the V- I's could

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Deployment could only be effective if enough Me-262's could be concentrated at a single point and armed with one or another of them, as choice might dictate. We never managed it. A concentration of flying formations was no longer possible.
On April 3, 1945, 1-had orders from Kamnmler to evacuate my staff of four hundred and fifty old Peenemunde men to the Lower Alps near Oberammergau. We moved on April 6, as the American tanks advanced through Bleicherode toward Bad Sachsa. From that time onward we were accompanied by SD men I suspected what that meant. Were we to be used as hostages in armistice negotiations? Or were we to be prevented from falling into Allied hands? Either way it didn't really matter.
I parted from Kammler and spent the last month of the war at Oberjoch near Hindelang with my staff and Professor von Braun, who had been injured in an automobile accident. All development work had stopped. We lay on the terrace of our quarters and let the sun beat down on us. We gave ourselves up to our thoughts, argued about our more important projects, and slowly achieved detachment from the march of events.
About us towered the snow-covered Allgäu Mountains, their peaks glittering in the sunlight under the clear blue sky.

James Lateer

[Fred Steeves]

Their 'state-of-the-art' science no longer exists,

I find that hard to believe. Since when does state of the art technology simply disappear, short of some cataclysm?

[Peter Lemkin]

Their 'state-of-the-art' science no longer exists,

I find that hard to believe. Since when does state of the art technology simply disappear, short of some cataclysm?

What I meant by that - and I admit poorly worded - was that what was then state of the art science and more advanced than that of the Allies is now no longer in any way state of the art science/technology. It was then, it is not now.