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World War II was not just a war of inhumanity and a total annihilation it was a war of technology
and science Nazi Germany led the world in various technological innovations all of
which were sought after by the Allies both Western and the Soviet. When The War ended
and that included the people who helped create them. How did the United States
and Great Britain obtain the best and brightest minds behind Hitler's Wonder Weapons and science?
Why did they want them? What was the result of Operations Lusty and Paperclip?
And why was Operation Paperclip so controversial long after the war was over?
Hello I'm Colin Heaton former soldier, Marine Corps scout sniper, history professor, historian and book
author and we will answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History.
Before the end of World War II British and American intelligence put a plan together
to collect as Much German technology and the men who created it as possible and hopefully
beat the Soviets in the process. These two programs were called Operation Lusty and
Operation Paperclip. Operation Lusty was the scramble for German technology especially
jets such as the Messerschmitt 262, biological and chemical warfare, rocket aircraft such as
the Messerschmitt 163 Comet and their new silent running type XX! and type XXIII electric U-boats
in addition to other scientific experiments and intelligence experts. Operation Paperclip
was all about getting the top minds in Nazi Germany all the top scientists, developers,
intelligence specialists and engineers before the Soviets did. Throughout history conquering
nations occupied and appropriated everything within their dominions as spoils of war.
Collecting German technology and the men who created it was just a continuance of
the age-old practice. The great difference was that the American and British methods were for
the most part devoted to preventing future wars healing fresh wounds, they focused upon building
new alliances to prevent the spread of communism and beating the Soviets in the technology race
and coming Cold War. But the Western Allies also wanted the men behind the weapons and
science and the list was drawn up from the known persons building Adolf Hitler's Wonder Weapons
programs. They compiled a very long and detailed list that numbered over 1600 names. Following
Allied troops in the advance was the Combined Intelligence Objective Subcommittee or CIOS
which started confiscating documents, materials, machinery and interrogating German experts to
weed out all but the best. Operation Paperclip started before the war ended under the direction
of the Office of Strategic Services under General William "Wild Bill" Donovan and overseen by the
Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency. Just as Operation Lusty was to deny German technology
to the Soviets Paperclip was meant to deny them access to the men themselves;
the race was on. Before the German surrender the U.S Counterintelligence Corps was already
scouring prisoner of war camps, hospitals, refugee camps, looking for anyone on that list. Making the
situation easier for the Americans and British was the fact that every German preferred captivity in
the west as opposed to being in Soviet hands and for good reason. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the
chairman General George C Marshall saw the value in these operations as did others. How would you
feel knowing that these were the men who helped expand the lethality of the war? President Harry
S. Truman agreed with the plan yet only signed the authorization for Paperclip on August 7 1945, but
he expressly forbade the inclusion of anyone who was a member of the Nazi Party. The problem with
that decision was that anyone who was not a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party
held any meaningful position or had a security clearance to work on the top secret projects.
General George S. Patton was aware of Paperclip and supported the project. In fact Patton defied the
order to not use former members of the Nazi Party in any occupational capacity. Patton ignored the
order and collected as many experts as he could, so Truman's position on this matter made absolutely
no sense and Donovan as well as the future CIA director Alan Welsh Dulles knew it. There had even
been a discussion with General Dwight D. Eisenhower as to making sure that these top most wanted
Germans were kept safe from harm. They understood that Truman's ridiculous order would have severe
consequences in the short term. Some of the most wanted and talented Germans such as rocket
scientist Dr. Vander von Braun, Dr Arthur Rudolph and space medical specialist Dr. Hubertus Struckhold
just to name a few, would have been cast adrift and possibly fall into Soviet hands. Many of them would
have probably voluntarily gone to the Soviets just to have a job and a decent quality of life
rather than be unemployable and outcasts in their own country. What do you think of that possibility
of the Soviets gathering these men instead of the United States? This was because former officers and
party members were barred from civil service jobs, academia and any meaningful profession
that would have included science and aerospace professions. Donovan, Dulles and others quietly
circumvented and ignored Truman's edict. Had they not the United States would have been set back decades
on the developments of rocket and jet aircraft, submarine and ground-launched intercontinental
ballistic missiles, high altitude and pressure G-suits for air crews and so on. In order to get
around this provision the OSS and JIOA under the direction of Dulles removed all references of the
Nazi Party affiliations of those brought into the fold, in essence their files were purified to make
them clean of any NSDAP affiliation. As a result Operation Paperclip so called for the paper clips
that attached the new pages of their sterilized identification papers then cleared these men from
scrutiny and allowed them to obtain the top secret security clearances required in order to work in
the United States. Von Braun and other rocket scientists were brought to Fort Bliss Texas and
White Sands Proving Grounds New Mexico as War Department special employees to assist the U.S
Army with rocket experimentation. The best example is von Braun who later became the appointed
director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the primary creator of the Saturn V rocket
which placed American astronauts on the moon. There has been great scrutiny over the last
several decades in the United States and Great Britain giving these Nazis a pass and a good
life given the fact that all of their Industries caused great suffering, destruction and at least
in a small way benefited from slave labor during the Holocaust. What most people seem to forget is
that these scientists had no control over the labor force they were given and it seems quite
hypocritical as well. People still buy Volkswagens Porsches Mercedes and BMWs and Fflash their status
without a single thought to those companies that also used slave labor as did Ford and General
Motors with their European companies. People still use Bosch Siemens Krupp and IG Farben products
all of which used even larger numbers of slave labor and some of their specialists
were brought here as well. Does this episode make you think twice about buying products from these
companies? Most people will say no as that was long ago but let's look at what we did benefit
from as a result of Operation Paperclip. We enhanced our knowledge of jet aviation,
synthetic fuel production, infrared technology. We inherited advanced emission detection
systems used by the Luftwaffe night fighters, advanced aerodynamics, liquid fuel rocketry,
and ballistic missile development. We obtained guided missile technology, advanced understanding
of virology and bacteriology and various other areas of science and a wealth of Intelligence on
the Soviet military from Major General Reinhardt Galen and others learning of their intelligence
methods and their order of battle. Had the Soviets captured von Braun Major, General Walter Dornberger
and many others we would not have had the Redstone Rocket program. There would not have been a Mercury,
Gemini and later Apollo programs. We would not have been the first nation to land on the moon
the space shuttles may have never been developed. In the words of Air Force General Michael Collins
who along with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong was part of the three-man Apollo XI mission for
the first manned moon landing quote; "The Russians had some Germans and we had some Germans but we
had the best Germans and had we not brought them here the history of the world would be
very different. We were just lucky that so many wanted to come here and that we welcomed them.
The Russians could get an object to the moon but it was von Braun and the others who made
sure that we could get back and that was what mattered most," end quote. Likewise we would not
have had the Polaris missile and the later generations of intercontinental ballistic
missile submarines called boomers that patrol the world's oceans keeping our enemies in check, and
satellite technology is also a question mark. The opposite would be true. The Soviets would have been
the first to land men on the moon despite the fact that they did launch the first satellite
Sputnik on October 4th 1957. They would have built the first space station and developed
the first submarine launched long-range missiles for delivery of atomic weapons before the West. It
seems ironic that the technological advances with which Hitler and the Third Reich sought to win a
desperate war ended up being the genesis of a new world order that has for the most part preserved
the world from another global catastrophe. Yes these former Nazis helped create the greatest
arms race in history but the guarantee of mutually assured destruction was the most
stabilizing factor in preventing another world war. Even the Korean, Arab Israeli, Vietnam and Gulf Wars
among many other conflicts such as the War on Terror were basically geographically contained
non-nuclear affairs. It is in this regard that the Germans who flew the world's first combat jets and
launched the first ballistic missiles and created the science to help airmen survive we're not just
practitioners of aerial warfare and masters of technology. They also in their own way played a
major role in the future of world peace. In essence without Operation Paperclip we would probably
not be the leaders of the Free World and the Bastion of global security, if we even existed as a
nation at all. We hope you enjoyed this segment of Forgotten History. Please click like and subscribe
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