1. The name Mittelbau refers to a complex of factories, storage depots, facilities and
prisoner camps, some underground, that were used from August, 1943 until April, 1945 to
manufacture and test the V-2 rocket near Nordhausen in central Germany. The main V-2 assembly
line was located in an underground factory called Mittelwerk that was excavated beneath
Kohnstein Mountain, about 2 km southwest of the town of Neidersachswerfen. The Dora concentration
camp (later called Mittelbau KZ), where most of the Mittelwerk workers were imprisoned,
was located on the southwest edge of the Kohnstein, near the southern portals of Mittelwerk tunnels
A and B.
This chapter explains the history of the Mittelbau complex, the organization of the underground
Mittelwerk V-2 assembly plant, and how the V-2 assembly line functioned. It also describes
the discovery of the plant by the Americans and their race to remove V-2 parts, people,
and papers to the United States.
Immediately after the war, while America was building its own rocket program on the foundations
of German technology, the horrible reality of slave labor used during V-2 production
was concealed from the public. Only in the past 10 years, as prisoners’ histories have
been published, have we begun to understand more. Estimates put the number of prisoners
used by the Germans for V-2 production at - Mittelbau at more than 60,000. Over 25,000
of these were killed either by beatings, starvation, and sickness in the complex, or by the brutal
efforts of the SS to relocate them before the Americans arrived in April, 1945. We now
know that many of the most shocking “concentration camp pictures” that are seared into our
common consciousness from this era were taken by U.S. troops as they entered the Mittelbau
camps.
Many of us are impressed by the technical achievement of building so many complex new
weapons so rapidly under such harsh conditions. As we mull over this achievement, however,
we must never forget the scope of the human sacrifice made for each piece and part disgorged
from these workshops. 2. Rusty V-2 rocket engine in the underground
production facilities of the camp (2012) 3. A convoy of German Sd.Kfz. 251 half-tracks
enter the suburbs of the city of Kharkov, 1943.
4. Mounted German soldier, somewhere on the Eastern front.
5. Paulus surrendering to the Soviets at Stalingrad 6. A muddied fallschirmjager lights up a cigarette
following the bitter fighting in Normandy . Front cover of Der Adler magazine. August
1944. 7. German MG34 MMG (medium machine gun) team
using a long range optical sight. For distance firing (in theory up to 3000m, indirect 3500m)
an optical device was mounted. In any sustained firing situation, the tracer round was often
used for aiming. In this case the gunner is not looking through the optic but over it
for a better field of view. 8. Landser in front of his Horch Staff Car.
9. Volksturm men in Königsberg with a Panzerfaust and a MG 151/20, an aircraft MG modified for
ground use . Early 1945.
10. German infantry fighting in urban terrain in Novorossiysk.
11. SS Sonderregiment Dirlewanger in ‘43, likely in Byelorussia.
12. Panzergrenadiers regroup behind a Tiger I after repelling a Soviet attack on the Eastern
Front in July 1943 13. The most successful NJG crew: Oberfeldwebel
Wilhelm Gansler (gunner), Hauptmann Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, Leutnant Friedrich Rumpelhardt
(radar operator). Date: unknown. Maybe, July 1944 when his crew members were awarded the
Ritterkreuz or October 1944, when Schnaufer was awarded the Brillantent.
14. Unidentified Unteroffizier on the Eastern Front in early 1943
15. Luftwaffe Lieutenant Hans Dybul, a dive bomber pilot Ju-87 "Stuka", knocked down in
June 1942 in the skies over Tobruk and taken prisoner by the British.
16. Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model saluted by a Heer officer, date unknown.
17. An SS physician "examining" the health of the Jewish man standing before him. The
Jewish woman in the forefront is identified as Geza Lajtos of Budapest. Auschwitz, May
27th, 1944. 18. Member of the 12th SS Panzer Division
Hitlerjugend standing on the wreck of Sherman Firefly "Chaser" of the 27th Canadian Armoured
Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers) knocked out in the action around Authie on June 7th 1944
19. Dinner table prepared onboard the zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg
20. Artillery team of a German 7.5 cm PaK 97/38 anti-tank gun (captured by the Wehrmacht
during the Battle of Poland or France). In the background, a Marder II anti-tank self-propelled
gun. Eastern front, 1943. 21. German Sd.Kfz.8 tows a Soviet 130mm naval
gun (B-13) in Armiansk, Crimea, the gun was dismantled from coastal batteries No.124 or
No.126 22. Member of a Luftwaffe field division with
an owl. Normandy, 1944. 23. Engineers and ground crew conducting field
tests on the first prototype of the Me 262 [Due to its late entry into the war, of the
1400 produced only about 300 ever saw combat] 24. An L6/40 with German markings passes German
infantrymen in occupied Albania, September 1943.
25. The last converted Tank destroyer "Ferdinand", decorated for the solemn occasion. "Nibelungen"
Tank Factory in St. Valentin, Lower Austria, June 1943
26. Engine field maintenance on a late model Panzer III on the Eastern Front in early 1944
27. Waffen-SS member poses with a field phone, date unknown.
28. German Prisoners of War (mainly Polish conscripts) on board a U.S. Navy LCT, awaiting
transfer to a "Liberty" ship. Southern France Beach, 1944.
29. 7.5 cm Gebirgsgeschütz 36 in action in the Beskid Mountains in early 1945
30. German occupational forces in Albania shortly after the Italian Armistice. Note
the captured L3/33 (also called a CV 33). September 1943.
31. Early model Panzer IV laden with jerry cans on the move in Libya
32. German position in Towarowa Street during the Warsow uprising. Notice the bench on which
they are sitting and wounded soldiers next to it. 6 August 1944
33. June 1940, the railcar where the German WW1 surrender was signed at Compiegne (Paris)
arrives in Berlin after being seized by the German armies entering Paris in 1940.
34. The 100,000th prisoner of war captured by the US First Infantry Division- an Unteroffizier
of Panzerjäger Abteilung 272, of Kampfgruppe Herian, captured in Hättenrode, Germany,
on 23rd April 1945 35. German troops with panzerfausts strapped
to their bikes and Stg. 44s on their backs on the move near Oderbruch, Germany. 7 April
1944. 36. It's that time of year, Himmler and officers
have snowball fight, sometime in 1940 37. 88mm Flak 18 battery lights up the night
while firing in unison in 1939 38. Captured British paratrooper treats a
German soldier from his bowler hat. Arnhem. 1944
39. Panzer IV and infantry on the move in Ukraine in late 1943
40. Three "Neubaufahrzeug" medium tanks landed in Oslo in early 1940
41. Ju 87 D-5's prepare for take off from the Immola Airfield in Finland.
42. Hitlerjugend activity, date unknown. 43. Soldiers of 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte
Adolf Hitler during the Battle of Kursk, 1943. 44. Wilhelm Mohnke awards Iron crosses to
members of the 12th SS panzer division Hitlerjugend, 16th of June, France
45. Panzer VI 'Tigers of SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser's II.SS-Panzerkorps, after the
successful break-out from Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube's (1. Panzer Army) moving Pocket. The
photo is taken in the area of Tarnopol in Galizien on 22 April 1944 by PK-Kriegsberichter
Valtingojer. 46. German "Schwerer Ladungsträger Borgward
IV." It was used to carry and deposit a heavy explosive charge, for blowing up strong points
during urban combat, or to clear mine fields. 47. German Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel arriving
at Tripoli, Libya, Feb 12, 1941. 48. A column of Panzer IIs, led by a Panzer
IV, parades through the centre of Prague following the Nazi German annexation / occupation of
Czechoslovakia, circa 1939. Note the buildings decked out with Nazi banners and the Nazi
salutes being given by the crowds lining the route.
49. A SdKfz 101 / Panzer 1 Ausf. B on pre-war exercises in Germany. Yet another Carden-Loyd
derivative. 50. The crew of a Panzer III stop to converse
with some Landsers during the German invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940.
51. The "Admiral Scheer" upside down after the bombing on Kiel.