Cold Open

It’s 6:40 PM on September 8th, 1944, in Chiswick, a suburb of London, England.

A teenage girl walks along the sidewalk, her school bag swinging from her shoulder. She’s just finished the first week of a new school year and is hoping to spend the weekend with her friends—but in these troubled times, she can never be sure of anything.

For the past five years, Britain has been at war with Nazi Germany. During the first months of the conflict, children were evacuated from cities for their own safety. But after the Blitz ended in 1941, London wasn’t targeted in bombing raids as often, and many evacuees like this teenager have returned home.

As she rounds the corner onto her own street, she glances up at the dirty gray clouds floating above. It looks like rain.

She quickens her pace, hoping to get home before it begins to pour.

But a deafening explosion behind her throws the girl to the ground. The sidewalk beneath her shakes, as she unsteadily gets to her feet and looks back the way she came.

The sight takes her breath away. Halfway down the street, where a house stood just a few moments ago, is now a crater. Other houses along the street have their windows blown out. Roof tiles slide to the ground. Walls teeter and collapse.

The teenager runs for the shelter of home as the eerie sound of an air-raid siren drifts across the city. But as she reaches her front door, she glances back up at the sky. She can’t hear the heavy drone of plane engines, nor can she see any German bombers in the sky. The teenager doesn’t know what caused the explosion—infect, very few do.

In the days that follow, British officials insist that the explosion in Chiswick was the result of a gas leak. But when several more buildings suddenly explode without warning, the government is forced to come clean. Britain is under attack from a new type of weapon: a supersonic V-2 rocket. By the time the war ends, almost three thousand Londoners will lose their lives to such attacks. But the Nazi engineer who invented the weapon will never face trial. Instead, Wernher Von Braun will switch sides and become the brains behind the American space program—a remarkable journey from enemy to ally that will begin in secret on June 20th, 1945.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is June 20th, 1945: Wernher Von Braun’s Secret Defection.

Act One

It’s early morning on March 23rd, 1926, in Berlin, Germany, eighteen years before the first V-2 rocket hits London.

14-year-old Wernher von Braun shuffles into the parlor with his mother behind him, covering his eyes. It’s Wernher's birthday, and he’s about to receive a present—but it’s so big, it can’t be gift-wrapped. On the count of three, Wernher's mother removes her hands—and Wernher's face lights up with joy as he sees a brand-new telescope standing on the table by the window.

In recent years, astronomers have used increasingly powerful telescopes to explore the night sky—and Wernher has become fascinated by the discoveries they’ve made. At school, Wernher has thrown himself into studying science, hoping to better understand the complex debates about the size of the Milky Way and the universe. Now, Wernher has a telescope of his own, and he can start making astronomical observations himself.

Wernher opens the parlor curtains. It’s still dark out, so he stoops down and looks through the eyepiece, holding his breath as he adjusts the focal length. Tiny pinpricks of light appear through the lens. Wernher gazes in awe at the cosmos opening before him.

Peering through his telescope soon becomes a nightly ritual for young Wernher. But his dreams go far beyond looking at the stars. He wants to find a way to reach out and touch them.

Four years earlier, a groundbreaking book by a German engineer suggested that rockets could be used to travel into space. It’s an idea that lodged in Wernher's mind, and, two years after receiving his birthday telescope, Wernher begins his first experiments with rockets. He attaches fireworks to a toy car and sets them off on the street outside his home. The vehicle speeds along the sidewalk before exploding and showering sparks. Shocked neighbors call the police, but Wernher escapes punishment this time. His parents, however, encourage him to put his efforts into projects that won’t get him into trouble from now on.

So, seeking a more constructive outlet for his passion, Wernher joins the German Rocket Society. Surrounded by like-minded enthusiasts, Wernher thrives. He takes a leading role in the Rocket Society’s tests, and when a group of German Army officers observe a rocket launch in 1932, it’s 20-year-old Wernher who impresses them the most. After a successful test, Wernher is offered a job in the army, developing rockets for military use. Wernher accepts.

In his new role, Wernher sets up a research laboratory under the supervision of Captain Walter Dornberger. But a year after Wernher commits to military research, there’s a radical power shift in Germany. Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor and soon maneuvers his Nazi Party into absolute power. Wernher has no interest in politics and the machinations of Hitler. He’s focused only on his experiments, building rockets that can fly further and faster than ever before.

But as Hitler’s foreign policy takes on a more aggressive approach, the prospect of war in Europe becomes more likely—and the Army takes a growing interest in Wernher’s work.

They move his research lab to a purpose-built secret base on Germany’s north coast. At the same time, Wernher applies for membership in the Nazi Party. It’s a practical decision for him. Wernher has to prove his loyalty to the German regime because that’s the only way he’ll be allowed to continue his research.

And when World War Two begins, Wernher's experiments take on a new urgency. The longer the conflict goes on, the worse Germany’s prospects seem. The Allies have superior manpower and a vastly bigger industrial capacity. What the Germans need is a miracle. And Wernher's rockets seem to promise just that.

In 1942, Wernher's team conducts the first successful test of a new rocket they dub the A-4. It flies at 3,500 miles an hour and becomes the first man-made object to reach the threshold of space before crashing back to Earth 120 miles from the launch site.

Wernher is delighted by the test - as are his military superiors. They hope this new rocket will be a “wonder weapon” that will turn the tide of the war. Adolf Hitler himself is so excited by its potential that he visits Wernher's remote research complex and awards him the Iron Cross - one of Germany’s most prestigious military decorations.

Soon, the A-4 ballistic missile will be redesignated the V-2. But before this new rocket can be deployed in battle, Wernher will face a new fight of his own: one to prove his loyalty.

Act Two

It’s March 15th, 1944, at the Nazi rocket research facility in northern Germany, four and a half years after the start of World War Two.

31-year-old Wernher von Braun leans over a table covered in papers. He places sheets side by side, comparing data from the most recent round of tests on the V-2 rocket.

After the successful first launch eighteen months ago, Adolf Hitler personally decreed that the rocket project should continue as quickly as possible. So, over the past few weeks, Wernher's engineers have conducted several more tests from a launch pad in occupied Poland. But there’s still plenty more to do before the rocket is ready to be deployed.

So, Wernher is annoyed when his work is interrupted by a loud hammering at his door. He gets up from his desk and angrily storms to the door and opens it, but falls silent when he sees that it’s a squad of SS soldiers who have come to place Wernher under arrest.

Wernher is allowed only to lock away his papers and grab his coat before he’s marched off to a nearby secure location where SS interrogators reveal that Wernher has been under surveillance for the past six months. A few weeks ago, an undercover agent overheard him declare that Germany is losing the war—and that Wernher wished he was building rockets to go into space rather than for the army.

Wernher struggles to defend himself—because it’s clear that Germany is losing the war, and it’s no secret that he’d prefer to be part of a space program rather than a weapons program. But after ten nervous days in a cell, Wernher is freed and the charges are dropped. His lucky escape comes courtesy of Walter Dornberger, the officer who recruited Wernher into the military. Dornberger is now a general and carries considerable influence—and he told the SS that the rocket program could not succeed without Wernher at the helm.

So, Wernher is reinstated and his V-2 rockets begin attacking targets in the fall of 1944. But the miracle weapon is too little, too late for the Nazis. As German troops are forced back on all fronts, Wernher and his team are evacuated from their research station to a small town in the Alps. There, Wernher gets word that Hitler has ordered SS guards to kill him rather than allow the Allies to capture him. Unwilling to be sacrificed in the dying days of Hitler’s regime, Wernher flees into the mountains. It’s the first step in an epic journey that will take Wernher von Braun to the other side of the Atlantic.

*

It’s June 20th, 1945, in Washington, DC, almost two months after Wernher von Braun abandoned his weapons research for the Nazis.

In his office, US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius scans through a long list of German names. The list has been compiled as part of Operation Overcast, a top-secret plan to recruit Nazi scientists to continue their work, but on American soil. Edward has been informed that the individuals on this list possess knowledge that might prove useful to the United States in the postwar world. And as he reads the list, he pauses at one name in particular. Wernher von Braun is noted to be a prominent rocket scientist—and a symbol next to Wernher's name indicates that he’s already in American custody.

After fleeing from his SS minders in the Alps, Wernher hid for several days until he spotted a platoon of American soldiers. He raised his hands and surrendered, openly admitting his identity and role in the Nazi war machine. News of Wernher's capture was quickly passed up the chain of command until it reached the desk of Edward Stettinius. Now, Edward is the man with the power to decide Wernher’s fate.

And with a quick stroke of his pen, Edward puts a check next to Wernher’s name. He then signs the bottom of the page and places the document in a folder, and passes it off to his clerks. Edward has just offered Wernher passage to the United States and immunity from prosecution for his actions during the war—but only if he continues his research for America.

It’s not an offer Wernher is in a position to turn down. Soon, he lands in his new home at Fort Bliss, Texas. At first, he recreates his work on V-2 rockets for the US Army. But he makes even quicker progress when his workforce expands. In November 1945, Operation Overcast is renamed Operation Paperclip, and restrictions on the recruitment of former Nazis are loosened. Under the new regulations, hundreds of Wernher's former colleagues are shipped across the Atlantic to join him.

Initially, the German scientists and engineers work in austere conditions and have little freedom to leave their research facility. But as time passes, Wernher and his colleagues prove themselves to their American hosts, and their conditions improve. Freed from the constraints of the Nazi Party, Wernher will refocus his research, and no longer will he develop guided missiles for military use. Instead, he’ll achieve his lifelong ambition and design rocket ships to take humanity to the stars.

Act Three

It’s July 24th, 1969, in Huntsville, Alabama, 24 years after Wernher von Braun was recruited by the United States.

57-year-old Wernher waves to a cheering crowd as he walks through the town. Despite the baking heat, hundreds have congregated to celebrate Huntsville’s most famous resident.

Three days ago, these same people watched grainy black-and-white footage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on the Moon. But the people of Huntsville have even more reason than most Americans to be proud of that achievement. The Apollo 11 mission was blasted into space by the Saturn V rocket—and the driving force behind the design, testing, and construction of that huge machine was Huntsville’s very own Wernher von Braun.

As Wernher makes his way down the street, countless hands slap his back in congratulations. Then, Wernher feels his feet leave the ground. Before he can stop them, several burly men have hoisted Wernher onto their shoulders and he is paraded through the crowd to cheers and applause. Thanks to Wernher's expertise in rocket science, his adopted nation has triumphed in the space race.

But not everyone will view Wernher's achievements in the same way as his neighbors in Huntsville. Some will question whether the American authorities were right to ignore Wernher's past contributions to the Nazi war effort. And they will complain when Wernher was never punished for his role in creating a weapon that killed 9,000 civilians, nor for the deaths of 12,000 laborers in the work camps that built the V-2 rockets.

But Wernher's postwar efforts in the space race will define his legacy more than his wartime service for Germany. Wernher will have American streets and buildings named after him. And in 1994, seventeen years after his death, a lunar crater will be named in his honor—a fitting tribute to the scientist who helped America win the race to the moon after he was freed from army custody with a stroke of a politician’s pen on June 20th, 1945.

Outro

Next on History Daily. June 21st, 1582. A Japanese warlord’s hopes of ruling the nation are brought to an end when he is betrayed by one of his closest allies.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Rob Scragg.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.