by Mike Bennett
Most of these tunnels were excavated in the Harz Mountain region of Northern Germany. The Mittelwerk and the Nordhausen area housed the largest of these complexes. They were used for the manufacture of the V2 rocket and Me 262 jet fighter, although the location of the latter site was given away by the runway built on the mountain top. However, these underground facilities also protected Nazi research into nuclear reactors and atomic weapon development.
The author believes that this particular topic has also been the subject of severe misrepresentation and disinformation by the Allies since 1945. The British and Americans maintain to this day that the only nuclear facilities the Germans had were very rudimentary research establishments, and the Nazis were a long way from developing a practical nuclear reactor, let alone building a nuclear weapon.
In view of the disinformation they later put out regarding Russian nuclear technology, the history of SS officers that the US needed and many other subjects on which they were later caught out, the assessment of the Nazi nuclear capability recorded by Western history is disinformation bordering on being completely fictitious.
Firstly, Germany had some of the finest technical brains and physicists in the world during this period. Physicists such as Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger developed quantum field theory, and were all Nobel Physics Laureates. To even suggest that men of this towering intellectual calibre were not capable of building a working nuclear reactor or bomb is quite absurd.
The Germans were also enriching uranium long before 1945. The German chemical giant IG Farben had constructed an enormous facility outside Berlin. The cover story was that this facility was built to produce synthetic rubber. However after many years of operation, and having consumed a good part of the entire electrical power generated for the Berlin region, not a single kilogram of synthetic rubber is recorded as having been produced there. Corroborating evidence comes from many employees who confirmed that this facility actually housed thousands of high-speed centrifuges enriching uranium.
IG Farben is notorious for its role in the Holocaust. The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major chemical companies that had been working together closely since World War I. During its heyday, IG Farben was the largest chemical company in the world and the fourth largest overall industrial concern, after General Motors, US Steel and Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Following the Nazi takeover of Germany, IG Farben became involved in numerous war crimes during World War II. Most notoriously, the firm’s pro-Nazi leadership openly and knowingly collaborated with the Nazi government to produce the large quantities of Zyklon B necessary to gas to death millions of Jews and other “undesirables” at various extermination camps during the Holocaust. The firm ceased operating following the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, when the company was seized by the Allies. Its assets were utterly liquidated in 1952, and many executives were imprisoned (and several executed) at the Nuremberg Trials for their roles in the atrocities.
Engulfed by lawsuits and universal condemnation after the war’s end, the company itself no longer exists. Before the company went defunct it was merely as an asset-less shell with the sole stated goal of continuing to do business so it may pay many millions of dollars in reparations to the families of the victims of its many crimes.
Further evidence of the Nazi nuclear capability came at the end of the war in Europe with the surrender of the Nazi U-boat U-234. Unfortunately for the Americans and British, her cargo manifests were published in the press as they were considered to be fairly insignificant. Many of the crates and heavy cylinders on board this U-boat were marked U-235. The ill-informed military censors just assumed that they must have been due for dispatch on a different U-boat. It later transpired that the cylinders contained enriched uranium 235, believed to have been produced as part of the German atomic bomb programme, and on its way to Japan. However by then the cat was out of the bag. Again, this cannot possibly be reconciled with the Allied claims of Nazi nuclear development and their nuclear technology.
A number of people also believe that in fact the Allies were extremely lucky that the war in Germany ended in May 1945. Several have suggested that it would have been just a matter of a few more months until this uranium had been turned into a working bomb, in which case London may well have been the first city to suffer a nuclear attack instead of Hiroshima. It has further been suggested that this Nazi uranium was used by the Americans in their own atomic bomb programme. Again, the truth regarding this will probably never be known.
The Mittelwerk was incorporated as a private company on 24th September 1943, and received a contract for the production of 12,000 V-2s (which will be discussed in the next section). After meeting with Hitler on 18th August, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler informed armaments minister Albert Speer that he was personally taking over V-2 production, and placing SS General Hans Kammler in charge of the Mittelwerk complex. It was Kammler who had been in charge of the building of the extermination camps and gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Maidenek and Belzec.
The Mittelwerk tunnel system consisted of two parallel main tunnels, A and B, each roughly 6,200 feet (1.17 miles) long, bent in a shallow “S” curve, and connected at various points by a regular series of cross-tunnels like the rungs of a ladder. The cross-tunnels (called Halls, or Kammer) were about 600 feet long (from the outside wall of Tunnel A to the outside wall of Tunnel B), and were numbered from 1 to 46, beginning at the north side of the mountain. Tunnels A and B had a height of 21 to 23 feet, and a width of 29 to 36 feet.
The Halls were somewhat smaller in cross-section, but still the underground space was vast, estimated to be over a million square feet.
The southern entrance of Tunnel A and Halls 46 through 43 were devoted to V-1 production, in what was called Mittelwerk II. V-2 assembly (Mittelwerk I) occupied Halls 21 through 42, while the northern end of the tunnel complex (Halls 1 through 20) was dedicated to Junkers aircraft engine production in what was called the Nordwerk.
Each of the main tunnels had two sets of regular-gauge railroad tracks running through it. In general, Tunnel A was used to transport parts and materials for the V-2 into the factory and for storage. The Halls were used for assembling, testing and stocking subassemblies for the rockets. Tunnel B served as the primary assembly line, which began at Hall 21 and moved south towards Hall 42, covering a distance of some 2,300 feet (about four tenths of a mile) and carrying rockets out of the Mittelwerk. Many of the Halls contained offices for the German draftsmen, engineers and foremen (called Meisters), who directed the detainees. Niches and cul-de-sac chambers were hollowed out of the main tunnels, and also halls for additional storage.
The two tracks in Tunnel B formed parallel assembly lines. V-2s to be assembled would be placed on pairs of four-wheeled railroad bogies connected by a beam, and moved from north to south. At each stage of the line, additional parts were added to the assemblies, until the completed rockets arrived at Hall 41 on the south end.
This hall, which had been excavated well below the regular floor level of the main tunnels, was over 50 feet high and contained a huge spanning crane, enabling the rockets to be erected vertically. One whole side of Hall 41 contained a series of multi-level vertical inspection scaffolds for the rockets. This was necessary because final fluid and gyroscopic tests (among others) could not be carried out on a horizontal rocket.
The general assembly process went as follows. First, the centre section of the rocket (the fuselage with its two huge alcohol and liquid oxygen tanks) was assembled. Next, the propulsion group (combustion chamber, turbine pump and air bottles) was attached. Then, the tail section of the rocket, with its propulsion ring, rudder servos and fins, was attached to the motor. Finally, the guidance compartment (the control amplifier, electrical distribution panel, main time switch, radio equipment etc.) was attached to the front of the missile, and the completed rocket went for final testing and delivery to the launching batteries. Warheads were transported separately and attached to the rocke
ts in the field.
V-2 parts however were never designed to be fully interchangeable. Combustion chambers, fuel pumps and many valves had to be matched up to each other, and specifically tested and regulated for each missile. This meant that each V-2 engine assembly had to be test-fired prior to final assembly. Wernher von Braun was in charge of these final acceptance tests. On 4th August 1943, Peenemünde made the decision that V-2 production would be carried out for the most part using concentration camp labour, in a ratio reported to have been set at ten to fifteen detainees to every German worker. The SS, which ran the camps, became the supplier and organiser of V-2 production manpower. A small concentration camp was in fact located in the basement of Building F1 at the base.
The rocket’s design demanded close tolerances for parts. Given the diversity of sources and subcontractors for the various components, and the state of disruption prevailing in the German economy due to Allied bombing, a lot of the work in the tunnels consisted of inspection and re-inspection of parts and subassemblies. Many of the prisoners worked in areas devoted to filing, re-machining or otherwise tweaking various subsystems.
In April 1945, the spearhead of the advancing American troops, Combat Command B (CCB) of the 3rd Armoured Division, entered Nordhausen. Here CCB was to pause and link up with the 104th Infantry (Timber Wolf) Division before continuing its drive to the east.
Third Armoured had been warned by Army Intelligence to “expect something a little unusual” in the Nordhausen area, but they knew nothing of the horrors soon to be discovered. One of the first sickening encounters took place at the Boelcke-Kaserne (also called the Nordhausen Camp), a former German military barracks that the SS had used as a dumping ground for prisoners from Mittelwerk camps who were too weak or diseased to include in the forced marches out of the area. The dead also included prisoners killed in an Allied bombing raid aimed at Nordhausen. An estimated 1,300 to 2,500 corpses were found there, along with a few survivors, cared for by the 104th Division’s medical staff.
CHAPTER 13
Apart from the Bell, for which the known facts are sketchy, the V-2 was the most ground-breaking piece of Nazi technology of which we know the full story. The V-2 was the world’s first ever ballistic missile. There was no defence against it once it was launched, and it was way ahead of anything that the Allies could produce at the time. Ironically, more people died in the manufacture of this missile than it ever managed to kill when in operation.
The initial research and testing of the V-2 was carried out close to the V-1 facility. By late 1941, von Braun’s team possessed the technologies essential to the success of the V-2 (which was known as the A-4 at that time). The four key technologies for the V-2 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance and control rudders in the exhaust stream, as it would climb outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. At the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2. He pointed out that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost.
The original assembly line was set up on the lower floor of Building F1. This line was the precursor of the rail-borne horizontal transport type of assembly later used at the Mittelwerk.
On the night of 17–18th August 1943, the Allies mounted a massive air raid on Peenemünde. This raid forced the Germans to move the entire V-weapon manufacturing capability to the Mittelwerk.
In early September 1943, von Braun promised the Long Range Bombardment Commission that the V-2 development was practically concluded, but even by the middle of 1944, a complete V-2 parts list was still unavailable. By this time Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and also needed a “wonder weapon” to maintain German morale, so he authorised its deployment in large numbers.
The V-2 used a seventy-five percent ethanol/twenty-five percent water mixture for fuel, and liquid oxygen for the oxidiser. After launch the V-2 propelled itself for up to sixty-five seconds on its own power, and the guidance system controlled the pitch to the specified angle at engine shutdown, after which the rocket continued on a ballistic free-fall trajectory. The rocket reached a height of 80km (50 miles) after shutting off the engine. The fuel and oxygen pumps were steam turbines, the steam being produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide with sodium permanganate catalyst. Both the alcohol and oxygen tanks were made from an aluminium-magnesium alloy.
The combustion chamber reached a temperature of 2,500–2,700°C (4,500–4,900°F). The alcohol-water fuel was pumped along the double wall of the main combustion chamber. This regenerative cooling both heated the fuel and cooled the combustion chamber. The fuel was then pumped into the chamber through 1,224 nozzles, which assured the correct mixture of alcohol and oxygen at all times.
Small holes also permitted some alcohol to escape directly into the combustion chamber, forming a cooled boundary layer that further protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the throat where the chamber was narrowest. The boundary layer alcohol ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse exhaust plume. By contrast, post-V-2 engine designs that did not employ this alcohol boundary layer cooling show a translucent plume with shock diamonds in their exhaust.
The V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal graphite vanes at the exhaust exit of the motor. The LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizontal and a vertical) for lateral stabilisation, and a PIGA accelerometer to control engine cut-off at a specified velocity. The V-2 was launched from a pre-surveyed location, so the distance and azimuth to the target were known. Fin number one of the missile was aligned to the target azimuth.
Some early V-2 tests used “guide beams” – radio signals transmitted from the ground to keep the missile on course – but the first operational models used simple analogue computers that adjusted the azimuth for the rocket, and the flying distance was controlled by the timing of the engine cut-off. The rocket then stopped accelerating, and soon reached the top of the approximately parabolic flight curve.
By February 1942 the engineers had documented the radio interference area of a V-2 as 10,000 meters around the firing point, and the first successful V-2 flight on 3rd October 1943 used radio control. Hitler commented on 22nd September 1943 that, “It is a great load off our minds that we have dispensed with the radio guiding-beam. Now no opening remains for the British to interfere technically with the missile in flight.”
The painting of the operational V-2s was mostly a camouflaged ragged pattern with several variations, but at the end of the war a plain olive-green rocket also appeared. During tests, the rocket was painted in a characteristic black-and-white chessboard pattern, which aided in determining if the rocket was spinning around its longitudinal axis.
Two test launches were recovered by the Allies. These were the Backeboe rocket which landed in Sweden on 13th June 1944, and one recovered by the Polish resistance on 30th May 1944 from Blizna and transported to the UK during Operation Most III.
Test launches of V-2 rockets were made at Blizna and Tuchola Forest, and after the war, at Cuxhaven by the British, White Sands Proving Grounds, Cape Canaveral and Kapustin Yar. Various design issues were identified and solved during V-2 development and testing. These were primarily:
• To reduce tank pressure and weight, high-flow turbo pumps were used to boost pressure.
• A short and lighter combustion chamber without burn-through was developed by using centrifugal injection nozzles, a mixing compartment and a converging nozzle to the throat for homogeneous combustion.
• Film cooling was used to prevent burn-through at the nozzle throat.
• Relay contacts were made more durable to withstand vibration and prevent thrust cut-off just after lift-off.
• Ensuring that the fuel pipes had tension-free curves reduced the likelihood of explosions at 1,200–1,800 metres (4,000–6,000 feet). Fins were shaped with clearance to prevent damage as the exhaust jet expanded with altitude.
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p; • To control trajectory at lift-off and supersonic speeds, heat-resistant graphite vanes were used as rudders in the exhaust jet.
After Hitler’s 29th August 1944 declaration to begin V-2 attacks as soon as possible, the offensive began on 8th September 1944 with a single launch at Paris, which caused modest damage near Porte d’Italie. Two more launches then followed, including one from The Hague against London on the same day. At 6:43 pm, the first landed at Chiswick, killing sixty-three-year-old Mrs Ada Harrison, three-year-old Rosemary Clarke and Sapper Bernard Browning, on leave from the Royal Engineers. Upon hearing the double-crack of the supersonic rocket (London’s first ever), Duncan Sandys and Reginald Victor Jones looked up from different parts of the city and exclaimed, “That was a rocket!”, and a short while after the double-crack, the sky was filled with the sound of a heavy body rushing through the air.
As the V-2 explosions came without warning, the British government initially attempted to conceal their cause (surely not) by blaming the damage on a series of defective gas mains! However the public was not fooled, probably due to rocket fins etc. being found near the craters, and soon began referring to the V-2s as “flying gas pipes”. The Germans themselves finally announced the V2 on 8th November 1944 and only then, on 10th November 1944, did Winston Churchill inform Parliament, and the world, that England had been under rocket attack “for the last few weeks”.
The positions of the German launch units did change a number of times. For example, Artillerie I-444 arrived in the south-west Netherlands (in Zeeland) in September 1944. From a field near the village of Serooskerke, five V2s were launched on 15th and 16th September, with one more successful and one failed launch on the 18th. That same day, a transport carrying a missile took a wrong turn and ended up in Serooskerke itself, giving a villager the opportunity to surreptitiously take some photographs of the weapon. These were then smuggled to London by the Dutch Resistance. After that the unit moved to Gaasterland in the north-west Netherlands, to ensure that the technology did not fall into Allied hands. From Gaasterland, V-2s were launched against Ipswich and Norwich from 25th September (London being out of range). Because of their inaccuracy, these V-2s did not hit their target cities. Shortly after that, only London and Antwerp remained as designated targets, as ordered by Adolf Hitler himself. Antwerp was targeted during the period of 12th to 20th October, after which time the unit moved to the Hague.
