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Wernher
von Braun
Wernher von Braun (March 23, 1912 - June 16, 1977) was
one of the leading figures in the development of rocket
technology in Germany and the United States. His work on
the Nazi rocket programme made him a controversial
figure. The controversy was captured in a song by
satirist Tom Lehrer, who described him as "A man
whose allegiance is ruled by expedience".
He was born on in Wirsitz, Posen, Germany and his mother
gave him a telescope upon his Lutheran confirmation. His
interest in astronomy and the realm of space motivated
him all his life. When Wirsitz was given to Poland in
1920, due to the Treaty of Versailles, his family, like
many other German families, moved. The von Brauns found a
new life in Berlin, Brandenburg. He did not do well in
physics and mathematics until he acquired a copy of the
book Die Rakete zu den Planetenr?umen (The Rocket into
Interplanetary Space) by rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth.
From then on he applied himself at school in order to
understand mathematics, until he excelled. At the age of
13, he caused a major disruption when he fired off a toy
wagon to which he had attached a number of firecrackers.
The wagon travelled several blocks into the centre of
town and caught fire. The young von Braun was taken into
custody by the local police until his father came to
collect him.
In 1930 he attended the Berlin Institute of Technology.
He also joined the Verein f?r Raumschiffahrt (VfR -
"Spaceflight Society") and assisted Hermann
Oberth in liquid-fueled rocket motor tests. He received a
B.S. degree and entered Berlin University.
Under Captain Walter Dornberger a research grant from the
Ordnance Department was arranged for von Braun, who then
researched adjacent to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel
rocket test site at Kummersdorf. Von Braun received a
doctorate in physics two years later. By the end of 1934,
Braun's group had successfully launched two rockets that
rose to more than 2.4 kilometres or 1.5 miles. At that
time, however, there was no German rocket society, as the
VfR had collapsed and rocket tests had been forbidden by
the new regime. Only military development was possible
and a larger facility was erected at the village of
Peenem?nde in northeastern Germany on the Baltic Sea.
Dornberger became military commander and von Braun was
technical director. They undertook successful
liquid-fueled aircraft and jet-assisted takeoffs. They
developed the long-range ballistic missile A-4 and
supersonic anti-aircraft missile named Wasserfall.
In 1943 Hitler decided to use the A-4 as a
"vengeance weapon," and the group found
themselves developing the A-4 to rain explosives on
London. Fourteen months after Hitler ordered it into
production, the first combat A-4, now called the V-2 (a
name invented by Heinrich Himmler), was launched toward
western Europe on September 7, 1944. When the first V-2
hit London von Braun remarked to his colleagues,
"The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on
the wrong planet."
The SS and the Gestapo arrested von Braun for crimes
against the state because he persisted in talking about
building rockets which would go into orbit around the
Earth and perhaps go to the Moon. His crime was indulging
in frivolous dreams when he should have been
concentrating on building bigger rocket bombs for the
Nazi war machine. Dornberger convinced the SS and the
Gestapo to release von Braun because without him there
would be no V-2 and Hitler would have them all shot.
On arriving back at Peenem?nde, von Braun immediately
assembled his planning staff and asked them to decide how
and to whom they should surrender. Most of the scientists
were frightened of the Russians, they felt the French
would treat them like slaves, and the British did not
have enough money to afford a rocket program. That left
the Americans. After stealing a train with forged papers,
von Braun led 500 people through war-torn Germany to
surrender to the Americans. The SS were issued orders to
kill the German engineers, who hid their notes in a mine
shaft and evaded their own army while searching for the
Americans. Finally, the team found an American private
and surrendered to him. Realizing the importance of these
engineers, the Americans immediately went to Peenem?nde
and Nordhausen and captured all of the remaining V-2's
and V-2 parts, then destroyed both places with
explosives. The Americans brought over 300 train car
loads of spare V-2 parts to the United States. Much of
von Braun's production team was captured by the Russians.
On June 20, 1945, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull
approved the transfer of von Braun's German rocket
specialists. This transfer was known as Operation
Paperclip because of the large number of Germans
stationed at Army Ordnance, the paperwork of those
selected to come to the United States were indicated by
paperclips.
They arrived in the United States at New Castle Army Air
Base, just south of Wilmington, Delaware. Afterwards,
they were flown to Boston, and then taken by boat to an
Army Intelligence Service post at Fort Strong in Boston
Harbor. Later, with the exception of von Braun, the men
were transferred to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland
to sort out the Peenem?nde documents. Those documents
would enable the scientists to continue their rocketry
experiments where they had left off.
Finally, von Braun and the 126 Peenem?nders were
transferred to their new home at Fort Bliss, Texas, a
large Army installation just north of El Paso, under the
command of Major James P. Hamill. They found themselves
in a strange situation as they began their new lives in
America. Because they could not leave Fort Bliss without
a military escort, they sometimes referred to themselves
as "PoPs", Prisoners of Peace.
While at Fort Bliss, they trained military, industrial,
and university personnel in the intricacies of rockets
and guided missiles and to help refurbish, assemble, and
launch a number of V-2s that had been shipped from
Germany to the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.
Further, they were to study the future potential of
rockets for military and research applications.
During this time, von Braun mailed a marriage proposal to
his first cousin, 18-year-old Maria von Quirstorp. On
March 1, 1947, he married her in a local Lutheran church.
In December 1948, his first daughter, Iris was born at
Fort Bliss Army Hospital.
In 1950, von Braun and his team were transferred to
Huntsville, Alabama, his home for the next twenty years.
Between 1950 and 1956, von Braun led the Army's
development team at Redstone Arsenal, resulting in the
Arsenal's namesake: the Redstone rocket.
Still dreaming of a world in which rockets would be used
for peaceful exploration, in 1952 von Braun published his
concept of a space station in Collier's magazine. This
station would have a diameter of 250 feet, orbit in a
1075 mile-high orbit, and spin to provide artificial
gravity. In his vision, it would be the perfect
jumping-off point for lunar expeditions. Von Braun also
worked with Disney studios as a technical director for
three television films about Space Exploration. Over the
years von Braun continued his work with Disney, hoping
that Disney's involvement would bring about greater
public interest in the future of the space program.
As Director of the Development Operations Division of the
Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), von Braun's team
then developed the Jupiter-C, a modified Redstone rocket.
The Jupiter-C successfully launched the West's first
satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. This event
signaled the birth of America's space program.
NASA was established by law on July 29, 1958. One day
later, the 50th Redstone rocket was successfully fired
off Johnston Island in the South Pacific as part of
Project Hardtack. Two years later NASA opened the new
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and
transferred von Braun and his development team from the
ABMA at Redstone Arsenal to NASA. Von Braun was the
center's first Director, from July 1960 to February 1970.
The Marshall Center's first major program was development
of the Saturn rockets, capable of carrying astronauts to
the moon. Von Braun's childhood commitment to "turn
the wheel of time," and his later dream to help
mankind set foot on the moon became a reality on July 16,
1969 when a Marshall-developed Saturn V rocket launched
the crew of Apollo 11. Over the course of the Apollo
program, six teams of astronauts explored the surface of
our moon.
In 1970, Dr. von Braun and his family relocated from
Huntsville to Washington, DC. when he was assigned duties
as NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning at
NASA Headquarters. After the Apollo space program, von
Braun felt that his vision for future spaceflight was
different than NASA's, and he retired in June 1972. He
became the vice-present of Fairchild Industries in
Germantown, Maryland, where he was active in establishing
and promoting the National Space Institute (merged into
the National Space Society).
At the peak of his activities, von Braun learned he had
cancer. Despite surgery, the cancer progressed, forcing
him to retire from Fairchild on December 31, 1976. On
June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun died in Alexandria,
Virginia and is interred there in the Ivy Hillside
Cemetery.
| WW2
HISTORY DATA |
| Pearl
Harbor Overview |
| Pearl
Harbor Japanese Forces |
| Pearl
Harbor Japanese Aircraft |
| Battle
of the Coral Sea, 7-8
May 1942 |
| Doolitle
Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 |
| Battle
of Midway, 4-7 June 1942 |
| Guadalcanal
Campaign, August 1942 - February 1943 |
| Guadalcanal-Tulagi
Invasion, 7-9 August 1942 |
| Battle
of the Philippine Sea |
| Battle
of Iwo Jima
Battle
of Okinawa |
| Japan
Capitulates WW2
Japan Planes - List of
Aircraft |
| Battleship
Bismarck,
Graf
Zeppelin |
| Battleships
Tirpitz, Scharnhorst
, Admiral
Graf Spee |
| WW2
Luftwaffe Planes - List
of Aircraft |
| U-Boats
Types 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D |
| Kriegsmarine
Submarines Types U-Flak, 7A, 7B,
7C, 7C/41, 7C/42, 7D, 7F |
Kriegsmarine
Submarines: U-Boats
Type 9A, 9B, 9C, 9C/40, 9D, 14 |
| Kriegsmarine
Submarines: Type XXI , Type XXIII |
| Grand
Admiral Karl Donitz, Erich Raeder |
HMS
Prince of Wales
Battleship, HMS Repulse,
HMS
Ark Royal,
HMS Hood Battlecruisers |
| Battle
of the River Plate, Battle
of Dunkirk, Battle
of the Atlantic |
| Normandy
Invasion, June 1944 |
| Normandy
Invasion ,Crossing the English Channel on
D-Day, 6 June 1944 |
| Normandy
Invasion- The D-Day Landings, 6 June 1944 |
| USN
WW2 Admirals,
USN
WW2 Cruisers List |
| Imperial
Japan Navy Admirals |
| Japan
WW2 Fighters- Mitsubishi Zero |
| USN
Battleships - Indiana Class,
Kearsarge Class, Illinois Class, Maine
Class, Virginia Class, Connecticut Class,
Mississippi Class, South Carolina Class,
Delaware Class, Florida Class,
Pennsylvania Class, New Mexico Class,
Wyoming Class, New York Class, Nevada
Class, Tennessee Class, Colorado Class,
South Dakota Class, Lexington Class,
North Carolina Class, South Dakota Class,
Iowa Class, Montana Class |
| USN
WW2 CRUISERS |
| USN
WW2 Torpedo Bomber -
Douglas TBD-1 Devastator |
| USN
WW2 Fighters: Brewster
F2A Buffalo, Curtiss F9C
Sparrowhawk |
| Grumman
F3F, Grumman F4F Wildcat, General Motors
FM-2 Wildcat |
| LOCKHEED
P-38 LIGHTNING
F-82
TWIN MUSTANG |
| REPUBLIC
P-47 THUNDERBOLT |
| NORTH
AMERICAN P-51 MUSTANG |
| Boeing
B-17 Flying Fortress, Boeing
B-29 Superfortress
|
| Consolidated
B-24 D Liberator |
| North
American B-25 Mitchell, Martin
B-26 Marauder |
| Junkers
Ju 87 Stuka
Dornier
Do 215 Ju-188 |
| Dornier
Do 17, Dornier
Do 335 Pfeil Junkers
Ju 88 |
| Messerschmitt
Bf 109,
Messerschmitt
Me 262 |
| RAF
List of aircraft, Avro
Lancaster |
| Focke-Wulf
Fw 200 Condor, Heinkel
He 111 |
| Focke-Wulf
Fw 190, Junkers
Ju 52 |
| De
Havilland Mosquito, Vickers
Wellington |
| Fairey
Swordfish
Hawker
Tempest
Hawker
Hurricane
Supermarine
Spitfire
Gloster
Meteor
|
| Operation
Stalingrad , Operation
Barbarossa |
| Third
Reich Organization and people |
| German
Africa Corps |
| Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel - Desert Fox |
| Maus
(Tank) - Panzer VIII WW2 world
largest tank |
| Panzer
3 III, Panzer
4 IV, Tiger
1, King
Tiger 2 |
| T-34
Soviet medium tank |
| List
of tanks WW1, WW2, Modern |
|
| MODERN USN
/ WORLD AF/NAVY DATA |
| USN
Aircraft Carriers USS
Kitty Hawk, Enterprise, John F. Kennedy,
Nimitz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carl
Vinson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham
Lincoln, George Washington, John C.
Stennis, Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan,
George H.W. Bush |
| USS
Abraham Lincoln CVN72 USS
Enterprise CVN65 |
| USN
Cruisers 1 - USS
Ticonderoga, Vincennes, Valley Forge,
Thomas S. Gates, Bunker Hill, Mobile Bay,
Antietam, Leyte Gulf, San Jacinto, Lake
Champlain, Philippine Sea, Princeton,
Normandy, Monterey |
| USN
Cruisers 2 - USS
Chancellorsville, Cowpens, Gettysburg,
Chosin, Hue City, Shiloh, Anzio,
Vicksburg, Lake Erie, Cape St. George,
Vella Gulf, Port Royal |
| USN
Destroyers
United
States Navy |
| Amphibious
Assault Ships - LHA/LHD/LHA(R) USS
Wasp, USS Essex, USS Kearsarge, USS
Boxer, USS Bataan, USS Bonhomme Richard,
USS Iwo Jima, USS Makin Island, USS
Tarawa, USS Saipan, USS Belleau Wood, USS
Nassau, USS Peleliu |
| SSN
Attack Sumbarines 1
USS
Seawolf, Connecticut, Jimmy Carter,
Virginia, Texax, Hawaii, North Carolina,
Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Memphis,
Bremerton, Jacksonville, Dallas, La
Jolla, City of Corpus Christi,
Albuquerque, Portsmouth, Minneapolis-St.
Paul, Hyman G. Rickover, Augusta, San
Francisco, Houston, Norfolk, Buffalo,
Salt Lake City, Olympia, Honolulu,
Providence |
| SSN
Attack Sumbarines 2
USS
Pittsburgh, Chicago, Key West, Oklahoma
City, Louisville, Helena, Newport News,
San Juan, Pasadena, Albany, Topeka,
Miami, Scranton, Alexandria, Asheville,
Jefferson City, Annapolis, Springfield,
Columbus, Santa Fe, Boise, Montpelier,
Charlotte, Hampton, Hartford, Toledo,
Tucson, Columbia, Greeneville, Cheyenne |
| SSBN
Fleet Balistic Missile Sumbarines
USS
Georgia, USS Henry M. Jackson, USS
Alabama, USS Alaska,USS Nevada, USS
Pennsylvania, USS Kentucky, USS
Tennessee, USS West Virginia, USS
Maryland, USS Nebraska, USS Rhode Island,
USS Maine, USS Wyoming, USS Louisiana,
USS Ohio |
| USN
Frigates,
USN
Patrol Ships,
USAF
Plane List |
| Anti-submarine aircraft - P-3C
Orion S-3B
Viking |
| USN
FIGHTERS |
| A-10
/ A10 Thunderbolt II |
| F-5
Freedom Fighter,
F-20
Tigershark |
| F-4
Phantom II
F-86
Sabre, A-4
Skyhawk, A-6
Grumann Intruder |
| F-14
Tomcat F-15
Eagle F15, F-16
Fighting Falcon, |
| F-18
Hornet
F-22
Raptor
F-35
Joint Strike Fighter
|
| CH-46
Sea Knight, CH-53
Sea Stallion |
| H-3
Sea King MH-53
Sea Dragon |
| SH-60
Seahawk HH/UH-1N
Iroquois |
| AH-1
Cobra, UH-60
Black Hawk,
HH-60
Pave Hawk Helicopter |
| AH-64
Apache |
| B-52
Stratofortress
F-111,
AC130
Gunship |
| B-1
Lancer |
| B-2
Spirit |
| F-117
Nighthawk
|
| U-2
Dragon Lady
, SR-71
Blackbird |
| RQ-1
Predator |
| Panavia
Tornado |
| Tornado
F3
AV-8
Harrier |
| Pre/Post
WW2 USSR Russia Planes -
List of Aircraft |
| Pre/Post
WW2 RAAF Australia Planes
- List of Aircraft |
| Pre/Post
WW2 SWEDEN Planes - List
of Aircraft |
| F-22
Raptor,
F-35
Joint Strike Fighter JSF |
|
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