Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal tells the Nazi origins of America’s space program

Operation Paperclip’s Nazi Scientists at Redstone Arsenal

In 1945, America made a deal with the devil. The U.S. Army swept up Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 125 German engineers through Operation Paperclip, hiding their SS ties and war crimes.

First kept at Fort Bliss, Texas, these “Prisoners of Peace” couldn’t leave without guards. Later, the Army moved them to Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal where they built rockets from scrap parts.

Their work soon paid off. By 1958, their Redstone rocket put America’s first satellite in orbit, then sent Alan Shepard to space in 1961.

The Redstone Test Stand still stands in Alabama, a complex monument to brilliant minds with dark pasts.

German Scientists Chose America Over Soviet Capture

Magnus von Braun rode up to American forces on a bicycle in May 1945, saying, “My brother made the V-2. We want to surrender.”

His brother Wernher and the German rocket team picked Americans over Soviets, thinking the religious Americans would better handle their rocket tech.

Colonel Robert Staver quickly listed German scientists to grab, with von Braun at the top.

Colonel Holger Toftoy offered one-year Army jobs to 127 German rocket experts, who happily took them to escape post-war Germany.

The First Rocket Experts Landed at Fort Strong

Seven German rocket scientists arrived at New Castle Army Air Field in Delaware on September 20, 1945.

The group included von Braun, Erich Neubert, Theodor Poppel, August Schulze, Eberhard Rees, Wilhelm Jungert, and Walter Schwidetzky.

Army officers questioned them for weeks at Fort Strong in Boston Harbor before sending them to their new homes.

The mission started as “Operation Overcast” but got renamed when someone marked their folders with paperclips, and “Operation Paperclip” stuck.

Life in the Texas Desert Felt Like Prison

The rocket team moved to Fort Bliss, Texas, near El Paso by late 1945.

The scientists couldn’t leave base without military guards, so they joked about being “PoPs” or “Prisoners of Peace. ” They lived in rough buildings with cracked wood floors.

Von Braun complained about American cheapness compared to their fancy setup at Peenemünde. The team spent their days launching old V-2 rockets at White Sands Proving Ground and working on test cruise missiles.

Families Crossed the Atlantic to Join the Scientists

German wives and children began arriving in December 1946, moving into special family housing on base. By spring 1948, the number of German rocket experts in America grew to 127.

The team worked under Army Major James Hamill, whom von Braun privately called an untested “pimply 26-year-old.” Despite their grumbling, the Germans taught American military staff, factory workers, and college students everything about rockets and missiles.

Alabama Won the Rocket Center Sweepstakes

The Army chose Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama as its Ordnance Rocket Center on June 1, 1949. Alabama congressmen John Sparkman and Robert Jones pushed hard to bring the rocket facility to their state.

The site won because it had existing buildings, plenty of TVA power, access to the Tennessee River, and lots of open space for loud rocket testing.

Von Braun sat on the selection committee and strongly backed the Huntsville location.

The Team Found a Real Mission in Huntsville

Fort Bliss moved its rocket operation in April 1950, sending 130 German workers, 120 civil servants, and 500 military staff to Redstone Arsenal.

The timing worked perfectly as the Korean War broke out, giving the team an urgent job: create a 500-mile range surface-to-surface missile.

The Army named von Braun Director of Development Operations at the Ballistic Missile Agency. After five years of limited work in Texas, the Germans finally got a big project worthy of their skills.

They Built a Test Stand From Junkyard Parts

Von Braun’s team pieced together the Interim Test Stand in 1953 for just $25,000 using salvaged materials from around the arsenal.

Most of the money went to a massive concrete foundation, while the metal structure came from scrap welded together. The control bunkers consisted of three buried railroad tank cars placed 300 feet away.

Engineer Fritz Vandersee designed this makeshift setup to avoid waiting two years for Congress to fund a proper facility.

"Old Reliable" Proved Its Worth

The team built their first Redstone missile in fall 1952 and test-fired it at the Interim Test Stand in spring 1953. On August 20, 1953, the first Redstone missile flew successfully from Cape Canaveral.

The rocket got the nickname “Old Reliable” thanks to improvements made possible by the ground testing facility. The Korean War and growing fears about Soviet missile capabilities pushed the team to work faster than ever.

Americans Ignored Von Braun’s Satellite Plans

Von Braun suggested Project Orbiter in 1954, proposing they use a changed Redstone to launch satellites. The team successfully launched their first Jupiter missile on May 31, 1956.

By August 1957, the Huntsville group recovered a rocket nose cone from outer space. The team prepared a Jupiter-C variant while watching the official U.S. satellite program pick the Navy’s Vanguard rocket instead of their design.

Sputnik Changed Everything Overnight

Soviet engineers shocked America by launching Sputnik on October 4, 1957, while von Braun showed Defense Secretary Neil McElroy around Redstone Arsenal.

Von Braun told McElroy, “We could have been in orbit a year ago,” and promised a satellite launch within 60 days.

The Army ordered them on November 8, 1957, to change Jupiter-C missiles for a satellite launch by March 1958. Von Braun’s team beat the deadline, launching Explorer 1 as America’s first satellite on January 31, 1958.

From Army Weapons to Moon Rockets

The government transferred von Braun’s team from the Army to the newly created NASA in 1960, forming the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Von Braun became the center’s first director and led development of the Saturn V rocket for Apollo moon missions.

The team created the Mercury-Redstone rocket that carried Alan Shepard on the first American spaceflight on May 5, 1961.

Their crowning achievement came on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the moon using the Saturn V rocket, fulfilling the promise of Operation Paperclip.

Visiting Redstone Test Stand, Alabama

You can visit Redstone Test Stand at 1 Tranquility Base in Huntsville to see where von Braun’s team developed America’s first satellite and astronaut rockets. Buy $25 bus tour tickets day-of by 1 p.m. at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Tours run Fridays and Saturdays at 2 p. m. and include the test stand plus Payload Operations Integration Center. You need valid photo ID and U.S. citizenship for arsenal access.

Museum admission costs extra.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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