Free Hitler's Rockets: The Story of the V-2s by Norman Longmate Page B

most impressive and articulate of his lieutenants, and the young and enthusiastic Dr Steinhoff now head of his Instruments, Guidance and Measurement Department, who was also a qualified pilot. Through the thick fog which blanketed eastern Germany Steinhoff groped his way, with radio help, towards Hitler’s ‘Wolf’s Lair’ at Rastenburg. Beyond the Vistula the skies cleared and ‘below us, as far as the eye could see,’ observed Dornberger, ‘stretched the dark forests of East Prussia, plentifully adorned with glittering lakes and occasionally flower-decked meadows’. Having risked their lives to get there on time the little party now found their appointment had been postponed till 5 o’clock that afternoon and when Hitler finally appeared, escorted by General Wilhelm Keitel, head of the Supreme Command, General Alfred Jodl, C-in-C of the army – their old friend von Brauchitsch had been dismissed in disgrace after the army’s failure in Russia – Jodl’s Chief of Staff, General Buhle, and Albert Speer, Dornberger was shocked by the deterioration in the Fuhrer’s appearance since he had last seen him at Kummersdorf in 1939. ‘A voluminous black cape covered his bowed, hunched shoulders and bent back. He looked a tired man. Only the eyes retained their life.’ To Hitler the presentation was clearly just one more event in a wearying day. To the rocket men it was the unique, all-important opportunity of a lifetime, and Dornberger later recalled every detail:
    After briefly greeting us he sat down between Speer and Keitel in the front row. . . . On to the screen came the historic ascent of the A-4 which had so enraptured us at the time and everyone who had seen it since. Von Braun spoke his commentary. The shots were thrilling. The sliding gates, nearly ninety feet high, of the great assembly hall of Test Stand VII opened. . . . A completely assembled A-4 rolled slowly out of the hall and over the great blast tunnel sunk in the ground. . . . The men in attendance shrank to nothing. . . . The rocket was loaded on to the transporter scheduled for field use, a Meillerwagen. Driving tests on the road and in cornering proved the remarkable ease with which the rocket could be carried. Soldiers operating a hydraulic crane set the rocket vertically on the firing table, so astonishingly simple in design. The Meiller ’s hydraulic machinery handled the 46 foot rocket . . . like a toy. Sequences showing fuelling and preparations for launching proved the missile capable for use under field conditions. Finally came the actual launching . . . followed by animated cartoons of the trajectory of the shot on 3rd October, indicating speeds, heights and range reached on that day. . . . The end of the film was announced by a sentence which filled the entire screen: ‘We made it after all!’. . . . Von Braun ceased speaking. Silence. . . . No-one dared utter a word. Hitler was visibly moved and agitated. Lost in thought, he lay back in his chair, staring gloomily in front of him. When, after a while, I began to enter into some lengthy explanations he came to with a start and listened attentively. . . . At last . . . I stopped speaking and awaited questions. Hitler walked rapidly over to me and shook my hand. I heard him say, almost in a whisper: ‘I thank you. . . . Why was it I could not believe in the success of your work? If we had had these rockets in 1939 we should never have had this war.’
    As the team had foreseen, Hitler’s imagination was particularly caught by the model of the proposed firing bunker, which must, he insisted, with his familiar obsession with detail, have a roof 23 feet thick; Dornberger’s preference for small, mobile batteries he brushed aside. Within minutes a ‘strange fanatical light’ had flared up in his eyes and he was demanding 2000 rockets a month, each able to deliver a 10 ton warhead, and shouting ‘What I want is annihilation!’ Eventually, however, he calmed down and the meeting ended