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Project Paperclip
German Scientists and the Gold War
By CLARENCE G. LASBY - 1971

Web editor note: I contacted the author to secure a copy of the July 1960 letter from Dr. Harold Zahl to the author referenced in his footnotes. This letter described the accomplishments of the Fort Monmouth Paperclip specialists. Not all the Project Paperclip persons were scientists, some were engineers and some were not German. For example Dr. Kurt Levovec is not German, his origin is Czech. Sadly, the author had disposed of his files, after offering them to various archives and libraries. For more information on Project Paperclip click here

Contents
Prologue 3

CHAPTER ONE "And Good Hunting to You All" 11
CHAPTER TWO No Place for Pride    51
CHAPTER THREE Overcast: A Casualty of Peace    88
CHAPTER FOUR Paperclip: One Kind of Containment
CHAPTER FIVE The "Profound Concern"    188
CHAPTER SIX "What Is True Today Could Very Well Be False Tomorrow"    216
CHAPTER SEVEN Plucking Their Brains    248
CHAPTER EIGHT "The Deeper Meaning"    270
CHAPTER NINE "Russia. That Explains Everything"    296

Notes    298
Bibliographic Comment    322
Index    327

Page 251-252...

The Department of the Army imported 210 Paperclip specialists, of whom 29 returned to Europe prior to immigration. The Ordnance Department utilized 132 at Fort Bliss, Texas, the Signal Corps 24 at its engineering laboratories in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey; and the Corps of Engineers, Chemical Corps, Quartermaster General, and Medical Department fewer than 10 each at their various installations. The 24 Signal Corps specialists -- including physicists Drs. Georg Goubau, Gunter Guttwein, Georg Hass, Horst Kedesdy, and Kurt Levovec; physical chemists Professor Rudolf Brill and Drs. Ernst Baars and Eberhard Both; geophysicist Dr. Helmut Weickmann; technical optician Dr. Gerhard Schwesinger; and electronics engineers Drs. Eduard Gerber, Richard Guenther and Hans Ziegler -- were of the more exceptional caliber than any single group imported under Paperclip. They were selected after a survey of thousands of experts in communications, and were outstanding in the realms of equipment design and development and pure science. As early as 1948 the chief signal officer reported some of their accomplishments. Three of them -- with knowledge unequaled anywhere in the country -- had developed a special shutter and a camera which, when ejected from a V-2, oriented itself in seven seconds. General Electric had rejected a contract to design the camera platform alone, indicating that if time and personnel were available they could complete it for $750,000. Professor Brill had advanced fundamental knowledge in solid-state chemistry and physics by eighteen months. Dr. Ziegler had saved approximately $300,000 through his work on permanent magnet generators. Dr. Goubou's research on microwave techniques had saved at least two years. Had his investigations been made by commercial contract -- and none could be found with sufficiently diversified knowledge -- the government would have had to expend two to three million dollars. By the 1960's, the Signal Corps members had attained high positions at Fort Monmouth; Dr. Ziegler had become chief scientist, three had become division chiefs, and three others branch chiefs.

Page updated August 18, 2007 Page created November 24, 2004

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