News
November 2011
A five-minute interview with authors Murray R. Barber and Michael Keuer
‘This fascinating and historically significant book fills a void in the story of the ‘Vergeltungswaffe-Zwei’ by showing how the troops in the field used the rocket weapon developed at Peenemünde by Wernher von Braun’s technical team... The amount and quality of information in Hitler’s Rocket Soldiers is remarkable. To my knowledge, this story has never before been told, and certainly not to the depth and breadth that authors Barber and Keuer do in this volume… Hitler’s Rocket Soldiers is one of the most fascinating, best-produced and interesting books I've read in many years. I enthusiastically give it my highest recommendation…’
Peripatetic science and history lecturer, Murray R. Barber, and business software specialist, Michael Keuer, share an interest in science, technology and rocketry. Their interest has culminated in the publication of their first book, Hitler’s Rocket Soldiers. Dr. Brett A. Gooden, a specialist in human space and rocket flight and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, comments: ‘The authors are to be congratulated on their perseverance in finding [V2 rocket] veterans, as no doubt very few survive… To their credit the authors did not shy away from the more sensitive questions. Did the rocket soldiers think about the strategic and moral aspects of the rocket? Did they know about von Braun’s dreams for future spaceflight and if so did they have any empathy for such ideas? The answers to these and many other intriguing questions make fascinating reading… The importance of this historical research becomes patently clear when we note that several of the veterans interviewed have subsequently passed away. This important work has gone a long way to filling the void about Hitler’s rocket soldiers.’
The Tattered Flag asked Murray and Michael more about their work:
The Tattered Flag: Murray and Michael – thanks. We appreciate your time. Perhaps you can tell us how you met?
Murray Barber: Michael and I first became acquainted via a fledgling Internet forum that would eventually become known as the International V2 Research Group. In the early days a ‘round robin’ system existed for the exchange of information about the V2 but most of the interaction would take place during regular Sunday afternoon ‘chat’ using the Internet forum. We discovered that we had many common interests and it was not long before Michael kindly invited my wife and I to travel to Germany and visit Peenemünde. As we shared information, we decided to seek out any first-hand accounts of the V2 as experienced by the men who fired the weapon. From this we decide to co-operate with the hope of perhaps publishing our findings.
TTF: What made you decide to embark on this project?
Murray Barber: We felt that a gap exisisted in the knowledge of the V2. In addition to the technical details of the V2, a great deal of information is readily available concerning the German scientists and their peacetime activities in the United States. However, the experiences of the men who operated this extraordinary technology were, by and large, unknown. Michael and I wanted to address this shortfall.
TTF: In what ways do you think the book is important?
Murray Barber: Certainly the reminiscences of the veterans we spoke to are now saved for posterity and we hope that the omissions in the first-hand accounts of the deployment of the V2 have been filled. Michael and I became aware that for some of the veterans, the book was of great personal importance. They had a tale to tell and for some, it was a cathartic experience. Michael and I will, in the future, be delighted to see if our work appears in the footnotes or acknowledgments pages of future publications on the subject.
TTF: When did you start work on it and, briefly, how did you go about your research?
Michael Keuer: We started in 2001. We pooled our copied paper documents from archives in the United Kingdom, Germany and elsewhere. But the most important information came from the veterans who kindly responded to adverts that we placed in the German press.
TTF: Did this process prove challenging?
Murray Barber: Very! The response to the adverts produced a mixed effect. Some of the veterans who contacted us initially would decline to meet with us ‘face to face’. This was very frustrating and a huge disappointment. From a practical point of view, I was seriously handicapped by not being able to converse in German. Fortunately, Michael’s command of English is excellent and he was able to translate throughout the entire process. Travelling the length and breadth of Germany was fairly exhausting. I think in total I travelled to Germany six times in order to conduct the interviews.
TTF: Did you find the former rocket troop veterans generally co-operative?
Murray Barber: The co-operation from most of the veterans was very good. Often the flow of information would increase after the first meeting and the interviewee was more at ease. I should mention that some of the veterans were a little wary of myself being an Englishman whose country was attacked by the V-weapons. Some of the more cautious veterans feared that we would demonise them in some way. Consequently, we had to explain very quickly that the book would be ‘non-political’ and with a neutral balance.
TTF: If there was one major or memorable thing that you learned during the research and writing of the book, what was it?
Murray Barber: That’s a difficult question because so much of what we learnt was memorable. If I was pressed really hard I think I would cite the glimpses of good humour and camaraderie especially within the higher ranks of the Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie 444 we discovered.
Michael Keuer: I too find this a difficult question to answer! The experiences of Dr. Helmuth Frenk at Peenemünde watching the test-firing so dangerously close to the launch site and his terrifying encounter with Heinrich Himmler, are for me, very memorable.
TTF: Was there anything that surprised you?
Murray Barber: We were very surprised how chaotic the initial first deployment of the V2 was in September 1944 and how the V2 troops were harried by the Resistance as they moved to their firing positions.
TTF: How do you think the A4/V2 rates in terms of technology for its time and in its importance to future technologies?
Murray Barber: The V2 was the very first man-made object to enter space and so has to be considered as one of the greatest technological marvels of its time. That said, it was also a terror weapon that was constructed by slave workers who suffered in appalling conditions. Although all weapons can be prefixed with the word ‘terror’, the V2 can never share the same pantheon of the great inventions, as it will always be associated with the Nazis.
From a military point of view, the V2 led to the development of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. The ability of an ICBM delivery system twinned with nuclear bombs led to the arms race of the Cold War period. It could be argued that the destructive effect of these weapons brought an uneasy period of peace between the super powers. The technology is both a blessing and a curse.
The linkage with the V2 and the fantastic achievements in space from Yuri Gagarin’s first orbital flight in 1961 to the present day is an indisputable, albeit uncomfortable, fact. Chemical rockets will surely be replaced, but whatever future developments occur, the V2’s technological place in history is assured.
TTF: How do you rate the V2 as a weapon of war? Was there an alternative?
Michael Keuer: Not very highly! Forgetting the morality of warfare, the alternative would have been the development of a four-engine, long-range heavy bomber. Interestingly, even during the development of the V2, many scientists at Peenemünde felt that more effort should have been expended on the development of the Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile. To voice such an opinion would have been very dangerous, however.
Murray Barber: Without wishing to denigrate the lives lost by the V2, in some respects the Rocket was the best weapon the Allies never had! Nazi Germany expended a huge amount of money, employing the finest brains to produce a weapon that was deployed with significant teething problems far too late to be significant. If the manpower and financial commitment had been employed elsewhere then perhaps the duration, and possibly the outcome, of the war may have been very different. This is of course very hypothetical but my feeling is that the ideologies of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were destined to clash irrespective of technology. I should add that the talk of nuclear-tipped V2s is fanciful.
TTF: Has the process of writing the book made you re-evaluate the A4/V2 in any way?
Murray Barber: The V2 was essentially a seriously flawed weapon that had been rushed into service. Certainly, if the V2 as a fully functioning weapon had become operational in early 1944, it would have affected the D-Day landings of June 1944 but without changing the inevitable conclusion. Many of the Rocket solders were very determined and dedicated men who earnestly believed they were defending their country and taking the war directly to the enemy. We should perhaps be grateful that Nazi Germany had not entrusted a significantly more effective and practical weapon system to these men.
TTF: What next? Do you have any other projects planned?
Murray Barber: At present, we have no future plans for any further World War two research projects. Regrettably, the generation that went to war so long ago is disappearing and so the first-hand accounts that gave the impetus for ‘Hitler’s Rocket Soldiers’ would be hard to match.
TTF: Many thanks for your time.
Murray Barber and Michael Keuer: Thank you. A pleasure!
September 2011
FIRING THE V2s AGAINST ENGLAND
Tattered Flag Press is delighted to announce publication of Hitlers Rocket Soldiers The Men who fired the V2s against England by Murray R. Barber and Michael Keuer.
In the final, desperate months of World War Two, at a time when the German war machine was considered by the Allies to be an almost spent force, Adolf Hitler unleashed a new weapon against England and western Europe that fell from the silence of the Earths upper atmosphere and the edge of space. It was a weapon that struck fear into the hearts and minds of wartime civilians; it came without warning and defence was impossible. This was an unseen threat that fell at supersonic speeds, levelling suburban streets to dust in seconds, terrorising the residents of London and Antwerp this was the V2 Rocket.
For the first time, this book tells the story of the V2 through the eyes and experiences of the men who not only fired the missiles at targets such as London, Norwich, Antwerp and Paris, but also of some of the military scientists and technicians involved in its development. The authors have spent many years tracking down and interviewing the few surviving veterans of these little-known and secretive units and have unearthed new and rare information from first-hand accounts. These are the unique recollections of the Rocket Soldiers who have spoken candidly to the authors about their wartime duties.
We present here some exclusive extracts from an account of the experiences of one such Rocket Soldier, Helmut Fredenhagen, a young scientist who became deeply involved in the V2 campaign and among other things, met the enigmatic and somewhat sinister driving force behind the rocket campaign, SS- Obergruppenführer Dr.-Ing. Hans Kammler:
BORN in June 1912 in Leipzig, south-eastern Germany, Helmut Fredenhagen was destined to be a career scientist. His father, an educated man and professor, had fought in the Great War and, following Germanys defeat,became politically active in the 1920s. Life in post-war Germany was particularly hard and the situation in Leipzig was no exception. When Fredenhagen was about eleven-years old, his family moved to what he was to describe as the land of milk and honey the seaside town of Greifswald on the Baltic close to Peenemünde in Usedom
Fredenhagen was scientifically minded and after military service took a doctorate in physical chemistry, becoming an assistant at the Institute of Greifswald. Here he undertook military tests using fluorine to develop poison gas for the Heereswaffenamt
With the rank of Leutnant d.R.(Reserve) and in command of a measurement platoon of almost twenty men, Fredenhagen served as a mathematician in Eisenbahn Ersatz-Batterie 800 (railway reserve battery), determining projectile velocities. His brother also joined the artillery and was destined to survive the war having been taken as POW by the French. Fredenhagen felt that his duties were senseless as no amount of matriculation would increase gun accuracy to an appreciable degree. With the commencement of Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941, his unit was detailed to fire upon important lines of supply and communication in the Schlüsselburg area on Lake Ladoga close to Leningrad. In spite of wholesale destruction of bridges, Fredenhagen remembered that the Russians had a great talent for improvisation, repairing bridges within 24 hours. The besieged city of Leningrad was only occasionally fired upon. Life on the Eastern Front, just 20 kilometres from Leningrad, was remarkably comfortable. The supply of food was never a problem and was doubtless helped by the unbroken rail connection behind the railway artillery leading back, ultimately, to Germany. Fredenhagen recalled that 300 men operated two 34 cmguns in an exposed woodland clearing and, later, even larger artillery guns were brought forward. The officers were billeted in comfortable railway carriages andwith time to spare, a sauna was built in the nearby woods. Not once did Fredenhagen and his comrades receive any attention from the Soviet air force. However, in spite of his experiences, he knew that the campaign in the East wasnot necessarily going according to plan: Already by 1942 and certainly after Stalingrad, I felt that we really had to end it. It could not go on
On 26 July 1943, promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant, Fredenhagen wasordered to Karlshagen, close to Peenemünde. He was to become a battery officer in Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie 444 (Training and Experimental Battery 444)
Fredenhagen and approximately 200 men travelled from Thurn in West Prussia to the SS Truppenübungsplatz (Troop Training Ground) at Heidelager in Poland. The Batterie 444 had access initially to only a small fenced area. So segregated was the SS, that the FR troops of Batterie 444 had their own railway siding for alighting and delivery of supplies. The accommodation in wooden barracks was comfortable, and the men were fed with good meals. Fredenhagen shared a room with Walter Klein and in the adjacent room was the SS representative, Obersturmführer Hans Lohse, who was considered to be Obergruppenführer Kammlers long arm and whose primary duty was to counter internal espionage activities. In terms of security, it was Kleins onerous and uncomfortable duty to censor the mens mail. Occasionally Fredenhagen would also be called in to perform the task of opening and reading the correspondence and, in addition, he was given the security task of the final vetting of visitors who wanted access to the Rocket. All visitors with permission to watch a Rockets preparation and launchwere obliged to report their presence to Fredenhagen irrespective of their importance or rank. But Fredenhagens primary duty at Heidelager was training.
Relocated civilian scientists and engineers from Peenemunde occupied a large part of the accommodation at Heidelager, and Fredenhagen was able to learn a great deal from them as he asked probing questions as to the function of the Rocket. The civilian specialists thought that Fredenhagen was like any other officer and did not appreciate that he had the mind of an experienced chemist. One of the civilians was the likeable engineer, Zeitler, the acknowledged engineexpert Fredenhagen had first met at Peenemünde. Zeitler was gradually integrated into the Battery as a private soldier without having received any basic military training. After a few weeks however, he was afforded the special status of Sonderfuhrer (Special Leader). This rank indicated that he had the duties of an officer albeit with no military experience but with authority only in the area of his specialized engineering skill. He also had access to the Offizierskasino.
For entertainment in the evenings, Fredenhagen remembered playing chessand for troops of all ranks an improvised five-kilometre running track weaved its way through the adjacent woods to the barracks.
Training in the preparation of the Rocket led to innovations from the men. A soldier with an engineering background thought up the idea of using easily transportable metal sheets to make an area 4 metres
square under the Abschusstisch.The procedure took only ten minutes to accomplish. This practice replaced railway sleepers that could, on occasion, be lifted up and blown away by the Rockets jet blast. Further field tests showed that the space required to accommodate the Rocket and the service vehicles could be reduced to a square just 10 by 10 metres. Such a small area, it was reasoned, would prevent hostile aircraft spotting the firing site from an oblique angle. Another interesting development designed to assist the Rocket crews was the Karussell (Carousel).The preparation of the Rocket entailed access via ladders to panels 14 metres above the ground. To speed up the procedure, the Rocket would be rotated uponthe Abschusstisch turntable. However it was realized that a far better procedure would be to access the panels in situ without any movement of the Rocket. The Karussell allowed this to happen. It consisted of a metal frame with a supporting floor which sat on the nose of the Rocket. It allowed the firing crew to rotate completely around the access panels. This improvement, however, did require that the technicians had a strong resistance to vertigo and heights.Further changes were made to ground equipment including the complicated 5-metre-long firing control desks that were operated from a slit trench from where soldiers would watch a rocket launch up to the point of Brennschluss, when visual contact was lost. Fredenhagen recalled that an Austrian Professor by thename of Wierer from Gradwohl, simplified the controls with redesigned operating panels and that these improvements made their way ultimately into the Feuerleitpanzer.
Kammler made frequent appearances at the camp. Fredenhagen recalled: Kammler was a swine. He had no understanding of the Rocket. Once he visited us to attend a launching. Walter Klein was the firing control officer. However the firing went wrong and the device flew approximately 50 metre sover our heads. Thereafter he [Kammler] never wanted to see another launching again!
Failed shots were fairly commonplace at Heidelager. On one occasion,following the death of some FR troops caused by a misfire landing close to a slit trench, Fredenhagen remembered that von Braun had explained to him that
READ THE WHOLE STORY in Hitlers Rocket Soldiers to buy click here
August 2011
For Kaiser and Hitler: 'To my mind, this is the book of the year.'
'Cross & Cockade', The First World War Aviation Historical Society
We were delighted that in the review pages of the Summer 2011 edition of its quarterly journal, 'Cross & Cockade', The First World War Aviation Historical Society comments that 'For Kaiser and Hitler', the memoirs of Luftwaffe General der Flieger Alfred Mahncke, '...brings to light many of the problems faced by the German people and forces between 1914 and 1945... To my mind, this is the book of the year.'
According to 'Cross & Cockade': 'Unlike many earlier books written by or about German soldiers and airmen it doesn't seek to justify the author's involvement in events but does express some very candid opinions... He [Mahncke] does not mince his words and thus provides a truly fascinating story with some very critical comments of both German and Allied organisations...'
(With thanks to 'Cross & Cockade').
June 2011
For Kaiser and Hitler
A five-minute interview with Jochen O.E.O. Mahncke
Jochen Mahncke is the son of the late General der Flieger Alfred Mahncke, the former Luftwaffe general whose memoirs are published for the first time by Tattered Flag Press. For Kaiser and Hitler has been described by E.R.Hooton as . a fresh and fascinating account of German air power... For anyone interested in the evolution of German air power, it is essential reading. Aviation historian Christer Bergstram has commented that the book forms a unique and very important account. Highly recommended.
The Tattered Flag asked Herr Mahncke, as the translator of these important memoirs, what it was like to work on the text:
The Tattered Flag: Thank you for allowing this interview. Can you explain why and how your father came to write his memoirs?
Jochen Mahncke: When my father eventually received his Ruhegehalt (government pension) in 1952, we, the family, decided that he should write his memoirs. We did this not only to keep him mentally active but also to inspire him to record his experiences and comments about one of the most turbulent, traumatic and varied periods of history from the turn of the century to 1945. He did this willingly although not realizing at the time what a monumentous task he faced over many years; but I believe he enjoyed reliving and remembering old times. As a by-product he carefully recorded our family genealogy.
TTF: Can you describe your fathers personality? How do you remember him?
Jochen Mahncke: He was a stern taskmaster with an (occasionally) soft core, inside his family as well as outside. As an officer his service duties came first at all times and he loved flying. He disliked incompetence, shirkers and disorder, but those of his officers who served him, and the Luftwaffe well, he looked after. The family loved him with respect and he loved us back. In his later years he enjoyed walking and observing nature and its animals and kept up-to-date with current affairs of the world.
TTF: Do you believe that your fathers memoirs will form a valuable addition to the existing historiography of German air power and leadership between 1914-1945?
Jochen Mahncke: Most certainly. The years he writes about are fading fast from peoples memories and tend to be forgotten. His writings enable the reader to evaluate and compare tempi passati with the present and hopefully correct the many misconceptions and erroneous opinions that have tarnished German history, the German people and the German soldier since 1945.
TTF: What would you say was the high point of your fathers military career?
Jochen Mahncke: There were a number of high points in his career, promotions and, during World War Two, the mention in dispatches. But one he did like very much was the tattoo his Geschwader Hindenburg performed in his honour when he left them prior to his promotion to Generalmajor.
TTF: Was there a low point?
Jochen Mahncke: Yes, there was a very low point when after the end of World War Two he became a PoW of the British and was forced to discard his Generals uniform and put on prison clothes.
TTF: How was the experience of translating his memoirs for you personally?
Jochen Mahncke: I did not translate all of the 770 A4 pages (unspaced) as this would have created too big a book but left out irrelevant paragraphs and descriptions of cities, European history and royalties. Instead I concentrated on the Imperial German Air Service and the Luftwaffe plus all chapters of his military career, especially the years of World War One and World War Two.
TTF: Did you learn more about your fathers life as a result of the translation?
Jochen Mahncke: Yes. We were both not as close and intimate as mine and the following generations of fathers are today. It was a quasi-Victorian upbringing with the mothers dispensing love and care, although in his recollections my father shows that he also cared although in a different, manly way.
TTF: If you had to identify the most historically important or interesting part or moment in the book, what would it be?
Jochen Mahncke: These are really two separate questions. One: his promotion to Reichsluftsportführer had historical consequences in that he began promoting flying as a sport at all levels in Germany. Two: the most interesting part was his trip to Palestine during World War One to connect with the German units fighing with Turkish forces.
Jochen O.E.O. Mahncke signs copies of For Kaiser and Hitler at his home in South Africa
(With thanks to Johan van den Berg)
TTF: Has any aspect of your fathers memoirs caused you to revise or re-assess the way you view the events of either the First or Second World War or the leading German military personalities?
Jochen Mahncke: Yes. Definitely. He wrote his memoirs candidly for himself and his family and not for a wider readership and I very much hope he will forgive me for making his memoirs public with a book. But I am of the opinion that the yardsticks he set are worth discussing and copying by todays generations. As far as past military personalities are concerned I believe it is wrong to be critical of them after the events. Most of them acted and gave their orders to the best of their abilities and knowledge of the situations confronting them, even in the face of Hitlers disapproval.
TTF: Many thanks for your time.
May 2011
STO
P PRESS: Coming Spring 2012
I had just given the pilot a revised course to fly when our Lancaster went into a dive and, over the intercom, 'I heard I'm bleeding to death'.
Many books have been written about Bomber Commands war, from the highest levels of command to the experiences of the lowest WAAF, but only a few have been able to reveal the human side of the bomber crews experience. Based upon many personal interviews, correspondence and archival sources, Andrew Simpson's 'Ops - Victory at All Costs' is an important, compelling and absorbing documentary record of what the men of RAF Bomber Command went through from initial training and crew formation, to descriptions of life on squadron and on their extremely dangerous and draining operations, to the numbing effect of morale breakdown. This intensely researched book, the result of years of work, contains many personal accounts from air crew from those that survived and those that did not. The author also examines the technology of bombing and how this form of aerial warfare evolved in terms of aircraft design, navigation, bombing methods, tactics and gunnery as used in, and as deployed by, the Hampden, Whitley and Wellington medium bombers, and the Stirling, Halifax and Lancaster heavies which equipped Bomber Commands squadrons.
Andrew Simpson trained as an architect and has an Honours Degree in History. A Friend of the Royal Air Forces Association, he has been interested in aviation and the Second World War since an early age. His fascination with T.E. Lawrence led to his first book, Another Life: Lawrence after Arabia, a full length examination of Lawrences life after the First World War and his time in the RAF.
Shortly before this book was published, Andrews father died and as a second book, he set out to record his fathers experiences as an Australian Lancaster pilot in World War Two. In order to make the book more comprehensive he contacted over 300 veterans of Bomber Command and interviewed some 20 or so personally to find out more about their experiences. The sum total of this, together with archive research and personal correspondence with the sons of his fathers old crews in England and Australia, became Ops: Victory at All Costs, an examination of the bomber war and all that it was like to fly on operations.
In some cases aircraft unintentionally flew directly over each other on a bomb run. On this occasion a Stirling released its load 50 feet above Deans Halifax. We were attacking a factory making ball bearings for German tanks, he recalled, and, due to the need to flatten the place, were instructed to bomb at 8,000 feet. Two of the Stirlings bombs hit them. One went straight through the fuselage and exited without exploding. The other came into the fuselage near the tail and stayed there. Fortunately they were only small 12 lb oil bombs and the short distance they had fallen was not enough to detonate them. The flight engineer went to the back of the aircraft and threw them out he recalled, another 50 feet and I doubt if I would be telling the tale.
From Ops Victory at All Costs by Andrew Simpson
Published by Tattered Flag Press Spring 2012 (ISBN 978-0-9555977-6-3 ) RRP: £25
More information coming soon!
January 2011
We are delighted to announce the launch of Tattered Flag Press, a wholly owned imprint of Chevron Publishing, a specialist military, aviation and motor sport book production and design company.
We plan to publish fresh, scholarly, accessible and enjoyable books on all aspects of military history and eventually history in a wider sense. The ethos of our business is to be driven by a passion and understanding for what we do. We are not concerned with quantity, but rather in the quality of our output.
We commence our publishing programme with the publication of a hugely important and unique memoir, offering a new and very rare insight into the earliest days of German military aviation and the maelstrom of the Luftwaffes war on the Eastern and Italian Fronts in World War Two. For Kaiser and Hitler: From Military Aviator to High Command The Memoirs of Luftwaffe General Alfred Mahncke 1910-1945 is the first memoir of a Luftwaffe general to be published for many years and offers many new first-hand revelations on the leading personalities of Nazi Germany and the way the Luftwaffe operated. We hope to be posting an interview with the son of General der Flieger Alfred Mahncke who worked on the translation his of late fathers memoirs and to be discussing his fathers life.
Also for release in early 2011 is Hitlers Rocket Soldiers - The Men who fired the V2s against England, which tells for the first time the story of the men who fired Hitlers awesome rocket vengeance weapon against targets in Belgium, France and England. The result of years of determined research by authors Murray R. Barber and Michael Keuer, the book reveals what it was like to be a member of the highly secret German rocket-firing troops in late 1944-45. Just to track down and interview some of the (reluctant) veterans in order to acquire their recollections was a challenging task. The passing of time means that Hitlers Rocket Soldiers will remain as a unique insight into a terrifying new form of warfare.
Shortly we will be posting details of our third title, a major new work which, in an astonishingly detailed, engaging and gripping account, provides new human perspective on the air offensive against Germany during the Second World War.
To stay informed on new releases from Tattered Flag Press, contact us here.