ee PEE ES VeaPART THREEThe third part of this book differs from the previous ones. It is not oF a a technical specification of a cer- tain research project, but also a personal story -almost a diary of the toilsome research carried out by myself. This was carried out on three continents and took me four and a half years to complete. However I am co- nvinced that this affair was worth it. I hope that with respect to at least the unusual nature of the project itself, this affair will also interest others. For this is something entirely new, and the facts introduced below have ne- ver been presented as part of a unified picture (with the exception of fragmentary specifications in my previo- us books). Of course there is no shortage of new elements, but to place them within the appropriate context, I must start from the very beginnin} E verything began in August 1997, 1 sas visited by a certain man well-informe extremely) about various aspects of World War I. Sin hhad asked for his name not to be revealed, I will refer to him “anonymous hi the 1980s, he had had ‘access to many interesting documents of an intelligence natu- re and relating to the Third Reich. He had come into contsct with them while les of the so-called special mili- tury cell at the National Council -at President Bien’ off (President of Poland untit 1952). During the first meeting in the summer of the aforemen- tioned year he simply asked me a few questions. He had been intrigued by a piece of information from one of my books and ‘was curious, shether I would be able to amplify several not cotirely explained issues. Among other things he asked me if Thad ever come into contact with a device developed by the Germans, which was code-named “the Bell”, and made a sketch of it. On 2 circular base was some kind of bell jar. ey- lindrical in shape with a semicircular cap and hook, or some ‘uber clamping device atthe top. The bel jaz was supposed to ‘be made of a ceramic material, resembling a high voltage in- sulator. To metal cylinders oF drums were located inside. This description conveyed nothing to me and in principle ‘would have forgotten about the whole affair within a few we- ‘eks But obviously this didn’t happen —for several reasons, al- ‘though atthe time I still hadn't realised thatthe explanation of this whole story would become my life’s ambition. Finly [ was impressed by the level of knowledge of the enon in conversation with me, This was no amateur living in a dream world. Of that I was sure. ‘Secondly ~ he described the quite simply uneanhly effects of this device's operation, arousing in me associations with the final scene from Spiclberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Atk", defining them as “absolutely shocking”. He did this with a thentic conviction, which sowed a seed of true restlessness me. I could not overlook this, and was inwardly convinced that this was no mystification. I sill didn’t know it, but the seed liad already started to germinate... ‘Thirdly he asked me the outright disarming yet scemin- ily trivial question: if 1 was able to stale with full responsi- bility that the “Wunderwaffe” -that “wonder weapon”, was the Vel or V-2, as was often mentioned. If in any German ‘documents or in aay original sources in general, I had come very effective (and therefore not “ ‘and secondly that the term “Wunderwaffe” had pear in eamest already afler the “V" weapons had been de- ployed in combat. This was indeed intriguing. Later from the point of view of this, [looked over various volumes from library and in actual fact it appeared that some kind of umusu- al weapon had existed, practically far as I remember Goebbels’ prop: “Wunderwaffe” even after the air raid on Dresden in Febru- ary 1945. Some statement on this subject had been uttered by Goebbels during a speech made after the air raid. In the biography of the Minister of Propaganda I found for example the following sentence concerning Goebbels’ 00 “Magda told her sister-in-law that Joseph hed seen so visionary that it w ¢ the wonderful victory, which Hitler had promised to the Ger- (bold -LW.) This sentence was to have been uttered, sometime around Christmas of 1944. So reference had been made to something that had physically existed at the end of that year, creating a “visionary” impression through its appe arance alone therefore it must have been something comple tely different 1o the weapons known up until then Later, in documents brought over from the American NARA archive at College Park near Washington, I found among other things a report referring to the interrogation of cone of Otto Skorzeny"s com> mandos29! He was Skorz ny’s aide-de-camp, §§-Sturm- annfulhrer Karl Rad, at the same time Chief of the VIS/2 Division at the General Otfice for Reich's Security (RSHA Reichssicherbeitshauptamt). Radll stated -would you belie~ Ye it- that since the beginning of 194 Skorzeny simply bad rng head to organise acts of s+ otage on the enemy's rear areas, since he had come into. contact with the “wonder We>‘TRUTH ABOUT THE WUNOERWAFFE ‘S$-Sturmbanntihrer Otto Skorzeny —because ho was in command of the special “Jagdverbande” units, he was nicknamed the “frst commando of the Third Reich. (Archive) apon” and as a result “been possessed” by the idea of “Son- derkampf” ("Special Warfare”), regarding the use of this we- spon, to such an extent, that he considered it the only sure “Wanderwaffe” other mat- ters became insignificant. This issue reappeared again after the war. Skorzeny was tobe found in Spain, where he had taken his secrets. The Spa- nish press, followed soon after by the American press anno- ced, that he had tried to sell the secrets of the “wonder we- spon”, Some ents present in these reports: were 100 shocking to “take their word” for it although they had been ‘written in normal newspapers and not in the tabloids, in pur . As far as I know, the American press 4 for the frst time included information about the nature of e “Wunderwaffe” (2) in November 1947. From this anno- Spies | Bid for! Franco's Weapons ‘An excerpt of the tex em 232 le from November 1947, cited in the a Lation it followed thatthe article had arisen on the basis of in- telligence agency information. It mentioned that among other things what was involved was some unusual flying object. ‘with “electromagnetic” propulsion, which simultaneously had been “responsible for a wave of fiving saucer observa- tions over North America that suramer” 202 Really??? If this had been t all true, it would have signified afterall, thatthe technology had already been sold, A year and a half Iater the press published some even stranger information-deelarstion:="3 “The USAF knows what the flying saucers are and whe- re they come from. (..) They are new flying machines based in Spain, whose flight principle is based on gyroscope [what an interesting comparison! ~ note IW.] and were built by German scientists and technicians, who escaped from Ger- many”. Although for the time being we may pass over in silence any information about “flying saucers”, as ean be seen from the reports of the 1940s it does not at all unequivocally follow that the term “Wunderwaffe” could be sttributed to the V-1 or YV-2. In this context the term began to appear much Ister in popular literature and without references to specific sources from the period of the war. For the time being my reflection on this subject, caused bby a “trivial” question, had led me to establish that something which had created such a “visionary” impression on Goeb- bels and Skorzeny must have been truly unearthly and thet the “Wunderwaffe” remains something unknown. Therefo- re Lamanged futher meetings with my informant and tried to find out something more about the mysterious project -whe- re and who had realised it, where did the information come from and the like. During these meetings I gained the follo- wing picture: That mysterious device ~"the Bell” (“die Glocke”) se- cemed at first g the unusual effects of its operation contradicted thi admittedly incomplete and data, but even ther ‘The main part of “the bell” was made up of two mass linders-drums around one metre in diameter. W experiment sp: The drums were made of a sily in opposite di spends, ‘common axis. The axis was formed by quite an unusual with a its lower end fh cof a heavy, hand met ic. oblong acum Mask: J by alayer prox. 3 em thick. Itwas approx, 1-1.S m ton atic substance, with a g at rom temperature the consistency © od jelly”. From the od infor IRR NERUMS25" or that this substance was eade-nams“IRR the thorium oxid contained among ether constituents id beryllium oxide [beryllia}. The name ‘Neron” also appeared in the documentation, It was some kind of an probably containing various h Mercury. this th dy in pare form, was also present slinders. Bel re the start af each experi= information appeared about the use of s nitrogen and oxygen. it app the cooling medium. core was covered with the aforementioned ceramic housing, of a belllike shape —a c rounded atthe top crowned with some kind of hook, The entire device was about 1S min diameter and about 2.5 m. high, A very thick electrical cable led to the *. At the bottom on the other hand was situated a round sad very solid (made of heavy metal) pedestal or base, with a tly larger than the ceramic housing. This sas about all that I had managed to establish du- the aforementioned conversations about the coastruction. But it was more than enough to state that this description did not match anything that we know about the device's Third Reich's secret weapons, The person in conversation ‘me had in any case emphasised that not once had the term “weapon” been uttered in relation to the described device. It was just a fragment of something greater, notin it- self being any kind of weapon, despite having a very destruc- tive effect on its environment. Much more infermation than in the issue of construction’ remained about the course of the experiments themselves. Esch such experiment was carried out in a specially pre- pared chamber -2 pool. In most cases it was located undergro- und. Its surface was covered with ceramic tiles and the floor also with heavy rubber mats The mats were destroyed after cach test (1), while the tiles were washed -desctivated with a pink liquid resembling brine, In the case of tests conducted in- Side the chamber ofan inactive mine, in 1945, such a chamber ‘was always destroyed (blown up) after two-three tests. One of the individuals ~a primary source of information, testi fied moreover that a special “set” hed existed for conducting trials on open terrain. It was mounted on three railway carris- ‘ges marked with large Red Cross symbols and consisted first and foremost of a power supply installation, connected to a hhigh voltage line available at 2 given location. This individual ‘was a certain Joachimm Ibrom —an employee of Deutsche Re- ichsbahn (German Railways) in the Opole (Oppetn) distr “These railway carriages were liter struck off the Opole Rail= ‘way Headquarters stock, formally as the result of an air raid. ‘They were bumed with flame throwers and the remaining me- tal clements cut with acetylene blowpipes and dispersed over the site. An undeniably odd procedure. Later however I' was to become convinced that all the information which Uhad gra- dually managed to find in the course of my private investiga- tion was absolutely unprecedented and constituted not only ‘something new”, but in general through a series | of facts, gave a picture of project fundamentally different from all that has | been written about Ger- | man rescarch from the time of World War Il. Be sides L would never have ssctificed several years for something, which did not constitute an evident ail concrete challenge. | : My aforementioned in- | former strongly emphasi- sed that what was invo- ved was a uniquely clas- sified project, the most secret research project ever realised in the Third Reich! “Therefore it is surely clear that regardless of the scale of di ficulty it was worth verifying such a statement... However let tusretum for the time being to the description ofthe aforemen- tioned experiments. First of all “the bell” itself was prepared along with the considerable power supply installation accompanying it. A ‘whole set of cameras, movie cameras and probably also some ‘measuring devices were placed on 2 special rack in the rese~ arch chamber itself. Then a series of samples or objects were placed nearby, on which the effect of the emitted energy was, tested. These were animal organisms (live lizards, rats, frog insects, snails and in all probability also... poople -prisoners, from KL Gross-Rosen), plants (mosses, fems, horsetsil,fun- ‘gi, moulds) as well as a whole series of substances of orga ‘The approximate extemal ap- pearance of “the bell” (drawing: Witkowski. {fo the numerous armament enterprises and Underground construction sites in Lower Silesia. The vast ‘majority of prisoners were dispersed in sub-camps. (photo: 1, Witkowski). 233TRUTH ABOUT THE WUNDERWAFFE 9 camp prisoners were considered one of the Third Reich's economic resources. This was the domain of the Main Administrative and Economic Office of the SS (WVHA), (photo: ADM). nic origin such as: white of an egg, blood, meat, milk and li= quid fats. These preparations were of course carried out by scientists and technicians -fortunately their names are known, -I will mention about this further on, as well as by do of prisoners from Gross-Rosen concentration camp, spe cially assigned to this work. It numbered up 10 100 people and was code-named RWS-1, Just before the experiment the centire personnel was removed to a distance of 150-200 m, the same time employing individual, rubber protective suits and helmets or hard hats distinguished by large red visors. It then took some time for the drums inside “the bell” t ing. After reached the required velocity, the primary part of the test commenced, during which -which was emphasised the device was connected to a high voltage and high intensity current. Probably because of this the whole device had to be efficiently cooled. This phase lasted from tens of seconds up {to about 1.5 minutes, “The bell” revealed its operation in wo ately perceptible after the power had been swit- J. which could be as something extremely similar to the humming of The Hive was also used in relation to “the Bell”) as effects. The 10 V electrical installa case of se Were: a characteristic soun in a bottle (hence the official nam ‘Bienenstock’ well as a series of electromagn s consisted of the follo tions (bulbs sin surrounding lowing”) observed in Jing 100 m, a bluish phospho round tests glow) around “the bell” “obviously a result of the emission of ionising radiation, as well asa very strong magnetic field ‘mentioned in the statements. In addition participants of the experiments felt disturbances of the nervous system's opera tion, such as formication (“pins and needles”), headaches and metallic taste in the mouths. ‘Afler some time “long-term” effects appeared. At first some of the employees suffered disturbances of sleep, balan- ce, problems with memory, muscle cramps and various types of ulceration. Later they succeeded in radically limiting these unfavourable effects. ‘The most shocking and at first totally inexplicable pheno- mena were observed in reference to the aforementioned orga- nisms and substances subjected to tests in the research cham- beritsell: They suffered various types of damage, dominating being the disintegration of tissues strectures, gelation and the stratification of liquids (among others blood) into distinctly divided fractions and others. From information made avi bleit followed, that during the first phase of tests (May June 1944) these kinds of side-effects caused the death of five out of seven scientists engaged in them. As a result, the who- le first research team was dissolved. Ihave written “side-ef- fects”, since from the information which survived the war it clearly followed. that one of the main aims of the research ‘was to limit them. The most unusual changes were observed in the case of green plants. During the first phase, spanning about five ho- urs fier the test had been completed, the plants paled or bec ig chemical decomposition or the decay of xtraordinary is that despite this, such a plant fi further period —the or- chlorophyll ved normally, by all sppearances, fo oss-Rosen's ch sideways, to the k neeliory. On of Him (Archive).der of a week. This was followed by immediate, almost rapid ition to a greasy substan: ‘with the consistency of rancid fat, resembling the m: *, enveloping the entire pla . This decomposition was d dof all features characteristic of bacterial decompo among other things of smell. Besides, it was too rapid, giving the imprescion that all stracture had decayed At the same time the formation of undefined crystalline structures was observed if tl liquid organic substances, oF something which resem them. At that time these changes referred to the majority of sunples. (On about 10 January 1945 they had managed, in an unk- rnown Way, to limit the number of damaged simples to abo- tut 12-15 &. On 25 March a further clear drop in this number to.2-3 % was recorded. Apart from this, anothe emerged. After a certain number of experiments it was obse- ved that mysterious “gas bubbles” were forming in the “the bel's* metal foundati I realise tha this information, devoid of any kind of in- terpretation creates an unintelligible impression that it lacks y Sense, or is simply non-scientific. But this isnot the case. to the unremitting work of myself and many specialists, wwe finally managed to unite it into a single, compact and in- telligile whole, documenting many facts. For the time being however I am forced to present the information in such form, in how it became a starting point to further research. Task the- refore for continsed patien ‘At this “staring point” [ also had at my disposal quite ample information concerning the organisational side of the ‘whole project as well as a certain theoretical base. 1 will begin with this second matter, as itis more directly related to the aforementioned phenomena. This “theoretical ‘base was only’ set of scientifi terms most often used in re- ference to various aspects of the described device's operation. From the star they were also quite mysterious. To such a de- gute that nobody before me had managed cither to unite them cr attribute them: to specific contemporary work (and such at- tempts have been made ~at least conceming the aspect of the analyses, about which I knox). Two notions were obviously treated as fundamental, being: “Vortex compression” and: “Separation of magnetic fields”. Does this convey something to anybody? -obviously 3 thetofical question. Within the context of one of the people the problem of “a simulation of damping of vibrations towards the centre of spherical objects” speared. In this case it concemed Dr Eli- zabeth Adler, a mathematician from Konigsberg University (this name appeared only once). In descriptions of “the bel- 1's" effect on living organisms on the other hand the not fof “ambrosism” (“Ambrosismus”) occurred. This was per= hnaps invented to honour one of the scientists, who admitte- dy was not a member of the research team, but was in some sense connected with the whole project. It concemed Dr Otto ‘Ambros -then chairman of the so-called “S" committe, re- f sponsible for chemical warfare preparations in Speers Arn ment Ministry { must admit that from the beginning the plot connected to Ambros was totaly belitiled by myself, as not matching the whole picture. As it was to become evident afew years later. this was a big mistake ~although there was never any doubt that chemical weapons were not responsible for “the bell’s” ‘operation, of any kind of chemical agent. Only in 2001 did 1 ain turn my attention to the first note related to this affair from 1997, in which Ambros had appeared among two key ‘names. As a result ofthis “omission”, when information arri- ved about the importance of this person from another source, Thad already managed to forget that his name existed in the original materials. ‘Some years ago I had made light of yet another fact on a similar basis, which did not match anything, partially becsu- se at that time it had already been designated as second-rate. From the present perspective however I can see that it was ‘one of the hidden clues to the whole aff ‘This was a reference about taking into consideration the process of transforming mercury into gol I had ignored this as I came to the conclusion that whatever hadn't gore on in side “the bell", this process would have been economically Unprofitable anyway and so of secondary importance, not de- scribing the principle of operation of the whole “invention”. The first conclusion actually turned out to be true, but the se- cond part ~not longer. For the aforementioned phenomenon ‘can only occur in conditions characterised by quite narrow I tations, thus taking into account this or similar information allows one to exclude many incorrect explanations. This is however only an added digression, but which in- dicates the great technical complexity ofthe whole issue. The first sketch of “the bell” which I had come into contact with {gave me the impression of being something strikingly sim- ple, although ultimately the whole device would tum out to ‘be complex and technically sophisticated. We will retum again later to the technical issues, but now Jet us move on to the “organisational and personal” aspect. “The entire research project as such was created in January 1942 -under the code-name “Tor” ("Gate"), which functio- ned until August 1943, After this it was renamed or rather ‘vided into two “sub-projects”. The code-name “Tor” was re placed by the code-names: “Chronos” and “Latementriget”. Both referred to “the bell”, but the project had been divided into physical and medical-biological aspects. It was not esta blished which code-name corresponded to 3 given aspect of the work. The system powering “the bell” probably received the code-name “Chatite-Anlage” “The meaning of the Greck word “Chronos” is I suppo- ‘se obvious, the German word “Latementriger” looks some- what less certain, From a literal point of view it comrespoads to.aman carrying a lantem (who in bygone days lighted se- cet gis lamps). But one can look at this from yet another angle. Incould be, as it was suggested to me, a not too literal transla- tion of a certain ancient name -the name of “Lucifer” ie."he, TS 235A characteristic example illustrating the maintenance of secrecy with regard to research and development activities Gitected by the SS. It is a document (lirst page) pertaining to the estabishment of an important branch of the High Frequencies Institute at Gross-Rosen. As was written, it enjoyed the “special support of the Reichstthror-SS", cexpioting among others. 150-200 prisoners, so something important must have been involved. However itis unknown to this day what this branch was specifically engaged in. (AN, ‘Alexandrian Microfilms: T-175/ files of the Pers. Stab RFSS), ‘who caries the light”. Anyway, code-names cannot be treated too literally. They cannot reflect the true nature of sue, since it would then Tose its point (unless with respect 10 particular unusualness there would be no tisk of ‘nyone guessing its ue meaning anyway). ‘The entire Work was supervised by the SS, at the same ime their position in organisational structures was rather untypical. In general this made it considerably casiet to keep the affair secret, among others because the SS was de economic empire and so could alone ensure its own worktor- ce and selFfinancing -without the necessity of making eom- an issu prehensive data available to other institutions. Present-day “black’ projects are being much the same realised, among others in the USA. On the other hand the leading role of the SS enabled the classified protection ployment of aspecial procedure” for a site, This relied e.g. on the possibili- xd out by guarding the site where work was b 2 (¢.g. from a foreign SS unit, not able to com hand fiquidating wi- thout hesitation all persons who knew anything ("Gehe imnistrigern™ terally “bearers of 3 secret") and were the matter’s stan- ding justified it. At any rate it was en- deavoured in this ‘way to keep secret till the end also pro- Jects “Chronos” and “Latementriger”. In the last days of April 1945 a convoy was formed from some ‘medium and low ranking German cadre and the remnants of RWS-1 commando (in tots! 62 people). In consideration of the danger that they could fall into enemy hands, the order was issued to physically liquidate them, which was carried ‘out on 28 April in an underground weapons factory near the town of Pattag-Neissebrick near Goerlitz (we will come to the locations where work was carried out later) Let us retum for the time being to the organisstions! is- sues. The whole project was co-ordinated by 2 special coll, co-operating with the SS armament office, subordinate to the Waflea-$$. This cell was designated the “FEP”, which was an, abbreviation of the words “Forschungen, Entwicklungen, P3- tente” — research, developmental work. patents. The chief of this “FEP” cell was a certain Admiral Rhein, while the de scribed project was co-ordinated by a quite mysterious dividual ~namely $$-Obergruppenfllrer (Four Star General) Emil Mazuw. Why mysterious? Simply because desp ssessing one of the highest general’s ranks in the SS, cally nothing is known about him. I got hold of the USA in 1999, but through this he became ia my eyes an even more obscure figure. It followed both from his dessier as of his service, that Mazuw had M. He was pro! snfuhrer on 20 Apel 194 words he had possessed the highest possible SS rank at that time (in 1944 the $-Oberst-Gruppe mnber established, four people bing promoted tot). He w ded with the Honorary sabre of Reichs xen des RESS) and honorary nes (Totenkopfting). Such rank was or special service to the organisation. Their bearers coProfessor Walther Gerlach. On the second photograph he is inspecting the smouldering mins Jolt of his Institute of Physics, after an air raid. (author unknown). of the SS at Vogelsang castle. Mazuw already had it in 1936, He was therefore one of the powers behind the throne of the Thind Reich, almost unknown to this day. (arises steer we) ( Mslegieae Firmages bervermrntons ULE Laue sustccterescang setenecaies satan bot 1) ms erm Hedtastrmects fon re oes EO Srensennees erashes fox PaRd 3 ms wee) ‘A vague letter fo Gerlach, seized by the US “Alsos” mission {rom tho archives of the Reich's Scientific Research Council ‘One of the scientists roports in it about the “structural ‘changes of leucocytes", which occurred on a far larger scale. than theory predicted. itis not exactly known to what project. this ler refers to. (NARA/RG-319: Reports and messages. 1946:51/Alsos Mission). In 1936 he took part in a mysterious expedi land, organised by Himmler ~the mystic, o search for the pu: rest remnants of the original An assume that he was a member of of the Reichsfuhrer S he united twelve of tl ularly con crypt nicknamed Most extraont falhalla” at Wexselsburg castle however was that despi never graduated from any mili such a high position Mazuw not on academy, but in general comy (es first!) class of prim: clearly written in his dossier but I never man: his interrogations. However I was mostly interested inthe scientific a this enterprise. The individual responsible forthe die until 1987, fal records from ged to gain ‘The complex system of the SS ranks ss Su S$ Unterchsrfobeer S$-Scturfubrer S$-Oberscharfuleer S$ toupiachartsbrer $$ Stubscharfuleer §$-Stunmecharfuhrer Officers: $$-Usuertumnfueer ——Leuinant ded Liter Is Lieteraes Gener 45.oberprapeesihre $$.0nera-Gruppefiteer Gencebbent In practise, both military and SS ranks were used, simultane coasly in the Walfen-§§ and the police, eg: t+ Brigadetityer ‘und Generalmajor det Walten-i¥". (Sh‘TRUTH ABOUT THE WUNOERWAFFE ting to physics was Professor Walther Gerlach, At first [knew ‘only that he had been one of the most outstanding scient of the Thin Reich. Soon it was to become evident that he had also been some kind of “power behind the throne” After my informant had handed me his information I sim- ply tried to find anything on the subject of Gerlach’s scien- lific work from the time of the war. It became evident that, such information was so scant and fragmentary that the who- Je problem practically remained a “blank area”. All the same Gerlach had directed the Reich’s Scientific Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat ~from 2 December 1943), so he must, have been a key person from the point of view of scientific research important with respect tothe war effort. After ll du- ring this period one would not expect that the management of Germin science would be tumed over to a scientific resear- cher of butterflies or primitive people's folklore... Te role of science during the total war was after all quite specific. Admittedly Gerlach is often associated with the nuclear program, but he was never de facto directly involved in this ‘matter and never published any scientific work concerning nuclear weapons, or the construction of a nuclear reactor. He constituted therefore a funher part ofthe riddle, requiring an explanation practically from scratch... During my years of research I managed to get hold of some scant, but extremely, important information related to the war-time research work, of Gerlach, but we will come to that Ister. For now Tam all the time presenting the starting point of my research —the in- formation, which I had acquired in 1997. ‘As I mentioned, the entire project was divided into two segments: physical and medical-biological. As faras the latter, concemed, $$-Grippenfuhrer Prof. Dr. Emst Grawitz was Gerlsch’s equivalent, that is to say scientific the project. He was at the same time chief of the medical se~ rvice of the SS and police, chief of the Institute of Hygiene of the Waffen-$ as well as president of the German Red Cross Nothing is known about his specific “contribution” to the re- alisation of the “Chronos"/'Latementriger” project. Anyway I was never hot on his trail, as I considered it would be more promising to concentrate on the role of other people. nich Garner. He was responsible for ensuring electric energy supplies and probs bly for logistical in general, He was chief of the “rese development group” at the armament office of the SS (how itis possible, that such a person is practically unk~ nown??). I was however mostly interest in physicists, sin- most crucial and probably most difficult problem was the interpretation of the device itself (of “the bell”). The na of the physicists could be th 1g 10 the so. lution of this riddle. Fortunately the personal data about the p was known. Apatt from Profes- aforementioned Dr Elizabeth Adler, the Drought into li- utilizat hey peo sor Gerlach sme of a physicist from Darmstadt was al ss responsible for the ar us phenomenon of "se “Wo don't need Einsteins” — a Ger- man poster {rom 1933, on which the author of the theory of relativity has been swept off the roo! of an as- tronomical_obsor- vatory bearing his name. Contrary to appearances this was not only antipathy of an ideological bass, ‘gnetic fields”, and for development of the high voltage gene- ator to power “the bell”. This was Dr Kun Debus. In 1997 1 did not know anything else about him. It was however obvio- us that shedding light on his role would be the primary task ‘Two other individuals sppeared out of “the background”: Dz Edward Tholen (Toblen?) and Dr Herbert Jensen. The for mer was to have worked at Peenemiinde and was the designer ‘of some kind of super-resistant alloy, used in the V-2 rocket sinucture, So he could have designed a fundamental par of ‘the bell”, in which, considering the project's standing, ma- terials “from the top shelf” had undoubtedly been used. This is only an assumption, but Thoten could also have worked on something, of which “the bell” was only a part Tnever managed to get hold of any information on the subject of Tholen, if in fact this had been his real name. 1 assumed that because of its mechanical and bi coefficient/specific gravity. titanium or its alloy would have been the most suitable material. Contrary to appearances and the suggestions of various people, the Germans were Using titanium at that time -on a very small scale. I managed to obtain (unfortunately incomplete) a British report about German research and di slop ‘A council ot SS generals. In the middie of the fist row: Pro! Dr, Emst Robert Grawitz. (Archive)Nicderschlesicn (Lower Silesia Dotay Siqsk) 1 The perfectly devel ing a rood sod rail network. I rope sous this regen Ho be os ‘An excorpt of an intriguing report by the Polish Home Army Inteligence (resistance movement) (sygn. MM a4, from March 1943), probably rogarding Tholen's invention. It deserbes the ‘mysterious activities carried out in the underground “Matehwerk” plant (among others the “thot” alloy). Regardless of the technical {data given in the roport it cannot refer to the V-2 for the sme feason that thero is roleronco to “tho ond of 1943", while by 5 ‘December of that year only the first technical drawings of the V-2 hhad reached “Mittolwork". Therolore it must reler to previously unknown issues, (source: "Polish Home Army Inteligence” 360. bibsography referring to part 1) ap sper bombing, indawtrial of the Reith By the end could be found on the gro Vill The consrecton of net ‘rest endergrocnd completes of failties, sociated with these we- xcs the line ofthe towns of Waldenburg — Lodwigs- orf, commenced in the spring of 1943) sod “Concordia” inthe tizn- A funvey OF GERMAN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WORK ON TITANIUM nium, which was carried ‘out among others by AEG knowin to have been engaged in the “Chronos” project. In my copy of the report howe ver did not find any names. The next interesting aspect, which loomed from ata presented to me, was the issue of the companies engs- ged in this work and where it ‘was carried out. This informa- tion referred mainly to the“ nal” stage of work -ie. from the summer of 1944, Till No- vember of that year the sit ‘The first page of the Bntish report referring to German work ation stood as follows: fon ttanium. (BIOS). ‘The main laboratories were located in Lower Silesia (now wing establishments co-operated with this “facility” in south-west Poland), in the town of Neumarkt (Sroda Sla- > “Heeres Versuchsanstalt No.10". These were Wehrmacht ska), near the town of Leubus (Lubigd) and were disguised laboratories, to which on 1 November 1943 an SS research as the facility “Schlesische Werkstatten dr FUrstenau and Co, team was co-opted, withthe code designation BIL. GmbH (Schlewerk)” In realty what was involved wasa site An underground facility on the grounds of Breslsu-Stabel- of secret research conducted under cover by AEG, Siemens ‘(Wroctaw Stablowice) military airfield. and Bosch. As far as AEG is concered, the name of Engine- + probably also the factories and laboratories connected with cf Hellmann was brought into light. Among others the follo- the nuclear program, located in the towns of Torgat, Des= el 239sau and Joachimstal. This assumption comes from the fact that after the war many shipping receipts and access passes were found in the adja at buildings of Lubigé, on which the names of these towns appeared, ter). 240 Mazuw’s personal card from his files. (Berin Document Center), ‘Duc to the threat of a new Soviet offensive and other fac- tors, desribed further on, in November i944 the min com plex of laboratories was relocated to Fustensten (presently Ksigz) near Waldenburg (now Watbreych). They were spe- cifically moved to a small underground facility lying not far from the so-called “old castle” (Altburg), in the vicinity of ‘great castle-palace, until 1930s in the possession of the von. Pless Dukes. This place was located in the mountains, far away from the possible front line. rary. The research & develop preparation of a fi ‘They did not wait for lon relied on, it was only mentioned th: adopted for military purpases—in There are not vicinity” an there are many) and so determining which was exp purposes other than that of mining cos Of the simplest tasks. However we will ther section of the book: In onder to recapitulate and conclude my research, i. the level of knowledge £ ‘move on to the final iss mation and informat the end of April 1945 (the Su7-10 May). It s0 ed to cach oth officers responsible for ind specifically a cer records, according to a or President Bierut co 1 : } special cell cod i alczak follo footsteps of his } J circumstan! ¢ first information con | ests us arrived from the i ‘as remember, in 1946, : iAA translated evacuation document found by R, Schuster ~Hsts of passport. ared -ie. Ukrainian), using for this purpose the garages of the former Reich's Chancellory at Voss Strasse. He personally. fecorded the protocol -without a typist and interpreter. As it was later revealed, he had also co-operated with the same So- viet cell “Smiersh”, which resulted in Russian activity aimed at taking over the matter and “hushing side, which i also many other peopl ‘Ay a result ofthe interrogations it tumed out that the ar- rested “Jew” was in fact %-Sturmbannfihrer (Major) Ru- dolf Schuster, son of Johann. An officer from Amt Ill of the RSHA. Since 4 June 1944 he had been responsible for trans- Portation in the special evacuation commando SS “ELF", created by the Gauleiter of Lower Silesia -Karl Hanke. This, commando had been camying out transports as the company “Agricultural Fentlizers ~ Oskar Schwartz and S Later, in the archives of the Berlin Document Center 1 even discovered a photocopy of this man's service history sheet, from which it followed moreover that he had also been an officer of the “special duty office” at the General Admi: nitration and Economy Office of the SS (SS-WVHA, Amt A-V 2b.V), Schuster was the source of a significant part of the information presented on the previous pages. He also te stified that at the end of April 1! reraft from KG-200 group ~a Junkers Ju-390 had taken materials con nected with the "Chronos’/*Latementriger” project and ad opted a course for Bodo airbase in aircraft was kings, and before its Night had been closely guarded and concealed with can cover. As far 3s remember, the airfield in question ted pale-blue and bore Swedish Air Force m Sloe sat Swidnica (Schweidnitz), Le. a dozen or so kilometres from Ksisz (Furstenstein) In Norway supervision of the transport was taken over by ‘Ss-Obergruppenfuhrer Jacob Sporrenberg, to whom we will setum later. 242 Schuster also supplied information about his direct supe- rior -the chief of the “Special Evacustion Commando SS- ELF”. Despite intensive efforts undertaken after the war, he ‘was never captured. He was: $+Obersturmbannfuthrer (LtCol) Oxto Neumann, son of Karl. An official of the Amt IIL of the RSHA, from 28 June 1944 chief of the ELF Commando with abode in Wroctaw (Breslau). It was established that after the war he went into hi- ding under various names: Hans Hildebrant, Hans Erlich, J2- ‘cob van Ness (a Dutch citizen) In 1954 he was seen in Rho- desis, in 1964 —in Switzerland. Undoubtedly Neumann would have been an invaluable source of information and not only with respect fo the project ‘described in this book. He was one ofthe key individuals who ‘executed the so-called operation “Regentropfchen”. launched by Bormann with the objective of evacuating the Reich’s cru- cial resources, so that they could be later used to rebuild Ger- ‘many’s potential. However Sporenberg remained... From 28 June 1944 he performed among others the func- tion of “Commander for Special Evacuations” in the “Noth” District, ie. in Norway. This was the so-called nonhem eva uation route leading through the Scandinavian countries, the southem one led through Italy and Spain. On 11 May Spor- renberg was arrested by the British and interrogated, among ‘other things for being suspected of directing operation “El- ster” —from March of that year, based on an attempt to bor bard New York with V-1 missiles launched from U-boats, in all probability carrying biological warheads. However consi erably more serious accusations were to weigh heavily on Sporrenberg -involvement in crimes of genocide committed earlier in Poland. So he was soon departed to Poland. Prepa- Tations for the trial and the trial itself took several years. In view of a very specific threat of the death penalty, Sporren- berg talked willingly and a lo, calculating in this way that it ‘would extend his life. Owing to Schuster’s earlier testimo~ Od Ca ste” (Atburg) in Fuorstensteini Fuorstoin. XIX: century drawing,nies it was known in advance on which issues to place the greatest pressure. A huge amount of information was gene- rated, the majority of which however never became a part of the trial documentation and was treated as “top secret ~mate- als for special purpose”. In December 1952 the death sen- tence was announced, which was officially soon carried out, In reality however the day before the planned execution, by 3.5083 smn 139.8833 BM =173.5000) severe a 2m i39.0635 ) AERA ) norma! at change (my = weight) 3 Sos =2 ae left rotation BE $$Stiteit S43 6 Parone ss ‘A graph roterring to the Japanese experiment described in the text, on which weight reductions have been marked (in = on the vertical axis) as a function of rotational speed (in thousands of rpm — on the horizontal axis). The horizontal and vertcal ines represent so-called standard deviation — possible measurement error. (source: see text). the so-called “operat present durin al measures” all persons obliged to be the execution have been changed, and inste porrenberg @ prisoner foreman (Kapo) from Stutthof ‘concentration camp was executed, while Sporrenberg himself ‘was flown to the USSR. In all probability he did not live re for ad of long ~if only for the reason that the possibility of ‘escape hail to be excluded with 100 % certainty. Sporrenberg however must have expected the deception and informed his family through his lawyer, since even in the 1960 petitions were sent for his release (to KC PZPR -central committee of the main part). In 1947 Rudolf Schuster died suddenly in obscure cireum- stances (if he really died). Col. Szymatiski, who had interro- gated him was killed in an air crash along with a group of wit- nesses, soon afer completing the investigation. His superior id chief of the Polish Military Mission in Berlin -General Ja- ub Prawsin died in 1950 (as far as I remember ~he capsized ‘on his boat and drowned). Major Walczak was killed in 2 ear crash, President Bierut went on an official visit to Moscow, ‘where he suddenly became ill, died und retumed in a coffin. The Soviets took over the whole affair and cut off all links, in Poland only traces remained. Removing everybo- dy was neither possible nor necessary, but in the existing si- tuation futher progress didn’t come into play. Perhaps Polan- 4's neighbours from the east had a moderately comprehensi- ve picture of the issue at their disposal, however in Poland no- body was able to define either “the bell’ principle of opera- tion, or why this device was considered so state-of-the-art. Kommando ELE ‘The evacuation of materials ascciated with the “Chronos” sod “Latementriger” programmes was initially not soppose to be the sim of existence of the “Kommando of Spevial SS Evacuations ~ ELF” Polish sod Soviet intelligence became interested in it fora complete fy different reascn, hic slo the guiding principle for is e3- fom withthe creation of complex of eight underground depositony dhsters ofthe Reich's Main Security Office (RSHA) to the north-west of Wrostaw (Breau), in the town tangle of Parchwitz, Malis, Wohlas, which were to serve the central inst tutions ofthe Third Reich. The securing of transports sswcisted with this was realised atthe tum of 1944 and 1945, yet after the stir of the Soviet Janaary offensive. “These depository deters -or underground bunkers were numb ed among the mos issporant ich objects inthe whole Reich and ‘ceived the highest pricey appli inthis regard (AA). They bast po- cite deignations -UAAX-SS/01 epto~08. Itsy sound range, but thei cootent has never been fully uncovered. Interogstions of Ger sian officer gave reason to believe that at last a lange porto of the transported loads consisted of sate bonds emitted for arme-prod cooypanies, partially nationtited through their transfer to state-owned underground faiities. Apart from the officers tbeanstves. mamserocs enerypled documents were intercepted: but despite perstat corte they have sever been deciphered The only outcome was the seg3e- ‘ion thot they had teen “uanalated” ftom a soled synthetic sos TT 243,‘TRUTH ABOUT THE WUNDERWAFFE ‘ag — consisting of “normal” words, but having different meanings Interogations ofthe officers from this Komassndo brought light stsong other things sn odd description ofthe following incident, which ‘cok place atthe time given above: A local road near the toxn of Ro= g0% (Polish). Thre vehicles are travelling in the direction of the town ‘of Praskan (Prawiké) —a tank for transporting milk, an ambuln- ‘se nxt s forty. On the horizon sppears a single Soviet scralt, which ‘crops #