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Pencil sketch of a Nazi by Dr K Prabhakar Rao
Major-General
Dr Walter Robert Dornberger (6 September 1895 – 27 June 1980) was a German Army
artillery officer whose career spanned World Wars I and II. He was a leader of
Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket program and other projects at the Peenemünde Army
Research Center.
In mid-August 1945, after taking part in
Operation Backfire, Dornberger was escorted from Cuxhaven to London for
interrogation by the British War Crimes Investigation Unit in connection with
the use of slave labor in the production of V-2 rockets; he was subsequently
transferred and detained for two years at Bridgend in South Wales
Along with other German rocket scientists,
Dornberger was released and brought to the United States under the auspices of
Operation Paperclip, and worked for the United States Air Force for three years
developing guided missiles. From 1950 to 1965 he worked for the Bell Aircraft Corporation
where he worked on several projects, rising to the post of Vice-President. He
played a major role in the creation of the X-15 aircraft and was a key
consultant for the X-20 Dyna-Soar project. He also had a role on the creation
of ideas and projects which, in the end, led to the creation of the Space
Shuttle Dornberger also developed Bell's Rascal, the world's first guided
nuclear air-to-surface missile developed for the Strategic Air Command.[27]
During the 50s he had some attrition with von Braun and was instrumental on
grabbing several engineers out of the Huntsville's team for USAF projects. The
most remarkable of them was Krafft Ehricke who later created the Centaur rocket
stage and actively participated in several more Defense projects.
Following retirement, Dornberger went to
Mexico and later returned to Germany, where he died in 1980 in
Baden-Württemberg.
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