Hitler's Terror Weapons (27 page)

Since Lt General Twining's report also stated that there was:

“lack of physical evidence in the shape of crash-recovered exhibits which would undeniably prove the existence of these unidentified flying objects”

this tends to confirm that the wreckage of the Spitzbergen flying saucer brought to the United States by sea in 1946 was of terrestrial origin and German,
¹⁶¹
and that the craft, though remote-controlled, had crew aboard, probably to handle the tricky landing procedure which led to their demise.

In the 25 April 1953 edition of the Hamburg quality newspaper
Welt am Sonntag,
scientific correspondent Dr Werner Keller interviewed Senior Engineer Georg Klein, former special adviser to Reich Minister Speer. Klein confirmed that prototypes had been built in Germany during the Second World War:

“On 14 February 1945 in Prague I witnessed personally the first start of a manned RFZ (circular aircraft). This machine reached a height of 12.4 kms within three minutes and in level flight could maintain a speed of 2200 kms/hr. The flying disc has a practically perfect aerodynamic form and speeds in excess of 4000 kms/hr are feasible. These fantastic velocities require special metal alloys, for existing materials for aircraft construction would melt. We had a special alloy. The start in Prague was the culmination of research and development begun in 1941. By the end of 1944 there were three different models completed. Miethe had built a discus-type, non-rotating disc of 42 metres diameter. The designs of von Habermohl and Schriever had a broad-surfaced outer ring which revolved about a fixed spherical cabin. This ring had adjustable vanes and could take off and land vertically. On the approach of the Red Army the prototypes in Prague were destroyed.”

If Engineer Klein witnessed this flight personally he would not have seen much of it, for the Luftflotte VIII War Diary entry for the day in question records that Prague had low cloud cover down to 800 metres with complete overcast, rain, snow and poor visibility. This is excellent weather if one does not wish the neighbourhood to witness the miraculous attributes of your flying saucer. Klein does not state whether it was the Miethe discus-type or the Schriever VTOL design which ascended into the low cloud at Prague. Another unmentionable is the method of propulsion. All German aeronautical engineers were contradictory or silent on these two points. The fantastic claim by Klein that the Prague flying disc could fly at 2000 kms per hour justifies the heat-resistant alloys used in the craft's construction. The reason for these machinations we will see shortly.

The German tradition states that the first proposed designs for a jet- propelled circular aircraft (RFZ) were offered to the Luftwaffe in 1938 but declined. The USAF report in 1947 considered that even a subsonic flying saucer development “would require extensive detailed development, would be extremely expensive, time-consuming and at the considerable expense of other projects”. All the more astonishing then that the entire German programme, from flying model to maiden manned flight, occupied less than three years between 1942 and 1945 in wartime Germany.

Following the successful flight of Rudolf Schriever's model Flying Turtle on 3 June 1942, he teamed up at once with Professor von Habermohl to build the manned version. Three or four types were produced, fitted with hydrogen peroxide engines, but were found unsatisfactory in one way or another and the Luftwaffe supposedly rejected all of them. Prototype MIIB, for example, was a broad-surfaced outer ring with adjustable vanes revolving about a fixed spherical cabin, thus more helicopter than flying saucer. This VTOL machine was allegedly also tried with a motor designed in the Kertl Factory, Vienna, by the Austrian inventor Professor Viktor Schauberger, “the pioneer of anti-gravity”, it being claimed that the motor worked on the implosive principle. Whatever the method was it has never been revealed, but rapid declutching was hinted at. The energy process is supposed to have used a small electric motor of 20,000 revs. Calculations showed that a 20-cm disc gyrating at this speed generated a tornado-like vortex sufficient to levitate a weight of 228 tonnes to an indefinite height. Nothing was ever patented, its like is not seen today and the Luftwaffe did not want it despite its fantastic vertical flight ability; therefore we look upon it with a jaundiced eye. A separate group, Richard Miethe and Giuseppe Belluzzo, had been working on the V-7 turbo-jet disc, which had a definite UFO look about it, since 1942 and co-opted Schriever, Habermohl and occasionally Andreas Epp into the development team in 1943. The design was developed to the stage of ‘operational readiness'. The V-7 jet disc (also known as the V-3 Flying Disc Model III long range version) was 42 metres in diameter. The outer shell, we are told, was a light metal alloy, mainly of titanium, while the inner hull was of heat-resistant duralium. A claim was made that a helium engine was used. A way to use helium as a fuel had been devised by the Austrian physicist Dr Karl Nowak
¹⁶²
and registered at the German Patent Office on 16 March 1943 under number 905-847. The patent describes a reciprocating engine using atmospheric oxygen to oxidize atmospheric nitrogen. This involved generating very high voltage sparks to produce temperatures exceeding 50,000°C within a combustion chamber. The effect was similar to lightning. Lightning burns the surrounding air leaving a vacuum which suddenly collapses in on itself producing thunder. The engine did the same, but also injected super-cold liquid helium directly into the combustion chamber. Helium is an inert gas and does not burn. Dr Nowak's idea was that the very cold liquid sprayed into the combustion chamber to cool it also caused a tremendous expansion as it heated, thus producing the motive force for the engine.

One concludes, looking at the short time-scale for this project, that it would assuredly have been a most laudable engineering feat if Nowak's helium engine could have been brought to the stage of operational use within two years of registering the patent, and fitted, moreover, inside a flying saucer, the initial designs for which had been begun only the previous year. An additional drawback would have been the embargo imposed on the sale of helium to Germany since before the war by the world's only supplier, the United States. Helium had been wanted at that stage to build safer airships than the
Hindenburg,
but the United States suspected the Germans might want it for work on developing a hydrogen-based weapon. For this reason it does not seem very likely that Germany would have had enough helium to realize helium engine development and use.

A V-7 variant on the drawing board had a V-2 rocket engine slung below the fuselage for a top speed of 4000 kms/hr in level flight, but the burn would last only a minute or so and the advantage of bothering to build this variant is not obvious. The V-2 rocket engine was the only propulsion unit which might have required the disc to be constructed of special heat-resistant alloys, and the sketch of this variant probably came into existence precisely to explain that purpose. Having disposed of the less likely prime movers, we are left with a reported engine plant consisting of five kerosene-fuelled turbines, three for lift and two for forward thrust which, though less exotic than the other ideas, satisfy the requirement for vertical and horizontal flight at fast sub-sonic velocities. From their earlier work with helicopters it was not a particularly big step in the short period of time available to the idea of an advanced autogyro, its multi-bladed propellors forming a perfect circle and linked together by an outer ring. The blades rotated independent of the central fixed cabin and, unlike orthodox autogyros, there was no torsion factor. At take-off blade rotation was accelerated and, after acquiring speed and tremendous inertia, the blade angle changed from -3° to +3° and the machine would rise up suddenly. There should have been no problem piloting the craft with five engines: authoritative sources such as Andreas Epp stated that in earlier proving flights the disc would have been remote-controlled but with crew aboard. When the blades were closed to 0° for a continuous surface, a high sub-sonic speed (0.8 Mach) would have been possible and at least 25 kilometres altitude. Rudolf Schriever, who had been a Heinkel test pilot at Eger in the Sudentenland, worked on his design in a secluded hangar at Prague. BMW's Design Bureau tested the engines. Initially He 178 turbines had been intended for propulsion but were not powerful enough for a perpendicular takeoff speed of 100 metres/sec. The replacements caused vibration problems, but these had been overcome within a week. There was a ring of reactors on board, one located bottom centre of the blade disc for vertical take-off. Schriever made the claim that the
Flugkreisel,
which was first airborne in October 1944, had flown supersonic, “this being possible by virtue of its aerodynamic shape”, he said. One suspects that what he really meant was that on flights from Norway to Spitzbergen, the 600-knot
Flugkreisel
achieved a ground speed in excess of Mach 1 when flying in the 175-knot west-east jet stream over Sweden at above 35,000 feet.
¹⁶³

Physically this autogyro was not capable of supersonic speed. There was no call for it to be built of heat-resistant alloys, but it obviously was. This is the big secret we are not supposed to know. Allied aircrew in very close proximity to the ‘fire-balls' reported scorching of the fuselage.
Feuerkugeln,
the glowing spheres which chased aircraft, were very hot. If the same principle whereby the Flying Turtle changed into a ball of fire during its ascent applied to the German VTOL circular autogyro, that is to say that at some stage while climbing vertically it changed into a large glowing sphere, then it would need an outer and inner shell of heat-resistant alloys for when it was operating in that mode.

Festung Norway

Bases existed in Norway for the completion work on the Supreme V-Weapon. Heavy water for the German atomic research project was produced at Vemork and the former Rjukan power house is now the Norwegian Industrial Workers' Museum. In correspondence the curator, Frode Saeland, referred to construction work begun by the Germans on the 5,700-feet Gaustad mountain peak about 50 miles from Oslo which he thought might be worth investigating. The Norwegian Government in exile had concluded at the time that it was a station for forecasting air activity over southern Norway, working in parallel with a similar station on a mountain top at Skavlen near Sauda.

Extracts from Norwegian books published in 1946 and 1980 respectively
¹⁶⁴
described the Gaustad installation as “the biggest and most expensive radio installation built by the Germans in Norway”, while Skavlen was a radar base. The construction work on Gaustad peak began in early October 1944, probably in the same week the SS took over at Ohrdruf in the Harz. The mountain and surrounding district were sealed off and huge quantities of sand, cement and building materials were taken to the 5,700-foot peak by caravans of mules. A telephone line was laid from Gausta to the valley of West Fjord. Day and night German reconnaissance aircraft circled above the activity while from below machinery could be heard working at all hours. The German regional commander was once overheard to use the expression “V-centre Gaustad Mountain Top”. The work progressed with such urgency that small platforms, large aerial masts and small huts could soon be made out. For the eventuality of air attack the Germans had brought in enormous flak resources on the other side of the valley. The area around the cable car terminus was an absolute confusion of gun emplacements, ammunition dumps and barracks.

The information from Frode Saeland ties in very precisely with a report by the Stockholm Special Correspondent of the English newspaper
The Daily Mail,
Ralph Hewins, who in his article appearing in the 9 December 1944 edition
Nazis Will Run V-War From Norway
spoke of reports from the Norwegian resistance that the Germans were rushing to complete new V-bases in Norway to make up for their lost sites in the west. The main bases were on the peaks of southern Norway's highest mountains, the 5,700-foot Gaustad, 50 miles west of Oslo, two 5,200-foot heights north of Bergen, and various other high points as far north as Trondheim. There was thought to be an important base on the wild, high and windswept Hardanger Plateau. Contrary to policy on the European continent where a slave labour force was used for large-scale construction work, Organization Todt was using only German labourers at Gaustad. Up to a hundred square miles of the terrain was cordoned off and patrolled by battalions of mountain troops and SS. Building materials were being brought up not only manually but by light railway and cable-car systems slung across valleys and chasms.

Mr Hevins then described the “firing positions”, which consisted of huge concrete halls embedded deep in rock, each with a semi-circular roof of reinforced concrete. At firing, the launching platform was extended through the hangar entrance along a runway.

The very salient point puzzling all experts, however, was why the bases were being built on the highest and most inaccessible peaks: neither the V-1 nor V-2 required height for a successful launch. Additionally one might add that neither was manufactured in Norway. These enormous rockets and flying bombs would have had to be transported in batches from Germany to Oslo by sea – a dangerous undertaking by 1944 – then shipped overland to Gaustad and brought up the 5700-foot mountain by mule or cable-car. This enables us to rule out the V-1, V-2 and anything series-produced, remote-controlled or otherwise. Obviously, the monumental radio and radar system and the ‘firing' halls were all meant for a super-secret ‘aircraft' which operated from V-Centre Gaustad.

That the neutral Swedes were highly indignant at German infringements of their airspace by what they alleged were remote-controlled flying bombs is evident from the following newspaper cuttings of the time. On 14 October 1944
Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snallposten
of Malmö under a heading
Boomerang-Bomb from the Hardanger High Plateau?
said that heavy construction work of a secret nature being carried out by the Germans on the sealed-off Hardanger Plateau north of Rjukan had reached such a stage as to lead one to suspect that it had to do with a secret weapon project and “it is not impossible that they are launch ramps for robot-bombs and that the flying bombs which crossed southern Sweden today were fired from there”.