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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
OPERATION OVERCAST CREATED TO RECRUIT GERMAN SCIENTISTS
On 19 July 1945, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff established Operation OVERCAST to jump-start the American military’s foray into advanced rocket technology. Supervised by the Department of War’s assistant chief of staff, G-2, the program was initially meant to help bring an end to the war in the Pacific. Extended throughout the postwar period, the program benefited several American scientific and technical fields.
Germany’s development and use of the V-1 jet-powered flying bomb and V-2 rocket during World War II signaled the beginning of the era of guided missiles. Foreseeing the Soviet Union’s intention to develop its own arsenal of such weapons, in December 1944, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) conceived of a means to bring qualified German scientists and technicians, as well as German technology, to the United States. Not only would these foreign specialists be able to advise the U.S. military’s efforts in advanced rocket technology but bringing them to the United States would prevent them from falling under Soviet control. The program, launched on 19 July 1945, was initially designated Operation OVERCAST but was later renamed Project PAPERCLIP.
The entire operation fell under the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) but was also under review by the State, War, and Navy Coordinating Committee. The JCS, however, directed the assistant chief of staff, G-2, in the War Department, Maj. Gen. Clayton Bissel, to exercise general supervision and interagency coordination over this foreign specialist program. Bissel delegated that responsibility to his Captured Personnel and Materiel Branch (later the Exploitation Branch) headed at that time by Lt. Col. Monroe Hagood.
In the beginning, the G-2 turned to his Alsos personnel to develop a list of German personnel they felt should be recruited to enable the United States to exploit and improve upon Germany’s advancements in rocketry. Alsos teams, comprised of Army intelligence personnel and U.S. citizen-scientists, had been in Europe since 1943, tracking down and capturing specific persons, facilities, and materiel of key scientific interest. [See This Week in MI History #65 4 November 1943 and #149 25 August 1944]
Upon arrival in the U.S., the chosen German scientists and technicians were assembled at Fort Standish (later renamed Fort Strong) in Boston Harbor, under military custody, until they could be processed and interrogated. When Fort Strong was closed during postwar downsizing, the scientists were moved to Fort Hunt, Virginia, and then to Mitchel Field, New York. With a shortage of personnel in the G-2, by 1947, a small liaison team had been stationed at the Army’s New York Port of Embarkation to meet the incoming scientists, process them at Mitchel Field, and move them to their assigned destinations.
Ultimately, thousands of German scientists and engineers were interviewed by Army interrogators, and short-term employment contracts were offered to more than six hundred technical specialists. The scientists worked at Army, Air Force, and Navy installations throughout the United States, including Fort Bliss, Texas; Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; and Wright Field, Ohio. Eventually, the program was opened to private industry as well. These German specialists contributed to a variety of American developments, such as aircraft and jet engine designs, wind tunnels, submarine technology, rocket fuels, communications, and missile guidance systems.
Project PAPERCLIP ended effective 30 September 1947, but special individual cases were considered thereafter, and the JIOA and the G-2 remained involved. The wisdom and ethics of the decision to bring German scientists—many with Nazi pasts—to work in the United States remains controversial. The program, however, saved the U.S. military and defense industries time and money, and advanced U.S. rocket and missile development necessary to compete in the ensuing arms race with the Soviet Union.
New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 07.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.12.2024 18:01 |
| Story ID: | 476098 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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