Authors: Henry Stevens
“And which of the three available air-disc constructions comes under consideration for insertion? General Kammler’s voice fell (as he spoke this sentence). The deciding question had been asked. And during Chief Engineer Klein’s evaluation, once again, of the qualities of the Miethe diskus and of the small coffee-cup-like disc of Rudolf Schriever, he had finally the desired answer ready.
There is only one design which, on the quiet, has been produced by the creator Otto Habermohl, in the transformed area of an inn in Slany, about forty kilometers from Prague.
…He knew (Kammler) that it was a better design and laid a document, which was provided the secret symbol VM 2233, demonstratively on his writing table. “The great wonder is not very far away. In my hands lies the plans for the air-disc of designer Otto Habermohl.”
“If I delivered a finished flying disc tomorrow, he continued lost in his thoughts, which would be a fighter in the air for the Luftwaffe, then we would have won a battle without sacrificing human life because arising out of our secretive flying image would be mass hysteria in the whole world, then is the wonder weapon of the Fuehrer’s there and on the retreating fronts only once one looks in to the sky and would again believe.”
So we have it. The Habermohl machine was to be put into production and the reasoning behind Kammler’s motivational statement to Klein is explained. The Germans thought the very appearance of flying discs would spook the Allies and restore faith among the Germans to Hitler.
Nowadays, this second point, that of panicking the Allies, might seem far-fetched but it had happened once about two years previously. During massive daylight raids deep into Germany the Allies had lost bombers faster than they could ever be replaced. This did spook the Allies into calling a halt to daylight bombing and also caused a reappraisal of their bombing strategy. Please recall that Kammler’s words were “will delay the end of the war.” The flying discs could not win the war on the basis of their military might but, instead, they were to rattle the Allies into another delay in the air war.
At this point Mr. Rothkugel summarizes Klein’s words, telling us feverish work was ongoing to complete the first 15 saucers (2). Klein gives the exact location of this work, at the Letov-Works in Prague Smichov and at the Cesco-Moravska (BMM) facility. “BMM” was Bohmisch-Maehrischen Machinenfabrik or Bohemian-Moravian Machine Factory. Engineer Habermohl was told by Klein that he had only 14 days to complete each disc. Klein also explains, as summarized by Mr. Rothkugel, that two Habermohl discs could be built in the time it would have taken to produce one Miethe diskus. Also, the Habermohl discs were cheaper to build and simpler.
Klein relates one more interesting detail concerning manufacturing of the flying discs. This comes, not from Kammler, but from one of his understudies who steps in for Kammler when Kammler cannot make a planned meeting with Klein. Klein waited in vain for Kammler to appear when he was given a sort of apology. Kammler’s underling told Klein that he, Klein, now had a free hand in production of these discs and was responsible for the whole matter. This unnamed individual went on to explain:
…Damit aber kein Werk hinter den befohlenen Arbeitsleistungen zurueckbleibt, soll in Sie davon in Kenntnis setzen, dass der General alle verguegbaren Spezialkraefte des Voldswagenwerkes, Abteilung Fluzeugbau, in Neudeck bei Karsbad, per Sonderzug nach Prag befohlen hat.
Sie treffen am 5. Mai auf dem Susstellungsgelaende ein und sollen gleichmaessig auf die Letov-Werke und die Boehmisch-Maehrischen Maschinenfabrik, CMK Kolben-Danke, verteilen werden.”
“Herewith. No work behind the ordered rate of work remains behind. I shall put you in the know that the General had ordered all available special powers of the Volkswagen Werke, Aircraft Construction Division, in Neudeck near Karlsbad, transported by special train to Prague.”
“They arrived on May 5th at the exhibition area and were to be uniformly distributed to the Letov-works and the Bohemian-Moravian Machine factory CMK Kolben-Danek.”
Klaus-Peter Rothkugel’s summary includes the fact that it was Volkswagen which built the V-1 in the series. The designation “V-1” in this case would probably be “Versuchs” meaning experimental or research. This may have been the prototype, serving as a template for the other two manufacturing companies.
Please note the date in the last passages translated, May 5
th
1945. It is no wonder that Kammler missed this meeting. After all, it is May 5th, 1945! Hitler is dead as will be the 3rd Reich in three days. Kammler is probably seeing to it that he lands on his feet after the Reich collapses. But it is interesting that he still inspired enough confidence or perhaps fear as to continue to motivate those under him in these circumstances.
Returning to the sites given for assembling flying discs, let us see what exists as far as information about them form other sources.
One of the firms which was to do the manufacturing was called BBM (Boehmisch-Maehrische Maschinenfabrik) or Bohemian-Moravian Machine Factory. But prior to the German occupation this same company had been known as CKD or Ceskomoravska Kolben-Danek. In fact it was one of the largest engineering companies in Czechoslovakia and supplied military vehicles to that country in the 1930’s. During the war this company designed and built the Panzer 38(t) and the famous Jagdpanzer 38(t) tank destroyer which was built on the same Panzer 38(t) chassis.(3) This firm survived the war as CKD Tatra manufacturing metro cars and locomotives. There is no question that this firm was fully capable of manufacturing small flying discs on an assembly line basis.
A second firm mentioned was the Letov-Works. This firm is properly named Letov Kbely (4). It is located in Letnany very near Prague and as a matter of fact Letnany became part of Prague in 1968 (5). Letov is the oldest aircraft company in the region. During the war Letov repaired German aircraft for the Luftwaffe. It also built versions of the Ju-290, specifically the Ju-290 A-2 which carried a search-radar. As with so many aircraft firms under the Germans, Letov partnered with German firms, building German aircraft. The association with Junkers (Ju stands for Junkers) should be noted. After the war, under the Soviets, Letov built the MiG-15, MiG-19 and MiG-21. Again, this firm was more than capable of producing Habermohl flying discs.
So far the firms involved have been easily found on the Internet with apparently open histories. Of course neither firm is going to admit to producing flying discs even if things had progressed to that point which is still in some doubt given the late dates involved. Even if the Germans were simply planning these moves or had brought things right up to a point of assembly, these are things which would have fallen under secrecy under change to Soviet administration and probably remained so to this day. But finding facts about what a Czechoslovakian company did during the war is child’s play compared to researching a German company.
Over the years I have contacted some German companies with various questions as to what they did or built during the war. Even though all these companies have company historians on staff with Ph.D.s, their official corporate memories of the war years are always fuzzy. And this is with good reason. Almost all of these firms have been attacked and even sued over their use of slave labor during the war. Actually, I am not sure they had much choice. Speer and Kammler after him organized labor for the Reich. The firm in question was given a contract and supplied the labor necessary to carry out that order. With all able-bodied men in the military and even women working where they could, there was an extreme and critical labor shortage. The German conscripted forced labor throughout countries they had conquered, sending able bodied workers to the Reich to work where needed and live in concentration camps. Eventually, everything was on a military footing and finally everything was ordered and under the control of the SS. This means Dr. Hans Kammler. Nobody and no company was going to cross this man or this organization during the war in Germany.
This brings us to the claim that Volkswagen was involved in building the prototype flying disc. Not only that but it is claimed that Volkswagen had a
Flugzeug Abteinlung
, an Aircraft Division. Never had I heard of a VW Aircraft Division. Several searches were done but nothing presented itself on the Internet. Then I flipped to German language and searched Volkswagen at the alleged site of this plant, Neudeck, near Karlsbad, and something came up. Strange as it seems at first, is this was an official Volkswagen account of slave labor and the testimony of three Polish men impressed into slave labor at the
Volkswagen Flugzeug Abteilung
. Perhaps the reason for this publication stems from the fact that Volkswagen has already undergone scrutiny for slave labor during the war and has settled those claims. The reasoning may be it is all right to admit this activity at this time.
The testimony involves three Polish workers, conscripted into slave labor. The document (titled
Abfahrt ins Ungewisse
) traces their wartime experiences, all three basically following the same outline in their testimony (6). The account of Stefan Zurawicz describes has trip to the Volkswagen plant in Neudek, spelled without the “c,” 75 kilometers from Karlsbad. There he worked in a warehouse storing aircraft wheels and tanks (7). The second account, that of Stanislaw Latacz states:
“Ich arbeitete in einer Halle, wo defekte Flugzeuge rapariert wurden. In dieser Abteinlung arbeitete auch Deutsche, Italiener, Belgier, Polen und Rrussen. Ich rapierte das Steuersystem, angefangen von der Kabine durch die ganze Laenge des flugzeuges. Polen arbeiteten in the ganzen Fabrik von Kraftwerk bis zur Gemeinschaftskueche.” (8)
“I worked in a hall where defective aircraft were repaired. In this division there worked Germans, Italians, Belgians, Poles and Russians. I repaired the steering system, starting in the cabin through the whole length of the aircraft. Poles worked in the whole factory from power plant to the common kitchen.”
Evidently this was before coming to Neudek, in Krakow (Krakau) but still evidently for Volkswagen. When he arrived in Neudek he was given other duty which is directly to our point:
“In Neudek arbeitete ich bei der Produktion von Tragflaechen fuer kleine Flugzeuge.”
(9)
“In Neudek I worked on the production of wings for small aircraft.”
Volkswagen, Neudek, made small aircraft. The Habermohl flying disc was a small aircraft. This facility was capable of making the V-1 flying disc, at least in small numbers. As documentation for Mr. Latacz, a clear photograph of the assembly-line for aircraft wings is shown (Taktstrasse fuer Flugzeug-Tragflaechen, 1941) (9).
So far we have dealt with only the testimony of Georg Klein as given to the Hamburger Morgenpost, republished by Klaus-Peter Rothkugel in Geheimnis der deutschen Flugscheiben as well as some research backing up that testimony. But researchers/writers Dr. Milos Jesensky and engineer Robert Lesniakiewicz make some points in their book,
“Wunderland” Mimozemske Technologie Trete Rise
, which seem to back up the
Mopo
article.
Dr. Jesensky and Mr. Lesniakiewicz write that the design center for the “V-7” saucer was the Avia-Junkers facility.(11) Avia, a Czech firm, was formed in 1919 and was absorbed by Skoda in 1928 but evidently, Avia continued business under its own name. During the war Avia built Me 109 fighter aircraft as well as Me 262, the most advanced aircraft Germany had to offer (12). So when Dr. Jesensky and Ing. Lesniakiewicz claim another association of Avia, this time with Junkers, it should come as no surprise. We have already seen exactly the same relationship with German firms and the Letov company.
The really interesting thing is Avia’s location, they were in that same small town of Letnany (13) (14) which hosted Letov. Jesensky and Lesniakiewicz say the V-7 flew there on Feburary 25, 1945 and Letnany was bombed by the Allies at about that same time. They also report one of their sources, Dr. Ludvik Soucek remembers seeing both Schriever and Habermohl on the football field there exactly where German soldiers built a concrete platform for the saucer (11). After the bombing the assembly site was moved according to these writers (11).
Could the location of this small town of Letnany for both Letov and Avia-Junkers, both firms being in the business of building a German flying disc, described by two different sets of authorities while using completely different information sources, be coincidental? Or would a reasonable person have to believe that Letov, Avia, and Junkers all had a part in this mass production scheme?
For our final bit of evidence we will rely on the very words of one who claimed to have actually worked on mass production of German flying discs. This was Walther Riedel. Riedel worked with von Braun at Peenemuende and later a Paperclip scientist and part of the von Braun rocket team in the USA. In addition, Walther Reidel had an interest in UFOs, believed in a possible extraterrestrial source for UFOs, and unlike his German cohorts, he was willing to speak out on the subject as we shall see.(15)
It has often been stated by Philip Corso and numerous others that the von Braun rocket team was questioned about UFOs or flying saucers and they claimed to know nothing. It was also claimed these same German rocket experts were questioned about flying discs built by the Germans in the Nazi years. Of course, it is claimed they knew nothing.
Well, this is lie. Either the questions were never asked, those reporting the answers are lying or the German scientists themselves lied. If the latter is the case, this cover-up was not airtight as at least one of this elite group voiced the truth at least once. But to understand how this admission came about, we have to digress to a flying saucer sighting of the 1950’s and the reaction to it.
The UFO story in question occurred in the Spitzbergen Islands, which are just north of Norway and belong to that country. Actually, this was an alleged UFO crash and the crash was allegedly discovered and impounded by the Norwegian Air Force. This whole event was said to have happened in June, 1952 with the first report of this incident coming from the German newspaper
Die Saarbruecker Zeitung
on June 28, 1952 in an article titled:
Auf Spitzbergen landete Fliegende Untertasse
(“On Spitzbergen a Flying Saucer Landed”).