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Rockets and People
“portable” guided missiles will be as accessible as Kalashnikovs to terrorists, saboteurs,
and guerrillas at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
But in those days we could not imagine the prospects of such a historical turn
in weapons technology.We were drawn to Peenemünde purely by our professional
engineering curiosity and a sense of duty to our country. I had been somewhat
prepared for what I might see from the detailed impressions of Aleksey Isayev and
Arvid Pallo, who had flown into Berlin from Peenemünde just the week before.
But when, at our request, the airplane flew over the entire island, I was so delighted
by everything that I saw that even a half century later, I still see the broad beaches,
the white caps of the surging surf, and the forested hills in my memory. I didn’t
want to tear my eyes away from the sights of this wonderful natural preserve.The
landscape contrasted sharply with the ruins of Berlin which we had grown accustomed
to over the past month.Among the pines at Peenemünde we could see the
outlines of buildings and the enormous iron structures of raised drawbridges, along
with some other structures that I couldn’t make out from the air; they were clearly
production facilities.A network of roads, practically concealed by the shade of the
pines, connected the entire island.To the right, the forests reached into the distance
and one could see patches of lakes.To the left was the gray sea.We flew again over
the developed area of the island, and saw attractive white, pink, and multicolored
villas and hotels peeked out from under the green of the pine trees. Simply put, it
looked like a resort.
From the air, we saw no traces of the brutal bombings that the Brits had
reported to us.The airfield that received our Boston proved fully suitable. It had
been designed for the landing of high-speed bombers. Our arrival had been
expected and we were driven immediately to the Schwabes Hotel after we landed.
Seeing the areas surrounding Peenemünde, everybody’s first impression had less
to do with rocket technology than the natural beauty of the Baltic coast.This is
where the elite of the German rocket specialists had lived, worked, and played.
Now the best of the hotels—the Schwabes Hotel—housed the headquarters for
Peenemünde research headed by Major General Andrey Illarionovich Sokolov,
who during the war had been the deputy commander of the Guards Mortar Units.
While they were looking for people in Moscow who would supervise German
rocket technology, the Main Artillery Directorate entrusted Sokolov with studying
and safeguarding Peenemünde. One has to give him credit—he organized this
work very well. 1
Virtually no competent German specialists remained on Usedom Island.
General Sokolov’s group had gathered several ill-informed specialists from among
the local residents.With their help and with the speculations of Soviet engineers,
they compiled a report on Peenemünde’s former state before our army arrived—
1. Andrey Illarionovich Sokolov (1910-1976) later headed NII-4, the most influential ballistic missile
research institute within the Soviet military.
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