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 5th 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 po
ints 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”).
People up on UFO culture will recognize the fact that, even though this date was later than Roswell, the Roswell story had been shut down for one reason or another and really did not come back to popular understanding until the 1980’s. Nevertheless, the Spitzbergen story is very similar in that there were first reports, denials, new reports, confusion with other alleged saucer crashes, analysis, argument, and still the legend persists.
Recounting the sequence of events is beyond the scope of this chapter or this book but those interested can read perhaps the best summary which was researched by Ole Jonny Braenne, a Norwegian. (16)
What is important is the original, breaking story in the Saarbruecker Zeitung, their description of the saucer involved and the expert analysis reviewing that description. The saucer is described as having a radio which sent out a signal at 934 Hz—the signal of which was how it was first located. The radio had a plutonium core that was its power source. The saucer had a diameter of 48.88 meters, almost 159 feet. It was made of an “unknown metal.” It was powered by 46 jets that spun the disc around a plexiglass cabin. It was remote controlled, no humans were on board (at least as of the first report). All symbols on the measuring devices were in Russian.
Naturally the newspaper wanted someone to comment on this description. They were a German newspaper and so wanted someone in authority, preferably German speaking to them in German. Who better than Walther Riedel, a former member of the Wernher von Braun rocket team, now working for North American Aircraft in California, and who already had an interest in UFOs or flying saucers? They contacted Walter Riedel and gave him a description of the saucer. From the Saarbruecker Zeitung, June 28th, 1953:
“Der deutsche V-Waffen Konstrukttur Riedel aeusserte auf die Bescrheibung der Diskusschiebe: “Das ist eine typische V-7 an denen serienweiser Herstellung ich selbst arbeitete.”(17)
“The German V-weapons designer Riedel asserts based on the description of the diskus-disc: “That is a typical V-7 on whose series (production) method I myself worked.”
For my money, the Saarbruecker Zeitung description fits more closely to the Miethe machine than the Habermohl saucer but that is really not the point. The point is in the euphoria of an alleged crashed UFO, a German rocket scientist was induced to finally tell more of what he knew happened during the war which is that the Germans were in the process of mass-producing a flying saucer.
In the end we have three independent lines of testimony all claiming a German flying disc was in mass production or built in prototype and on the verge of mass production days before the war ended.
Sources and References
1. Rothkugel, Klaus-Peter, 2003, Das Geheimnis der deutschen Flugscheiben, pages 47-50, ISBN 3-925 480 58-7
2. Rothkugel, Klaus-Peter, 2003, page 49
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8CKD_%28company%29
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letov_Kbely
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%C5%88any
6. Abfahrt ins Ungewisse Drei Polen berichten ueber ihre Zeit als Zwangsarbeiter im Volkswagen werk von Herbst 1942 bis Sommer 1945, Historische Notatel Schriftenreihe der Historischen Kommunikation der Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Wolfsburg 2004, ISBN 1615-0201, ISBN 978-3-935112-17-8, internet link:
http://www.volkswagenag.com/context/vwcorp/infocenter/de/publications/2010/05/abfahrtinsungewisse.bin.html/binarystorageitem/file/VWAG.pdf
7. ibid, page 92
8. ibid, page 66
9. ibid, page 70
10. ibid, page 65
11. Jesensky, Milos Ph.D., and Ing. Robert Lesniakiewicz, 1998, “Wunderland” Mimozemske Technologie Treti Rise, pages 87-89, AOS Publishing, 1. Vydani
12. http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avia
13. Ibid
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%C5%88any
15. Encyclopedia Astronautica http://www.astronautix.com/astros/rielther.htm
16. Braenne, Ole Jonne, Legend Of The Spitsbergen Saucer, 1992, International UFO Reporter, Nov/Dec 1992, page 14-19
17. Saarbrucker Zeitung, June 28, 1952, Auf Spitzbergen landete Fliegende Untertasse
A rare 1941 photograph of the Volksvagen aircraft factory at Neudek.
Supposed plans for Haunebu II craft. From the German book Die Dunkle Seitie des Mondes (The Dark Side of the Moon) by Brad Harris.
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