w.i.l.l.y Ley, and Klaus Riedel."
The general gave a low whistle of respect. "That"s some bunch of
scientists," he said. "What were they up to?"
"We know that a number of small liquid-fuelled rockets were fired
from their testing ground in the Berlin suburb of Reinickerdorf. Then,
in April 1930, Captain Walter Dornberger was appointed to the
Ordnance Branch of the German Army"s Ballistics and Weapons
Office, headed by one General Becker. Dornberger was to work on
rocket development at the army"s k.u.mmersdorf firing range,
approximately fifteen miles south of Berlin. Two years later the VfR
demonstrated one of their liquid-fueled rockets to Dornberger and
other officers at k.u.mmersdorf."
"I"m surprised I haven"t heard of this," Taylor said, sounding
slightly aggrieved.
"Maybe that"s because recently, with Hitler"s support, the Gestapo
moved in and overnight the VfR ceased to exist as a civilian
organization."
"But it"s now being used by the army."
"Right. A lot of its members, including the reportedly up-andcoming Wernher von Braun, were taken under Dornberger"s wing and
began working at k.u.mmersdorf in strict secrecy."
"Ah," the general said softly, "so that"s why our air force is
concerned!"
"d.a.m.ned right," Bradley said. "And if they knew what I recently
learned in Roswell, they"d be even more concerned."
"And what was that, Mike?"
"Since G.o.ddard was so d.a.m.ned suspicious and frosty over the
phone," Bradley explained, thinking again of Gladys Kinder and
feeling distinctly guilty, "I visited Roswell in order to interview those
who"d known him there his engineers, the local townsfolk, and so
forth. Anyway, over the week I spent there, I became increasingly
concerned with the fact that G.o.ddard, with so little a.s.sistance either
financially or from fellow scientists, had managed to make such
extraordinary advances in rocket research. Then, shortly after the final
launch, I was introduced to a woman "