Peenemünde: Vandenberg Memo on Ghost Rockets
Lt. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg sent a top-secret memo to President Truman concluding that evidence indicated Peenemünde in East Germany as the launch site for ghost rockets, based on radar data from a Swedish officer.
Background
Background
In August 1946, the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) examined reports of rocket-shaped objects known as ghost rockets, sighted mainly over Sweden. These sightings raised fears of Soviet tests of captured German technology.
The Memo
On August 22, 1946, CIG Director Lt. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg wrote a top-secret memo to President Truman, transmitted via Adm. William D. Leahy. It stated that the weight of evidence pointed to Peenemünde, by then a Soviet naval base in East Germany. A US military attaché in Moscow had received information from an influential Swedish air force officer (Wennerström) that analysis of radar tracks confirmed the launch site.
Speculations
The CIG suspected further developments of the V-1 rockets with greater range, aimed into the Gulf of Bothnia for testing. The objects were not intended to overfly Swedish territory deliberately as intimidation, but to destroy themselves by means of a small explosive charge or by burning up.
Significance
The document shows early US intelligence analysis of UAP-like phenomena as possible hostile weapons. It points to geopolitical tensions in the Cold War and to the connection with Nazi rocket programmes.