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66-619: As part of the German rearmament , the German 110th Infantry Regiment was activated in May 1936 and stationed in Heidelberg . The existing Grenadier-Kaserne (now Patton Barracks ) was not large enough for the regiment. Accordingly, a new installation was built in 1937 on what was then farmland on the southern outskirts of Heidelberg near the suburb of Rohrbach. At first unnamed, the new installation

132-799: A U.S. military officer , and the position is dual-hatted with that of Commander of United States European Command . The current SACEUR is General Christopher G. Cavoli of the United States Army . Since 2003 the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) has also served as the head of Allied Command Europe and the head of Allied Command Operations. The officeholders have been: The position of Deputy Supreme Allied Command Europe (DSACEUR) has been known as Deputy Head of Allied Command Operations since 2003. From January 1978 until June 1993 there were two DSACEURs, one British and one German. From July 1993 this reverted to

198-590: A Holocaust later, and a successful German nuclear weapons program , safely behind a Nazi version of an Iron Curtain . George F. Kennan stated: "Unquestionably, such a policy might have enforced a greater circumspection on the Nazi regime and caused it to proceed more slowly with the actualization of its timetable. From this standpoint, firmness at the time of the reoccupation of the Rhineland (7 March 1936) would probably have yielded even better results than firmness at

264-614: A foreign exchange that they could use for rearmament and support their propaganda efforts abroad. By 1935, Hitler was open about rejecting the military restrictions set forth by the Treaty of Versailles. Rearmament was announced on 16 March, as was the reintroduction of conscription . Some large industrial companies, which had until then specialized in certain traditional products began to diversify and introduce innovative ideas in their production pattern. Shipyards , for example, created branches that began to design and build aircraft. Thus,

330-557: A front for government-issued debt, this allowed the Nazi Regime to conceal their rearmament funding from the international community. Without the creation of the Mefo program, the international community would have been immediately alarmed at the raising of funds by Nazi Germany, and the rearmament program would be threatened by external intervention. In another instance of money market fraud, one can examine Schacht's manipulation of

396-544: A global disarmament movement was popular after World War I and Europe's democracies continued to elect governments that supported disarmament even as Germany pursued rearmament. By the late 1930s, the German military was very capable of overwhelming its neighbors and the rapid German conquests of Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France proved how poorly prepared its neighbors were to defend themselves. Germany's post-1918 rearmament began at

462-522: A member of the NSDAP) was an initially sympathetic economist, introduced a wide variety of schemes in order to tackle the effects that the Great Depression had on Germany, were the main key players of German rearmament policies (see Reichsbank § Nazi period ). Dummy companies like MEFO were set up to finance the rearmament; MEFO obtained the large amount of money needed for the effort through

528-563: A proponent of eugenics . Final solution Parties Supreme Allied Commander, Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe ( SACEUR ) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is based at SHAPE in Casteau , Belgium . In effect, SACEUR

594-515: A small, secret, and informal basis shortly after the treaty was signed, but was openly and massively expanded after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. Despite its scale, German re-armament remained a largely covert operation , carried out using front organizations such as glider clubs for training pilots and sporting clubs, and Nazi SA militia groups for teaching infantry combat techniques. Front companies like MEFO were set up to finance

660-563: A system that would allow the German government to receive an unlimited amount of credit to put towards their program. Schacht created the Metallurgische Forschungs-G.m.b.H , a shell company that would issue short-term treasury notes, which would "function as a concealed form of money". The company would sell over 12 billion Reichsmarks worth of Mefo-bills by 1938, money which would all go to fund rearmament. Since Schacht's company did not function and instead just worked as

726-537: A week so that you can have a Tiger. Men of the Tiger, they all work for you. Think what you have in your hands! The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) provided an ideal testing ground for the proficiency of the new weapons produced by the German factories during the re-armament years. Many aeronautical bombing techniques (i.e. dive bombing ) were tested by the Condor Legion German expeditionary forces against

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792-407: Is currently represented by 15 NATO nations, including its newest members Lithuania and Slovakia. This transformation to CC-Land HQ HD was part of a major NATO restructuring, and realized a fundamental change in headquarters mission and operations, as this headquarters turns its focus from one of six joint sub-regional command headquarters, to assume roles as one of only two land centric headquarters in

858-671: Is now concentrated in just five key locations in Germany, with its new European headquarters in Wiesbaden. The base will be turned over to the German government. German rearmament German rearmament ( Aufrüstung , German pronunciation: [ˈaʊ̯fˌʀʏstʊŋ] ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out by Germany from 1918 to 1939, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which required German disarmament after WWI to prevent it from starting another war. It began on

924-652: Is the second-highest military position within NATO, below only the Chair of the NATO Military Committee in terms of precedence. There is another Supreme Allied Commander in NATO, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), titularly equal, but whose duties are less operational. SACT, in Norfolk, Virginia, has responsibility for capability development rather than operations. SACEUR has always been held by

990-510: The Lipetsk fighter-pilot school , on Junkers, Heinkel, and Dornier aircraft. An example of the Weimar clandestine rearmament measures was the training and equipping of police forces in a way that made them not just paramilitary in organizational culture but also well prepared to rapidly augment the military as military reserve forces , which the treaty did not allow. Another example was that

1056-595: The Mefo bills , a certain series of Promissory notes issued by the Government of Nazi Germany . Covert organizations like the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule were established under a civilian guise in order to train pilots for the future Luftwaffe . Although available statistics do not include non-citizens or women, the massive Nazi re-armament policy almost led to full employment during

1122-518: The Republican Government on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Francisco Franco . Hitler insisted, however, that his long-term designs were peaceful, a strategy labelled as Blumenkrieg ("Flower War"). Re-armament in the 1930s saw the development of different theories of how to prepare the German economy for total war. The first amongst these was 'defence in depth' which was put forward by Georg Thomas . He suggested that

1188-665: The Treaty of Versailles , which was ostensibly about war reparations and peace enforcement. France wanted to make sure Germany would never again be a military threat. However, in the mid-1930s Britain and France would decline to fight another war to enforce the Versailles Treaty, thus bringing the treaty's effects to an end. A Soviet -German friendship and economic cooperation pact, the Treaty of Rapallo (1922) , would see Junkers soon after manufacturing planes in Moscow , and German pilots, from 1924, being secretly trained at

1254-548: The Union Banking Corporation ), collaboration agreements, production facilities and raw materials. DuPont owned stocks in IG Farben and Degussa AG , who controlled Degesch , the producer of Zyklon B . This involvement was motivated not only by financial gain, but in some cases by ideology as well. Irénée du Pont , director and former president of DuPont, was a supporter of Nazi racial theory and

1320-515: The re-armament policy in Great Britain , which escalated after Adolf Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference in 1933. Despite warnings by Ossietzky, Winston Churchill and others, successive governments across Europe failed to effectively recognize, cooperate, and respond to the potential danger posed by Germany's re-armament. Outside Germany,

1386-476: The time of Munich ". Some 150 American corporations took part in German re-armament, supplying German companies with everything from raw materials to technology and patent knowledge . This took place through a complex network of business interests, joint ventures, cooperation agreements, and cross-ownership between American and German corporations and their subsidiaries. Resources supplied to German companies (some of which were MEFO front companies established by

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1452-532: The 1930s. A central question is whether the Allies should have drawn "a line in the sand" earlier than September 1939, which might have resulted in a less devastating war and perhaps a prevention of the Holocaust . However, it is also possible that anything that caused Hitler not to overreach as soon and as far as he did would only have condemned Europe to a more slowly growing Nazi empire, leaving plenty of time for

1518-470: The 1930s. The re-armament began a sudden change in fortune for many factories in Germany. Many industries were taken out of a deep crisis that had been induced by the Great Depression. The creation of Mefo bills was the first fiscal step that Germany took on the road to rearmament. The Versailles Treaty prohibited the German government from rearming. Therefore, to rearm to the capacity that Hitler

1584-565: The American international exchange system, which provided Germany an arbitrage opportunity allowing them to fund their rearmament program. After attaining the position of Reichsbank President in 1933, Schacht told the American Government that the German corporations, government, and municipalities would be unable to pay their interest payments to American bondholders on American denominated debt. The cancellation of interest payments

1650-854: The CENTAG headquarters staff moved from Campbell Barracks to Hammond Barracks in Seckenheim . On December 1, 1966, the Seventh Army headquarters (which had been reactivated in Stuttgart in November 1950) merged with the USAREUR headquarters. This new headquarters was designated Headquarters, United States Army, Europe, and Seventh Army (HQ USAREUR/7A). In the late 1970s, a series of studies concluded that interallied coordination would be improved by stationing three international NATO headquarters on

1716-642: The Constabulary headquarters moved from Heidelberg to Stuttgart and the EUCOM headquarters moved into the vacated facilities at Großdeutschland-Kaserne. The Kaserne was formally renamed Campbell Barracks on August 23, 1948 in memory of Staff Sergeant Charles L. Campbell, 14th Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Division, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism. On March 28, 1945, two days before

1782-665: The Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Poland - making a total of 12 NATO Nations contributing to the Headquarters. The devastation caused in the September 11, 2001 attacks sent shock waves through the military and on April 30, 2002 the Lieutenant General Timothy J. Maude Center for Human Resources was dedicated to Timothy Maude (November 18, 1947 - September 11, 2001) in his honor. He

1848-406: The German economy needed to achieve Autarky (or self-sufficiency) and one of the main proponents behind this was I.G. Farben . Hitler never put his full support behind Autarky and aimed for the development of 'defence in breadth' which espoused the development of the armed forces in all areas and was not concerned with preparing the German war economy . The re-armament program quickly increased

1914-409: The German re-armament provided an opportunity for advanced, and sometimes revolutionary, technological improvements, especially in the field of aeronautics . Work by labour historians has determined that many German workers in the 1930s identified passionately with the weapons they were building. While this was in part due to the high status of the skilled work required in the armaments industries, it

1980-546: The German state) by American corporations included: synthetic rubber production technology ( DuPont and Standard Oil of New Jersey ), communication equipment ( ITT ), computing and tabulation machines ( IBM ), aviation technology (which was used to develop the Junkers Ju 87 bomber), fuel (Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of California ), military vehicles ( Ford and General Motors ), funding (through investment, brokering services, and loans by banks like

2046-608: The Großdeutschland-Division. When completed, the new Heidelberg barracks became the home of the 110th Infantry's headquarters, its 1st Battalion and its two regimental support companies. The regiment's 2d Battalion was stationed at Loretto-Kaserne (now called Hammonds Barracks) in Seckenheim and the 3d Battalion at Grenadier-Kaserne. The Keyes Building on Campbell originally served as the regimental officers mess. The first Allied troops entered Heidelberg on

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2112-602: The Kaserne. The Army Group headquarters was inactivated in June 1945, whereupon the headquarters of the U.S. Seventh Army moved from Augsburg to Heidelberg, officially opening at Großdeutschland-Kaserne on July 22, 1945. The Seventh Army headquarters remained in Heidelberg until its inactivation on 31 March 1946. The headquarters of the U.S. Third Army then moved from Bad Tölz to Großdeutschland-Kaserne on 2 April 1946. In

2178-652: The NATO command structure designed to provide expeditionary command and control at the operational level of conflict. With this increased operational focus, there remains the critical element of promoting enhanced interoperability and standardization through provisions of land advice and guidance within Allied Command for Operations. Headquarters will also work closely with Allied Command for Transformation on aspects such as land concept development, exercises and training. Within JFC Brunssum, headquarters serves as

2244-566: The Republic's era of democracy, they all participated in the democratic definition of coming to power (winning votes), but many of them, on all sides, planned to abolish or diminish democracy in the future, if they could first get into position to do so. During the Weimar era, there was extensive economic interaction between Germany and the Soviet Union, and a component of German re-armament was covertly holding military training exercises in

2310-657: The Soviet Union to hide their extent from other countries. Germany–Soviet Union relations of the interwar period were complex, as bellicosity and cooperation coexisted in tortuous combinations. After the Nazi takeover of power in January 1933, the Nazis pursued a greatly enlarged and more aggressive version of rearmament. During its struggle for power, the 'National Socialist party' ( NSDAP ) promised to recover Germany's lost national pride. It proposed military rearmament claiming that

2376-495: The Treaty of Versailles and the acquiescence of the Weimar Republic were an embarrassment for all Germans. The rearmament became the topmost priority of the German government. Hitler would then spearhead one of the greatest expansions of industrial production Germany had ever seen. Third Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick , one of the most influential Nazi figures of the time, and Hjalmar Schacht , who (while never

2442-543: The Versailles treaty. One of the reasons why this militarization of society was difficult to prevent relates to the distinction between the government executive and the legislature. The democratically elected government, being composed of groups of people, inevitably reflected the factional strife and cultural militarism among the populace. But the German Revolution of 1918–19 had not truly settled what

2508-477: The Wehrmacht he could "openly admit: we rearmed to an extent the like of which the world has not yet seen". Since World War II, both academics and laypeople have discussed the extent to which German re-armament was an open secret among national governments. The failure of Allied national governments to confront and intervene earlier in Germany is often discussed in the context of the appeasement policies of

2574-503: The bond back to the issuer and exchange the American dollar-denominated debt for Reichsmarks. The German government could then take the foreign exchange that they had received and pay for their rearmament program, an example being purchasing American plane parts with the US dollars they accumulated from this program. Schacht took the program even further; he would allow German exporters to use a portion of their foreign exchange reserves to purchase

2640-459: The debt. They would then turn around and sell the debt back to the debtors for Reichsmarks , subsidizing exports at the expense of the bondholder while allowing German debtors to repurchase their debt at a large discount. The American bondholder would risk the value of the bond dropping significantly, or they could resell to the German exporters. Schacht's plan allowed the Nazi Regime to make

2706-650: The government tolerated that various Weimar paramilitary groups armed themselves to a dangerous degree. Their force grew enough to potentially threaten the state, but this was tolerated because the state hoped to use such militias as military reserve forces with which to rearm the Reichswehr in the future. Thus various Freikorps , Der Stahlhelm , the Nazi SA and the Nazi SS grew from street gangs into private armies . For example, by 1931 Werner von Blomberg

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2772-548: The headquarters of NATO's Allied Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT) became operational on Campbell Barracks with a staff from seven nations ( Belgium , Canada , Denmark , Germany , The Netherlands , the United Kingdom , and the United States ). LANDCENT moved into offices in buildings 3,7, and 8, formerly used by CENTAG and 4ATAF. The CENTAG Chief of Staff office suite in building 1 was returned to USAREUR. In

2838-751: The headquarters of the U.S. Army in Europe, then known as the U.S. Forces, European Theater (USFET), was stationed in Frankfurt in the IG Farben Building (the Abrams Building). The same day Third Army headquarters was inactivated, USFET was redesignated as the European Command (EUCOM), not to be confused with the joint United States European Command (USEUCOM) of today. In the series of phased moves between February and June 1948,

2904-728: The last time at Campbell Barracks on 6 September 2013, with all personnel already re-located to Wiesbaden Army Airfield. According to the New York Times closure will save the Pentagon $ 112 million a year, mostly in costly security expenses for several scattered facilities. As the headquarters of the United States Army in Europe, the Barracks issued the orders for the millions of American soldiers – 15 million in Germany alone – who have served in Europe since 1945. The US Army

2970-765: The late 1980s and early 1990s, the collapse of the Berlin Wall , the demise of the Soviet Union , and the dissolution of the East European Communist Bloc radically changed the politico-military situation in Europe . In addition to significant reductions and realignments of U.S. Forces in Germany, a number of changes occurred in the NATO military organizational structure, all of which affected stationing at Campbell Barracks. On 30 June 1993 CENTAG and 4ATAF discontinued operations. On July 1, 1993,

3036-491: The meantime the Third Army had activated a new organization on 15 February 1946 called the U.S. Constabulary . The Constabulary was basically a police force with the mission of maintaining law and order in the U.S. Zone of occupied Germany . On February 15, 1947, the Constabulary headquarters moved from Bamberg to Großdeutschland-Kaserne and the Third Army headquarters was inactivated on March 15, 1947. During this time

3102-481: The morning of Good Friday , March 30, 1945, and the city surrendered without a fight. The Wehrmacht had left Heidelberg a day earlier but not before blowing up the bridges crossing the River Neckar, which in Heidelberg meant blowing up the old bridge. The U.S. units that initially occupied Großdeutschland-Kaserne are not known, but by V-E Day , 8 May 1945, the headquarters of the U.S. 6th Army Group occupied

3168-476: The nature of the German state ought to be; Weimar Germany after its revolution was not very far from civil war—the different factions all hoped to transform the German state into the one that they thought it should be (which would require violent suppression of the other factions), and they expected their private armies to merge into the state's army (the Reichswehr) if they could manage to come to power. During

3234-534: The principal focus for all land matters. CC-Land HQ HD has conducted work in the fields of land-based operational planning, intelligence, logistics, command and control, training and exercises. In 2010, the US Army announced that Campbell Barracks would close, with the troop drawdown process completed by no later than 2015. NATO central army operations were relocated to Izmir, Turkey in March 2013. Flags were lowered for

3300-401: The rearmament by placing massive orders with Krupp , Siemens , Gutehofnungshütte , and Rheinmetall for weapons forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. Carl von Ossietzky exposed the reality of the German rearmament in 1931 and his disclosures won him the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize but he was imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis, dying of tuberculosis in 1938. Ossietzky's disclosures triggered

3366-870: The same installation with HQ USAREUR/7A. This resulted in the headquarters of the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (4ATAF) moving into building 8 of Campbell Barracks in September 1980. The CENTAG headquarters returned to Campbell Barracks in December 1980, occupying offices in buildings 3,5, and 7 (with an office for the CENTAG Chief of Staff in building 1). Finally, the headquarters of the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land) moved to Campbell Barracks in December 1980, occupying part of building 7. In

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3432-451: The size of the German officer corps, and organizing the growing army would be their primary task until the beginning of World War II on 1 September 1939. Count Johann von Kielmansegg (1906–2006) later said that the very involved process of outfitting 36 divisions kept him and his colleagues from reflecting on larger issues. In any event, Hitler could boast on 26 September 1938 in the Berlin Sportpalast that after giving orders to rearm

3498-407: The summer of 1994, V Corps headquarters moved from Frankfurt to Campbell Barracks. The departure from the Cold War era brought the implementation of a new NATO Integrated Military Structure and LandCENT was formally designated Joint Headquarters Centre (JHQ CENT) in a ceremony held on March 9, 2000. The new structure, which accompanied this designation, included personnel from five additional nations:

3564-408: The support of Konrad Henlein and the Sudeten German Party In doing this, Schacht realized an arbitrage opportunity. In defaulting on their debt, the Germans would subsequently decrease the value of the debt on the American markets, where they could then go and repurchase the bonds with the "allegedly nonexistent foreign exchange at a fraction of their face value". The debt purchaser could then sell

3630-402: The surrender of Heidelberg, Staff Sergeant Campbell led a patrol across the Rhine River near Mannheim and was killed while covering the withdrawal of his patrol as it returned to the west bank with valuable information. Until July 1949, the Commander in Chief, EUCOM, was also the U.S. Military Governor of occupied Germany. His office and staff were in Berlin. The ranking officer in Heidelberg

3696-450: The time of the Weimar Republic , when the Chancellor of Germany Hermann Müller , who belonged to the Social Democratic Party (SPD), passed cabinet laws that allowed secret and illegal rearmament efforts. During its early years (1918–1933), the rearmament was relatively small, secret, and supported by a cross-section of Germans motivated by a mixture of patriotism-based nationalism and economics-based nationalism. The latter motive viewed

3762-408: Was activated in Frankfurt. At the same time, the EUCOM headquarters in Heidelberg was redesignated the United States Army, Europe (USAREUR). A small NATO planning cell called the CENTAG Plans Staff was also established at this time within the USAREUR headquarters staff, with the Commander in Chief, USAREUR, given the additional title of Commander, CENTAG (COMCENTAG). In April 1959, the CENTAG Plans Staff

3828-532: Was also to do with the weapons themselves – they were assertions of national strength, the common property of the German nation. Adam Tooze noted in 2008 that an instruction manual given to tank crews during the war made clear this connection: For every shell you fire, your father has paid 100 Reichsmarks in taxes, your mother has worked for a week in the factory ... The Tiger costs all told 800,000 Reichsmarks and 300,000 hours of labour. Thirty thousand people had to give an entire week's wages, 6,000 people worked for

3894-418: Was designated Großdeutschland-Kaserne after Austria became part of Nazi Germany in March 1938. Stories linking Großdeutschland-Kaserne to the Großdeutschland Division of World War II have no foundation. The casern predates the division, which was not formed until May 1942. Neither the division nor any of its subordinate units were ever stationed in Heidelberg, nor was the 110th Infantry Regiment ever attached to

3960-405: Was designated Headquarters, CENTAG, and separated from the USAREUR headquarters staff. The USAREUR G3 (as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, was then known) nevertheless continued to serve as the CENTAG Chief of Staff while serving as the USAREUR G3. The Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR), formally activated a separated CENTAG headquarters on 1 October 1960. Between June and August 1961

4026-419: Was due to the lack of foreign exchange that Germany claimed they had in their treasury. Although German exchange resources had been depleted during the great depression, the German government was not short enough on foreign exchange to completely stop paying bond coupon payments. Instead, the German government wanted to use the foreign exchange to pay for rearmament and fund its activities abroad, an example being

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4092-454: Was never anywhere near profitability and aviation played only a minuscule role in the transportation of either passengers or cargo, but the planes it employed were very similar to then current military models and its existence allowed the growth of the domestic airplane building industry and the training of pilots, both of which could be converted to military use in circumvention of the prohibition of Germany maintaining an Air Force as lined out in

4158-428: Was the EUCOM Chief of Staff. While Lieutenant General Clarence R. Huebner was the EUCOM Chief of Staff, the riding hall in building 31 was converted to the Wilson Theater, a protected monument building because of the wooden architecture of its roof, which opened on March 4, 1949. The next significant organizational change came on August 1, 1952 when a new joint headquarters, the United States European Command (USEUCOM),

4224-433: Was the highest-ranking military officer killed in the attacks at the Pentagon . He worked on Campbell Barracks from 1995 to 1998 as Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and Installation Management. It was his last assignment before being stationed in Washington D.C. On July 1, 2004, the Headquarters once again transitioned in a ceremony marking its designation to Component Command-Land Headquarters, Heidelberg. New structure

4290-509: Was trying to attain, the Reichsbank would have to extend the German government an almost unlimited amount of credit towards the rearmament program while hiding the accumulation of Government debt from the international community. Contrary to this goal, the then Reichsbank President Hans Luther would only extend credit of one-hundred million Reichsmarks to rearmament, so to work around this, Hitler replaced Luther with Hjalmar Schacht. Schacht turned Luther's "employment creation bills" program into

4356-450: Was using the SA in preparation for border defense in East Prussia . Another aspect of Weimar era rearmament was massive investment in dual use technologies and fields of military technology which hadn't been mentioned in the Versailles treaty such as rocketry. Walter Dornberger was tasked with developing liquid fuel rockets for military purposes in 1930 and would become involved in the V2 rocket program later. The Deutsche Luft Hansa

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