The Odessa File

The project went into abeyance for a few years after Gamal Abdel Nasser took power, but after the military defeat of the Egyptian forces, in the 1956 Sinai campaign, the new dictator of Egypt swore an oath. He vowed that one day Israel would be totally destroyed.

In 1961, when he got Moscow’s final ‘No’ to his requests for heavy rockets, the Goerke/Engel project for an Egyptian rocket factory was re-vitalised with a vengeance, and during this year, working against the clock and without rein on their expenditure of money, the German professors and the Egyptians built and opened Factory 333, at Helwan, north of Cairo.

To open a factory is one thing; to design and build rockets is another. Long since, the senior supporters of Nasser, mostly with pro-Nazi backgrounds stretching back to the Second World War, had been in close contact with the Odessa representatives in Egypt. From these came the answer to the Egyptians’ main problem – the problem of acquiring the scientists necessary to make the rockets.

Neither Russia, America, Britain nor France would supply a single man to help. But the Odessa pointed out that the kind of rockets Nasser needed were remarkably similar in size and range to the V.2 rockets that Werner von Braun and his team had once built at Peenemunde to pulverise London. And many of his former team were still available.

In late 1961 the recruiting of German scientists started. Many of these were employed at the West German Institute for Aerospace Research at Stuttgart. But they were frustrated because the Paris Treaty of 1954 forbade Germany to indulge in research or manufacture in certain realms, notably nuclear physics and rocketry. They were also chronically short of research funds. To many of these scientists the offer of a place in the sun, plenty of research money and the chance to design real rockets, was too tempting.

The Odessa appointed a chief recruiting officer in Germany, and he in turn employed as his leg-man a former SS-sergeant, Heinz Krug. Together they scoured Germany looking for men prepared to go to Egypt and build Nasser’s rockets for him.

With the salaries they could offer they were not short of choice recruits. Notable among them were Professor Wolfgang Pilz, who had been repatriated from post-war Germany by the French and had later become the father of the French Véronique rocket, itself the foundation of De Gaulle’s aerospace programme. Professor Pilz left for Egypt in early 1962. Another was Dr Heinz Kleinwachter; Dr Eugen Saenger and his wife Irene, both formerly on the von Braun V.2 team, also went along, as did Doctors Josef Eisig and Kirmayer, all experts in propulsion fuels and techniques.

The world saw the first results of their labours at a parade through the streets of Cairo on July 23rd, 1962, to mark the eighth anniversary of the fall of Farouk. Two rockets, the El Kahira and the El Zafira, respectively with ranges of 500 and 300 kilometres, were trundled past the screaming crowds. Although these rockets were only the casings, without warheads or fuel, they were destined to be the first of 400 such weapons that would one day be launched against Israel.

General Gluecks paused, drew on his cigar and returned to the present.

‘The problem is, that although we solved the matter of making the casings, the warheads and the fuel, the key of a guided missile lies in the tele-guidance system.’

He stabbed his cigar in the direction of the West German.

‘And that was what we were unable to furnish to the Egyptians,’ he went on.

‘By ill-luck, although there were scientists and experts in guidance systems working at Stuttgart and elsewhere, we could not persuade one of them of any value to emigrate to Egypt. All the experts sent out there were specialists in aerodynamics, propulsion and the design of warheads.

‘But we had promised Egypt that she would have her rockets and have them she will. President Nasser is determined there will one day be war between Egypt and Israel, and war there will be. He believes his tanks and soldiers alone will win for him. Our information is not so optimistic. They might not, despite their numerical superiority. But just think what our position would be if, when all the Soviet weaponry, bought at a cost of billions of dollars, had failed, it turned out to be the rockets provided by the scientist

s recruited through our network which won the war. Our position would be unassailable. We would have carried out the double coup of ensuring an eternally grateful Middle East, a safe and sure home for our people for all time, and of achieving the final and utter destruction of the Jew-pig State, thus fulfilling the last wish of the dying Fuehrer. It is a mighty challenge, and one in which we must not and will not fail.’

The subordinate watched his senior officer pacing the room, with awe and some puzzlement.

‘Forgive me, Herr General, but will 400 medium warheads really finish off the Jews once and for all? A massive amount of damage, yes, but total destruction?’

Gluecks spun round and gazed down at the younger man with a triumphant smile.

‘But what warheads,’ he exclaimed. ‘You do not think we are going to waste mere high explosive on these swine. We have proposed to President Nasser, and he has accepted with alacrity, that these warheads on the Kahiras and Zafiras be of a different type. Some will contain concentrated cultures of bubonic plague and the others will explode high above the ground, showering the entire territory of Israel with irradiated Strontium 90. Within hours they will all be dying of the pest or of gamma-ray sickness. That is what we have in store for them.’

The other gazed at him open-mouthed.

‘Fantastic,’ he breathed. ‘Now I recall reading something about a trial in Switzerland last summer. Just summaries, so much of the evidence was in camera. Then it’s true. But, General, it’s brilliant.’

‘Brilliant, yes, and inevitable, provided we of the Odessa can equip those rockets with the tele-guidance systems necessary to direct them not merely in the right direction but to the exact locations where they must explode. The man who controls the entire research operation aimed at devising a tele-guidance system for those rockets is now working in West Germany. His code-name is Vulkan. You may recall that in Greek mythology Vulkan was the smith who made the thunderbolts of the Gods.’

‘He is a scientist?’ asked the West German in bewilderment.

‘No, certainly not. When he was forced to disappear in 1955 he would normally have returned to Argentina. But your predecessor was required by us to provide him immediately with a false passport to enable him to stay in Germany. He was then funded out of Zürich with one million US dollars with which to start a factory in Germany. The original purpose was to use the factory as a front for another type of research in which we were interested at the time, but which has now been shelved in favour of the guidance systems for the rockets of Helwan.

‘The factory Vulkan now runs manufactures transistor radios. But this is a front. In the research department of the factory a group of scientists is even now in the process of devising the tele-guidance systems that will one day be fitted to the rockets of Helwan.’

‘Why don’t they simply go to Egypt?’ asked the other.

Gluecks smiled again and continued pacing.

‘That is the stroke of genius behind the whole operation. I told you that there were men in Germany capable of producing such rocket-guidance systems, but none could be persuaded to emigrate. The group of them who now work in the research department of Vulkan’s factory actually believe they are working on a contract, in conditions of top secrecy of course, for the Defence Ministry in Bonn.’

This time the subordinate got out of his chair, his coffee spilling on the carpet.

‘God in heaven. How on earth was that arranged?’