Charlie Hall. British Exploitation of German Science and Technology, 1943–1949.

Abstract

In The Paperclip Conspiracy: The Battle for the Spoils and Secrets of Nazi Germany (Michael Joseph, 1987), the distinguished British journalist Tom Bower wrote an account of “the lies and calculating ruthlessness of Allied politicians, civil servants and businessmen who openly fought amongst themselves about the profits and plunder of victory.” Driven by a tremendous sense of moral indignation, Bower castigated the US and British authorities in postwar Germany, somewhat contradictorily, for both cynically plundering German technology that had been developed by the exploitation of slave labor and concentration camp victims and for not securing enough material for their own benefit to compensate for the losses they had incurred during the war. In British Exploitation of German Science and Technology, 1943–1949, Charlie Hall writes that in the absence of academically rigorous works “sensationalist” accounts by Bower and others have become standard texts. In fact, there was no secret conspiracy. The activities of the various UK agencies that investigated German military and industrial capabilities were open, endorsed at the highest level by the British government and widely publicized. Furthermore, the British operation was only slightly smaller in scope than the better-known US equivalent, described most notably by the eminent historian of the US occupation of Germany, John Gimbel, in Science, Technology, and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany (1990). Large numbers of documents, including blueprints, technical specifications, instruction manuals, and scientific research articles, were taken to Britain, sorted, and translated into English at the aptly named Halstead Exploiting Centre near Sevenoaks. By the end of 1946, a total of 6,590 tons of research and other equipment had been shipped to the UK and a further 11,182 tons were awaiting shipment. British investigators compiled around nineteen hundred reports on nonmilitary subjects plus an unknown number of military reports that were classified as secret. In addition, large numbers of German scientists and technicians were detained and interrogated at specialist centres in Germany and Britain, and around one thousand recruited to work in Britain.