The original unnamed plan to interview only the rocket scientists changed after Major Staver sent a cable (signed by Colonel Joel Holmes) to the Pentagon on May 22, 1945 of the urgency to evacuate the German technicians and their families as “important for Pacific war.”[4] Likewise, an equally strong desire was to deny German expertise to the Soviet Union. In the Operation Alsos case of Werner Heisenberg, a principal scientist in the German nuclear energy project: “…he was worth more to us than ten divisions of Germans.”[6]
In addition to scientists specialising in rocketry and nuclear physics, various Allied teams were also searching for experts in chemistry, medicine, and naval weapons. An effort that predated Overcast was the US Navy’s acquisition in May 1945 of Dr. Herbert A. Wagner, who[7] worked at Naval Air Station Point Mugu in 1947.
The majority of the scientists were involved with the V-2 rocket, and the rocket group was initially housed with their families at a housing project in Landshut Bavaria. Operation Overcast was designated by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on July 19, 1945,[5] but when the nickname “Camp Overcast” was being openly used for the housing, the code name was changed to Paperclip.[5][4]
By 1958, many aspects of Paperclip had become common knowledge. It was openly mentioned in a Time magazine article about von Braun. http://louis-j-sheehan.biz
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
