The Leaning Factories 287
the time seemed far from over. Before the war in Europe
ended, both American and Soviet troops tried to capture
von Braun himself, his engineers, and his technology.^36
Soviet forces were the first to reach the German rocket
center in Peenemünde. But it was empty. During the last
months of the war, horror stories spread among German
troops and civilians about what would happen to them
if the Red Army captured them. To avoid this faith, they
retreated west to be captured by mainly American and
British forces. Von Braun was ordered to stay and fight.
But he ignored the order and retreated west together with
rockets, engineers, and documents containing his research.
He would eventually be captured by American troops.^36
US initiated Operation Overcast – a program to acquire
German technology and expertise. The decision to recruit
German expertise was under many discussions, and the
original plan was to intern them at a distant island. Von
Braun was ranked as one of the scientists most adaptable to
the American lifestyle, thus he, together with 350 German
specialists, emigrated to the US.^131
Von Braun began working on the nuclear missile pro-
gram that would eventually turn into a space program.
As the Russians worked on their own nuclear missile, the
race to build the largest rocket had begun. Both teams
began with the basic V2 rocket. The two countries had
competed in who could transport most rocket technology
away from Germany. 92 trains headed for the Soviet Union,
while the US took rockets and 14 tonnes of documents.
The Soviets, however, didn’t find any blueprints. To draw