V2 A Novel of World War II - Robert Harris Page 0,45

engineers. They all got very drunk. Dornberger made a pompous speech, which afterwards he had printed and gave to them as a memento, along with the menu – just as well, seeing as none of them could remember what he’d said. Graf still had his copy somewhere. He knew it off by heart.

‘The following points may be deemed of decisive significance in the history of technology. We have invaded space with our rocket and for the first time – mark this well – have used space as a bridge between two points on earth. We have proved rocket propulsion practicable for space travel. To land, sea and air may now be added infinite space as a medium of future intercontinental traffic. This third day of October 1942 is the first of a new era of transportation: that of space travel.’

It showed how far Dornberger – the solid, ambitious artilleryman who had started out wanting to build a better version of the Paris gun – had fallen under von Braun’s spell. Even Hitler had succumbed. Von Braun and Dornberger had flown to the Führer’s headquarters in East Prussia carrying a 35 mm film of the test flight, a file of blueprints and a crate of wooden models – of the rocket itself, the launch vehicles and a bunker the army proposed to build on the Channel coast, which at the time was how they envisaged the missile would be deployed against the English. This was not long after the defeat at Stalingrad, when Hitler was casting around for something – anything – that was huge enough and revolutionary enough to turn the war back in Germany’s favour; another few thousand planes or tanks would not make a difference. The hour of the rocket had arrived.

‘Weren’t you nervous?’ Graf had asked him.

‘Not at all! We landed in the middle of a huge forest and were driven to his compound – incredible security: you’ve never seen the like. Zones within zones. In the middle of it was this movie theatre, very plush, with banks of seats. So we set out all our models on a table, our film was loaded in the projector, and then we waited for him to come. And we waited, and we waited. Hours went by. Then someone shouted, “The Führer!” and in he came with Keitel, Jodl, Speer and all their aides. I must say he looked pretty awful, hunched forward and pale as a sheet, and his left arm seemed to have developed a life of its own – when he sat down, he had to hold onto his wrist with his other hand to stop it shaking. He placed himself in the front row between Keitel and Speer, I stood beside the screen and I said, “Mein Führer, with your permission, we wish to report on the progress of Waffen Prüfen Eleven!” Then I clicked my fingers, the lights dimmed, and the film began to run. I talked him through every stage of it, and I could see him sitting further and further forward on his seat, and then when the rocket lifted off, his eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open.

‘After it was over and the lights came up, he sat there for a long time, staring at the empty screen, lost in thought. Nobody dared to utter a word. Then he stood and he said the following – these were his exact words: “Gentlemen, I thank you. If we had had these rockets in 1939, we should never have had this war. No one would have dared oppose us. From now on, Europe and the world will be too small to contain a war. With such weapons, humanity will be unable to endure it.” Then he made me a professor on the spot.’

‘Congratulations. And now what?’

‘Now?’ For the first time, von Braun had looked uncomfortable. ‘Now he wants us to build ten thousand of them.’

‘Graf!’ Seidel shouted from somewhere through the trees. ‘Have you finished? Shall we go?’

‘Coming!’

The jet vane was perfectly crafted, an object of beauty. He ran his hands over its smooth shape, feeling the fluted indentations that helped it to direct the plume of burning gas. His fingers came away coated with the sticky black residue of the explosion. Suddenly overcome with disgust, he turned from the crater and flung it into the scorched bushes.

Crouched on the ground, a figure watched him.

He was too startled to move. The figure also remained perfectly still – slight, a shadow, not much bigger