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ABSTRACT
Among the multiplicity of missions that the Allied governments and armed forces sent to Europe towards the end and after World War II to document and exploit Nazi Germany’s wartime scientific and industrial progress was the Australian Scientific and Technical Mission to Germany. Composed of less than a dozen personnel, the Mission was a modest but important component in the Australian Commonwealth Government’s post-war foreign policy towards Germany and expansion of scientific and industrial development. Based at Australia House in London, the Mission worked in close cooperation with British Government departments, and was instrumental in the transnational transfer of German science and technology to Australia between 1946 and 1950 – initially under the auspices of the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee, and later through the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency and the Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens scheme.
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Notes
1. ”Historical Data on US Naval Technical Mission in Europe: First Narrative”, November 1945, https://www.fischer-tropsch.org; Krammer, “Technology Transfer as War Booty: The US Technical Oil Mission to Europe, 1945”, Technology and Culture, 68–103.
2. See Huwart, Sous-marins français, 1944–1954: La décennie du renouveau.
3. Memorandum from Matthews, ASTM to Breen, D/DID, 29.10.1948, MT105/8, 2/312/1260, NAA, Melbourne.
4. Butlin and Schedvin, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series Four, Volume IV, War Economy, 1942-1945, 743–744.
5. Uta von Homeyer was the daughter of a German scientist employed in Australia under the ESTEA scheme.
6. Please see the Bibliography for the salient works.
7. Letter from Burstall to Bruce, 16.6.1944, and letter from Bruce to Curtin, 20.6.1944, MT105/8, 2/308/204, NAA, Melbourne.
8. Letter from Bruce to Curtin, 20.6.1944.
9. Letter from Burstall to Bruce, 16.6.1944.
10. Letter from Bruce to Curtin, 20.6.1944; cablegram from Bruce to Curtin (No. 108), 25.8.1944, MT105/8, 2/308/204; Ministry of Fuel and Power, Report on the Petroleum and Synthetic Oil Industry of Germany 1947, https://www.fischer-tropsch.org; Krammer, “Technology Transfer as War Booty: The US Technical Oil Mission to Europe, 1945”, 68–103. The other scientific and industrial subjects included the production of synthetic fibres, particularly those designed for competition with natural wool; various processes of industrial fermentation, such as the production of power alcohol and lactic acid; production of sulphonamide drugs; production of beryllium and its alloys from beryllium; production of aluminium from clay; and the manufacture of synthetic cryolite. Cablegram from Bruce to Curtin (No. 108), 25.8.1944, MT105/8, 2/308/204.
11. Cablegram from Bruce to Curtin (No. 107), 25.8.1944, MT105/8, 2/308/204.
12. ”Report on obtaining information from Germany on the utilisation of brown coal and other technical matters”, Ministry of PWR, undated, MT105/8, 2/308/204.
13. Cablegram from Bruce to Curtin (No. 107), 25.8.1944; letter from Guy Gresford, ASRLO to F.W.G. White, CSIR, 10.12.1945, MT105/8, 2/308/204.
14. Minute by W.H. Lockwood, Ministry of PWR, 2.12.1944, and memorandum from H.C. Coombs, DG/DPWR, to the Secretary, PM’s Department, 25.1.1945, MT105/8, 2/308/204. The state governments of Victoria and South Australia likely also expressed interest.
15. AAS London Liaison Letter B5/1945, 24.5.1945, AWM54, 423/13/23 PART 4, AWM, Canberra.
16. Telegram from the Department of External Affairs (DEA) to the Australian High Commission, London, 5.5.1945, A3317, 3/1945, NAA, Canberra.
17. Memorandum from the DEA to the Secretary, Department of Air, 19.1.1948, A705, 4/1/370, NAA, Canberra.
18. Ibid.
19. Minutes of meeting 58 of the JIC in 1945, 28.8.1945, CAB 81/93, the National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
20. “BIOS Index” and BIOS Final Reports, HathiTrust Digital Library, https://www.hathitrust.org.
21. Lasby, Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War, 139; Bower, The Paperclip Conspiracy: The battle for the spoils and secrets of Nazi Germany, 192.
22. Minutes of meeting 49 of the JIC in 1945, 24.7.1945, CAB 81/93.
23. Ibid.
24. Cablegram from Duncan to various departments, 21.9.1945, MT105/8, 2/308/204.
25. Ibid.
26. Cablegram from Evatt to Chifley, 16.10.1945, MT105/8, 2/308/204. In late 1945, the ASRLO arranged with the British Ministry of Aircraft Production for two attached officers to visit Germany to inspect and procure aeronautical equipment for the CSIR. Letter from L.P. Coombes, Chief, CSIR Division of Aeronautics to Gresford, 4.1.1946, B788, M2/29/1.
27. Cablegram from Chifley to Duncan, 14.11.1945, and letter from Breen to Cochrane, 7.1.1946, MT105/8, 2/308/204; ‘Scientific Missions to Germany and Japan: Report of Proceedings of Inter-departmental Conference held at Victoria Barracks at 9.30am, Saturday, December 15, 1945’, MT105/8, NN, NAA, Melbourne; Low, ‘Mosquito Coils, Ball-Bearings, and Batteries: The Australian Scientific Mission in Occupied Japan, 1945–1947’, 27–38.
28. ”Scientific Mission to London to Participate in the Work of the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee”, MT105/8, 2/308/204.
29. Ibid; Press report by Cochrane on the work done by the ASTM overseas, 1948, MP61/1, 9/34/63, NAA, Melbourne.
30. Agenda for SIC meeting 34 on 21.2.1946, B6410, 3, NAA, Melbourne; agenda for SIC meeting 41 on 19.12.1946, B6410, 5.
31. Press report by Cochrane.
32. Memorandum from H.P. Matthews, ASTM to Harold Breen, D/DID, 29.10.1948, MT105/8, 2/312/1260. Indeed, illness took its toll: in 1946 a member of the Mission required medical attention and four weeks’ convalescence due to a run-down condition, another suffered a fracture which required recuperation in England, and in November 1947 the Mission’s Administrative Officer was forced to return to Australia because of illness. Agenda for SIC meeting 37 on 20.6.1946, B6410, 4; minute by G. Sharwood, SID for Breen, 10.11.1947, and letter from Cochrane, ASTM to Breen, 27.11.1947, MT105/8, 2/312/1260.
33. Letter from J. Loorham, Controller, ARPST, to Breen, D/SID, 3.12.1946, MP252/1, E, NAA, Melbourne.
34. R.H. Adair, ‘First Progress Report on Trip of 20/9/49’, attached to memorandum from W. O’Connell, ASTM to AD/DID, 4.11.1949, MT105/8, 1/6/6201, NAA, Melbourne.
35. For example, in reply to a question on 29 November 1946, and the following year in reference to a statement made by Harold Holt, the member for Fawkner, about the distribution to Australian industry of technical data gathered by the ASTMs. Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 29 November 1946, Historic Hansard, https://www.historichansard.net/hofreps/1946/19461129_reps_18_189/#subdebate−20–2; Commonwealth, Parliamentary Speeches, House of Representatives, 19 March 1947, Historic Hansard, https://www.historichansard.net/hofreps/1947/19470319_reps_18_190/#subdebate−23–0-s0.
36. ”British troops shed Red bias”, The Herald, September 5, 1946, 7, http://www.trove.nla.gov.au.
37. Press report by Cochrane.
38. Agenda for SIC meeting 44 on 25.6.1947, B6410, 7.
39. Letter from Breen to Cochrane, 17.9.1947, MT105/8, 2/312/1260.
40. Minute from Sharwood to C. McFadyen, SID, 11.9.1947, MT105/8, 2/312/1260.
41. 'BIOS Constitution and Functions' 27.9.1946, MP267/1, 10/2/84, NAA, Melbourne; Farquharson, “Governed or Exploited? The British Acquisition of German Technology, 1945–48”, 23–42.
42. R. Jonas, L.B. Davies, and W.E. Batty, “Report on German Patent Records”, British Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee Final Report No. 538, March 1946, HathiTrust Digital Library, https://www.hathitrust.org.
43. “Australian Scientists Help in Occupied Europe”, Australian News Summary, No. 539, August 9, 1946, Google Books, https://www.books.google.com.
44. Agenda for SIC meeting 42 on 20.2.1947, B6410, 6; memorandum from M.T. Coleman, ASTM to Breen, 19 March 1947, MT105/8, 2/312/382, NAA, Melbourne.
45. Agenda for SIC meeting 36 on 16.5.1946, B6410, 3; J.C. Richards, “Heavy Forging Equipment: Notes on German Heavy Hydraulic Forging Presses”, British Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee Final Report No. 821, 1946, HathiTrust Digital Library, https://www.hathitrust.org.
46. Agenda for SIC meeting 35 on 2.4.1946, B6410, 3; agenda for SIC meeting 41; agenda for SIC meeting 42; memorandum from Breen to Cochrane, 12.5.1947, MP1540/66, 436/28/4, NAA, Melbourne.
47. Agenda for SIC meeting 35.
48. Agenda for SIC meeting 37.
49. Agenda for SIC meeting 41; agenda for SIC meeting 44.
50. Agenda for SIC meeting 46 on 4.9.1947, B6410, 8.
51. G.J. Sherman, ‘Review of the activities of G5c in connection with BIOS’, August 1948, AVIA 49/10, the National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
52. Press report by Cochrane; agenda for SIC meeting 41; agenda for SIC meeting 42; “Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports”, (numerous volumes), Google Books, https://www.books.google.com.au; BIOS Final Reports, HathiTrust Digital Library, https://www.hathitrust.org.
53. Letter from Leonard Poole, TIDU, German Division, BoT to Matthews, 21.7.1949, MP267/1, 10/2/84.
54. Memoranda from Brooke, DID London to D/DID, 1.5.1951 and 3.7.1951, and memorandum from B.W. Hartnell, D/DID to DID London, 4.12.1951, MP267/1, 10/2/84.
55. “Agreement on reparation from Germany, on the establishment of an Inter-Allied Reparation Agency and on the restitution of monetary gold”, 14 January 1946, and attached protocol, 15 March 1948, UN, Treaty Series, Volume 555, 1966, 69–109, https://www.treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20555/v555.pdf; DEA, Current notes on international affairs 29, no. 1 (1958): 41, http://www.trove.nla.gov.au.
56. IARA, First Report of the Secretary General for the year 1946, 1947, MP188/10, 1, NAA, Melbourne; letter from Homer Fox, US Delegate, to the Secretary-General IARA, 11.5.1951, MT105/8, 2/312/2520, NAA, Melbourne.
57. IARA, First Report of the Secretary General for the year 1946, 1947, 49 and 57; “Walker, Sir Edward Ronald (1907–1988)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://www.adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-sir-edward-ronald−15889.
58. Agenda for SIC meeting 38; ”A statement of requirements of manufacturing plant suggested for removal from Germany as a means of limiting German capacity for waging a war of aggression, and to be offset against Australia’s claim for reparations”, January 1947, MP425/4, 663/23/26235, NAA, Melbourne; memorandum from Breen to Jensen, 8.1.1947, MT105/8, 2/312/861 PART 1, NAA, Melbourne; Sharwood, ‘German Reparations CARPS Team’, 22.9.1949, MT105/8, 2/312/2076, NAA, Melbourne; History cards, reports of shipping and disposal, MP188/11, VOLUME 2, NAA, Melbourne.
59. History cards, reports of shipping and disposal, MP188/11, VOLUME 2; ‘German Reparations: Statement by the Minister of National Development’, 30.1.1952, MP252/1, B, NAA, Melbourne.
60. ‘ASTM General, January to June 1948’, MP61/1, 1/6/1689, NAA, Melbourne; ‘ASTM General, July-December 1948’, MP61/1, 1/6/2475, NAA, Melbourne; Jones, “The Employment of German Scientists in Australia after World War II”, 305–21. W.E. Purnell, the industrial organic chemist with Mission, was on the ESTEA Committee, while the Mission’s first Administrative Officer, George Sharwood, was the Committee’s Secretary.
61. Von Homeyer, ”The Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens (ESTEA) Scheme in Australia: A Reparation for World War II?”, 77–93; Von Homeyer, “The recruitment, deployment and experiences of German scientists in the post-World War Two period: An historical evaluation”, Master’s dissertation, Flinders University, 1995.
62. Hughes and Ryle, “Naming names: the scientists with a past. Former Nazis worked directly for the Commonwealth”, The Age, August 17, 1999, 4, https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-age/3637/. Hughes and Ryle arrived at a figure of 34 ex-members of the Nazi Party, but my own research of the personnel dossiers of the German specialists at the National Archives of Australia has since raised the number to 38, although the actual figure is almost certainly higher because information about the past political affiliations of several specialists is not recorded in the dossiers.
63. Memorandum from Loorham to Cochrane, 31.1.1947, memoranda from Coleman, ASTM to Breen, 31.1.1947, 11.2.1947, and 9.7.1947, MT105/8, 2/312/382; memorandum from [illegible] to Breen, 16.7.1947, MT105/8, 2/312/861 PART 1, NAA, Melbourne; agenda for SIC meeting 44. The ASTM and AMM also assisted in the removal of items of anthropological value to Australia – stored in Frankfurt am Main during the war were some copies of prehistoric Aboriginal cave paintings from north-west Australia, made by a German expedition in 1938–1939. “Aboriginal Art Show from Germany”, The Herald, December 5, 1946, 17, https://www.trove.nla.gov.au.
64. Memorandum from Breen to the Secretary, DEA, 5.1.1949, MT105/8, 2/312/2076.
65. Press report by Cochrane.
66. IARA, First Report of the Secretary General for the year 1946, Valuation and Accounting of Reparations Assets, Statement of Category A Reparations Accounts, as at 31 December 1951, and Valuation and Accounting of Reparations Assets, Position with regard to Category B Reparation Accounts as at 31 December 1951, attached to memorandum from D.J. Munro, Department of External Affairs to the Secretary, DID, 15.2.1952, MT105/8, 2/312/2520; Koerner, “Technology Transfer from Germany to Canada after 1945: A Study in Failure?” 99–124.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
James Mills
Dr James Mills is from Perth, Western Australia. He is the author of the book The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology: German flak rockets and the onset of the Cold War.