Wernher von Braun was working on his PhD in Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. He was given a research grant to develop a liquidfuel rocket for the military, which led to the creation of the V2. The world’s first longrange guided ballistic missile was subsequently used by the Nazis in the closing months of the Second World War.

As the Soviet Army advanced westwards towards the Nazi rocket base at the start of 1945, von Braun and his staff decided they would move further inside Germany, with the hope of surrendering instead to the Americans. Months later, on 2 May 1945, von Braun and his brother Magnus had made it to Austria where they surrendered to an American private from the U.S. 44th Infantry Division.

Wernher von Braun was already known to the Americans, with his name topping the U.S. Army's "Black List" of German scientists and engineers who were to be captured and interrogated. However, it was soon determined that the United States could make use of these rocket experts to advance their own military research. Later named Operation Paperclip due to the way Ordnance Corps officers would attach a paperclip to the folders of those people they wished to employ, von Braun’s transfer to America was approved on 20 June 1945.

He initially developed rockets for the United States Army, but was later made director of the Marshall Space Flight Center where he oversaw the design of the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.