In fact, court registration is looked down upon & signifies rebellion. 'Marriage papers'! Sounds weird in India where hardly anyone has marriage papers.

Union of Dieter & Liesl drags on for a while because she doesn't have marriage papers.

There are two male babies born among them, first of which will have a distracting role in next chapter: Millard of Motts & Magnus of Kolffs.

von Braun, the brilliant German ideas man whose fate was indeterminate at the end of ch 1 is among the prisoners.

He will be a man to reckon with in US aviation industry by the end of this chapter - 'a troubleshooter for Allied Aviation, specializing in their rocket and space ventures'.

General Helmut Funkhauser, one of the more brutal Hitler men we met in ch 1, & among the prisoners.

We met both in ch 1 here they will be reunited after much drama.

Dieter Kolff, the brilliant German mechanical genius captured in ch 1, & his wife Liesl Koenig.

The couple will help German prisoners settle down. We're also told Mott is 'a genius in aviation' & 'he wasn’t a real professor, only an assistant'. We meet Rachel for the first time in this chapter.

Prof Stanley Mott & his wife Rachel Lindquist.There are 6 major characters that we'll likely see more of in later chapters: Original US work begins in ch 3 - that's past 1950. This part will also see the beginning of US Army's interest in German missiles. This will let the story wander for a while over ruined Germany immediately after war - a lot of broken families & misery. They were brought without any documentation but 'With the knowledge of the President.' To get the paperwork straightened, they will eventually be driven in a bus to Mexico without exit formalities, & immediately reenter on temporary permits - to be regularized in 3 months!.Initially to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas later to Huntsville, Alabama, where they will begin settling down.Ī lot of text is devoted to prisoners' hardships because (apart from their status as prisoners): This is the story US taking charge of the spoils of war: German engineers transferred to US as prisoners, along with German weapons design documents & actual physical missile hardware.

Context: novel main page part 1 of this chapter.

Space michener novel