Bavarian Motor Works (Bmw)

Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee (CIOS) Reports, 1944 – 1945

BMW,  the Bavarian car company now synonymous with high end motor cars, was involved in the Second World War with testing rocket motors near Dachau concentration camp outside Munich. This report into BMW’s wartime activities is based on interviews with executives carried out on the spot at the war’s end and is one of over 700 published accounts of specific German scientific, medical, and technological developments during World War II. Most reports are based on detailed interviews with several German scientists, doctors, technicians, or other officials, and they often incorporate copies of photographs, drawings, and German-language documents. The majority of the reports concern industrial processes and technological developments related to the German war effort. The development and production of aluminium, steel, fuels, ordnance, ammunition, tanks and other vehicles, chemical warfare, optical equipment, and pharmaceuticals all provide examples of these subjects.

Luftwaffe-related topics include aviation medicine, aircraft maintenance, high-speed airplane design and development, and engine design and development. "The German Commercial Air Transport Industry and Related Aeronautical Activities and Developments" constitutes a massive study of the pre-war development of Lufthansa, German airports, and air traffic control, with specialized features on a typical wartime fighter control centre and specific types of large German aircraft.

Most German Navy reports pertain to U-Boats, including studies of the Type XXI submarine, the rotary wing kite used by some U-Boats, submarine pens in France, andsound absorbent coatings for U-Boats.