When the Russians first orbited Sputnik, the response inside the USA's rocket program's and "missile men" was: "Looks like their German rocket scientists are better than our German rocket scientists." Of course, their was lot more nuance involved, as shown over the next twelve years plus of the USA Space Program exceeding that of the Soviets/Russia.
But German was advancing on many other science and technology fields during the war, and in the closing months, there was a scramble between the British, USA, and Russians to find and seize the R&D, production, and scientists~technicians that were involved in NAZI Germany's "Wonder Weapons" and other technologies, production methods, etc.
Some examples;
Field Information Agency, Technical
en.wikipedia.org
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Administratively, the story started in 1944, when the
Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS), was organized in London by authority of the British and American chiefs of staff. The American membership of CIOS was represented by the War, Navy and State Departments, Army Air Forces,
Foreign Economic Administration,
Office of Strategic Services, and
Office of Scientific and Research and Development. It was CIOS who organized the first teams of experts and started them toward predetermined objectives on the European continent. To make the most of the fact-finding thrusts, the
Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee (TIIC) was organized in Washington. TIIC was under the joint chiefs of staff, and its job was to help government agencies get needed information as it was collected from the liberated countries.
[8] CIOS folded up last July, along with SHAEF, and its functions were largely taken over by Field Information Agency, Technical (FIAT). TIIC, however, was still on the job, getting information from its own investigations from FIAT, and from a scattering of other sources. The TIIC was headed by
Howland H. Sargeant, of the US
Alien Properties Custodian
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en.wikipedia.org