Holger Toftoy

Holger Toftoy
Born	Holger Nelson Toftoy October 31, 1902 Marseilles, Illinois, U.S.
Died	April 19, 1967 Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Alma mater	United States Military Academy
Occupation	Military officer

Major General Holger Nelson Toftoy (October 31, 1902 – April 19, 1967) was a United States Army officer linked to early rocketry such as the Redstone missile.

Holger Nelson Toftoy was born on October 31, 1902 in Marseilles, Illinois. He studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an ROTC cadet, then transferred to the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1926. After taking basic flight training, he was transferred to the Coast Artillery and served three years in Hawaii as a battery commander before returning to West Point as an instructor.

In the 1930s he was sent to the Panama Canal to command the mine defenses of the Pacific approaches. In 1938 he was transferred to the Submarine Mine Depot in Fort Monroe where he served six years as Chief of the Industrial and the Research and Development divisions.

While working at the submarine Mine Depot, Toftoy oversaw the development and design of a new system of controlled submarine mines that was widely using during World War II. Toftoy acquired great expertise in mines and explosives who helped clear harbors in France during the war.

In 1944, he became Chief of the Army Ordnance Technical Intelligence teams assigned to Europe to seek out and evaluate captured enemy ordnance weapons and equipment. During this time, Toftoy received a request from Colonel Gervais Trichel, chief of the rocket branch in the Ordnance Department at the Pentagon, to acquire and ship 100 operational V-2 rockets to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for testing. Soon after the capture of the area around Nordhausen and the Mittelwerk, Toftoy set up Special Mission V-2 to do the job. He assigned Major William Bromley in command of the special mission, and he reported back to Toftoy through Major James P. Hammill, who was responsible for shipping the weapons from Nordhausen to Antwerp, and from there to New Orleans. Bromley and Hamill went to central Germany to salvage as many missiles as they could, under pressure because of the unwelcome news that U.S. forces would be withdrawing soon. Although there were by no means a hundred complete V-2s available, Toftoy organized U.S soldiers and camp workers to put partially completed rockets and major components into hastily requisitioned rail cars. From 22 to 31 May, several freight trains left Nordhausen for Antwerp loaded with missile and missile parts; thus successfully completing the mission.

...
Wikipedia