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James Bond villains were based on REAL Nazis Ian Fleming encountered in WWII, German fan group claims
Ian Fleming's experiences in the Second World War are long known to have inspired his James Bond novels.
The author's role in naval intelligence saw him help plan key operations and create an elite unit of commandos tasked with seizing enemy documents.
But now, a group of German fans of the Bond franchise have argued that Fleming based Moonraker villain Hugo Drax on a real military industrialist he encountered in Nazi Germany.
The group, whose name translates as the 'Bond Club', say that Fleming obtained top secret papers which he used to craft fictional versions of men he came across.
In the Moonraker novel Drax poses as a British army veteran working on a rocket project for Britain, before he is unmasked as Graf Hugo von der Drache - a Nazi seeking revenge for his country's defeat.
The villain is depicted as having worked for Rheinmetall-Borsig, a real Dusseldorf-based firm which manufactured artillery and ammunition for the German war effort.
The Bond Club believes Fleming saw filed seized from Rheinmetall and other firms, such as Krupp.
Tobias Schwesig, the club's chairman, said: 'In the films you have these characters - they look like normal Englishmen or industrialists, and then it turns out they're bad guys, Nazis, who want to destroy England or America.'
Ian Fleming's role in naval intelligence saw him help plan key operations and create an elite unit of commandos tasked with seizing enemy documents
'He often had a real, probably a real person back in mind, I think.'
On Drax, he added to The Times: 'The villains in Bond feel so real because Fleming knew exactly how Nazi companies operated.
'This is particularly clear in the character of Hugo Drax in Moonraker.'
The Bond Club's members also believe that the town in which they are based, Wattenscheid in western Germany, was the fictional Bond's birthplace.
Fleming himself was always vague on the subject.
While working in his clandestine role, Fleming founded what was known as 30 Assault unit (30AU).
In early 1945, as Allied forces were fighting their way through Germany, the group were ordered to seize enemy documents and gathering any more information that might prove useful.
Fleming also worked in another unit, T-Force, which captured German scientific and technical know-how and brought it to the Allies.
They also brought Nazi rocket scientists to Britain before they were captured by the advancing Russians.
The special unit was lightly armed, highly mobile and, following the D-Day landings, tasked with seizing anything of military value.
The Bond Club also claim that one of the key henchman in Moonraker - Dr Walter - was based on the real scientist Dr Hellmuth Walter, who ran the Walterwerke factory in Kiel, Northern Germany, which was secured by T-Force in 1945.
It was responsible for the design of the engines used in V1 and V2 rockets.
The link was previously highlighted by military historian Sean Longden, who revealed many other resemblances between Fleming's work and the plot of Moonraker.
He also highlighted how, in the book, 50 German scientists – described as 'more or less all the guided-missile experts the Russians didn't get' – are working on the Moonraker project.
T-Force had extracted Nazi rocket scientists from the Soviet zone and Dr Walter assisted in this.
The 1979 film, starring Roger Moore as 007 and Michael Lonsdale as Drax, bears little resemblance to Fleming's book.
The Walter character does not feature at all.
