As directed by the President, the government has been releasing documents related to UFOs (now called UAPs) in "tranches" (I'm tired of that term, so I say batches).
The fourth release, just out, includes a 1949 document from the Atomic Energy Commission where two PhD scientists, an astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a physicist who was the "father of the hydrogen bomb" were discussing sightings of mysterious green fireballs. They casually mention the "so-called German stations in space" and no one in the room seems phased by this comment.
This was in 1949, not long after World War 2, before the Russians launched Sputnik into space and the US began its space race to the Moon.
This comment would seem to indicate that some believed that the Germans' space program was further along than anyone imagined.
It is worth noting that the first object launched into space was a German V2 rocket (the first ballistic missile), which apparently had more lift than Wernher von Braun and the Nazi regime expected.
Make of this what you will...
Von Braun wasn’t the top scientist at Peenemunde, but pretty close. Nothing would have been a surprise to him.
I interpret this to mean Germany had managed to orbit some satellites and the aerial phenomena were those satellites de-orbiting.
It could lift a ton, no more. But, Von Braun had been thinking of something like the Saturn V all along since his personal quest was the moon.