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The A4 (Aggregat 4) alias V-2 rocket or Vergeltungswaffe 2 ("Reprisal weapon 2") was an early ballistic missile used by the German Army against mostly Belgian and British targets during the later stages of World War II. The V2 rocket became the first man-made object launched into space during test flights that reached an altitude of 189 km (620,000 ft). It was the progenitor of the Space Race, which ultimately put men on the moon, and resulted in probes that have now left our solar system (see Voyager program). Pre-operational history As early as 1927 members of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) ("Spaceflight Society") had started experimenting with liquid-fuelled rockets. Rockets using a solid propellant had been used as weapons by all sides in WWI, and as a result, the Treaty of Versailles forbade solid fuel rocket research in Germany. By 1932 the Reichswehr started taking notice of their developments for potential long-range artillery use, and a team led by General Walter Dornberger was shown a test vehicle designed and flown by Wernher von Braun. Although the rocket was of limited ability, Dornberger saw von Braun's genius and pushed for him to join the military. Von Braun did so, as eventually did most of the other members of the society. In December 1934 von Braun scored another success with the flight of the A2 (A for Aggregat) rocket, a small model powered by ethanol and liquid oxygen, with work on the design continuing in an attempt to improve reliability. Many different liquid fuels had been developed, but the German military specifically encouraged the use of ethanol as a rocket fuel because Germany had always been hampered by a shortage of crude-oil-based fuels. Throughout WWII a wide variety of military rockets were fuelled by ethanol that was primarily derived from potatoes. By 1936 the team had moved on from the A2 and started work on both the A3 and A4. The latter was a full-sized design with a range of about 175 km (110 miles), a top altitude of 80 km and a payload of about a tonne. This increase in capability had come through a complete redesign of the engine by Walter Thiel. It was clear that von Braun's designs were turning into real weapons, and Dornberger moved the team from the artillery testing grounds at Kummersdorf (near Berlin) to a small town, Peenemünde, on the island of Usedom on Germany's Baltic coast, in order to provide more room for testing and greater secrecy. The A3 proved to be problematic, and a redesign was started as the A5. This version was completely reliable, and by 1941 the team had fired about 70 A5 rockets. The first A4 flew in March 1942, flying about 1.6 km and crashing into the water. The second launch reached an altitude of 11 km before exploding. The third rocket, launched on October 3 1942, followed its trajectory perfectly. It landed 193 km away, and reached a height of 80 km (50 mi). Production started in 1943 on the wonder weapon Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Vengeance Weapon 2), or the V-2 as it became better known, at the insistence of Goebbels' propaganda ministry. The Allies were already aware of the weapon. At a test site at Blizna in Poland a fired missile had been recovered by Polish resistance agents from the banks of the Western Bug, and vital technical details had been given to British intelligence. The British launched a massive bombing campaign against Peenemünde which slowed testing and production considerably as well as killing many key workers, including Dr. Walter Thiel who was the German engineer largely responsible for the design of the V-2 rocket engine. Thiel was killed during the raid of 16-17 August, 1943 designated Operation Hydra. Technical details
Launch sites Dornberger had always wanted a mobile launch platform for the missiles, but Hitler pressed for the construction of massive underground blockhouses from which to launch them. According to his plans, V-2s should have arrived from a number of factories in a continuous stream on several redundant rail lines, and launching should have been almost continual. Construction of the first such site started at Éperlecques, near St Omer in the Pas-de-Calais area in 1943. The British spotted it almost immediately and started a massive bombing campaign that eventually forced the Germans to abandon it, although the large 5000 kg "Tallboy" bombs had little impact. Another site was then started nearby in a huge quarry and called La Coupole, but it wasn't long before that too was destroyed by bombing. Eventually they gave up on the area and moved to the south near Cherbourg, but once again the site was discovered and bombed — this time while the concrete was still wet. The plan was changed to build large truck-towed trailers for the missiles. An entire convoy for the missile, men, equipment and fuel required about thirty trucks. The missile was delivered to a staging area on a Vidalwagen (made by Vidal) and the local crews installed the warhead. Launch teams then transferred the missile to a Meillerwagen (made by Meiller) and towed it to the launch site. There it was erected onto the launch table, fuelled, armed, gyros were set and the rocket was fired. From arrival at a site to firing took about 90 minutes. The crew could leave the firing site within 30 minutes. This was very successful, and an average of 10 V-2s were launched per day, by far the most large rockets of a single type ever. After the war, estimates showed that up to 100 V-2s could be launched per day with these trailers, given sufficient supply of the rockets.* The missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running through forests being a particular favorite. The system was so mobile and small that not one Meillerwagen was ever caught in action by Allied aircraft. Peenemünde test launches Test launches at Peenemünde began in March 1942. Experimental launches continued in spite of air raids on August 17, 1943 and in July/August 1944 until February 21, 1945. An A4/V-2 test rocket carrying prototype guidance systems for the Wasserfall missile project, effectively a V-2 rocket converted to an anti-aircraft role, was launched from Peenemünde on June 13, 1944 and crashed in Sweden. After being examined by Swedish engineers, the parts were sent to Great Britain. A V-2 test rocket fired on 30 May 1944 crashed near the test facility at Sarnaki nad Bugiem and was recovered and secured by Polish resistance (Home Army). On the night of 25 July/26 July 1944 it was successfully transported to the UK from occupied Poland by a RAF plane (see Operation Most III). Photo gallery: The V-2 and Polish Intelligence see also Home Army and V1 and V2 Image:Peenemunde August 1943.jpg|Test range at Peenemünde Image:Peenemunde August 1943 2.jpg|Failed test at Peenemünde, August 1943 Image:Traeger Roman intellAK Peenemundediscov.jpg|Roman Traeger, a member of the Polish intelligence service, who discovered the Peenemünde test site Image:V-2 Bug.jpg|V-2 rocket being recovered from the Bug river by the Home Army Image:V-2 Bug parts.jpg|Parts of the V-2 rocket recovered from the Bug river by the Home Army Image:Struszynski Marceli profPW analis v-2fuel.jpg|Professor Marceli Struszynski of the Warsaw University of Technology, who successfully analysed the composition of fuel used by the V-2 and then passed the results of his research on to the UK Image:MostIII v2 parts.jpg|Members of Operation Most III, during which parts of the captured V-2, as well as the analysis and sketches, were transferred from occupied Poland to the UK V-2 production V-2 mass production was conducted at the Mittelwerk tunnel system under the Kohnstein mountain, part of the Mittelbau-Dora slave labour camp complex, near Nordhausen, Germany. By late 1943 over 10,500 forced laborers were in Kohnstein and many died due to the conditions (cold and humidity, especially) and heavy labour. For example, 2,900 died between October 1943 and March 1944, but others died during transfers and other work. Put another way, fatalities averaged over 100 per day during certain periods. The majority of the slaves were Russian, Polish and French, although there were also prisoners of war, foreign workers and Germans forced to compulsory work. Operational history The first unit to reach operational status was Batterie 444. On September 2 1944 they formed up to launch attacks on Paris, recently liberated, and eventually set up near Houffalize in Belgium. The next day the 485th moved to The Hague for operations against London. Several launch attempts over the next few days failed, but on the 8th both groups fired successfully. This was the tip of the iceberg. Over the next few months the total number of V-2s fired were at least 3,172, distributed over the various targets as follows: 1664 76 1402 11 19 Hundreds more were launched that blew up in mid-flight, and so never made it into allied statistics. (Final development of the V-2 during the war was in fact to remedy this problem) The final two exploded on (or near) their targets on 27 March 1945. The last British civilian killed was Mrs Ivy Millichamp, 34, in her home in Orpington. In all, about seven thousand civilians were killed in London by the V-2, an average of over 5 deaths per attack. This, however, understates the potential of the V-2, since many rockets were mis-directed and exploded harmlessly. Accurately targeted missiles were often devastating, causing large numbers of deaths - about 160 in one explosion in a Woolworths department store in New Cross, south-east London and 567 deaths in a cinema in Antwerp - and significant damage in the critically important Antwerp docks. Silence Because the V-2 traveled supersonically, it reached its target in silence. To a civilian population inured to the idea that they might soon be blown up if they heard an enemy bomber or V-1 flying bomb, this new mode of attack was disconcerting. But it also meant that when the attacks on London began in September 1944, the British government could keep them secret. Explosions could be attributed to other causes or to no particular cause. In this way the Germans were unable to be sure that their weapons were even reaching England. The Germans themselves finally announced the V-2 on 8 November 1944 and only then, on 10 November 1944, did Winston Churchill inform Parliament, and the world, that England had been under rocket attack "for the last few weeks". Countermeasures Like the V-1, the V-2 was immune to electronic countermeasures. Unlike the V-1, however, the V-2's speed and trajectory also made it invulnerable to anti-aircraft guns and fighters, as it dropped from an altitude of 100–110 km (60–70 miles) at up to four times the speed of sound. The only defences against the V-2 campaign were to destroy the launch infrastructure—expensive in terms of bomber resources and casualties—or to cause the Germans to "aim" at the wrong place through disinformation. The British were able to convince the Germans to direct V-1s and V-2s aimed at London to less populated areas east of the city. This was done by sending false impact reports via the German espionage network in Britain, which was actually controlled by the British (the Double Cross System). There is a record of one V-2, fortuitously observed at launch from a passing American B-24 Liberator, being shot down by .50 caliber machine-gun fire *. Ultimately the most successful countermeasure was the Allied advance that forced the launchers back beyond range. The underground assembly plant in the Harz mountains near Nordhausen, was never bombed. On 3 March 1945 the allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment near The Hague by a large-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout quarter was destroyed, killing 500 Dutch civilians. Assessment The V-2, despite being one of the most advanced weapons in WWII, was militarily ineffective. Its guidance systems were too primitive to hit specific targets, and its costs were approximately equivalent to four-engined bombers, which were more accurate (though only in a relative sense— see discussion in strategic bomber), had longer ranges, carried many more warheads, and were reusable. Moreover, it had diverted resources from other, more effective programmes. Nevertheless, it had a considerable psychological effect as, unlike bombing planes or the V1 Flying Bomb, which made a characteristic buzzing sound, the V-2 travelled faster than the speed of sound, with no warning before impact and no possibility of defense. The cost of the V-2 program was approximately US$2 billion in 1944 dollars (approximate US$21 billion in 2005 dollars); and 6048 were built, 3225 launched (US$620,000 each in 2005 dollars). To put the German effort to mass produce the V-2 in perspective, its cost was at the time estimated to be about 1,000,000 Reichsmark per rocket. This was about the same as 4 Tiger Tanks or 8 Pzkfw IV tanks. For the 6000 V-2's built, Germany could have built up to 48,000 tanks for equal or less cost. However, such comparisons of the opportunity cost of deploying the V2 (versus other weapons systems) need to consider the realities that Nazi Germany faced and the psychology of the senior Nazi leadership. For example, by late 1944 Nazi Germany did not have the fuel or qualified manpower to field a hypothetical additional 48,000 tanks. The production of the fuel for one V-2 required 30 tons of potatoes. With the war all but lost (regardless of the factory output of conventional weapons) the Nazis thus resorted to V-weapons as a tenuous last hope to influence war militarily (hence Antwerp as V-2 target) and as an extension of their desire to "punish" their soon to be victorious foes (hence London as V-2 target). In short, the V-weapons were important to the Nazis as civilian terror weapons notwithstanding their dubious military value. The V-2 lacked a proximity fuze, so it could not be set for airburst; it buried itself in the target area before or just as the warhead detonated. This reduced its effectiveness. Unfulfilled plans A submarine towed launch platform was tested successfully, effectively making it the prototype for submarine launched ballistic missiles. The project codename was Prüfstand XII (Test stand XII), sometimes called the rocket U-boat in English. If deployed, it would have allowed a U-boat to launch V-2 missiles against United States cities, though only with considerable effort (and likely limited effect)*. Twelve dismantled V-2 rockets were shipped to the Japanese. These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on transport U-boats U-219 and U-195 reaching Djakarta in December 1944. A civilian V-2 expert was also a VIP passenger on the U-234 bound for Japan in May 1945 when the war ended in Europe. The fate of these V-2 rockets is unknown. Near the end of the war, German scientists were working on chemical and possibly biological weapons to use in the V-2 program. By this stage, the Germans had produced munitions containing nerve agents sarin, soman and tabun. Post-war V-2 usage At the end of the war, a race between the United States and the USSR to retrieve as many V-2 rockets and staff as possible began. Three hundred trainloads of V-2s and parts were captured and shipped to the United States, added to this 126 of the principal designers, including both Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger were in American hands. In the midst of this, in October 1945 as Operation Backfire, the British assembled a small number of V-2 missiles and launched three of them from a site in northern Germany. However the engineers involved had already agreed to move to the US when the test firings were complete. The Backfire report remains the most extensive technical documentation of the rocket, including all support procedures, tailored vehicles and fuel composition. According to his book My Father's Son, Canadian author Farley Mowat, then a member of the Canadian Army, claims also to have stolen a V-2 rocket in 1945 and shipped it back to Canada, where it is alleged to have ended up in the National Exhibition grounds in Toronto. Under Operation Paperclip the German engineers' stay in the US was legitimised. For several years afterward, the United States rocketry program made use of the supply of unused V-2 rockets left from the war, launching over 60 of them. A U.S. V-2 flight in 1946 saw the first animals in space, when fruit flies were launched to study radiation effects. Some V-2s were equipped with a WAC-rocket as a second stage. These rockets were called Bumper. On 24 February 1949 such a rocket reached a then-record altitude of 400 km (250 miles) and a velocity of 8290 km/h (5150 mph) at its launch from White Sands Proving Grounds. The Bumper was also the first rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. Many of these rockets were used for peaceful purposes, including upper-atmosphere research. Von Braun went to work for the US Army's Redstone Arsenal, eventually settling in Huntsville, Alabama in 1950. He quickly became the father of almost all US rocketry, working on the Redstone, Jupiter, Jupiter-C, Pershing, and Saturn rockets. The USSR also captured a number of V-2s and staff, letting them set up in Germany for a time. The first work contracts were signed in the summer of 1945. In 1946 they were obliged to move to a site near Moscow in the USSR where Groettrup headed up a group of just under 250 engineers. The first Soviet missile was the R-1, an exact copy of the V-2 manufactured in the USSR. Starting with the R-1 (soon followed by its evolved version R-2) the Soviets developed a number of new missile designs which would eventually lead to the Scud missile. The designs produced by the German team in Moscow were not put directly into production; instead, local designers would incorporate the better features into their own designs. In this way the Soviet Union built up its own rocket design experience. The German team was eventually repatriated in the early 1950s after the local design teams had captured all their knowledge. Post-war V2s launched in secret from Peenemünde may have been responsible for a curious phenomenon known as Ghost rockets. In the summer of 1946 there where there were 225 confirmed sightings (many on radar, and hundreds more unconfirmed) of unexplained objects crossing the skies over Sweden and Finland. The objects behaved in a manner similar to guided missiles with dummy payloads, and an American intelligence memo from the time stated that a series of Soviet test launches was the likeliest explanation. Lesser known influences on culture and technology Model rockets Model rocket V-2s are available in many sizes. For Germans, the 33-cm and 47-cm NORIS models are the best flying versions, because they can be launched without special permission with model rocket engines available in Germany. Since the 1960s Estes Industries has released several versions of the V2. Currently there are no Estes V2s in production. Surviving V-2 examples and components The short overview below includes only eleven of the at least 20 V-2s still existing as of 2005. Most, but not all, of the listed examples are available on public display. United Kingdom Australia United States Germany France See also | |||||||||
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