The rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944. Research into military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army.
The Soviets gained possession of the manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established production, and moved it to the Soviet Union. == Developmental history == In the late 1920s, a young Wernher von Braun bought a copy of Hermann Oberth's book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Spaces).
Starting in 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin, where he assisted Oberth in liquid-fueled rocket motor tests.
Von Braun's thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket (dated 16 April 1934), was kept classified by the German Army and was not published until 1960.
By the end of 1934, his group had successfully launched two rockets that reached heights of . At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H.
Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat (A) series of rockets, named for the German word for mechanism or mechanical system. Following successes at Kummersdorf with the first two Aggregate series rockets, Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel began thinking of a much larger rocket in the summer of 1936, based on a projected thrust engine.
Before 1939, German engineers and scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions.
During 28–30 September 1939, Der Tag der Weisheit (English: The Day of Wisdom) conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems. By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the A-4.
By 1939, eighteen injection heads in two concentric circles at the head of the 3 mm (0.12-inch) thick sheet-steel chamber, were used to make the 25 ton motor. The warhead was another source of troubles.
Hitler then gave Pennemünde top priority in the German armaments program stating, "Why was it I could not believe in the success of your work? if we had had these rockets in 1939 we should never have had this war..." Hitler also wanted a second launch bunker built. Saur planned to build 2000 rockets per month, between the existing three factories and the Nordhausen Mittelwerk factory being built.
Measurements were made using a Mach number 1.86 blowdown nozzle on 8 August 1940.
Tests at Mach numbers 1.56 and 2.5 were made after 24 September 1940. At launch the A-4 propelled itself for up to 65 seconds on its own power, and a program motor held the inclination at the specified angle until engine shutdown, after which the rocket continued on a ballistic free-fall trajectory.
For velocity measurement, Professor Wolman of Dresden created an alternative of his Doppler tracking system in 1940–41, which used a ground signal transponded by the A-4 to measure the velocity of the missile.
During 28–30 September 1939, Der Tag der Weisheit (English: The Day of Wisdom) conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems. By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the A-4.
By 9 February 1942, Peenemünde engineer Gerd deBeek had documented the radio interference area of a V-2 as around the "Firing Point", and the first successful A-4 flight on 3 October 1942, used radio control for Brennschluss.
publications such as Life magazine were using the hyphenated form "V-2" as early as December 1944. === Testing === The first successful test flight was on 3 October 1942, reaching an altitude of .
Testing confirmed that the so-called 'tin trousers' – a tube designed to strengthen the forward end of the rocket cladding – reduced the likelihood of air bursts. == Production == On 27 March 1942, Dornberger proposed production plans and the building of a launching site on the Channel coast.
In 1943, a third factory, Raxwerke, was added. On 22 December 1942, Hitler signed the order for mass production, when Albert Speer assumed final technical data would be ready by July 1943.
The briefing included von Braun narrating a film showing the successful launch on 3 October 1942, with scale models of the Channel coast firing bunker, and supporting vehicles, including the Meillerwagen.
At the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2; he opined that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost. In early September 1943, von Braun promised, the Long-Range Bombardment Commission that the A-4 development was "practically complete/concluded", but even by the middle of 1944, a complete A-4 parts list was still unavailable.
Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needed a "wonder weapon" to maintain German morale, so he authorized its deployment in large numbers. The V-2s were constructed at the Mittelwerk site by prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora, a concentration camp where 12,000–20,000 prisoners died during the war. In 1943 the Austrian resistance group around Heinrich Maier managed to send exact drawings of the V-2 rocket to the American Office of Strategic Services.
Although Hitler commented on 22 September 1943 that "It is a great load off our minds that we have dispensed with the radio guiding-beam; now no opening remains for the British to interfere technically with the missile in flight", about 20% of the operational V-2 launches were beam-guided.
In 1943, a third factory, Raxwerke, was added. On 22 December 1942, Hitler signed the order for mass production, when Albert Speer assumed final technical data would be ready by July 1943.
However, many issues still remained to be solved even by the autumn of 1943. On 8 January 1943, Dornberger and von Braun met with Speer.
Speer stated, "As head of the Todt organisation I will take it on myself to start at once with the building of the launching site on the Channel coast," and established an A-4 production committee under Degenkolb. On 26 May 1943, the Long-Range Bombardment Commission, chaired by AEG director Petersen, met at Peenemünde to review the V-1 and V-2 automatic long-range weapons.
As Dornberger observed, "The disadvantages of the one would be compensated by the other's advantages." On 7 July 1943, Major General Dornberger, von Braun, and Dr.
Eight main storage dumps were planned and four had been completed by July 1944 (the one at Mery-sur-Oise was begun in August 1943 and completed by February 1944).
formed during the last days of November 1943 in France commanded by General der Artillerie z.V.
Three launch battalions were formed in late 1943, Artillerie Abteilung 836 (Mot.), Grossborn, Artillerie Abteilung 485 (Mot.), Naugard, and Artillerie Abteilung 962 (Mot.).
The rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944. Research into military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army.
Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège.
At the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2; he opined that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost. In early September 1943, von Braun promised, the Long-Range Bombardment Commission that the A-4 development was "practically complete/concluded", but even by the middle of 1944, a complete A-4 parts list was still unavailable.
The Operation Pinguin V-2 offensive began on 8 September 1944, when Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie No.
publications such as Life magazine were using the hyphenated form "V-2" as early as December 1944. === Testing === The first successful test flight was on 3 October 1942, reaching an altitude of .
On that day Walter Dornberger declared in a speech at Peenemünde: Two test launches were recovered by the Allies: the Bäckebo rocket, the remnants of which landed in Sweden on 13 June 1944, and one recovered by the Polish resistance on 30 May 1944 from Blizna and transported to the UK during Operation Most III.
The highest altitude reached during the war was (20 June 1944).
(As mentioned above, one rocket was collected by the Home Army, with parts of it transported to London for tests.) Initially, the German developers suspected excessive alcohol tank pressure, but by April 1944, after five months of test firings, the cause was still not determined.
Eight main storage dumps were planned and four had been completed by July 1944 (the one at Mery-sur-Oise was begun in August 1943 and completed by February 1944).
On 2 September 1944, the SS Werfer-Abteilung 500 was formed, and by October, the SS under the command of SS Lt.
485 and Batterie 444, Burgsteinfurt and The Hague. After Hitler's 29 August 1944 declaration to begin V-2 attacks as soon as possible, the offensive began on 7 September 1944 when two were launched at Paris, but both crashed soon after launch.
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". In September 1944, control of the V-2 mission was taken over by the Waffen-SS and Division z.V. Positions of the German launch units changed a number of times.
For example, Artillerie Init 444 arrived in the southwest Netherlands (in Zeeland) in September 1944.
The largest loss of life by a single rocket attack during the war came on 16 December 1944, when the roof of the crowded cinema Rex was struck, leaving 567 dead and 291 injured. An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London by V-2 attacks with another 6,523 injured, which is two people killed per V-2 rocket.
Missile strikes that found targets could cause large numbers of deaths – 160 were killed and 108 seriously injured in one explosion at 12:26 pm on 25 November 1944, at a Woolworth's department store in New Cross, south-east London. British intelligence sent false reports via their Double-Cross System implying that the rockets were over-shooting their London target by .
This led to efforts to jam this non-existent guidance system as early as September 1944, using both ground and air-based jammers flying over the UK.
At a 25 August 1944 meeting of the Crossbow Committee, the concept was rejected. Pile continued studying the problem, and returned with a proposal to fire only 150 shells at a single rocket, with those shells using a new fuse that would greatly reduce the number that fell back to Earth unexploded.
An example of the impression it made is in the reaction of American pilot and future nuclear strategist and Congressional aide William Liscum Borden, who in November 1944 while returning from a nighttime mission over Holland saw a V-2 in flight on its way to strike London: "It resembled a meteor, streaming red sparks and whizzing past us as though the aircraft were motionless.
If deployed, it would have allowed a U-boat to launch V-2 missiles against United States cities, though only with considerable effort (and limited effect). Hitler, in July 1944 and Speer, in January 1945, made speeches alluding to the scheme, though Germany did not possess the capability to fulfill these threats.
These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on the transport U-boats and , which reached Djakarta in December 1944.
Possibly, from the potential sighting of the American fighter by the missile's launch crew, the rocket was quickly lowered from a near launch-ready 85° elevation to 30°. === Tactical use on German target=== After the US Army captured the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen on 7 March 1945, the Germans were desperate to destroy it.
On 17 March 1945, they fired eleven V-2 missiles at the bridge, their first use against a tactical target and the only time they were fired on a German target during the war.
They also struck the town of Remagen, destroying a number of buildings and killing at least six American soldiers. === Final use === The final two rockets exploded on 27 March 1945.
After the trajectory was determined, the guns would aim and fire between 60 and 500 rounds. At a Crossbow meeting on 15 January 1945 Pile's updated plan was presented with some strong advocacy from Roderic Hill and Charles Drummond Ellis.
This was done by sending deceptive reports on the damage caused and sites hit via the German espionage network in Britain, which was controlled by the British (the Double-Cross System). According to the BBC television presenter Raymond Baxter, who served with the RAF during the war, in February 1945 his squadron was carrying out a mission against a V2 launch site, when one missile was launched in front of them.
One member of Baxter's squadron opened fire on it, without effect. On 3 March 1945 the Allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment in the "Haagse Bos" in The Hague by a large-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout quarter was destroyed, killing 511 Dutch civilians.
If deployed, it would have allowed a U-boat to launch V-2 missiles against United States cities, though only with considerable effort (and limited effect). Hitler, in July 1944 and Speer, in January 1945, made speeches alluding to the scheme, though Germany did not possess the capability to fulfill these threats.
A civilian V-2 expert was a passenger on , bound for Japan in May 1945 when the war ended in Europe.
The V-2 rocket also laid the foundation for the liquid fuel missiles and space launchers used later. === Britain === In October 1945, Operation Backfire assembled a small number of V-2 missiles and launched three of them from a site in northern Germany.
The first work contracts were signed in the middle of 1945.
Details of Soviet achievements were unknown to the German team and completely underestimated by Western intelligence until, in November 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was successfully launched to orbit by the Sputnik rocket based on R-7, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. In the autumn of 1945, the group led by M.
The Backfire report, published in January 1946, contains extensive technical documentation of the rocket, including all support procedures, tailored vehicles and fuel composition. In 1946, the British Interplanetary Society proposed an enlarged man-carrying version of the V-2, called Megaroc.
In October 1946 (as part of Operation Osoaviakhim) they were obliged to move to Branch 1 of NII-88 on Gorodomlya Island in Lake Seliger where Helmut Gröttrup headed up a group of 150 engineers.
A supposed V-2 launched on 29 May 1947 landed near Juarez, Mexico and was actually a Hermes B-1 vehicle. The U.S.
Navy attempted to launch a German V-2 rocket at sea—one test launch from the aircraft carrier USS Midway was performed on 6 September 1947 as part of the Navy's Operation Sandy.
In October 1947, a group of German scientists supported the USSR in launching rebuilt V-2s in Kapustin Yar.
From 1947 until the end of 1950, the German team elaborated concepts and improvements for extended payload and range under the projects G-1, G-2 and G-4.
The German team was indirectly overseen by Sergei Korolev, the "chief designer" of the Soviet rocketry program. The first Soviet missile was the R-1, a duplicate of the V-2 completely manufactured in Soviet Union, which was first launched in October 1948.
In the 1950s some of these documents were useful to U.S.
From 1947 until the end of 1950, the German team elaborated concepts and improvements for extended payload and range under the projects G-1, G-2 and G-4.
The German team had to remain on Gorodomlya island until as late as 1952 and 1953.
The German team had to remain on Gorodomlya island until as late as 1952 and 1953.
Details of Soviet achievements were unknown to the German team and completely underestimated by Western intelligence until, in November 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was successfully launched to orbit by the Sputnik rocket based on R-7, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. In the autumn of 1945, the group led by M.
Von Braun's thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket (dated 16 April 1934), was kept classified by the German Army and was not published until 1960.
It could have enabled sub-orbital spaceflight similar to, but at least a decade earlier than, the Mercury-Redstone flights of 1961. === United States === Operation Paperclip recruited German engineers and Special Mission V-2 transported the captured V-2 parts to the United States.
(Alternately: Impact: An Operational History of Germany's V Weapons in World War II.) Rockville Centre, New York: Sarpedon Publishers, 1998.
Combustion gases exited the chamber at , and a speed of 2000 m (6500 feet) per second.
Hitler then gave Pennemünde top priority in the German armaments program stating, "Why was it I could not believe in the success of your work? if we had had these rockets in 1939 we should never have had this war..." Hitler also wanted a second launch bunker built. Saur planned to build 2000 rockets per month, between the existing three factories and the Nordhausen Mittelwerk factory being built.
Da Capo Press; Reprint edition, 2003: . == Further reading == Dungan, Tracy D.
Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Two engines at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (one was transferred from United States Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland around 2005 when the museum closed). Combustion chambers and other components plus a U.S.
A scientific reconstruction carried out in 2010 demonstrated that the V-2 creates a crater wide and deep, ejecting approximately 3,000 tons of material into the air. == Countermeasures == === Big Ben and Crossbow === Unlike the V-1, the V-2's speed and trajectory made it practically invulnerable to anti-aircraft guns and fighters, as it dropped from an altitude of at up to three times the speed of sound at sea level (approximately 3550 km/h).
According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, and a further 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons. The rockets travelled at supersonic speed, impacted without audible warning, and proved unstoppable, as no effective defense existed.
VR-190 called for vertical flight of two pilots to an altitude of 200 km using captured German V-2 rockets. === China === The first Chinese Dongfeng missile, the DF-1 was a licensed copy of the Soviet R-2. == Surviving V-2 examples and components == At least 20 V-2s still existed in 2014. === Australia === One at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, including complete Meillerwagen transporter.
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