V-2 rocket
V2 | |
---|---|
Type | Single-stage ballistic missile |
Place of origin | Nazi Germany |
Service history | |
In service | 1944–1952 |
Used by | |
Production history | |
Designer | Peenemünde Army Research Center |
Manufacturer | Mittelwerk GmbH |
Unit cost | |
Produced |
|
No. built | Over 3,000 |
Specifications | |
Mass | 12,500 kg (27,600 lb) |
Length | 14 m (45 ft 11 in) |
Diameter | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) |
Wingspan | 3.56 m (11 ft 8 in) |
Warhead | 1,000 kg (2,200 lb); Amatol (explosive weight: 910 kg) |
Detonation mechanism | Impact |
Propellant |
|
Operational range | 320 km (200 mi) |
Flight altitude |
|
Maximum speed |
|
Guidance system | |
Launch platform | Mobile (Meillerwagen) |
The V2 (
Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of
The rockets travelled at supersonic speeds, impacted without audible warning, and proved unstoppable, as no effective defense existed. Teams from the Allied forces—the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union—raced to seize major German manufacturing facilities, procure the Germans' missile technology, and capture the V-2s' launching sites. Von Braun and more than 100 core R&D V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans, and many of the original V-2 team transferred their work to the Redstone Arsenal, where they were relocated as part of Operation Paperclip. The US also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established V-2 production, and moved it to the Soviet Union.
Development history
During 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). In 1928 a Raketenrummel or "Rocket Rumble" fad in the popular media was initiated by Fritz von Opel and Max Valier, a collaborator of Oberth, by experimenting with rockets, including public demonstrations of manned rocket cars and rocket planes. The “Rocket Rumble” was highly influential on von Braun as a teenage space enthusiast. He was so enthusiastic after seeing one of the public Opel-RAK rocket car demonstrations, that he constructed and launched his own homemade toy rocket car in a crowded sidewalk and was later taken in for questioning by the local police, until released to his father for disciplinary action.[8]
Starting in 1930, von Braun attended the
At the time, many Germans were interested in American physicist
After successes at Kummersdorf with the first two Aggregate series rockets, Braun and Walter Riedel began thinking of a much larger rocket in the summer of 1936,[11] based on a projected 25,000 kg (55,000 lb) thrust engine. In addition, Dornberger specified the military requirements needed to include a 1-ton payload, a range of 172 miles with a dispersion of 2 or 3 miles, and transportable using road vehicles.[12]: 50–51
After the
Braun specified the A-4 performance in 1937,During early September 1943, Braun promised the Long-Range Bombardment Commission[3]: 224 that the A-4 development was "practically complete/concluded",[14]: 135 but even by the middle of 1944, a complete A-4 parts list was still unavailable.[3]: 224 Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needed a "wonder weapon" to maintain German morale,[18] so he authorized its deployment in large numbers.[19]
The V-2s were constructed at the
In 1943, the Austrian resistance group including Heinrich Maier managed to send exact drawings of the V-2 rocket to the American Office of Strategic Services. Location sketches of V-rocket manufacturing facilities, such as those in Peenemünde, were also sent to the Allied general staff in order to enable Allied bombers to perform airstrikes. This information was particularly important for Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. The group was gradually captured by the Gestapo and most of the members were executed.[23][24][25][26][27]
Technical details
The A4 used a 75%
Rudolf Hermann's supersonic wind tunnel was used to measure the A4's aerodynamic characteristics and center of pressure, using a model of the A4 within a 40 square centimeter chamber. Measurements were made using a Mach 1.86 blowdown nozzle on 8 August 1940. Tests at Mach numbers 1.56 and 2.5 were made after 24 September 1940.[30]: 76–78
At launch the A4 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. The rocket reached a height of 80 km (50 mi) or 264,000 ft after shutting off the engine.[31]
The fuel and oxidizer pumps were driven by a steam turbine, and the steam was produced by concentrated
The turbopump, rotating at 4,000 rpm, forced the alcohol and oxygen into the combustion chamber at 125 liters (33 US gallons) per second, where they were ignited by a spinning electrical igniter. Thrust increased from 8 tons during this preliminary stage whilst the fuel was gravity-fed, before increasing to 25 tons as the turbopump pressurised the fuel, lifting the 13.5 ton rocket. Combustion gases exited the chamber at 2,820 °C (5,100 °F), and a speed of 2,000 m (6,600 ft) per second. The oxygen to fuel mixture was 1.0:0.85 at 25 tons of thrust, but as ambient pressure decreased with flight altitude, thrust increased until it reached 29 tons.[12][32][33] The turbopump assembly contained two centrifugal pumps, one for the alcohol, and one for the oxygen, The turbine connects directly by a shaft to the alcohol pump and through a flexible joint and shaft to the oxygen pump.[34] Hydrogen peroxide converted to steam, using a sodium permanganate catalyst powered the pump, which delivered 55 kg (121 lb) of alcohol and 68 kg (150 lb) of liquid oxygen per second to a combustion chamber at 1.5 MPa (218 psi).[30]
Dr. Thiel's development of the 25 ton rocket motor relied on pump feeding, rather than on the earlier pressure feeding. The motor used centrifugal injection, while using both
The warhead was another source of trouble. The explosive used was amatol 60/40 detonated by an electric contact fuze. Amatol had the advantage of stability, and the warhead was protected by a thick layer of glass wool, but even so it could still explode during the re-entry phase. The warhead weighed 975 kilograms (2,150 lb) and contained 910 kilograms (2,010 lb) of explosive. The warhead's percentage by weight that was explosive was 93%, a very great percentage when compared with other types of munition.
A protective layer of glass wool was also used for the fuel tanks so the A-4 did not have a tendency to form ice, a problem which plagued other early ballistic missiles such as the balloon tank-design SM-65 Atlas which entered US service in 1959. The tanks held 4,173 kilograms (9,200 lb) of ethyl alcohol and 5,553 kilograms (12,242 lb) of oxygen.[35]
The V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal graphite vanes in the jet stream at the exit of the motor. These 8 control surfaces were controlled by Helmut Hölzer's analog computer, the Mischgerät, via electrical-hydraulic servomotors, based on electrical signals from the gyros. The Siemens Vertikant LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizontal for pitch and a vertical with two degrees of freedom for yaw and roll) for lateral stabilization, coupled with a PIGA accelerometer, or the Walter Wolman radio control system, to control engine cutoff at a specified velocity. Other gyroscopic systems used in the A-4 included Kreiselgeräte's SG-66 and SG-70. The V-2 was launched from a pre-surveyed location, so the distance and azimuth to the target were known. Fin 1 of the missile was aligned to the target azimuth.[36][30]: rp
Some later V-2s used "guide beams", radio signals transmitted from the ground, to keep the missile on course, but the first models used a simple analog computer[37] that adjusted the azimuth for the rocket, and the flying distance was controlled by the timing of the engine cut-off, Brennschluss, ground-controlled by a Doppler system or by different types of on-board integrating accelerometers. Thus, range was a function of engine burn time, which ended when a specific velocity was achieved.[32][12]: 203–204 [33] Just before engine cutoff, thrust was reduced to eight tons, in an effort to avoid any water hammer problems a rapid cutoff could cause.[29]
Dr. Friedrich Kirchstein of Siemens of Berlin developed the V-2 radio control for motor-cut-off (German: Brennschluss).[14]: 28, 124 For velocity measurement, Professor Wolman of Dresden created an alternative of his Doppler[38]: 18 tracking system in 1940–41, which used a ground signal transponded by the A-4 to measure the velocity of the missile.[3]: 103 By 9 February 1942, Peenemünde engineer Gerd deBeek had documented the radio interference area of a V-2 as 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) around the "Firing Point",[39] and the first successful A-4 flight on 3 October 1942, used radio control for Brennschluss.[13]: 12 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",[14]: 138 about 20% of the operational V-2 launches were beam-guided.[13]: 12 [12]: 232 The Operation Pinguin V-2 offensive began on 8 September 1944, when Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie No. 444[38]: 51–2 (English: 'Training and Testing Battery 444') launched a single rocket guided by a radio beam directed at Paris.[39]: 47 Wreckage of combat V-2s occasionally contained the transponder for velocity and fuel cutoff.[11]: 259–60
The painting of the operational V-2s was mostly a ragged-edged pattern with several variations, but at the end of the war a plain olive green rocket was also used. During tests the rocket was painted in a characteristic black-and-white chessboard pattern, which aided in determining if the rocket was spinning around its longitudinal axis.
The original German designation of the rocket was "V2",[7][40] unhyphenated – exactly as used for any Third Reich-era "second prototype" example of an RLM-registered German aircraft design – but U.S. publications such as Life magazine were using the hyphenated form "V-2" as early as December 1944.[41]
Testing
The first successful test flight was on 3 October 1942, reaching an altitude of 84.5 kilometres (52.5 miles).[3] On that day, Walter Dornberger declared in a speech at Peenemünde:
This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel...[13]17
Two test launches were recovered by the Allies:
Various design issues were identified and solved during V-2 development and testing:
- To reduce tank pressure and weight, rapid flow turbopumps were used to increase pressure.[3]: 35
- A short and lighter combustion chamber without burn-through was developed by using centrifugal injection nozzles, a mixing compartment, and a converging nozzle to the throat for homogeneous combustion.[13]: 51
- Film cooling was used to prevent burn-through at the nozzle throat.[13]: 52
- Relay contacts were made more durable to withstand vibration and prevent thrust cut-off just after lift-off.[13]: 52
- Ensuring that the fuel pipes had tension-free curves reduced the likelihood of explosions at 1,200–1,800 m (4,000–6,000 ft).[13]: 215, 217
- Fins were shaped with clearance to prevent damage as the exhaust jet expanded with altitude.[13]: 56, 118
- To control trajectory at liftoff and supersonic speeds, heat-resistant graphite vanes were used as rudders in the exhaust jet.[13]: 35, 58
Air burst problem
Through mid-March 1944, only four of the 26 successful Blizna launches had satisfactorily reached the Sarnaki target area[39]: 112, 221–222, 282 due to in-flight breakup (Luftzerleger) on re-entry into the atmosphere.[43]: 100 (As mentioned above, one rocket was collected by the Polish 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. Major-General Rossmann, the Army Weapons Office department chief, recommended stationing observers in the target area – c. May/June, Dornberger and von Braun set up a camp at the centre of the Poland target zone.[44] After moving to the Heidekraut,[11]: 172, 173 SS Mortar Battery 500 of the 836th Artillery Battalion (Motorized) was ordered[39]: 47 on 30 August[38] to begin test launches of eighty 'sleeved' rockets.[14]: 281 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.[43]: 100 [12]: 188–198
Production
On 27 March 1942, Dornberger proposed production plans and the building of a launching site on the Channel coast. In December, Speer ordered Major Thom and Dr. Steinhoff to reconnoitre the site near Watten. Assembly rooms were established at Peenemünde and in the Friedrichshafen facilities of Zeppelin Works. In 1943, a third factory, Raxwerke, was added.[12]: 71–72, 84
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.[45]
On 8 January 1943, Dornberger and von Braun met with Speer. Speer stated, "As head of the
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. In attendance were Speer, Air Marshal Erhard Milch, Admiral Karl Dönitz, Col. General Friedrich Fromm, and Karl Saur. Both weapons had reached the final stage of development, and the commission decided to recommend to Hitler that both weapons be mass-produced. As Dornberger observed, "The disadvantages of the one would be compensated by the other's advantages."[12]: 83–84, 87–92
On 7 July 1943, Major General Dornberger, von Braun, and Dr. Steinhof briefed Hitler in his Wolf's Lair. Also in attendance were Speer, Wilhelm Keitel, and Alfred Jodl. The briefing included von Braun narrating a movie showing the successful launch on 3 October 1942, with scale models of the Channel coast firing bunker, and supporting vehicles, including the Meillerwagen. Hitler then gave Peenemünde 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.[12]: 93–105
Saur planned to build 2,000 rockets per month, between the existing three factories and the Nordhausen Mittelwerk factory being built. However, alcohol production was dependent upon the potato harvest.[12]: 97, 102–105
A production line was nearly ready at Peenemünde when the Operation Hydra attack occurred. The main targets of the attack included the test stands, the development works, the Pre-Production Works, the settlement where the scientists and technicians lived, the Trassenheide camp, and the harbor sector. According to Dornberger, "Serious damage to the works, contrary to first impressions, was surprisingly small." Work resumed after a delay of four to six weeks, and because of camouflage to mimic complete destruction, there were no more raids during the next nine months. The raid resulted in 735 lives lost, with heavy losses at Trassenheide, while 178 were killed in the settlement, including Dr. Thiel, his family, and Chief Engineer Walther.[12]: 139–152 The Germans eventually moved production to the underground Mittelwerk in the Kohnstein where 5,200 V-2 rockets were built with the use of forced labour.[46]
Period of production | Production |
---|---|
Up to 15 September 1944 | 1,900 |
15 September to 29 October 1944 | 900 |
29 October to 24 November 1944 | 600 |
24 November to 15 January 1945 | 1,100 |
15 January to 15 February 1945 | 700 |
Total | 5200 |
Launch sites
After the Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground
It was estimated that a sustained rate of 350 V-2s could be launched per week, with 100 per day at maximum effort, given sufficient supply of the rockets.[50]
Operational history
The
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 (which the Allies had liberated less than two weeks earlier), but both crashed soon after launch. On 8 September a single rocket was launched at Paris, which caused modest damage near Porte d'Italie.[11]: 218, 220, 467 Two more launches by the 485th followed, including one from The Hague against London on the same day at 6:43 pm.[14]: 285 – the first landed at Staveley Road, Chiswick, killing 63-year-old Mrs. Ada Harrison, three-year-old Rosemary Clarke, and Sapper Bernard Browning on leave from the Royal Engineers,[15]: 11 and one that hit Epping with no casualties.
The British government, concerned about spreading panic or giving away vital intelligence to German forces, initially attempted to conceal the cause of the explosions by making no official announcement, and euphemistically blaming them on defective gas mains.[54] The public did not believe this explanation and therefore began referring to the V-2s as "flying gas mains".[55] 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".[56]
In September 1944, control of the V-2 mission was transferred to the Waffen-SS and Division z.V.[57][58]
Positions of the German launch units changed a number of times. For example, Artillerie Init 444 arrived in the southwest
Targets
During the succeeding months about 3,172 V-2 rockets were fired at the following targets:[61]
- Belgium, 1,664: Antwerp (1,610), Liège (27), Hasselt (13), Tournai (9), Mons (3), Diest (2)
- United Kingdom, 1,402: London (1,358), Norwich (43),[14]: 289 Ipswich (1)
- France, 76: Lille (25), Paris (22), Tourcoing (19), Arras (6), Cambrai (4)
- Netherlands, 19: Maastricht (19)
- Germany, 11: Remagen (11)
Antwerp, Belgium was a target for a large number of V-weapon attacks from October 1944 through to the virtual end of the war in March 1945, leaving 1,736 dead and 4,500 injured in greater Antwerp. Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed as the city was struck by 590 direct hits. The largest loss of life by a single rocket attack during the war came on 16 December 1944, when the roof of the crowded
An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London by V-2 attacks with another 6,523 injured,[64] which is two people killed per V-2 rocket. However, this understates the potential of the V-2, since many rockets were misdirected and exploded harmlessly. Accuracy increased during the war, particularly for batteries where the Leitstrahl (radio guide beam) system was used.[65] Missile strikes that hit 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.[66] British intelligence sent false reports via their Double-Cross System implying that the rockets were over-shooting their London target by 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km). This tactic worked; more than half of the V-2s aimed at London landed outside the London Civil Defence Region.[67]: p. 459 Most landed on less-heavily populated areas in Kent due to erroneous recalibration. For the remainder of the war, British intelligence maintained the ruse by repeatedly sending bogus reports implying that the rockets were now striking the British capital with heavy loss of life.[68]
Possible use during Operation Bodenplatte
At least one V-2 missile on a mobile
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.[70] They could not employ the more accurate Leitstrahl device because it was oriented towards Antwerp and could not be easily adjusted for another target. Fired from near Hellendoorn, the Netherlands, one of the missiles landed as far away as Cologne, 40 miles (64 km) to the north, while one missed the bridge by only 500 to 800 yards (460 to 730 m). They also struck the town of Remagen, destroying a number of buildings and killing at least six American soldiers.[71]
Final use
The final two rockets exploded on 27 March 1945. One of these was the last V-2 to kill a British civilian and the final civilian casualty of the war on British soil: Ivy Millichamp, aged 34, killed in her home in Kynaston Road, Orpington in Kent.[72][73] A scientific reconstruction performed in 2010 demonstrated that the V-2 creates a crater 20 metres (66 feet) wide and 8 metres (26 feet) deep, ejecting approximately 3,000 tons of material into the air.[68]
Countermeasures
Big Ben and Operation 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 100–110 km (62–68 mi) at up to three times the speed of sound at sea level (approximately 3,550 km/h (2,206 mph)). Nevertheless, the threat of what was then code-named "Big Ben" was great enough that efforts were made to seek countermeasures. The situation was similar to the pre-war concerns about manned bombers and resulted in a similar solution, the formation of the Crossbow Committee, to collect, examine and develop countermeasures.
Early on, it was believed that the V-2 employed some form of radio guidance, a belief that persisted in spite of several rockets being examined without discovering anything like a radio receiver. This resulted in efforts to jam this non-existent guidance system as early as September 1944, using both ground and air-based jammers flying over the UK. In October, a group had been sent to jam the missiles during launch. By December it was clear these systems were not having any obvious effect, and jamming efforts ended.[74]
Anti-aircraft gun system (proposed)
General
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. Some low-level analysis suggested that this would be successful against 1 in 50 rockets, provided that accurate trajectories were forwarded to the gunners in time. Work on this basic concept continued and developed into a plan to deploy a large number of guns in Hyde Park that were provided with pre-configured firing data for 2.5-mile (4.0-kilometre) grids of the London area. After the trajectory was determined, the guns would aim and fire between 60 and 500 rounds.[74]
At a Crossbow meeting on 15 January 1945 Pile's updated plan was presented with some strong advocacy from
With the Germans no longer in control of any part of the continent that could be used as a launching site capable of striking London, they began targeting Antwerp. Plans were made to move the Pile system to protect that city, but the war ended before anything could be done.[74]
Direct attack and disinformation
The only effective 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 by 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 deceptive reports on the sites hit and damage caused via the German espionage network in Britain, which was secretly controlled by the British (the Double-Cross System).[75]
According to the BBC television presenter Raymond Baxter, who served with the RAF during the war, in February 1945 his squadron was performing a mission against a V2 launch site, when they saw one missile being launched. One member of Baxter's squadron opened fire on it, without effect.[76]
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.
Assessment
The German V-weapons (V-1 and V-2) cost the equivalent of about US$500 million.[77] Given the relatively smaller size of the German economy, this represented an industrial effort equivalent to but slightly less than that of the U.S. Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bomb. 6,048 V-2s were built, at a cost of approximately 100,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁ (£2,370,000 in 2011) each[citation needed]; 3,225 were launched. SS General
... those of us who were seriously engaged in the war were very grateful to Wernher von Braun. We knew that each V-2 cost as much to produce as a high-performance fighter airplane. We knew that German forces on the fighting fronts were in desperate need of airplanes, and that the V-2 rockets were doing us no military damage. From our point of view, the V-2 program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral disarmament.
The V-2 consumed a third of Germany's fuel alcohol production and major portions of other critical technologies:[80] to distil the fuel alcohol for one V-2 launch required 30 tonnes of potatoes at a time when food was becoming scarce.[81] Due to a lack of explosives, some warheads were simply filled with concrete, using the kinetic energy alone for destruction, and sometimes the warhead contained photographic propaganda of German citizens who had died in Allied bombings.[82]
The psychological effect of the V-2 was considerable, as the V-2, traveling faster than the
With the war all but lost, regardless of the factory output of conventional weapons, the Nazis resorted to V-weapons as a tenuous last hope to influence the war militarily (hence Antwerp as V-2 target), as an extension of their desire to "punish" their foes and most importantly to give hope to their sympathizers with their miracle weapon.[18] The V-2 did not affect the outcome of the war, but it resulted in the development of the intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Cold War, which were also used for space exploration.[86]
Unfulfilled plans
A submarine-towed launch platform was tested successfully, making it the prototype for submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The project codename was Prüfstand XII ("Test stand XII"), sometimes termed the rocket U-boat. 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).[87] Hitler, in July 1944 and Speer, in January 1945, made speeches alluding to the scheme,[88] though Germany did not possess the capability to fulfill these threats. These schemes were met by the Americans with Operation Teardrop.[citation needed]
While interned after the war by the British at
According to decrypted messages from the Japanese embassy in Germany, twelve dismantled V-2 rockets were shipped to Japan.[89] These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on the transport U-boats U-219 and U-195, which reached Jakarta in December 1944. A civilian V-2 expert was a passenger on U-234, bound for Japan in May 1945 when the war ended in Europe. The fate of these V-2 rockets is unknown.[citation needed]
Post-war use
At the end of the war, a competition began between the United States and the USSR to retrieve as many V-2 rockets and staff as possible.[90] Three hundred rail-car loads of V-2s and parts were captured and shipped to the United States and 126 of the principal designers, including Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger, were captives of the Americans. Von Braun, his brother Magnus von Braun, and seven others decided to surrender to the United States military (Operation Paperclip) to ensure they were not captured by the advancing Soviets or shot dead by the Nazis to prevent their capture.[91]
After the Nazi defeat, German engineers were relocated to the United States, the USSR, France and the United Kingdom where they further developed the V-2 rocket for military and civilian purposes.[92] The V-2 rocket also laid the foundation for the liquid fuel missiles and space launchers used later.[93]
United States
In addition to V-2 hardware, the U.S. Government delivered German mechanization equations for the V-2 guidance, navigation, and control systems, as well as for advanced development concept vehicles, to U.S. defence contractors for analysis. During the 1950s, some of these documents were useful to U.S. contractors in developing direction cosine matrix transformations and other inertial navigation architecture concepts that were applied to early U.S. programs, such as the Atlas and Minuteman guidance systems as well as the Navy's Subs Inertial Navigation System.[94]
A committee was formed with military and civilian scientists to review payload proposals for the reassembled V-2 rockets. By January 1946, the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps invited civilian scientists and engineers to participate in developing a space research program using the V-2. The committee was initially named the
Only 68 percent of the V-2 trials were considered successful.
The
The PGM-11 Redstone rocket is a direct descendant of the V-2.[98]
USSR
The USSR also captured a number of V-2s and staff, letting them stay in Germany for a time.[99] The first work contracts were signed in the middle of 1945. During October 1946 (as part of Operation Osoaviakhim) they were obliged to relocate to Branch 1 of NII-88 on Gorodomlya Island in Lake Seliger where Helmut Gröttrup directed a group of 150 engineers.[100] In October 1947, a group of German scientists supported the USSR in launching rebuilt V-2s in Kapustin Yar. The German team was indirectly overseen by Sergei Korolev, one of the leaders of the Soviet rocketry program.
The first Soviet missile was the
During the autumn of 1945, the group directed by M. Tikhonravov K. and N. G. Chernyshov at the NII-4 rocket artillery institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences developed on their own initiative the first stratospheric rocket project. Project VR-190 planned for vertical flight of two pilots to an altitude of 200 km using captured German V-2 rockets.[103]
France
Between May and September of 1946, CEPA, the forerunner to today's French space agency CNES, undertook the recruitment of approximately thirty German engineers, who had previous experience working on rocket programs for Nazi Germany at the Peenemünde Army Research Center.[104] Much like their counterparts in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, France's objective was to acquire and advance the rocket technology developed by Germany during World War II. The initial initiative, known as the Super V-2 program, had plans for four rocket variants capable of achieving ranges of up to 3,600 km (2,200 mi) and carrying warheads weighing up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). However, this program was canceled in 1948.
From 1950 to 1969, the research done on the Super V-2 program was repurposed to develop the Véronique sounding rocket, which became the first liquid-fuel research rocket in Western Europe and was ultimately capable of carrying a 100 kg (220 lb) payload to an altitude of 320 km (200 mi).[105] The Véronique program then lead to the Diamant rocket and the Ariane rocket family.
UK
During October 1945, the Allied Operation Backfire assembled a small number of V-2 missiles and launched three of them from a site in northern Germany. The engineers involved had already agreed to relocate to the US when the test firings were complete. The Backfire report, published in January 1946, contains extensive technical documentation of the rocket, including all support procedures, tailored vehicles and fuel composition.[106]
In 1946, the
China
The first Chinese Dongfeng missile, the DF-1 was a licensed copy of the Soviet R-2; this design was used during the 1960s.[citation needed]
Surviving V-2 examples and components
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2016) |
At least 20 V-2s still existed during 2014.
Australia
- One at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, including a complete Meillerwagen transporter. The rocket has the most complete set of guidance components of all surviving A4s. The Meillerwagen is the most complete of the three examples known to exist. Another A4 was on display at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook outside Melbourne. Both rockets are now in Canberra.[109][110]
Netherlands
- One example, partly skeletonized, is in the collection of the Nationaal Militair Museum. In this collection are also a launching table and some loose parts, as well as the remains of a V-2 that crashed in The Hague immediately after launch.
Poland
- Several large components, like hydrogen peroxide tank and reaction chamber, the propellant turbopump and the HWK rocket engine chamber (partly cut-out) are displayed at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków
- A reconstruction of a V-2 missile containing multiple original recovered parts is on display at the Armia Krajowa Museum in Kraków.[111][failed verification]
France
- One engine at Cité de l'espace in Toulouse.
- V-2 display including engine, parts, rocket body and many documents and photographs relating to the development and use at La Coupole museum, Wizernes, Pas de Calais.
- One rocket body no engine, one complete engine, one lower engine section and one wrecked engine on display in museum La Coupole.
- One engine complete with steering pallets, feed lines and tank bottoms, plus one cut-out thrust chamber and one cut-out turbopump at the Snecma (Space Engines Div.) museum in Vernon.
- One complete rocket in WWII wing of the Musée de l'Armée (Army Museum) in Paris.
Germany
- One complete V2 rocket [112] and several engines at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.[113]
- One engine at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.[114]
- One engine at the Deutsches Historisches Museumin Berlin.
- One rusty engine in the original V-2 underground production facilities at the Dora-Mittelbauconcentration camp memorial site.
- One rusty engine in Buchenwald concentration camp.
- One replica was constructed for the Historical and Technical Information Centre in Peenemünde,[115] where it is displayed near what remains of the factory where it was built.
United Kingdom
- One at the Science Museum, London.[116]
- One, loaned by Cranfield University, at the Imperial War Museum, London.[117][failed verification]
- The RAF Museum has two rockets, one of which is displayed at its Cosford site. The Museum also owns a Meillerwagen, a Vidalwagen, a Strabo crane, and a firing table with towing dolly.[118][failed verification]
- One at the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent.
- A propulsion unit (minus injectors) is in Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum near Bungay.
- A complete turbo-pump is at Solway Aviation Museum, Carlisle Airport as part of the Blue Streak Rocket exhibition.
- The venturi segment of one discovered in April 2012 was donated to the Harwich Sailing Club after they found it buried in a mudflat.[119]
- Fuel combustion chamber recovered from the sea near Clacton at the East Essex Aviation Museum, St Oysth.
- A gyroscope unit is on display at the National Space Centre in Leicester.[120]
- A turbo pump unit on display at the National Space Centre in Leicester.[121]
- A steam generating chamber on display at the National Space Centre in Leicester.[122]
United States
- Complete missiles
- One at the Flying Heritage Collection, Everett, Washington[123]
- One at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, including complete Meillerwagen, Dayton, Ohio.[124]
- One (chessboard-painted) at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas.[125]
- One at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.[126]
- One at the Fort Bliss Air Defense Museum, El Paso, Texas.
- One (yellow and black) at Missile Park, White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico.[127][128]
- One at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
- One at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
- Components
- One engine at the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma.[129]
- One engine at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
- Two engines at the National Museum of the United States Air Force[130]
(one was transferred from
- Combustion chambers and other components plus a U.S. built engine at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, Virginia.
- One engine at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
- One rocket body at Dover, New Jersey.
- One engine in the Auburn University Engineering Laboratory.
- One engine in the Exhibit Hall adjacent to the Blockhouse building on the Historic Cape Canaveral Tour in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- One engine at St. Louis, Missouri.
- One engine and tail section at New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Kennedy, Gregory P. (1983). Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Guided Missile. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 27, 74.
- ^ 10% of the Mittelwerk rockets used a guide beam for cutoff.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-02-922895-1. Archivedfrom the original on 28 October 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
- ^ "Long-range" in the context of the time. See NASA history article Archived 7 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Neufeld, 1995 pp 158, 160–162, 190
- ^ Ramsey 2016, p. 89.
- ^ ISBN 3-440-10719-1.
- ISBN 978-0307389374.
- ^ Konstruktive, theoretische und experimentelle Beiträge zu dem Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete. Raketentechnik und Raumfahrtforschung, Sonderheft 1 (1960), Stuttgart, Germany
- ^ Christopher, John (2013). The Race for Hitler's X-Planes. The Mill, Gloucestershire: History Press, p.110.
- ^ ISBN 1-894959-00-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Dornberger, Walter (1954). V-2. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. pp. 17–18, 120, 122–123, 132.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dornberger, Walter (1952). V-2. New York: Viking. English translation 1954.
- ^ a b c d e f g Irving, David (1964). The Mare's Nest. London: William Kimber and Co. p. 17.
- ^ a b Middlebrook, Martin (1982). The Peenemünde Raid: The Night of 17–18 August 1943. New York: Bobbs-Merrill. p. 19.
- ^ a b Christopher, p.111.
- ISBN 0-06-181898-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-00-711262-3.
- ISBN 0-19-509514-6.
- ISBN 0-312-05510-2.
- ISBN 0-8133-3272-9.
- ^ "Dora and the V–2". uah.edu. Archived from the original on 29 June 2014.
- ^ "Im Netz der Verräter" [On the traitor network]. Der Standard (in German). 4 June 2010. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
- ^ Hansjakob Stehle (5 January 1996). "Die Spione aus dem Pfarrhaus". Die Zeit.
- ^ Peter Broucek (2008). "Die österreichische Identität im Widerstand 1938–1945", p 163.
- ^ C. Thurner "The CASSIA Spy Ring in World War II Austria: A History of the OSS's Maier-Messner Group" (2017), pp 35.
- ^ "Operation Crossbow – Preliminary missions for the Operation Overlord". 19 February 2016.
- ^ Dungan, T. "The A4-V2 Rocket Site". Archived from the original on 31 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56347-649-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8130-3177-4.
- The History ChannelV2 Factory: Nordhausen 070723
- ^ a b Zaloga 2003 p19
- ^ ISBN 978-1-937684-76-1.
- ^ 16:04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgiMu8A3pi0&t=2036s
- ^ War machine encyclopedia, Limited publishing, London 1983 p 1690–92
- ^ Stakem, Patrick H. The History of Spacecraft Computers from the V-2 to the Space Station, 2010, PRB Publishing, ASIN B004L626U6
- ^ Helmut Hoelzer's Fully Electronic Analog Computer used in the German V2 (A4) rockets. Archived 28 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine (PDF, English, German)
- ^ a b c Pocock, Rowland F. (1967). German Guided Missiles of the Second World War. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 51, 52.
- ^ a b c d Klee, Ernst; Merk, Otto (1965) [1963]. The Birth of the Missile: The Secrets of Peenemünde. Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag. p. 47.
- ^ Kliebenschedel, Thomas. "A4 (V2) Raketenfertigung in Friedrichshafen 1942–1945" (in German). Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
- ^ "V-2: Nazi Rocket Details Are Finally Revealed". LIFE. Vol. 17, no. 26. 25 December 1944. pp. 46–48. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ISBN 83-211-0521-1
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8128-2858-0.
- ^ Neufeld 1995 pp.221,222
- ISBN 978-1-84212-735-3.
- JSTOR 2280189.
- ISBN 0-241-89746-7.
- ^ "V-Weapons Crossbow Campaign". Allworldwars.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
- ^ Ordway & Sharpe 1979 p256
- ^ Walker, John (27 September 1993). "A Rocket a Day Keeps the High Costs Away". Archived from the original on 3 November 2008. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
- ^ "Antwerp, "City of Sudden Death"". v2rocket.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "LXV Armeekorps z.b.V." www.axishistory.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-247-9.
- ^ Ramsey 2016, p. 96.
- ISSN 0955-2359.
- ^ Winston Churchill, Prime Minister (10 November 1944). "German Long-Range Rockets". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Commons. col. 1653-4. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014.
- ^ "Division z.V." History of the European Axis nations during the Second World War. 25 May 2013. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
- ^ "A4/V2 Sites in Westerwald". www.v2rocket.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ISBN 90-70027-82-8.
- ^ Bisbach, Emily. "The last V2 on London". West End at War. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "V2 Rocket Facts". World War 2 Facts. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ King & Kutta 1998, p. 281.
- ^ "V2Rocket.com "Antwerp, The City of Sudden Death"". Archived from the original on 3 July 2015.
- ^ "Air Raid Precautions – Deaths and injuries". tiscali.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 March 2007.
- ^ "Mobile Firing Operations & Locations". V2Rocket.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2007.
- ^ Stephen Henden. "Flying Bombs and Rockets, V2 Woolworths New Cross". flyingbombsandrockets.com. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
- ^ Jones RV; Most Secret War 1978
- ^ a b Blitz Street; Channel 4, 10 May 2010
- ^ Ordway & Sharpe 1979, p. 256.
- ^ ""The Watch on the Rhine" Everyday Life of the Soldiers at the Bridge". Friedensmuseum Brücke von Remagen. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
- ^ "V-2s on Remagen; Attacks on the Ludendorff Bridge". V2Rocket.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
- ^ Foster, Vicki. "65th anniversary of the V2 rocket landing in Orpington" Archived 10 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine, News Shopper, Orpington, Kent, 2 April 2010.
- ^ "Barking and Dagenham Post".
- ^ a b c d e Jeremy Stocker, "Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002" Archived 20 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 20–28.
- ^ Ramsey 2016, p. 100.
- ^ "V2ROCKET.COM – Den Haag (The Hague, Wassenaar, Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland)". www.v2rocket.com. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Neufeld 1995, pp. 190–191. Neufeld provides by far the most detailed analysis of the price of the project. Other price estimates of "$2 billion," or "50% more than the Manhattan Project" can be found elsewhere on the internet, but are not credible. For a more detailed analysis, see this article's Talk section.
- ^ "Mittelwerk / DORA". v2rocket.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-465-01677-8.
- ^ Oberg, Jim; Sullivan, Dr. Brian R (March 1999). "'Space Power Theory". U.S. Air Force Space Command: Government Printing Office. p. 143. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
- ^ "The 8th of September 1944 AD, First German V2 rocket lands on London". information-britain.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 December 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-00-711262-3.
- ^ Hewlett, Richard G.; Duncan, Francis (1969). Atomic Shield, 1947–1952. A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Vol. 2. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 180.
- ^ Rhodes, Richard (1995). Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 357.
- ^ Herken, Gregg (1985). Counsels of War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 11.
- EUCOM. 6 February 2012. Archived from the originalon 21 September 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
- ^ "Hitler's Rocket U-boat Program – history of WW2 rocket submarine". Uboataces.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
- ^ Article in San Diego Times c.25 July 1944
- ^ Besant, John Stalin's Silver concerning the sinking of SS John Barry near Aden in 1944
- ^ "We Want with the West", Time Magazine, 9 December 1946.
- ^ "Wernher von Braun". 2 May 2001. Archived from the original on 23 August 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
- ISBN 978-1-136-25789-6. Archivedfrom the original on 20 September 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-9847163-0-2. Archivedfrom the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
- ^ "V2 Information". X-Factorial.com. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ See: Johan A.M. Bleeker, Johannes Geiss, and Martin C.E. Huber, ed.s, The Century of Space Science, vol. 1 (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001) p. 41. Archived 28 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine See also: SpaceLine.org Archived 13 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "V-2 Rocket Components". U.S. Army, White Sands Missile Range. 2010. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ Beggs, William. "Hermes Program". Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
- ^ "Redstone rocket". centennialofflight.net. Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
- ^ Zak, Anatoly (2012). "End of a honeymoon". RussianSpaceWeb.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
- ^ Zak, Anatoly (5 August 2012). "History of the Gorodomlya Island". RussianSpaceWeb.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
- ^ Cutter, Paul (29 September 2009). "Helmut Groettrup … the captured Russian who was Russian POW rocket scientist" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-19-926750-7.
- ISBN 978-3-7091-0648-8.
- ISBN 978-1-894643-05-4.
- ^ "Véronique and Vesta". Archived from the original on 20 October 2007.
- ^ Report on operation 'Backfire' Recording and analysis of the trajectory. Vol. 5. Ministry of Supply. January 1946.
- ^ "How a Nazi rocket could have put a Briton in space". BBC. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ^ "Megaroc". BIS. Archived from the original on 30 October 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ^ "Treloar Centre ACT. 7 July 2009". NSW Rocketry Association Inc. Archived from the original on 20 March 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
- ^ Australia's Nazi rockets: How German V-2 flying bombs made their way Down Under Archived 29 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine ABC News, 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
- ^ "Ekspozycja stała". Muzeum AK (in Polish). Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V2-Rakete (A4-Rakete)".
- ^ "A-4-Rakete ("V2"), 1945 (Original)". Deutsches Museum (in German). Retrieved 24 August 2021.
- ^ Turner, Adam (6 September 2015). "Geek Pilgrimage: V2 rocket engine – Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ The Peenemünde replica incorporates many original components along with re-manufactured ones and was put together by a group that included Reinhold Krüger, who worked as an apprentice at Peenemünde during the war. Klaus Felgentreu. "Reinhold Krüger (18.02.1930 – 29.05.2005)" (in German). Förderverein Peenemünde „Peenemünde – Geburtsort der Raumfahrt" e.V. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
- ^ "V2 Rocket, A4 missile". Science Museum Group. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V2 (VERGELTUNGS-WAFFE 2) ROCKET (SECTIONED)". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "German Army V2 (Assembly 4)". Royal Air Force Museum. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "More pictures of V2 recovery operation at Harwich". ITV News. April 2012. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012.
- ^ "V-2 Gyroscope". National Space Center. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V-2 Turbo Pump". National Space Center. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V-2 Steam Generating Chamber". National Space Center. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "Mittelwerk GmbH V-2 Rocket". Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V-2 with Meillerwagen". Archived 27 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved: 3 January 2017.
- ^ "HALL OF SPACE". Cosmosphere. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V-2 Missile". National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V-2 Rocket on Display at the White Sands Missile Range Museum". White Sands Missile Range Museum. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ The White Sands Missile Range exhibit is Mittelwerk rocket #FZ04/20919 captured during Special Mission V-2 and is painted with a yellow and black paint scheme resembling that of the first V-2 launched at WSMR on 16 April 1946.
- ^ "EXHIBITS". Stafford Air & Space Museum. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
- ^ "V-2 Rocket". Archived 26 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved: 3 January 2017.
References
- Oberg, Jim; Sullivan, Dr. Brian R (original draft) (March 1999). "'Space Power Theory". U.S. Air Force Space Command: Government Printing Office. p. 143. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 28 November 2008. 24,000 fighters could have been produced instead of the inaccurate V-weapons.
- Harris, Arthur T; Cox, Sebastion (1995). Despatch on War Operations: 23rd February, 1942, to 8th May, 1945. F. Cass. p. xliii. ISBN 0-7146-4692-X. Retrieved 4 July 2008.
- King, Benjamin; Kutta, Timothy J. (1998). Impact: The History of Germany's V-Weapons in World War II. Rockville Centre, New York: Sarpedon Publishers. ISBN 0-306-81292-4.
- Ramsey, Syed (2016). Tools of War: History of Weapons in Modern Times. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. ISBN 978-93-86019-83-7.
- Neufeld, Michael J. (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-922895-1.
- ISBN 1-894959-00-0.
- Zaloga, Steven (2003). V-2 Ballistic Missile, 1942–52. New Vanguard. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-541-9.
Further reading
- Dungan, Tracy D. (2005). V-2: A Combat History of the First Ballistic Missile. Westholme Publishing. ISBN 1-59416-012-0.
- Hall, Charlie (2022). 'Flying Gas Mains': Rumour, Secrecy, and Morale during the V-2 Bombardment of Britain', Twentieth Century British History, 33:1, pp. 52–79.
- Huzel, Dieter K. (ca. 1965). Peenemünde to Canaveral. Prentice Hall Inc.
- Piszkiewicz, Dennis (1995). The Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-95217-7.
External links
- "The German A4 Rocket (Main Title)" Information Film of Operation Backfire from IWM
- '"Chute Saves Rockets Secrets", September 1947, Popular Science article on US use of V-2 for scientific research
- "Reconstruction, restoration & refurbishment of a V-2 rocket". NASA. Retrieved 14 February 2023., spherical panoramas of the process and milestones.
- Hermann Ludewig Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections Files of Hermann Ludewig, Deputy of Design Chief and later Chief of Acceptance and Inspection on the V-2 program