The V-2 rocket (German German (Deutsch, [ˈdɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Globally, German is spoken by approximately 120 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers: Vergeltungswaffe V-weapons, known in the original German as Vergeltungswaffen , were a particular set of long range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly terror bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They comprised the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 rocket and the V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a 2, vengeance weapon 2), technical name A4, was a long-range ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the laws of orbital mechanics and ballistics. To date, that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · in Nazi Nazism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany. It was a unique variety of fascism that involved biological racism and anti-Semitism. Nazism presented itself as politically syncretic, incorporating policies, tactics and philosophies from right- and left-wing ideologies; in practice, Nazism was a far right form of Germany, specifically targeted at Belgium and sites in southeastern England. The rocket was the world's first long-range[3] combat-ballistic missile[4] and first human artifact A cultural artifact is term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology[citation needed] for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. Usage of this term encompasses the type of archaeological artifact which is recovered at archaeological sites; however, to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it does not complete one orbital revolution.[5] It was the progenitor of all modern rockets,[6] including those used by the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language and Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ space programs, who gained access to the scientists and designs through Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II (1939–45). It was executed by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), and in the context of the burgeoning Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91), one and Operation Osoaviakhim.[7]

Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the German Wehrmacht The Wehrmacht (German pronunciation: [ˈveːɐ̯maxt] Defence Force) was the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force) against Allied targets during the war, mostly London and later Antwerp Antwerp (English: /ˈæntwɜrp/ ; Dutch: Antwerpen, [ˈɑntˌʋɛrpə(n)] ( listen); French: Anvers, [ɑ̃vɛʁ, ɑ̃vɛʁs]) is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 (as of 1 January 2008) and its total area is 204.51 km2 (78.96, resulting in the death of an estimated 7,250 military personnel and civilians.[citation needed] The weapon was presented by the Nazi propaganda as a retaliation for the bombers that succeeded in attacking ever more German cities from 1942 until the end of the war.[citation needed]

Contents

Developmental history

In 1919, the Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities and magazines. Most of its facilities are located in Washington, published Robert Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.62 miles) and speeds as high as 885's groundbreaking work, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard , U.S. professor of physics and scientist, was a pioneer of controlled, liquid-fueled rocketry. On March 16, 1926, he became the first person in the world to launch a liquid-fueled rocket, an engine type that had first been developed in 1895 by Peruvian scientist Pedro Paulet. From 1930 to 1935, Goddard launched.[8] The report describes Goddard's mathematical Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions theories of rocket A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction. Rocket engines push rockets forwards simply by throwing their exhaust backwards flight, including his experiments with solid-fuel rockets A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction. Rocket engines push rockets forwards simply by throwing their exhaust backwards.[8] Along with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (September 17 [O.S. September 5] 1857 – September 19, 1935) was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. He is considered by many to be the father of theoretical astronautics. His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergey Korolyov and's earlier work, The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices (1903), Goddard's work influenced subsequent pioneers, Hermann Oberth Hermann Julius Oberth , born in Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, was a Romanian and German physicist and engineer of Saxon ancestry, who along with the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the American Robert H. Goddard, was one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. The three never were active collaborators, and in fact, never knew one and Sergey Korolev Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov , (Russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв Sergej Pavlovič Korolëv; Ukrainian: Сергій Павлович Корольов Sergij Pavlovyč Korol'ov), (January 12 [O.S. December 30, 1906] 1907, Zhytomyr – January 14, 1966, Moscow), was the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race.[8]

In the late 1920s, a young Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun was a German-American rocket scientist, astronautics engineer and space architect, becoming one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. He was a member of the Nazi party and a commissioned SS officer. Wernher von Braun was said to be the acquired a copy of Hermann Oberth Hermann Julius Oberth , born in Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, was a Romanian and German physicist and engineer of Saxon ancestry, who along with the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the American Robert H. Goddard, was one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. The three never were active collaborators, and in fact, never knew one's book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space).[9] Starting in 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin is located in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1879 and, with nearly 30,000 students, is one of the largest technical universities in Germany. It also has the highest proportion of foreign students out of universities in Germany, with 20.9% in the summer semester of 2007, roughly 5,598 students. The university, where he assisted Oberth in liquid-fueled rocket motor tests.[9] Von Braun was working on his creative doctorate when the Nazi Party The National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei , abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known in English as the Nazi Party (from the Ger. pronunciation of Nationalsozialist), was a political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945. It was known as the German Workers' Party (DAP) prior to a change of name gained power in Germany.[10] An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger Major-General Dr Walter Robert Dornberger was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World Wars I and II. He was a leader of Germany's V2 rocket program and other projects at the Peenemünde Army Research Center, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun, who from then on worked next to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel rocket test site at Kummersdorf Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde at 52°05′N 13°20′E / 52.083°N 13.333°E, around 25km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. Until 1945 Kummersdorf hosted the weapon office of the German Army which ran a development centre for future weapons as well as an artillery range.[10] 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 The German Army (German: Deutsches Heer, Heer pronounced [ˈheːɐ̯] ) is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Traditionally the German military forces have been composed of Army, the Navy, and an Air Force after World War I. It was reinstalled in 1955 as the West German Army and as a part of the newly formed and was not published until 1960.[11] By the end of 1934, his group had successfully launched two rockets that rose to heights of 2.2 and 3.5 kilometers The kilometre , symbol km is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in 1⁄ 299,792.458 of a second. It is the conventionally used measurement unit for expressing distances between geographical places in most of the world; notable.[10]

Wind tunnel Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight. The wind tunnel was envisioned as a means of reversing the usual paradigm: instead of the air's standing still and the aircraft moving at speed through it, the same effect would be obtained if the aircraft stood still and the air moved at speed past it. In that way a model of an A4 in the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H. Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.62 miles) and speeds as high as 885's research. Before 1939, German scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions.[10] Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat The Aggregate series was a set of rocket designs developed in 1933–1945 by a research program of Nazi Germany's army. Its greatest success was the A4, more commonly known as the V-2 (A) series of rockets A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction. Rocket engines push rockets forwards simply by throwing their exhaust backwards.[10]

Following successes at Kummersdorf Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde at 52°05′N 13°20′E / 52.083°N 13.333°E, around 25km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. Until 1945 Kummersdorf hosted the weapon office of the German Army which ran a development centre for future weapons as well as an artillery range with the first two Aggregate series The Aggregate series was a set of rocket designs developed in 1933–1945 by a research program of Nazi Germany's army. Its greatest success was the A4, more commonly known as the V-2 rockets, Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun was a German-American rocket scientist, astronautics engineer and space architect, becoming one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. He was a member of the Nazi party and a commissioned SS officer. Wernher von Braun was said to be the and Walter Riedel Walter J H "Papa" Riedel was a German engineer who was the head of the Design Office of the Army Research Center Peenemünde and the chief designer of the V-2 rocket.. The crater Riedel on the Moon was co-named for him and the German rocket pioneer Klaus Riedel began thinking of a much larger rocket in the summer of 1936[12] based on a projected 25-metric-ton-thrust engine.

After the A-4 The Aggregate series was a set of rocket designs developed in 1933–1945 by a research program of Nazi Germany's army. Its greatest success was the A4, more commonly known as the V-2 project was postponed due to unfavorable aerodynamic stability testing of the A-3 The Aggregate series was a set of rocket designs developed in 1933–1945 by a research program of Nazi Germany's army. Its greatest success was the A4, more commonly known as the V-2 in July 1936,[13][14] von Braun specified the A-4 performance in 1937,[15] and A-4 design and construction was ordered c1938/1939.[16] 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.[12]:40 By late 1941, the Army Research Center Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German (Western) part of Usedom island. It stands near the mouth(s) of the Peene river (the name translates as Penne-mouth), on the westmost edge of a long sand-spit on the German Baltic coast. The area includes the 1992 Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde, an Anchor Point of the European Route of at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the A-4. The three key technologies for the A-4 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance and rudders in jet control.[2] At the time, Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and, after 1934, also head of state as Führer und Reichskanzler, ruling the was not particularly impressed by the V-2; he pointed out that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost.[17]

In early September 1943, von Braun promised the Long-Range Bombardment Commission[2]: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.[2]:224 Hitler was probably still not impressed with the weapon but was impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needing a "wonder weapon" to maintain German morale,[17] Hitler authorized its deployment in large numbers.[18]

An estimated 20,000 inmates at the Mittelbau-Dora Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany plant died constructing V-2s. Of these, 9,000 died from exhaustion and collapse, 350 were hanged (including 200 executed for acts of sabotage) and the remainder were either shot or died from disease or starvation.[19][20]

Technical details

A U.S. Army The United States Army is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven uniformed services. The modern Army has its roots in the Continental Army which was formed on 14 June 1775, before the establishment of the cut-away of the V-2.

At launch the A-4 propelled itself for up to 65 seconds on its own power, and a program motor controlled the pitch to the specified angle at engine shutdown, from which the rocket continued on a free-fall (ballistic) trajectory. The rocket reached a height of 80 km (50 mi) after shutting off the engine.[21]

The fuel and oxidizer pumps were steam turbines, and the steam was produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is naturally produced in organisms as a by-product of oxidative metabolism. Nearly all living things possess enzymes known as peroxidases, which harmlessly and catalytically decompose low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen with potassium permanganate Potassium permanganate is the inorganic chemical compound with the formula KMnO4. It is a salt consisting of K+ and MnO4– ions. Formerly known as permanganate of potash or Condy's crystals, it is a strong oxidizing agent. It dissolves in water to give intense purple solutions, the evaporation of which gives prismatic purplish-black glistening catalyst Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations. Catalysts that speed the reaction are called positive. Both the alcohol and oxygen tanks were an aluminium-magnesium alloy.[1]

The combustion burner reached a temperature of 2500–2700 °C (4500 – 4900 °F). The alcohol-water fuel was pumped along the double wall of the main combustion burner. This cooled the chamber and heated the fuel (regenerative cooling Regenerative cooling in rockets is where some or all of the propellant is passed through tubes, channels or otherwise in a jacket around the combustion chamber or nozzle to cool the engine because the fuel in particular and sometimes the oxidizer are good coolants. The heated propellant is then fed into a special gas generator or injected directly). The fuel was then pumped into the main burner chamber through 1,224 nozzles, which assured the correct mixture of alcohol and oxygen at all times. Small holes also permitted some alcohol to escape directly into the combustion chamber, forming a cooled boundary layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is that layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface. In the Earth's atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer is the air layer near the ground affected by diurnal heat, moisture or momentum transfer to or from the surface. On an aircraft wing the boundary layer is the part of the that further protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the throat where the chamber was narrowest. The boundary layer alcohol ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse exhaust plume. (Later, post-V2 engine designs not employing this alcohol boundary layer cooling show a translucent plume with shock diamonds Shock diamonds are a formation of shock waves in the exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion system, such as a supersonic jet engine, rocket, ramjet, or scramjet. It is formed when the supersonic exhaust from a nozzle is slightly over or under-expanded, meaning that the pressure of the gases exiting the nozzle is different from the ambient.)

Vanes at exit of exhaust

The V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal graphite The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Greek γράφειν : "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead, as distinguished from the actual metallic element lead. Unlike diamond (another carbon allotrope), graphite is an electrical vanes at the exit of the motor. The LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizon and a vertical) for lateral stabilization, and a PIGA accelerometer to control engine cutoff at a specified velocity. Some later V-2s used "guide beams" (radio signals transmitted from the ground) to keep the missile in course, but the first models used a simple analog computer 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. The rocket stopped accelerating and soon reached the top of the (approximately parabolic) flight curve.

The painting of the operational V-2s was mostly a camouflage ragged pattern with several variations, but at the end of the war a plain olive green rocket also appeared. 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", not "V-2". The first English translation of the book V2– Der Schuss Ins Weltall (English: "V2– The Shot Into Space"), by Walter Dornberger,[22] was published in England by Hurst And Blackett in 1954 and titled V2. In that book, the rocket is called the "V2".[23] But in the US version of V2– Der Schuss Ins Weltall, published in the US by Viking in 1954 and titled V-2, the rocket is called the "V-2".[13] The text in the books V2 and V-2 appears to be identical, except that in the book V2, published in England, no hyphens are used to designate any of the rockets: they appear as "V2", "A4", "V1", etc. But in the book V-2, published in the US, the rocket names are always hyphenated: they appear as "V-2", "A-4", "V-1", etc. It's likely that the US Air Force requested the change so that the designations would conform to the usual method that the US military used (and still uses) to designate its planes. For example, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, B-29 Superfortress.

Testing

See also: List of V-2 test launches For a description of a test explosion, see Test Stand VII.

The first successful test flight was the third of October 1942:

This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel...

– Speech at Peenemünde, Walter Dornberger, 3 October 1942[13]17

Forwarded by 38.000 hp, the rocket reached a maximum speed of appr. 5500 km/h.

Engine cut-out – 1, Deutsches Museum, Munich

Two test launches were recovered by the Allies: The Bäckebo Bomb on 13 June 1944 in Sweden and one recovered by Polish resistance on 30 May 1944[citation needed] from Blizna and transported to the UK during Operation Most III.

Test launches of V-2 rockets (Aggregate-4) were made at Peenemünde, Blizna and Tuchola Forest, and after the war, at Cuxhaven, White Sands Proving Grounds, Cape Canaveral, and Kapustin Yar.

Various problems were identified during V-2 development and testing:

  • To reduce tank pressure and weight, high flow turbopumps were used to boost pressure.[2]: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 cutoff just after lift-off.[13]:52
  • Ensuring that the fuel pipes had tension-free curves reduced the likelihood of explosions at 4,000–6,000 ft (1,219–1,829 m).[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 lift off and supersonic speeds, heat-resistant graphite vanes were used as rudders in the exhaust jet.[13]:35,58

Airburst problem

Through mid-March 1944, only 4 of the 26 successful Blizna launches had satisfactorily reached the Sarnaki target area[24]:112, 221–222, 282 due to in-flight breakup (Luftzerleger) on entry into the atmosphere.[25]:100 Initially excessive alcohol tank pressure was suspected, and by April 1944 after 5 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 – cMay/June, Walter Dornberger and Wernher von Braun set up a camp at the center of the Poland target zone (one impact was 300 feet from an armed missile.)[2]: After moving to the Heidekraut,[12]:172,173 SS Mortar Battery 500 of the 836th Artillery Battalion (Motorized) was ordered[24]:47 on 30 August[26] to begin test launches of eighty 'sleeved' rockets.[14]:281 Testing confirmed the so-called 'tin trousers' – a tube designed to strengthen the forward end of the rocket cladding—reduced the likelihood of airbursts.[25]:100

Production

Main article: Mittelwerk

A production line was nearly ready at Peenemünde when the Operation Hydra attack caused the Germans to move production to the Mittelwerk in the Kohnstein where 5,200 V-2 rockets were built:[27]

23 June 1943 RAF reconnaissance photo of V-2s at Test Stand VII
Period of Production Production
Up to 15 Sep 1944 1900
15 Sep to 29 Oct 1944 900
29 Oct to 24 Nov 1944 600
24 Nov to 15 Jan 1945 1100
15 Jan to 15 Feb 1945 700
Total 5200

Launch sites

For a description of the V-2 launch equipment and procedure, see Meillerwagen. A V-2 launched from a fixed site in summer 1943

Following Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground Le Blockhaus and La Coupole or from fixed pads such as near the Chateau du Molay[28] were dropped in favor of mobile launching. 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).[29] 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 caught in action by Allied aircraft,[citation needed] although Raymond Baxter reported that he shot at a V2 from his Spitfire as it was launched.

An average of ten V-2s could be launched per day and up to 1000 V-2s could be launched per month, given sufficient supply of the rockets.[30]

V-2 radio control

Siemens of Berlin (Dr. Friedrich Kirchstein) developed the V-2 radio-control for motor-cut-off (German: Brennschluss),[14]:28,124 and for velocity measurement, in 1940–41, Professor Wolman of Dresden created an alternative of his Doppler[26]:18 tracking system which used a ground signal transponded by the A-4 to measure the velocity of the missile.[2]:103 By 9 February 1942, Peenemuende engineer de Beek had documented the radio interference area of a V-2 as 10,000 meters around the “Firing Point”,[24] and the first successful A-4 flight on 3 October 1943, 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 The Operation Pinguin V-2 offensive began on 8 September 1944, when Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie No. 444[26]:51–2 (English: Training and Testing Battery 444) launched a single rocket guided by a radio beam directed at Paris[24]:47 (wreckage of combat V-2s occasionally contained the transponder for velocity and fuel cutoff).[12]:259–60

Operational history

Aftermath of a V-2 bombing at Battersea, London, 27 January 1945.

After Hitler's 29 August declaration to begin V-2 attacks as soon as possible, the offensive began on 8 September 1944 with a single launch at Paris, which caused modest damage near Porte d'Italie,[12]:218,220,467. Two more launches by the 485th followed, including one from The Hague against London on the same day at 6:43 p.m.[14]:285 – the first landed at Chiswick which killed 63-year-old Mrs. Ada Harrison, 3-year-old Rosemary Clarke, and Sapper Bernard Browning on leave from the Royal Engineers.[15]:11 Upon hearing the double-crack of the supersonic rocket (London's first-ever), Duncan Sandys and Reginald Victor Jones looked up from different parts of the city and exclaimed 'That was a rocket!', and a short while after the double-crack, the sky was filled with the sound of a heavy body rushing through the air.[14]:286 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."

Over the next few months the number of V-2s fired was at least 3,172, distributed over the various targets as follows:

An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London by V-2 attacks with another 6,523 injured,[31] 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 greatly over the course of the war, particularly on batteries where Leitstrahl-Guide Beam apparatus was installed, with V-2s sometimes landing within meters of the target.[32] Accurately targeted missiles were often devastating, causing large numbers of deaths—160 killed and 108 seriously injured (the worst loss of life in a single V2 attack), in one explosion on 25 November 1944 in mid-afternoon, striking a Woolworth's department store in New Cross, south-east London (plus 108 seriously injured) and 567 deaths in a cinema in Antwerp—and significant damage in the critically important Antwerp docks.

As a result of such deadly targeting, British intelligence leaked falsified information implying that the rockets were over-shooting their London target by 10 to 20 miles. This tactic worked and for the remainder of the war most landed in Kent due to erroneous recalibration.[33]

The final two exploded on 27 March 1945. One of these represented the last V2 to kill a British civilian: Mrs. Ivy Millichamp, aged 34, killed in her home in Kynaston Road, Orpington in Kent [34], evidencing the German re-calibration.

A scientific reconstruction carried out in 2010 demonstrated that the V2 creates a crater 20m wide and 8m deep, throwing up around 3000 tons of material into the air.[33]

Countermeasures

Main article: Operation Crossbow

Unlike the V-1, the V-2's speed and trajectory made it invulnerable to anti-aircraft guns and fighters, as it dropped from an altitude of 100–110 km (62–68 mi) at up to four times the speed of sound (appr. 3550 km/h). A plan was proposed whereby the missile would be detected by radar, its terminal trajectory calculated, and the area along that trajectory saturated by large-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The plan was dropped after operations research indicated that the likely number of malfunctioning artillery shells falling to the ground would do more damage than the V-2 itself.[35]

The defence against the V-2 campaign was 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 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.[36]

The limitations of any countermeasures can be understood by two facts: 20 seconds after starting, a V2 was out of reach; the time from start to impact in London being merely 3 minutes.

Ultimately the most successful countermeasure was the Allied advance that forced the launchers back beyond range.

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 program was the single most expensive development project of the Third Reich:[citation needed] 6,048 were built, at a cost of approximately 100,000 Reichsmarks each; 3,225 were launched. SS General Hans Kammler, who as an engineer had constructed several concentration camps including Auschwitz, had a reputation for brutality and had originated the idea of using concentration camp prisoners as slave laborers in the rocket program. The V-2 is perhaps the only weapon system to have caused more deaths by its production than its deployment.[37]

"… 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." (Freeman Dyson)[38]

The V-2 consumed a third of Nazi Germany's fuel alcohol production and major portions of other critical technologies:[39] for one V-2 required 30 tons of potatoes.[40] Due to a lack of explosives, concrete was used and sometimes the warhead contained photographic propaganda of German citizens who had died in allied bombing.[17]

The V-2 lacked a proximity fuse, so it could not be set for air burst; it buried itself in the target area before or just as the warhead detonated. This reduced its effectiveness. Furthermore 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), had longer ranges, carried many more warheads, and were reusable. Moreover, it diverted resources from other, more effective programs. 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 traveled faster than the speed of sound, with no warning before impact and no possibility of defense.

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 supporters with their miracle weapon.[17] The V-2 had no effect on the outcome of the war, but its value, despite its overall ineffectiveness, was in its novelty as a weapon which set the stage for the next 50 years of ballistic military rocketry, culminating with ICBMs during the Cold War and modern space exploration.

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. 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).[41]

While interned after the war by the British at CSDIC camp 11 however, Dornberger was recorded as saying that he had begged the Führer to stop the V-weapon propaganda, because nothing more could be expected from just one ton of explosive. To this Hitler had replied that Dornberger might not expect more but he himself certainly did.

Hitler, in July 1944, and Speer, in January 1945, made speeches alluding to a campaign to have U-boats fire "robot" U-1 and U-2 bombs at the U.S.[42] Germany did not possess any capability to fulfill these threats, however. These schemes were met by the Americans with Operation Teardrop.

According to decrypted messages from the Japanese embassy in Germany, twelve dismantled V-2 rockets were shipped to Japan.[43] These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on the transport U-boats U-219 and U-195, which reached Djakarta 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.

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; however, they had never used any of them.

Post-Second World War usage

At the end of the war, a race began between the United States and the USSR to retrieve as many V-2 rockets and staff as possible.[44] Three hundred trainloads[citation needed] of V-2s and parts were captured and shipped to the United States, and 126 of the principal designers, including both Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger were in American hands. 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.[45]

Operation Backfire (WWII) V-2 rocket on Meillerwagen (S.I. Negative #76-2755)
British and Canadian

In October 1945, British 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 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. In his book My Father's Son, Canadian author Farley Mowat, then a member of the Canadian Army, claims to have obtained 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.

Post-war V-2s launched in secret from Peenemünde may have been responsible for a curious phenomenon known as Ghost rockets, unexplained objects crossing the skies over Sweden and Finland.[citation needed]

The Canadian Arrow, a competitor for the Ansari X Prize, was based on the V-2.

USSR

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 middle of 1945. In 1946 (as part of Operation Osoaviakhim) they were obliged to move to Kapustin Yar 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. Most of the German team was sent home after that project, but some remained to do research until as late as 1951. Unbeknownst to the Germans, work immediately began on larger missiles, the R-2 and R-5, based on extension of the V-2 technology.

United States

Operation Paperclip recruited German engineers and Special Mission V-2 transported the captured V-2 parts to the United States. At the close of the Second World War, over 300 rail cars filled with V-2 engines, fuselages, propellant tanks, gyroscopes and associated equipment were brought to the railyards in Las Cruces, New Mexico, so they could be placed on trucks and driven to the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.

In addition to V-2 hardware, the U.S. Government delivered German mechanization equations for the V-2 guidance, navigation, and control system, as well as for advanced development concept vehicles, to U.S. defense contractors for analysis. In 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.

A committee[who?] was formed with both military and civilian scientists to review payload proposals for the reassembled V-2 rockets.[citation needed] This led to an eclectic array of experiments that flew on the V-2s and paved the way for American manned space exploration. Devices were sent aloft to sample the air at all levels to determine atmospheric pressures and to see what gases were present. Other instruments measured the level of cosmic radiation.

Only 68 percent of the V-2 flights were considered successful.[citation needed] A supposed V-2 launched on 29 May 1947 landed near Juarez, Mexico and was actually a Hermes B-1 vehicle.[46]

The U.S. Navy attempted to launch a reassembled 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. The test launch was a partial success; the V-2 went off the pad, but splashed down in the ocean only some 10 km (6.2 mi) from the carrier. The launch setup on the Midway's deck is notable in that it used foldaway arms to prevent the missile from falling over. The arms pulled away just after the engine ignited, releasing the missile. The setup may look similar to the R-7 launch procedure, but in the case of the R-7 the trusses hold the full weight of the rocket, rather than just reacting to side forces.

The PGM-11 Redstone rocket is a direct descendant of the V-2.[47]

US test launch of a Bumper V-2.

In popular culture

Model rockets

Model rocket V-2s are available in many sizes. Since the 1960s Estes Industries has released several versions of the V-2. Currently there are no Estes V-2s in production.

Surviving V-2 examples and components

V-2 rocket located at the Australian War Memorial Treloar Centre Annex Combustion chamber of a fired example in Flixton Air museum Bungay, Suffolk, England

At least 20 V-2s still existed in 2005.

Australia

Netherlands

Poland

France

A V-2 replica on display in Musée de l'Armée.

Germany

United Kingdom

United States

Notes

  1. ^ a b Kennedy, Gregory P. (1983). Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Guided Missile. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 27, 74.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Neufeld, Michael J (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. pp. 73, 74, 101, 281.
  3. ^ Long-range is main feature. See NASA history article.
  4. ^ Zaloga, Steven (2003). V-2 Ballistic Missile 1942–52. Reading: Osprey Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 9781841765419.
  5. ^ Peenemuende, Walter Dornberger, Moewig, Berlin 1985. ISBN 3-8118-4341-9.
  6. ^ NOVA science program(s). Sputnik Declassified. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 2008.
  7. ^ "The V2 and the German, Russian and American Rocket Program", C. Reuter. German Canadian Museum. p. 170. ISBN 1894643054, 9781894643054.
  8. ^ a b c Robert Goddard#A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.
  9. ^ a b Wernher von Braun#Early life.
  10. ^ a b c d e Wernher von Braun#The Prussian rocketeer and working under the Nazis.
  11. ^ Konstruktive, theoretische und experimentelle Beiträge zu dem Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete. Raketentechnik und Raumfahrtforschung, Sonderheft 1 (1960), Stuttgart, Germany
  12. ^ a b c d e Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R. The Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series 36. p. 32.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dornberger, Walter (1952, English translation 1954). V-2. New York: Viking.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Irving, David (1964). The Mare's Nest. London: William Kimber and Co. p. 17.
  15. ^ a b Middlebrook, Martin (1982). The Peenemünde Raid: The Night of 17–18 August 1943. New York: Bobs-Merrill. p. 19.
  16. ^ Braun, Wernher von (Estate of); Ordway III, Frederick I & Dooling, David Jr. (1985) [1975]. Space Travel: A History. New York: Harper & Row. p. 45. ISBN 0-06-181898-4.
  17. ^ a b c d Irons, Roy. Hitler's terror weapons: The price of vengeance. p. 181.
  18. ^ Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 100–104. ISBN 0-19-509514-6.
  19. ^ Hunt, Linda (1991). Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990. New York: St.Martin's Press. pp. 72–74. ISBN 0-3120-5510-2.
  20. ^ Béon, Yves (1997). Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age. translated from the French La planète Dora by Béon & Richard L. Fague. Westview Press, Div. of Harper Collins. pp. (SC) page tbd. ISBN 0-8133-3272-9.
  21. ^ The History Channel V2 Factory: Nordhausen 070723
  22. ^ Dornberger, Walter (1952). V2– Der Schuss Ins Weltall. In German. Title in English: "V2– The Shot Into Space". Esslingen: Bechtle Verlag.
  23. ^ Dornberger, Walter (1952, English translation 1954). V2. London: Hurst And Blackett.
  24. ^ a b c d Klee, Ernst; Merk, Otto (1963, English translation 1965). The Birth of the Missile:The Secrets of Peenemünde. Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag. p. 47.
  25. ^ a b Johnson (1981/1982). V-1, V-2: Hitler’s Vengeance on London. Stein and Day. p. 100.
  26. ^ a b c Pocock, Rowland F (1967). German Guided Missiles of the Second World War. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 51, 52.
  27. ^ Richard Ruggles, R. and H. Brodie (1947) An Empirical Approach to Economic Intelligence in World War II, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 42(237):72–91, March 1947.
  28. ^ Jones, R. V. (1978). Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945. London: Hamish Hamilton. p. 433. ISBN 0 241 89746 7.
  29. ^ "V-Weapons Crossbow Campaign". Allworldwars.com. http://www.allworldwars.com/V-Weapons%20Crossbow%20Campaign.html. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
  30. ^ Walker, John (27 September 1993). "A Rocket a Day Keeps the High Costs Away". http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/rocketaday.html. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
  31. ^ Air Raid Precautions – Deaths and injuries
  32. ^ "Mobile Firing Operations & Locations". V2Rocket.com. http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/mobileoperations.html.
  33. ^ a b Blitz Street; Channel 4, 10.5.2010
  34. ^ Foster, Vicki. "65th anniversary of the V2 rocket landing in Orpington", News Shopper, Orpington, Kent, 2 April 2010.
  35. ^ MDA Link
  36. ^ Stocker, Jeremy (Nov/Dec 2004). "Missile Defence – Then and Now" (PDF). The Officer Magazine: 34–37. http://www.cdiss.co.uk/Documents/Uploaded/Missile%20Defence%20-%20Then%20and%20Now.pdf.
  37. ^ Mittelbau Overview
  38. ^ Dyson, Freeman (1979). Disturbing the Universe. Harper & Row. p. 108. ISBN 9780465016778. http://books.google.com/?id=RHzoMeU2bxsC&pg=PA108#PPA108,M1.
  39. ^ Oberg, Jim; Sullivan, Dr. Brian R (original draft) (March 1999). "'Space Power Theory". U.S. Air Force Space Command: Government Printing Office. p. 143. http://space.au.af.mil/books/oberg/. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
  40. ^ First German V2 rocket lands on London
  41. ^ "Hitler's Rocket U-boat Program - history of WW2 rocket submarine". Uboataces.com. http://www.uboataces.com/articles-rocket-uboat.shtml. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
  42. ^ Article in San Diego Times c.25 July 1944
  43. ^ Besant, John Stalin's Silver concerning the sinking of SS John Barry near Aden in 1944
  44. ^ "We Want with the West", Time Magazine, Dec. 9, 1946.
  45. ^ "Werner von Braun". http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/vonBraun/vonbraun_3.php. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
  46. ^ Beggs. Beggs Aerospace Post-War V-2 Site "HERMES". http://www.postwarv2.com/index.html Beggs Aerospace Post-War V-2 Site. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
  47. ^ "Redstone rocket". Centennialofflight.gov. http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/REDSTONE/DI149.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
  48. ^ The Peenemünde replica incorporates many original components along with remanufactured ones and was put together by a group that included Reinhold Kruger, who worked as an apprentice at Peenemünde during the war.
  49. ^ The WSMR exhibit is Mittelwerk rocket #FZ04/20919 captured during Special Mission V-2 and is painted with a yellow and black paint scheme of the first successful V-2 launched at WSMR on 10 May 1946.

References

Further reading

External links

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Air raids increase with the arrival of Hitler's V2 rockets and Ruth's children are sent to their Uncle Eddy's farm in Devon, at first feeling disorientated ...



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Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:01:32 GM

Full-scale mockup of the space ball Hitler was planning to use atop a . V2 rocket. , only that the Russians found out and raced to get to Berlin before he could escape to Peenemuende for the flight. Imagine him orbiting the Earth forever ...

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