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the V2
rocket
captured V2 on test in the USA
The V2 rocket was the world's
first ballistic missile. It was originally designated A4, as
it was the fourth in a line of rocket developments, however,
Joseph Goebbel's propaganda ministry renamed it
Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Retaliation Weapon 2). It was naturally
shortened to V2. The one shown above was captured by the
Americans.
The major character in the development of the German
ballistic missile program was engineer Werner von Braun, who
became the Head of the German Rocket Development Centre in
Peenemunde. As an engineering student he was a member of the
Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) and was
always interested in furthering the cause of rockets as a
means of space travel. At the request of the Reichswehr
Ordnance Department, he began work on rockets in 1932 upon
graduation from the Berlin Institute of Technology. The
fledgling Reichswehr's interest in rocketry was to legally
get around the restrictions on the number and size of
artillery pieces laid out in the Treaty of Versailles
following WWI. Rockets were not included as artillery
pieces.
Unlike the V1 developed by the Luftwaffe, which flew low,
and slow enough to be intercepted by fast aircraft, the V2
was a true, guided, ballistic missile, rising into the
stratosphere before plunging down to the target. The only
warning of an approaching V2 was the double boom as it broke
the sound barrier shortly before impact. There was no
defence against the V2, so the English went after the
launching sites. They did this very effectively in the Pas
de Calais so that only mobile V2s could be launched. None of
these systems were ever successfully attacked.
However, due to the large
bomber raid on the Peenemunde (see the biography of WC John
Fauquier) test site, the V2 program was set back a few
crucial months. They were not ready in time for the Allied
landings in Normandy, where they could have played
considerable havoc with logistical systems. Instead the
Germans rained V2s onto Antwerp once the Allies captured it,
as it was used as the major European port for Allied
supplies. The German rocket troops were trained to erect 3
missiles at a time, fuel, align, and launch them in a matter
of 2 hours. About 1000 of these missiles were fired at the
cities of London and Norwich, while about 2000 more were
fired at targets on the European continent, primarily
Antwerp. Another 500 or so were used in test and training
launches. A total of about 10,000 were built and shipped
from a central German assembly facility located in the Hartz
Mountains, in the area known as the Mittelwerke.
Two miles northwest of Nordhausen a huge underground V-bomb
factory was discovered. It was two miles in length, with two
large tunnels approximately fifty feet in width and height,
connected laterally by forty-eight smaller tunnels. From
1943 until 1945, 60,000 prisoners had toiled here in
production of V-1 and V-2 bombs. Of these, 20,000 had died
from various causes including starvation, fatigue and
execution. The SS was in charge of the factory and the camp,
with German criminals as straw bosses. Workers were executed
at the slightest suggestion of sabotage. No workers had ever
been allowed to leave the camp and when they became too weak
to work, they were abandoned to die and their bodies burned
at the crematorium within the grounds. Reports indicated
that approximately one hundred bodies were cremated per day,
and there were about thirty corpses piled on the ground
awaiting such treatment when the American 104th "Timberwolf"
Army Infantry Division arrived. These bodies showed many
signs of beating, starvation and torture. There were several
camps in the area (Mittelbau Dora and Nordhausen
Concentration Camps) that fed prisoners into the V2
production facility as required, as well as concentration
camps for political prisoners (links at the end of the page
will allow you to access sites related to these camps.
Warning, the contents of these websites are not for the meek
or squeamish.)
Many missiles were still in the pipeline to the front, or
had been rejected by the troops because of problems and
damage when the war ended. The V2 ultimately failed as a
weapon due to it's great expense, relatively small warhead
and inaccuracy. Had the Germans developed a nuclear warhead
for it, then it would have been a very different matter.
After the war the Allied Forces showed great interest in
learning more about this new weapon and its military
applications. The U.S. War Department decided at the end of
the World War II to bring a number of German scientists and
engineers to the U.S.A. for interrogation, as well as to
have them demonstrate the use and operation of these new
systems. About 500 German rocket specialists were used in
"Operation Paperclip" for this purpose, including Wernher
von Braun. Many of them became naturalized Americans and
contributed greatly to all of the American rocket programs,
both military and scientific.
Technical Details
The V2 was an unmanned, guided, ballistic missile. It was
guided by an advanced gyroscopic system that sent signals to
aerodynamic steering tabs on the fins. It was generally
inaccurate due to errors in aligning the rocket with it's
target, premature shut-off of the motor and inconsistencies
in electric current in the guidance system. It was propelled
by an alcohol (a mixture of 75% ethyl alcohol and water),
and liquid oxygen fuel. The two liquids were delivered to
the thrust chamber by two rotary pumps, driven by a steam
turbine. The steam turbine operated at 5,000 rpm on two
auxiliary fuels, namely hydroperoxide (100 %) and calcium
permanganate. This system generated about 55,000 lbs (27,000
to 30,000 Newton) of thrust. The motor typically burned for
60 seconds, pushing the rocket to around 4,400 ft/second. It
rose to an altitude of 52 miles and had a range of 200 - 225
miles. The V2 carried a high explosive warhead weighing
2,000 lbs (1 ton) that was capable of flattening a large
building. It was first fired operationally on Sept 7, 1944
against London, primarily as a propaganda exercise.
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