V-2 rocket

{{further|Wernher von Braun#Early life|Wernher von Braun#Career in Germany}}

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1978-Anh.024-03, Peenemünde, Dornberger, Olbricht, Brandt, v. Braun.jpg

File:Wind channel model of an A4 b.jpg model of an A4 in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.]]

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 on a crowded sidewalk and was later taken in for questioning by the local police, until released to his father for disciplinary action.{{cite book |last1=Neufeld |first1=Michael |title=Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War |year= 2008 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0307389374 |pages=52–54, 62–64}}

Starting in 1930, von Braun attended the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin), where he assisted Oberth in liquid-fueled rocket motor tests. Von Braun was working on his doctorate when the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, 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. Von Braun's thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket (dated 16 April 1934), was kept classified by the German Army and was not published until 1960.Konstruktive, theoretische und experimentelle Beiträge zu dem Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete. Raketentechnik und Raumfahrtforschung, Sonderheft 1 (1960), Stuttgart, Germany By the end of 1934, his group had successfully launched two rockets that reached heights of {{cvt|2.2|and|3.5|km|mi}}.

At the time, many Germans were interested in American physicist Robert H. Goddard's research. Before 1939, German engineers and scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions. Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregate (A) series of rockets, named for the German word for mechanism or mechanical system.Christopher, John (2013). The Race for Hitler's X-Planes. The Mill, Gloucestershire: History Press, p. 110. {{ISBN?}}

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,{{cite book |last1=Ordway |first1= Frederick I III | author1-link = Frederick I. Ordway III |last2=Sharpe | first2=Mitchell R. |title=The Rocket Team | isbn = 1-894959-00-0 |series= Apogee Books Space Series 36|year= 2003 |page=32 | editor1-last = Godwin | editor1-first = Robert }} based on a projected {{cvt|25000|kg|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.{{rp|50–51}}

After the A-4 project was postponed due to unfavorable aerodynamic stability testing of the A-3 in July 1936,{{cite book |last=Dornberger|first=Walter|author-link=Walter Dornberger|title=V-2|year=1952|publisher=Viking|location=New York}} English translation 1954.{{cite book |last=Irving|first=David|author-link=David Irving|title=The Mare's Nest|year=1964|publisher=William Kimber and Co|location=London|page=17}}

Braun specified the A-4 performance in 1937,{{cite book|title=The Peenemünde Raid: The Night of 17–18 August 1943|last=Middlebrook|first=Martin|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill|year=1982|location=New York|page=19}} and, after an "extensive" series of test firings of the A-5 scale test model,Christopher, p.111. using a motor redesigned from the troublesome A-3 by Walter Thiel, A-4 design and construction was ordered {{circa}} 1938–39.{{cite book |last=Braun|first=Wernher von (Estate of) |author-link=Wernher von Braun |author2=Ordway III, Frederick I |title=Space Travel: A History |year=1985 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=0-06-181898-4 |page=45 |orig-date=1975|author-link2=Frederick I. Ordway III }} During 28–30 September 1939, {{Lang|de|Der Tag der Weisheit}} (English: The Day of Wisdom) conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems.{{Rp|40}}

By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the A-4. The four main technologies for the A-4 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance and rudders in jet control.{{cite book|last=Neufeld|first=Michael J|title=The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780029228951|url-access=registration|year=1995|publisher=The Free Press|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780029228951/page/73 73], 74, 101, 281|isbn=978-0-02-922895-1|access-date=15 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028112702/https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780029228951|archive-date=28 October 2019|url-status=live}} At the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2; he opined that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost.{{Cite book |last=Irons |first=Roy |title=Hitler's Terror Weapons: The Price of Vengeance |year=2002|isbn=978-0-00-711262-3|page=181|publisher=Collins }}

During early September 1943, Braun promised the Long-Range Bombardment Commission{{Rp|224}} that the A-4 development was "practically complete/concluded",{{Rp|135}} but even by the middle of 1944, a complete A-4 parts list was still unavailable.{{Rp|224}} Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needed a "wonder weapon" to maintain German morale, so he authorized its deployment in large numbers.{{cite book|title=A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz|last=Hakim|first=Joy|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1995|isbn=0-19-509514-6|location=New York|pages=100–104}}

The V-2s were constructed at the Mittelwerk site by prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora, a concentration camp where 20,000 prisoners died.{{cite book|title=Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990|last=Hunt|first=Linda |publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1991|isbn=0-312-05510-2|location=New York|pages=72–74}}{{cite book |last=Béon|first=Yves |others=translated from the French La planète Dora by Béon & Richard L. Fague|title=Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age|year=1997|publisher=Westview Press |isbn=0-8133-3272-9}}{{page needed|date=October 2020}}{{cite web|url=http://dora.uah.edu/|title=Dora and the V–2|work=uah.edu|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629085450/http://www.dora.uah.edu/|archive-date=29 June 2014}}

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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.derstandard.at/story/1271378203933/im-netz-der-verraeter |title=Im Netz der Verräter |trans-title=On the traitor network |language=de |work=Der Standard |date=4 June 2010 |access-date=12 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412131534/https://www.derstandard.at/story/1271378203933/im-netz-der-verraeter |archive-date=12 April 2020 |url-status=live }}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), p. 35.{{cite web| url = https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/preliminary-operations/crossbow| title = Operation Crossbow – Preliminary missions for the Operation Overlord| date = 19 February 2016}}

File:Aggregat4-Schnitt-engl.jpg

The A4 used a 75% ethanol/25% water mixture (B-Stoff) for fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) (A-Stoff) for oxidizer.{{cite web|last=Dungan|first=T|title=The A4-V2 Rocket Site|url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/makeup/design.html|access-date=2 June 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531211234/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/makeup/design.html|archive-date=31 May 2011}} The water reduced the flame temperature, acted as a coolant by turning to steam and augmented the thrust, tended to produce a smoother burn, and reduced thermal stress.{{cite book |last1=Sutton |first1=George |title=History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines |date=2006 |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |location=Reston |isbn=978-1-56347-649-5 |pages=740–753}}

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.{{rp|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 {{cvt|80|km}} or 264,000 ft after shutting off the engine.The History Channel V2 Factory: Nordhausen 070723

The fuel and oxidizer pumps were driven by a steam turbine, fueled by decomposition of concentrated hydrogen peroxide (T-Stoff) facilitated by a sodium permanganate (Z-Stoff) catalyst. Both the alcohol and oxygen tanks were an aluminum-magnesium alloy.{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Gregory P. |title=Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Guided Missile |year=1983 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, DC |pages=27, 74}}

The turbopump, rotating at 4,000 rpm, forced the fuel mixture and oxygen into the combustion chamber at 125 liters (33 US gallons) per second, where they were ignited by a spinning electrical igniter. The engine produced 8 tons of thrust during the 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 {{convert|5100|°F|°C|order=flip}}, and a speed of {{convert|2000|m|ft|abbr=on}} per second. The oxygen to fuel mixture was 1.0:0.85 at 25 tons of thrust; as ambient pressure decreased with flight altitude, thrust increased to 29 tons.{{cite book |last1=Dornberger |first1=Walter |title=V-2 |date=1954 |publisher=The Viking Press, Inc. |location=New York |pages=17–18, 120, 122–123, 132}}Zaloga 2003 p19 The turbopump assembly contained two centrifugal pumps, one for the fuel mixture, and one for the oxygen. The turbine was connected directly by a shaft to the alcohol pump and through a flexible joint and shaft to the oxygen pump.16:04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgiMu8A3pi0&t=2036s The turbopump delivered {{convert|55|kg|lb|abbr=on}} of alcohol and {{convert|68|kg|lb|abbr=on}} of liquid oxygen per second to a combustion chamber at {{convert|1.5|MPa|psi|0|abbr=on|lk=on}}.

Dr. Thiel's 25 ton rocket motor design relied on pump feeding, as opposed to earlier pressure-fed designs. The motor used centrifugal injection, and used both regenerative cooling and film cooling. Film cooling admitted alcohol into the combustion chamber and exhaust nozzle under slight pressure through four rings of small perforations. The mushroom-shaped injection head was removed from the combustion chamber to a mixing chamber, the combustion chamber was made more spherical while being shortened from 6 to 1-foot in length, and the connection to the nozzle was made cone shaped. The resultant 1.5 ton chamber operated at a combustion pressure of {{convert|1.52|MPa|psi|0|abbr=on}}. Thiel's 1.5 ton chamber was then scaled up to a 4.5 ton motor by arranging three injection heads above the combustion chamber. By 1939, eighteen injection heads in two concentric circles at the head of the {{convert|3|mm|in|2|abbr=on}} thick sheet-steel chamber, were used to make the 25 ton motor.{{rp|52–55}}{{cite book |last1=Hunley |first1=J.D. |title=Preludes to U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology: Goddard Rockets to Minuteman III |date=2008 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville |isbn=978-0-8130-3177-4 |pages=67–76}}

The warhead was a 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 {{convert|975|kg|lb}} and contained {{convert|910|kg|lb}} of explosive. The warhead's explosive percentage by weight was 93%, a very high portion compared to other types of munitions.

A protective layer of glass wool was also used for the fuel tanks to prevent the A-4 from forming 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 {{convert|4173|kg|lb}} of ethyl alcohol and {{convert|5553|kg|lb}} of oxygen.War machine encyclopedia, Limited publishing, London 1983 pp. 1690–92 {{ISBN?}}

File:Antwerp V-2.jpg

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 {{Lang|de|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.Stakem, Patrick H. The History of Spacecraft Computers from the V-2 to the Space Station, 2010, PRB Publishing, {{ASIN|B004L626U6}}{{rp|81–82}}

Some later V-2s used "guide beams", radio signals transmitted from the ground, as an added input to the Mischgerät analog computer to keep the missile on course in azimuth.[http://www.cdvandt.org/Hoelzer%20V4.pdf Helmut Hoelzer's Fully Electronic Analog Computer used in the German V2 (A4) rockets.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428214820/http://cdvandt.org/Hoelzer%20V4.pdf |date=28 April 2016 }} (PDF, English, German) 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.{{rp|203–204}}{{cite book |title=A-4/V-2 Rocket, Instruction Manual (in English) |date=2012 |publisher=Periscope Film LLC |isbn=978-1-937684-76-1 |pages=8–9, 135, 144}} Just before engine cutoff, thrust was reduced to eight tons, in an effort to avoid any water hammer problems a rapid cutoff could cause.

Dr. Friedrich Kirchstein of Siemens of Berlin developed the V-2 radio control for motor cutoff ({{langx|de|Brennschluss}}).{{Rp|28, 124}} For velocity measurement, Professor Wolman of Dresden created an alternative of his Doppler{{Rp|18}} tracking system in 1940–41, which used a ground signal transponded by the A-4 to measure the velocity of the missile.{{Rp|103}} By 9 February 1942, Peenemünde engineer Gerd {{Proper name|deBeek}} had documented the radio interference area of a V-2 as {{convert|10000|m|ft|abbr=off}} around the "Firing Point", and the first successful A-4 flight on 3 October 1942 used radio control to command motor cutoff.{{Rp|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",{{Rp|138}} about 20% of the operational V-2 launches were beam-guided.{{Rp|12}}{{rp|232}} The Operation Pinguin V-2 offensive began on 8 September 1944, when {{Lang|de|Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie No. 444}}{{Rp|51–2}} (English: 'Training and Testing Battery 444') launched a single rocket guided by a radio beam directed at Paris.{{Rp|47}} Wreckage of combat V-2s occasionally contained the transponder for velocity and fuel cutoff.{{Rp|259–260}}

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.

File:Esquema de la V-2.jpg cut-away diagram of the V-2.]]

The original German designation of the rocket was "V2",{{cite web |url=http://www.v2werk-oberraderach.de/ |title=A4 (V2) Raketenfertigung in Friedrichshafen 1942–1945 |access-date=2019-05-09 |first=Thomas |last=Kliebenschedel |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605130629/http://www.v2werk-oberraderach.de/ |archive-date=5 June 2019 |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite magazine |date=25 December 1944 |title=V-2: Nazi Rocket Details Are Finally Revealed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uUEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46 |magazine=LIFE |volume=17 |issue=26 |pages=46–48 |access-date=29 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428115211/https://books.google.com/books?id=uUEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46 |archive-date=28 April 2016 |url-status=live }}

{{See also|List of V-2 test launches}}

{{For|a description of a test explosion|Test Stand VII}}

The first successful test flight was on 3 October 1942, reaching an altitude of {{convert|84.5|km|mi|abbr=off}}. On that day, Walter Dornberger declared in a meeting at Peenemünde:

{{blockquote|This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel...¹⁷}}

File:Rocket engine A4 V2.jpg

Two test launches were recovered by the Allies: the Bäckebo rocket, the remnants of which landed in Sweden on 13 June 1944, and one recovered by the Polish resistance on 30 May 1944# (Polish) Michał Wojewódzki, Akcja V-1, V-2, Warsaw 1984, {{ISBN|83-211-0521-1}} from the Blizna V-2 missile launch site and transported to the UK during Operation Most III. The highest altitude reached during the war was {{convert|174.6|km|mi|abbr=off}} (20 June 1944). Test launches of V-2 rockets were made at Peenemünde, Blizna and Tuchola Forest,{{rp|211}} and after the war, at Cuxhaven by the British, White Sands Proving Grounds and Cape Canaveral by the U.S., and Kapustin Yar by the USSR.

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.{{Rp|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.{{Rp|51}}
• Film cooling was used to prevent burn-through at the nozzle throat.{{Rp|52}}
• Relay contacts were made more durable to withstand vibration and prevent thrust cut-off just after lift-off.{{Rp|52}}
• Ensuring that the fuel pipes had tension-free curves reduced the likelihood of explosions at {{cvt|4000|-|6000|ft|order=flip}}.{{Rp|215, 217}}
• Fins were shaped with clearance to prevent damage as the exhaust jet expanded with altitude.{{Rp|56, 118}}
• To control trajectory at liftoff and supersonic speeds, heat-resistant graphite vanes were used as rudders in the exhaust jet.{{Rp|35, 58}}

Through mid-March 1944, only four of the 26 successful Blizna launches had satisfactorily reached the Sarnaki target area{{cite book |last=Klee |first=Ernst |author2=Merk, Otto |title=The Birth of the Missile: The Secrets of Peenemünde |orig-date=1963 |issue=English translation |year=1965 |publisher=Gerhard Stalling Verlag |location=Hamburg |page=47}}{{Rp|112, 221–222, 282}} due to in-flight breakup ({{Lang|de|Luftzerleger}}) on re-entry into the atmosphere.{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=David |title=V-1, V-2: Hitler's Vengeance on London|year=1982 |publisher=Stein and Day |location=New York |page=100 |isbn=978-0-8128-2858-0}}{{Rp|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 – {{circa}} May/June, Dornberger and von Braun set up a camp at the centre of the Poland target zone.Neufeld 1995 pp. 221–222 After moving to the Heidekraut,{{Rp|172–173}} SS Mortar Battery 500 of the 836th Artillery Battalion (Motorized) was ordered{{Rp|47}} on 30 August{{cite book |last=Pocock |first=Rowland F. |title=German Guided Missiles of the Second World War |year=1967 |publisher=Arco Publishing Company, Inc |location=New York |pages=51, 52}} to begin test launches of eighty 'sleeved' rockets.{{Rp|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.{{Rp|100}}{{rp|188–198}}

File:Peenemunde-165515.jpg in Peenemünde]]

{{Main|Mittelwerk}}

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.{{rp|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.{{cite book |last1=Speer |first1=Albert |title=Inside the Third Reich |date=1995 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |isbn=978-1-84212-735-3 |pages=496–497}}

On 8 January 1943, Dornberger and von Braun met with Speer. Speer stated, "As head of the Todt organisation I will take it on myself to start at once with the building of the launching site on the Channel coast," and established an A-4 production committee under Degenkolb.{{rp|72–77}}

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."{{rp|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 {{Lang|de|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.{{rp|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.{{rp|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.{{rp|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.{{cite journal |last1=Ruggles |first1=Richard |last2=Brodie |first2=Henry |year=1947 |title=An Empirical Approach to Economic Intelligence in World War II |journal=Journal of the American Statistical Association |volume=42 |issue=237 |pages=72–91 |doi=10.2307/2280189 |jstor=2280189}}

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880, Peenemünde, Start einer V2.jpg in summer 1943.]]

{{For|a description of the V-2 launch equipment and procedure|Meillerwagen}}

After the Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground Watten, Wizernes and Sottevast bunkers or from fixed pads such as near the Château du Molay{{cite book|title=Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945|last=Jones|first=R. V.|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|year=1978|isbn=0-241-89746-7|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/mostsecretwar0000jone/page/433 433]|author-link=Reginald Victor Jones|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mostsecretwar0000jone/page/433}} were dismissed in favour 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 during August 1943 and completed by February 1944).{{cite web |url=http://www.allworldwars.com/V-Weapons%20Crossbow%20Campaign.html |title=V-Weapons Crossbow Campaign |publisher=Allworldwars.com |access-date=27 April 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204162612/http://www.allworldwars.com/V-Weapons%20Crossbow%20Campaign.html |archive-date=4 February 2009 }} The missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running through forests being a particular favourite. The system was so mobile and small that only one {{Lang|de|Meillerwagen}} was ever caught in action by Allied aircraft, during the Operation Bodenplatte attack on 1 January 1945Ordway & Sharpe 1979 p. 256 near Lochem by a USAAF 4th Fighter Group aircraft, although Raymond Baxter described flying over a site during a launch and his wingman firing at the missile without hitting it.

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.{{cite web |last=Walker |first=John |author-link=John Walker (programmer) |date=27 September 1993 |title=A Rocket a Day Keeps the High Costs Away |url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/rocketaday.html |access-date=14 November 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081103045215/http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/rocketaday.html |archive-date=3 November 2008 }}

File:V-2victimAntwerp1944.jpg, Belgium, on 27 November 1944. A British military convoy was passing through the square at the time; 126 people (including 26 Allied soldiers) were killed.{{cite web |url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html |title=Antwerp, "City of Sudden Death" |publisher=v2rocket.com |access-date=31 July 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703163237/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html |archive-date=3 July 2015 }}]]

The LXV Armeekorps z.b.V. formed during the last days of November 1943 in France commanded by General der Artillerie z.V. Erich Heinemann was responsible for the operational use of V-2.{{Cite web|url=https://www.axishistory.com/books/149-germany-heer/heer-korps/2781-lxv-armeekorps-zbv|title=LXV Armeekorps z.b.V.|website=www.axishistory.com|access-date=25 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725192949/https://www.axishistory.com/books/149-germany-heer/heer-korps/2781-lxv-armeekorps-zbv|archive-date=25 July 2019|url-status=live}} Three launch battalions were formed in late 1943, Artillerie Abteilung 836 (Mot.), Grossborn, Artillerie Abteilung 485 (Mot.), Naugard, and Artillerie Abteilung 962 (Mot.). Combat operations commenced in Sept. 1944, when training Batterie 444 deployed. On 2 September 1944, the SS Werfer-Abteilung 500 was formed, and by October, the SS under the command of SS Lt. Gen Hans Kammler, took operational control of all units. He formed Gruppe Süd with Art. Abt. 836, Merzig, and Gruppe Nord with Art. Abt. 485 and Batterie 444, Burgsteinfurt and The Hague.{{cite book |last1=Zaloga |first1=Steven |title=German V-Weapon Sites 1943–45 |date=2008 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-84603-247-9 |pages=53–56}}

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.{{Rp|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.{{Rp|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,{{Rp|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.{{sfn|Ramsey|2016|p=96}} The public did not believe this explanation and therefore began referring to the V-2s as "flying gas mains".{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Charlie |date=2022-02-28 |title='Flying Gas Mains': Rumour, Secrecy, and Morale during the V-2 Bombardment of Britain |url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/92759/2/Flying%20Gas_AAM_Hall.pdf |journal=Twentieth Century British History |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=52–79 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/hwab029 |issn=0955-2359}} 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".{{cite Hansard |title=German Long-Range Rockets |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1944/nov/10/german-long-range-rockets#S5CV0404P0_19441110_HOC_3 |house=Commons |date=10 November 1944 |column=1653-4 |speaker=Winston Churchill |position=Prime Minister |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420025034/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1944/nov/10/german-long-range-rockets#S5CV0404P0_19441110_HOC_3 |archive-date=20 April 2014 }}

In September 1944, control of the V-2 mission was transferred to the Waffen-SS and Division z.V.{{cite web |url=https://www.axishistory.com/books/119-germany-waffen-ss/germany-waffen-ss-divisions/1331-division-zv |title=Division z.V. |date=25 May 2013 |access-date=2019-06-23 |website=History of the European Axis nations during the Second World War |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117023811/https://www.axishistory.com/books/119-germany-waffen-ss/germany-waffen-ss-divisions/1331-division-zv |archive-date=17 November 2018 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/westerwald.html|title=A4/V2 Sites in Westerwald|website=www.v2rocket.com|access-date=11 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501044213/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/westerwald.html|archive-date=1 May 2018|url-status=live}}

Positions of the German launch units changed a number of times. For example, Artillerie Init 444 arrived in the southwest Netherlands (in Zeeland) in September 1944. From a field near the village of Serooskerke, five V-2s were launched on 15 and 16 September, with one more successful and one failed launch on the 18th. That same date, a transport carrying a missile took a wrong turn and ended up in Serooskerke itself, giving a villager the opportunity to surreptitiously take some photographs of the weapon; these were smuggled to London by the Dutch Resistance.{{cite book |title=Walcheren onder vuur en water 1939–1945 |last2=Eekman |first2=P.G. |last3=Roelse |first3=J. |last4=Tuynman |first4=J. |publisher=Den Boer Middelburg/Uitgevers |year=1984 |isbn=90-70027-82-8 |location=Middelburg |page=98 |language=nl |last1=van Dijk |first1=A.H.}} After that the unit moved to the woods near Rijs, Gaasterland in the northwest Netherlands, to ensure that the technology was not captured by the Allies. From Gaasterland V-2s were launched against Ipswich and Norwich from 25 September (London being out of range). Because of their inaccuracy, these V-2s did not hit their target cities. Soon after that only London and Antwerp remained as designated targets as ordered by Adolf Hitler himself, Antwerp being targeted in the period of 12 to 20 October, after which time the unit moved to The Hague.

File:Damage Caused by V2 Rocket Attacks in Britain, 1945 HU88803.jpg, London, left by the penultimate V-2 to strike the city on 27 March 1945; the rocket killed 134 people. The final V-2 to fall on London killed one person at Orpington later that same day.{{cite web |url=http://www.westendatwar.org.uk/page_id__248.aspx |title=The last V2 on London |publisher=West End at War |access-date=31 July 2015 |last=Bisbach |first= Emily |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204200722/http://www.westendatwar.org.uk/page_id__248.aspx |archive-date=4 February 2016 }}]]

During the succeeding months about 3,172 V-2 rockets were fired at the following targets:{{cite web |title=V2 Rocket Facts|url=http://www.worldwar2facts.org/v2-rocket-facts.html |work=World War 2 Facts |access-date=14 December 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215002156/http://www.worldwar2facts.org/v2-rocket-facts.html |archive-date=15 December 2013 }}

• 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),{{rp|289}} Ipswich (1)
• France, 76: Lille (25), Paris (22), Tourcoing (19), Arras (6), Cambrai (4)
• Netherlands, 19: Maastricht (19)
• Germany, 11: Remagen (Ludendorff Bridge) (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 Cine Rex was struck, leaving 567 dead and 291 injured.{{sfn|King|Kutta|1998|p=281}}{{cite web |title=V2Rocket.com "Antwerp, The City of Sudden Death" |url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703163237/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html |archive-date=3 July 2015 }}

An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London by V-2 attacks with another 6,523 injured,{{cite web |url=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/homefront/arp/arp4a.html |title=Air Raid Precautions – Deaths and injuries |work=tiscali.co.uk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308060050/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/homefront/arp/arp4a.html |archive-date=8 March 2007 }} which is two people killed per V-2 rocket. The death toll in London did not meet the Nazis' full expectations, during early usage, as they had not yet perfected the accuracy of the V-2, with many rockets being misdirected and exploding harmlessly. Accuracy increased during the war, particularly for batteries where the {{Lang|de|Leitstrahl}} (radio guide beam) system was used.{{cite web |title=Mobile Firing Operations & Locations |url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/mobileoperations.html |work=V2Rocket.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813205741/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/mobileoperations.html |archive-date=13 August 2007 }} Missile strikes that did 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V2_maintextb.html |title=Flying Bombs and Rockets, V2 Woolworths New Cross |author=Stephen Henden |work=flyingbombsandrockets.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214000651/http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V2_maintextb.html |archive-date=14 December 2012 |access-date=23 March 2011}}

British intelligence also helped impede the effectiveness of the Nazi weapon, sending false reports via their Double-Cross System implying that the rockets were over-shooting their London target by {{convert|10|to|20|mi|0|abbr=out}}. This tactic worked; more than half of the V-2s aimed at London landed short of the London Civil Defence Region.Jones RV; Most Secret War 1978{{rp|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 these failed rockets were striking the British capital with heavy loss of life.Blitz Street; Channel 4, 10 May 2010

At least one V-2 missile on a mobile Meillerwagen launch trailer was observed being elevated to launch position by a USAAF 4th Fighter Group pilot defending against the massive New Year's Day 1945 Operation Bodenplatte strike by the Luftwaffe over the northern German attack route near the town of Lochem on 1 January 1945. Possibly, from the potential sighting of the American fighter by the missile's launch crew, the rocket was quickly lowered from a near launch-ready 85° elevation to 30°.Ordway & Sharpe 1979, p. 256.

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.bruecke-remagen.de/ausstellung/3-1_en.htm |title="The Watch on the Rhine" Everyday Life of the Soldiers at the Bridge |access-date=25 November 2014 |publisher=Friedensmuseum Brücke von Remagen |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194759/http://www.bruecke-remagen.de/ausstellung/3-1_en.htm |archive-date=23 September 2015 }} They could not employ the more accurate {{Lang|de|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, {{convert|40|mi}} to the north, while one missed the bridge by only {{convert|500|to|800|yard}}. They also struck the town of Remagen, destroying a number of buildings and killing at least six American soldiers.{{cite web|title=V-2s on Remagen; Attacks on the Ludendorff Bridge|url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/v2s-on-remagen.html |website=V2Rocket.com |access-date=14 November 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114012341/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/v2s-on-remagen.html |archive-date=14 November 2014 }}

File:Bomb Damage in London, England, April 1945 CH15111.jpg

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.Foster, Vicki. [http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/5421934.ORPINGTON__65th_anniversary_of_the_V2_rocket_landing_in_Orpington/ "65th anniversary of the V2 rocket landing in Orpington"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910231452/http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/5421934.ORPINGTON__65th_anniversary_of_the_V2_rocket_landing_in_Orpington/ |date=10 September 2016}}, News Shopper, Orpington, Kent, 2 April 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bromleytimes.co.uk/news/tale-of-orpington-woman-killed-by-hitler-s-final-v2-uncovered-in-new-book-1-1649097|title = Barking and Dagenham Post}} A scientific reconstruction performed in 2010 demonstrated that the V-2 creates a crater {{convert|20|m|ft|abbr=off}} wide and {{convert|8|m|ft|abbr=off}} deep, ejecting approximately 3,000 tons of material into the air.

{{Main|Operation Crossbow| Project Big Ben}}

File:V-2 förbränningskammare.JPG used by V-2, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (2014).]]

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 {{cvt|100|-|110|km}} at up to three times the speed of sound at sea level (approximately {{convert|3550|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on}}). 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.Jeremy Stocker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rr-RAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 "Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920143537/https://books.google.com/books?id=rr-RAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |date=20 September 2017 }}, pp. 20–28.

General Frederick Alfred Pile, commander of Anti-Aircraft Command, studied the problem and proposed that enough anti-aircraft guns were available to produce a barrage of fire in the rocket's path, but only if provided with a reasonable prediction of the trajectory. The first estimates suggested that 320,000 shells would have to be fired for each rocket. About 2% of these were expected to fall back to the ground unexploded containing almost 90 tons of explosives, which would cause far more damage than the missile. At a 25 August 1944 meeting of the Crossbow Committee, the concept was rejected.

Pile continued studying the problem and returned with a proposal to fire only 150 shells at a single rocket, with those shells using a new fuse that would greatly reduce the number that fell back to Earth unexploded. 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 {{convert|2.5|mi|km|1|adj=mid|abbr=off}} grids of the London area. After the trajectory was determined, the guns would aim and fire between 60 and 500 rounds.

At a Crossbow meeting on 15 January 1945 Pile's updated plan was presented with some strong advocacy from Roderic Hill and Charles Drummond Ellis. However, the Committee suggested that a test not be performed as no technique for tracking the missiles with sufficient accuracy had yet been developed. By March this had changed significantly, with 81% of incoming missiles correctly allotted to the grid square each fell into, or the one beside it. At a 26 March meeting Pile was directed to a subcommittee with RV Jones and Ellis to further develop the statistics. Three days later the team returned a report stating that if the guns fired 2,000 rounds at a missile there was a 1 in 60 chance of shooting it down. Plans for an operational test began, but as Pile later put it, "Monty beat us to it", as the attacks ended with the Allied capture of their launching areas.

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.

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).{{sfn|Ramsey|2016|p=100}}

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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/denhaag.html|title=V2ROCKET.COM – Den Haag (The Hague, Wassenaar, Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland)|website=www.v2rocket.com|access-date=28 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223065336/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/denhaag.html|archive-date=23 February 2018|url-status=live}}

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.

The German V-weapons (V-1 and V-2) cost the equivalent of about US$500 million.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. 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 {{Reichsmark|100,000|link=yes}} ({{GBP|2,370,000}} in 2011) each{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}; 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 for the rocket program. More people died manufacturing the V-2 than were killed by its deployment.{{cite web|url=http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/mittel.html|title=Mittelwerk / DORA|work=v2rocket.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719045156/http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/mittel.html|archive-date=19 July 2013}}

{{quote box|width=22em|quote=... 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. |author=Freeman Dyson{{cite book |last=Dyson |first=Freeman |year=1979 |title=Disturbing the Universe |url=https://archive.org/details/disturbinguniver00dyso |url-access=registration |publisher=Harper & Row |page=[https://archive.org/details/disturbinguniver00dyso/page/108 108] |isbn=978-0-465-01677-8}}

}}

The V-2 consumed a third of Germany's fuel alcohol production and major portions of other critical technologies.{{cite web |author-link=James Oberg |first1=Jim |last1=Oberg |first2= Dr. Brian R |last2=Sullivan |date=March 1999 |title='Space Power Theory |url=http://space.au.af.mil/books/oberg/ |location=U.S. Air Force Space Command |publisher=Government Printing Office |page=143 |access-date=28 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203015711/http://space.au.af.mil/books/oberg/ |archive-date=3 February 2009 }} 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.{{Cite book |last=Irons |first=Roy |title=Hitler's Terror Weapons: The Price of Vengeance|year=2002|publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-711262-3}}

The psychological effect of the V-2 was considerable, as the V-2, traveling faster than the speed of sound, gave no warning before impact (unlike bombing planes or the V-1 flying bomb, which made a characteristic buzzing sound). There was no effective defence and no risk of pilot or crew casualties. An example of the impression it made is in the reaction of American pilot and future nuclear strategist and Congressional aide William Liscum Borden, who in November 1944 while returning from a nighttime air mission over Holland saw a V-2 in flight on its way to strike London:{{cite book | last1 = Hewlett | first1 = Richard G. | last2 = Duncan | first2 = Francis | title = Atomic Shield, 1947–1952 | volume=2 | series = A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission | publisher = Pennsylvania State University Press | location = University Park, Pennsylvania | date = 1969 | page=180 }}{{cite book | last = Rhodes | first = Richard | title = Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = New York | date=1995 | page=357 }} "It resembled a meteor, streaming red sparks and whizzing past us as though the aircraft were motionless. I became convinced that it was only a matter of time until rockets would expose the United States to direct, transoceanic attack."{{cite book | last =Herken | first=Gregg | title=Counsels of War | publisher=Alfred A. Knopf | location=New York | date=1985 | page=11 }}

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. 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.eucom.mil/article/23076/this-week-in-eucom-history-february-6-12-1959 |title=This Week in EUCOM History: February 6–12, 1959 |date=6 February 2012 |publisher=EUCOM |access-date=8 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921003453/http://www.eucom.mil/article/23076/this-week-in-eucom-history-february-6-12-1959 |archive-date=21 September 2012 }}

A submarine-towed launch platform was tested successfully, making it the prototype for submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The project codename was {{Lang|de|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).{{cite web |url=http://www.uboataces.com/articles-rocket-uboat.shtml |title=Hitler's Rocket U-boat Program – history of WW2 rocket submarine |publisher=Uboataces.com |access-date=27 April 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403090456/http://www.uboataces.com/articles-rocket-uboat.shtml |archive-date=3 April 2010 }} Hitler, in July 1944 and Speer, in January 1945, made speeches alluding to the scheme,Article in San Diego Times c.25 July 1944 though Germany did not possess the capability to fulfill these threats. These schemes were met by the Americans with Operation Teardrop.{{Citation needed|date = July 2016}}

While interned after the war by the British at CSDIC camp 11, Dornberger was recorded saying that he had begged the Führer to stop the V-weapon propaganda, because nothing more could be expected from one ton of explosive. To this Hitler had replied that Dornberger might not expect more, but he (Hitler) certainly did.{{Citation needed|date = July 2016}}

According to decrypted messages from the Japanese embassy in Germany, twelve dismantled V-2 rockets were shipped to Japan.Besant, John Stalin's Silver concerning the sinking of SS John Barry near Aden in 1944 These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on the transport U-boats {{GS|U-219||2}} and {{GS|U-195||2}}, which reached Jakarta in December 1944. A civilian V-2 expert was a passenger on {{GS|U-234||2}}, bound for Japan in May 1945 when the war ended in Europe. The fate of these V-2 rockets is unknown.{{Citation needed|date = July 2016}}

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."We Want with the West", Time Magazine, 9 December 1946. 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.{{cite web |title=Wernher von Braun |date=2 May 2001 |url=http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/vonBraun/vonbraun_3.php |access-date=4 July 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823183825/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/vonBraun/vonbraun_3.php |archive-date=23 August 2009 }}

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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hqADewyvEVQC&pg=PA35 |title=Space Policy in Developing Countries: The Search for Security and Development on the Final Frontier |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |pages=34–35 |author=Robert C. Harding |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920143537/https://books.google.com/books?id=hqADewyvEVQC&pg=PA35 |archive-date=20 September 2017 |isbn=978-1-136-25789-6}} The V-2 rocket also laid the foundation for the liquid fuel missiles and space launchers used later.{{cite book |author=Paul I. Casey |title=APOLLO: A Decade of Achievement |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_9oiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |year=2013 |publisher=JS Blume |page=19 |isbn=978-0-9847163-0-2 |access-date=9 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920143537/https://books.google.com/books?id=_9oiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |archive-date=20 September 2017 |url-status=live }}

{{Main|V-2 sounding rocket}}

File:Bumper8 launch-GPN-2000-000613.jpg.]]

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, more than 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, also 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 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.{{cite web|title=V2 Information|url=http://v2.x-factorial.com/|work=X-Factorial.com|access-date=14 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214234047/http://v2.x-factorial.com/|archive-date=14 December 2013}}

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 "V2 Rocket Panel", then the "V2 Upper Atmosphere Research Panel", and finally the "Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel".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) [https://books.google.com/books?id=NMk3adgqfawC&pg=PA41 p. 41.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428123850/https://books.google.com/books?id=NMk3adgqfawC&pg=PA41 |date=28 April 2016 }} See also: [http://www.spaceline.org/history/6.html SpaceLine.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113104258/http://spaceline.org/history/6.html |date=13 November 2012 }} This resulted in an eclectic array of experiments that flew on V-2s and helped prepare 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.

File:First photo from space.jpg was taken from V-2 No. 13 launched by US scientists on 24 October 1946.]]

Only 68 percent of the V-2 trials were considered successful.{{cite web |title=V-2 Rocket Components |url=http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/WSHist/V2/Pages/V2RocketComponents.aspx |publisher=U.S. Army, White Sands Missile Range |year=2010 |access-date=14 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902060914/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/WSHist/V2/Pages/V2RocketComponents.aspx |archive-date=2 September 2013 }} On 29 May 1947, a Modified V-2 had an error in its guidance, and landed near Juarez, Mexico, causing an international incident.{{cite web |last=Beggs |first=William |url=http://www.postwarv2.com/hermes |title=Hermes Program |access-date=1 December 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930100414/http://www.postwarv2.com/hermes/ |archive-date=30 September 2011 }}

The U.S. Navy attempted to launch a German V-2 rocket at sea—one test launch from the aircraft carrier USS Midway was performed on 6 September 1947 as part of the Navy's Operation Sandy. The test launch was a partial success; the V-2 went off the pad but splashed down in the ocean only some {{cvt|10|km|0}} 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 Semyorka 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Dictionary/REDSTONE/DI149.htm |title=Redstone rocket |publisher=centennialofflight.net |access-date=27 April 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220003451/http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Dictionary/REDSTONE/DI149.htm |archive-date=20 February 2014 }}

{{Main|Soviet space program}}

{{See also|German influence on Soviet rocketry}}

File:Автопоезд с ракетой Р-1.jpg

The USSR captured a number of V-2s and staff, letting them stay in Germany for a time.{{Cite web|url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/a4_team_moscow.html#end|title=End of a honeymoon|access-date=2019-06-23|last=Zak|first=Anatoly|date=2012 |website = RussianSpaceWeb.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104225656/http://www.russianspaceweb.com/a4_team_moscow.html#end|archive-date=4 January 2016|url-status=live}} 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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/gorodomlya.html |title=History of the Gorodomlya Island|date=5 August 2012 |access-date=2019-06-23 |last=Zak |first=Anatoly |website = RussianSpaceWeb.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410142523/http://russianspaceweb.com/gorodomlya.html |archive-date=10 April 2016 |url-status=live}} 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 R-1, a duplicate of the V-2 manufactured completely in the USSR, which was launched first during October 1948. From 1947 until the end of 1950, the German team elaborated concepts and improvements for extended payload and range for the projects G-1, G-2 and G-4. The German team had to remain on Gorodomlya island until as late as 1952 and 1953. In parallel, Soviet work emphasized larger missiles, the R-2 and R-5, based on further developing the V-2 technology with using ideas of the German concept studies.{{Cite web|url=http://profpaulcutter.com/PDF/Hi-tech%20Studies/Helmut_Groettrup.pdf |title=Helmut Groettrup … the captured Russian who was Russian POW rocket scientist |date=29 September 2009 |access-date=2019-05-19 |last=Cutter |first=Paul |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227085755/http://profpaulcutter.com/PDF/Hi-tech%20Studies/Helmut_Groettrup.pdf |archive-date=27 February 2020 |url-status=live}} Details of Soviet achievements were unknown to the German team and completely underestimated by Western intelligence until, in November 1957, the satellite Sputnik 1 was launched successfully to orbit by the Sputnik rocket based on R-7, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile.{{cite book |title=Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany 1945–1961 |last=Maddrell |first=Paul |publisher=Oxford University Press |date= 2006 |isbn=978-0-19-926750-7 |language=en }}{{page needed |date=June 2022 }}

{{Main|French space program}}

File:Véronique-R-rocket-1950.jpg

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.{{Cite book |last=Reuter |first=Claus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sr6JtOoWghkC |title=The V2 and the German, Russian and American Rocket Program |date=2000 |publisher=German Canadian Museum of Applied History |isbn=978-1-894643-05-4 |pages=179–180 |language=en}} 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 {{convert|3600|km|abbr=on}} and carrying warheads weighing up to {{convert|1000|kg|abbr=on}}. 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 {{convert|100| kg|abbr=on}} payload to an altitude of {{convert|320| km|abbr=on}}.{{Cite web |title=Véronique and Vesta |url=http://fuseurop.univ-perp.fr/lrba_e.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020121341/http://fuseurop.univ-perp.fr/lrba_e.htm |archive-date=2007-10-20}} The Véronique program then led to the Diamant rocket and the Ariane rocket family.

File:V-2 Rocket On Meillerwagen.jpg V-2 rocket on Meillerwagen]]

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.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/Reportonoperati5Grea/mode/2up |title=Report on operation 'Backfire' Recording and analysis of the trajectory |date= 1946 |publisher=Ministry of Supply |volume=5}}

In 1946, the British Interplanetary Society proposed an enlarged man-carrying version of the V-2, named Megaroc. It could have enabled sub-orbital spaceflight similar to, but at least a decade earlier than, the Mercury-Redstone flights of 1961.{{cite web |title=How a Nazi rocket could have put a Briton in space |url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150824-how-a-nazi-rocket-could-have-put-a-briton-in-space |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114032515/http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150824-how-a-nazi-rocket-could-have-put-a-briton-in-space |archive-date=14 November 2016 |access-date=16 November 2016 |publisher=BBC }}{{cite web |title=Megaroc |url=http://www.bis-space.com/what-we-do/projects/megaroc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030133900/http://www.bis-space.com/what-we-do/projects/megaroc |archive-date=30 October 2016 |access-date=16 November 2016 |publisher=BIS }}

The first Chinese Dongfeng missile, the DF-1 was a licensed copy of the Soviet R-2; this design was produced during the 1960s.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

{{more citations needed section|date=September 2016}}

File:V-2 rocket at the AWM Treloar Centre Annex.jpg

File:Germany, Thüringen, Nordhausen, KZ Dora-Mittelbau (2).JPG concentration camp memorial site.]]

File:V2Musee.jpg}}, Paris.]]

At least 20 V-2s still existed during 2014.

• 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 {{Lang|de|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.{{cite web |url=http://www.nswrocketry.org.au/gallery/OtherEvents/ACTvisit/00_introduction.html |title=Treloar Centre ACT. 7 July 2009 |publisher=NSW Rocketry Association Inc |access-date=12 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320053653/http://nswrocketry.org.au/gallery/OtherEvents/ACTvisit/00_introduction.html |archive-date=20 March 2016 }}[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-29/the-nazi-rockets-that-travelled-down-under/8977048 Australia's Nazi rockets: How German V-2 flying bombs made their way Down Under] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929013202/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-29/the-nazi-rockets-that-travelled-down-under/8977048 |date=29 September 2017 }} ABC News, 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.

• 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.

• Several large components, including the 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.{{cite web |title=Ekspozycja stała |url=http://muzeum-ak.pl/wystawy-i-zbiory/ekspozycja-stala |website=Muzeum AK |access-date=21 May 2020 |language=pl}}{{Failed verification|date=May 2020}}

• One engine at {{lang|fr|Cité de l'espace}} in Toulouse.
• V-2 display including engine, parts, rocket body and many documents and photographs relating to its development and use at La Coupole museum, Wizernes, Pas de Calais.
• One rocket body with 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.

• One complete V2 rocket {{cite web | url=https://digital.deutsches-museum.de/de/digital-catalogue/collection-object/75528/ | title=V2-Rakete (A4-Rakete) }} and several engines at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.{{cite web |title=A-4-Rakete ("V2"), 1945 (Original) |url=https://www.deutsches-museum.de/flugwerft-schleissheim/ausstellung/flugantriebe-und-raketen#c7217 |website=Deutsches Museum |access-date=24 Aug 2021 |language=de}}
• One engine at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.{{cite news |last1=Turner |first1=Adam |title=Geek Pilgrimage: V2 rocket engine – Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin |url=http://www.smh.com.au/technology/geek-pilgrimage-v2-rocket-engine--deutsches-technikmuseum-berlin-20150906-gjgerz.html |access-date=21 May 2020 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |date=6 September 2015}}
• One engine at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.
• One rusty engine in the original V-2 underground production facilities at the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp memorial site.
• One rusty engine in Buchenwald concentration camp.
• One replica was constructed for the Historical and Technical Information Centre in Peenemünde,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. {{cite web |title=Reinhold Krüger (18.02.1930 – 29.05.2005) |url=http://www.foerderverein-peenemuende.de/Ehrenmitglied1.htm |author=Klaus Felgentreu |publisher=Förderverein Peenemünde „Peenemünde – Geburtsort der Raumfahrt" e.V. |access-date=17 August 2021 |language=de}} where it is displayed near what remains of the factory where it was built.

File:V2 combustion chamber geograph.org.uk 1430641 f91f99d8-by-Ashley-Dace.jpg

• One at the Science Museum, London.{{cite web |title=V2 Rocket, A4 missile. |url=http://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co40493/v2-rocket-a4-missile-missile |website=Science Museum Group |access-date=21 May 2020}}
• One, at the Imperial War Museum, London, on loan from Cranfield University.{{cite web |title=V2 (VERGELTUNGS-WAFFE 2) ROCKET (SECTIONED) |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30020790 |website=Imperial War Museums |access-date=21 May 2020}}{{Failed verification|date=May 2020}}
• The RAF Museum possesses two rockets, one of which is displayed at its Cosford site. The Museum also owns a {{Lang|de|Meillerwagen}}, a {{Lang|de|Vidalwagen}}, a Strabo crane, and a firing table with towing dolly.{{cite web |title=German Army V2 (Assembly 4) |url=http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/collections/german-army-v2-assembly-4 |website=Royal Air Force Museum |access-date=21 May 2020}}{{Failed verification|date=May 2020}}
• 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 a V-2 discovered in April 2012 was donated to the Harwich Sailing Club after it was found buried in a mudflat.{{cite web|url=http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2012-04-01/more-pictures-of-v2-recovery-operation-at-harwich|title=More pictures of V2 recovery operation at Harwich|work=ITV News|date=April 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401173931/http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2012-04-01/more-pictures-of-v2-recovery-operation-at-harwich/|archive-date=1 April 2012}}
• Fuel combustion chamber recovered from the sea near Clacton at the East Essex Aviation Museum, St Oysth.
• A gyroscope unit, a turbo pump unit and a steam generating chamber are on display at the National Space Centre in Leicester.{{cite web |title=V-2 Gyroscope |url=http://collections.spacecentre.co.uk/object-l2010-8 |website=National Space Center |access-date=21 May 2020}}{{cite web |title=V-2 Turbo Pump |url=http://collections.spacecentre.co.uk/object-l2010-6 |website=National Space Center |access-date=21 May 2020}}{{cite web |title=V-2 Steam Generating Chamber |url=http://collections.spacecentre.co.uk/object-l2010-9 |website=National Space Center |access-date=21 May 2020}}

Complete missiles

• One at the Flying Heritage Collection, Everett, Washington{{cite web |title=Mittelwerk GmbH V-2 Rocket |url=http://flyingheritage.org/Explore/The-Collection/Germany/Mittelwerk-GmbH-V-2-Rocket.aspx |website=Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum |access-date=21 May 2020}}
• One at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, including complete {{Lang|de|Meillerwagen}}, Dayton, Ohio.[https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196226/v-2-with-meillerwagen/ "V-2 with Meillerwagen".] National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved: 3 January 2017.
• One (checkerboard-painted) at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas.{{cite web |title=HALL OF SPACE |url=http://cosmo.org/exhibitions/hall-of-space |website=Cosmosphere |access-date=21 May 2020}}
• One at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=V-2 Missile |url=http://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/v-2-missile/nasm_A19600342000 |website=National Air and Space Museum |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=21 May 2020}}
• 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.{{cite web |title=V-2 Rocket on Display at the White Sands Missile Range Museum |url=http://www.wsmr-history.org/V-2Display1.htm |website=White Sands Missile Range Museum |access-date=21 May 2020 |archive-date=3 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203040908/http://www.wsmr-history.org/V-2Display1.htm }}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.
• 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.{{cite web |title=EXHIBITS |url=http://www.staffordmuseum.org/exhibits |website=Stafford Air & Space Museum |access-date=21 May 2020}}
• One engine at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
• Two engines at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.[https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/195894/v-2-rocket/ "V-2 Rocket".] National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved: 3 January 2017. (one was transferred from United States Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland in about 2005 when the museum closed).
• 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 Picatinny Arsenal in 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 Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology in St. Louis, Missouri.
• One engine and tail section at New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

{{Portal|Rocketry|Spaceflight|Germany|Politics}}

• {{annotated link|Gravity's Rainbow|Gravity's Rainbow}}
• {{annotated link|Wasserfall|Wasserfall}}

{{clear}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite web |last1=Oberg |first1=Jim |author-link=James Oberg |last2=Sullivan |first2=Dr. Brian R (original draft) |date=March 1999 |title='Space Power Theory |url=http://space.au.af.mil/books/oberg/ |location=U.S. Air Force Space Command |publisher=Government Printing Office |page=143 |access-date=28 November 2008 |archive-date=3 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203015711/http://space.au.af.mil/books/oberg/ }} 24,000 fighters could have been produced instead of the inaccurate V-weapons.
• {{cite book |last=Harris |first=Arthur T |author2=Cox, Sebastion |year=1995 |title=Despatch on War Operations: 23rd February, 1942, to 8th May, 1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzzl8wUn52cC |access-date=4 July 2008 |isbn=0-7146-4692-X |page=xliii |publisher=F. Cass }}
• {{cite book |last1= King |first1= Benjamin |last2= Kutta |first2= Timothy J. |date= 1998 |title= Impact: The History of Germany's V-Weapons in World War II |publisher= Sarpedon Publishers |location= Rockville Centre, New York |url= https://archive.org/details/impacthistoryofg0000king/ |url-access= registration |isbn= 1-885119-51-8 }} (Alternately: Impact: An Operational History of Germany's V Weapons in World War II.) Staplehurst, Kent: Spellmount Publishers. {{ISBN|1-86227-024-4}}. Da Capo Press; Reprint edition, 2003: {{ISBN|0-306-81292-4}}.
• {{cite book|first=Syed|last=Ramsey|title=Tools of War: History of Weapons in Modern Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=9386019825|year=2016|publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd|isbn=978-93-86019-83-7}}
• {{cite book |title=The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780029228951 |url-access=registration |last=Neufeld |first=Michael J. |publisher=The Free Press |date=1995 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-02-922895-1 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Ordway |first1=Frederick I III |author-link=Frederick I. Ordway III |last2=Sharpe |first2= Mitchell R |date=1979 |title=The Rocket Team |series=Apogee Books Space Series 36 |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell |location=New York |isbn=1-894959-00-0 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Zaloga |first1=Steven |title=V-2 Ballistic Missile, 1942–52 |date=2003 |series=New Vanguard |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-84176-541-9 }}

{{refend}}

• 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}}.

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060020906 "The German A4 Rocket (Main Title)"] Information Film of Operation Backfire from IWM
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=miQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA124 '"Chute Saves Rockets Secrets"], September 1947, Popular Science article on US use of V-2 for scientific research
• {{cite web|url=http://nasatech.net/V-2/ |title=Reconstruction, restoration & refurbishment of a V-2 rocket|access-date=February 14, 2023|publisher=NASA}}, spherical panoramas of the process and milestones.
• [http://libarchstor.uah.edu:8081/repositories/2/resources/18 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
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_twfjzTNo8 German footage of V-2 launch tests]
• [https://archive.org/details/youtube-VDmaFj2dJ8A German footage of V-2 operational transport and launch procedure]

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Category:1944 in Germany

Category:1944 in military history

Category:1944 in science

Category:German inventions of the Nazi period

Category:Operation Crossbow

Category:Operation Paperclip

Category:Peenemünde Army Research Center and Airfield

Category:Ballistic missiles of Germany

Category:Short-range ballistic missiles

Category:Space programme of Germany

Category:Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1944

Category:Wernher von Braun

Category:World War II guided missiles of Germany

Category:London in World War II