The V-2 Rocket.

Overview

In 1930 Wernher von Braun attended the Technical University of Berlin. Whilst working on his thesis; Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket, the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun to begin his work at Kummersdorf. By the end of 1934, von Braun’s group had successfully launched two Aggregate series rockets (A–2; “Max” and “Moritz”), reaching a peak height of 2,200 metres. On the basis of those tests, the A–3 programme was started. Generals von Brauchitsch, Fromm and Olbricht considered the development work at Kummersdorf worth promoting. However, the significantly larger A–3 long–range rocket clearly called for new test facilities with longer launch ranges.

Following visits to Peenemünde, a small fishing village on the Baltic island of Usedom by von Braun in December 1935 and Dornberger in January 1936, a swiftly arranged meeting between the Army and Luftwaffe was arranged in April. Dornberger, von Braun, Wolfram von Richtofen, Albert Kesselring and other members of the military studied the plans, maps and diagrams of the new proposed site. Peenemünde was chosen as the ideal place to establish the research and development centre because it was remote, inaccessible, wooded and faced out to the sea – an ideal place to maintain the necessary secrecy and security.

According to Dornberger, the Reich Air Ministry paid 750,000 reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the northern peninsular of Usedom so that the Army Research Centre Peenemünde (Heersesversuchsanstaldt Peenemünde, HVP) could be established. Although the site was shared with the Luftwaffe (Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe), the Army was in overall command. Peenemünded was to be divided in two – The Army Research Centre (Peenemünde Ost) consisted of Werk Ost and Werk Süd, while Werk West (Peenemünde West) was the Luftwaffe Airfield and Test Site for the V–1 Flying Bomb.

The HVP organisation under the direction of von Braun was made–up of nine departments; Technical Design Office, Aeroballistics and Mathematics Laboratory, Wind Tunnel, Materials Laboratory, Flight, Guidance, and Telemetering Devices, Development and Fabrication Laboratory, Test Laboratory, Future Projects Office and the Purchasing Office.

By 1938 the facility was virtually complete. Several missiles were developed by the HVP, including the A–4 Vergeltungs- waffen–2 (V–2), Wassefall, Schmetterling, Rheintochter, Taifuin and Enzain missiles. They also developed the first close circuit television in the world in order to track the test launching of the V–2.

In 1939 work began on the development of the V–2 production plant at Süd Werk, including the Fertigungshalle 1 (F–1, Mass Production Plant No.1), which was completed in 1943. On completion, it not only became Germany’s largest single spanned building, but also housed a concentration camp for the workers.

The 3rd of October 1942 saw the first successful launch of the V–2 at the principal testing facility known as Test Stand VII, (Prufstand VII, P–7). The new weapon accelerated to almost Mach 5, reaching a peak height of 84.5km and covered the 190km flight in 296 seconds, becoming the world’s first ballistic missile and first man–made object to achieve sub–orbital spaceflight.

In May 1942 photographs of Peenemünde had been taken by a Spitfire whilst on a reconnaissance flight to Kiel, but they were disregarded until more photographs were taken by a de Havilland Mosquito in April 1943 during a reconnaissance flight to Stettin. Firm evidence for the existence of rockets were identified by Reginald Victor Jones from photographs taken by a Spitfire during a sortie in June as “a whiteish cylinder about 35 feet long and 5 or so feet in diameter with a blueish nose and fins at the other end”.

Following the discovery of the V2, Winston Churchill said; “Peenemünde is… beyond the range of our radio navigation beams and… we must bomb by moonlight, although the German night fighters will be close at hand and it is too far to send our own. Nevertheless, we must attack it on the heaviest possible scale”. To that end, Operation Hydra (Operation Order No.176) was conceived by the RAF. It was not only to destroy the Peenemünde facility, but it was also to specifically target the scientists too, in the first precision bombing raid of the war.

The raid took place on the night of the 17/18th of August 1943 and consisted of three waves; the first concentrated on the sleeping and living quarters, the second on the factory workshops and the third wave the experimental station.

To divert German night fighters from Operation Hydra, a group of Mosquitoes at the same time conducted Operation Whitebait – the dropping of typical pathfinder markings over Berlin, which was expected to draw the Luftwaffe’s night fighters to the defence of the German capital and away from Operation Hydra. It was a success until the Luftwaffe realised that Operation Whitebait was a deception, by which time it was too late for Peenemünde.

While the majority of the 596 bombers reached the target, RAF losses on the raid amounted to 40 aircraft with 245 men killed or taken prisoner.

The British Official History states that the attack “may have caused two months delay”. Although the raid was not effective, one of the scientists, Walter Thiel was killed together with his family. They are buried with the 815 workers (most of them foreign prisoners of war), whose camp at Trassenheide was mistakenly hit during the raid.

However, Operation Hydra did cause the production of the V–2 to be transferred from Peenemünde to the Middelwerk in the Kohnstein Mountain near Nordhausen. In October 1943, the Army and SS gave their approval for the withdrawal of the guided missile development programme from Peenemünde, which was bombed three more times a year later by the US 8th Air Force to counter suspected hydrogen peroxide production.

Despite this, the last V–2 was launched from Peenemünde in February 1945. Three months later in May, Peenemünde and the island of Usedom were finally captured by the Russians, who were ordered to destroy the facility.