V-2 Rocket

All modern rockets are descended from the V-2. Originally called the A-4 (A for Aggregate, a series of rockets under development), the rocket was renamed V-2, V for Vengeance. Over 6000 were made. More than 3000 were fired. It rained death and destruction, but killed more people in its construction than use as a weapon. It was Germany's most expensive weapon project and on initial consideration may have been considered a failure. The use of slave labor in its building raises more than a few moral questions. Its redemption, if you want to call it that, may have come in its post-war usage. In addition to its continuing influence in weaponry, being the basis of the Army's Redstone missile, it was also integrally involved in America's space program. Called a Bumper rocket, a V-2 topped by a WAC Corporal was used in series of upper atmospheric studies. The V-2 gave rise to the Redstone. A modified Redstone called Jupiter C launched America's first satellite into orbit. Another modified Redstone boosted our first astronaut, Alan Shepherd, in his suborbital Mercury mission.


Model used for wind tunnel testing of A-4/V-2





Germans found it more efficient to launch V-2s from hidden location from Meillerwagens or mobile launching units (shown above).

Here we see the testing of the V-2 and its production and testing sites at Peenemunde. When the site was hit by Allied bombers, production was transferred to Nordhausen.







The cost in terms of human lives and suffering was considerable. Here a couple pictures from the Staveley Road attack that destoyed a block of flats.




Construction workers also suffered. Many were from the Mittelbau-Dora slave labor camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory.



In the above picture, American soldiers direct the burial of slave laborers at Mittelbau-Dora in Nordhausen.

The "meteor" shown below and identified among the "ghost rockets" of Scandanavia between May and December 1946 may have been V-2s fired from the Peenemunde site by Russian scientists.



Operation Paperclip saw Nazi rocket scientists brought to the United States to aid in the development of America's missile and later space programs.



Upper atmospheric testing and development of a two-stage rocket were primary goals of the Bumper rocket program bringing together the WAC Corporal and V-2. Below photos show the WAC Corporal and Bumpers.





The Redstone, a direct descendent of the V-2 built under the direction of Werher Von Braun who developed the V-2 became a mainstay of America's arsenal and also the platform from which America's first satellite and manned suborbital spaceflight were launched.







Redstone as Jupiter C and booster for Mercury-Redstone suborbital missions





Some facts about the V-2 still amaze. It flew so fast that moved through the air silently. It could not be heard in advance. Flying in excess of 3500 mph at max and impacting around 1700, several times the speed of sound, its explosion could be heard well in advance of its sonic boom. It was not, however, as deadly a weapon as it could have been. Germans were not able to develop a proximity fuse for it. So it did not explode until near or at impact. It also carried an amatol payload of a 2200 pounds.