V-2 rocket

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The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) ("Reprisal weapon 2" Propaganda name given by Joseph Goebbels) , also known, in the Development Process as the A4 (Aggregat 1-4), was the first ballistic missile.[1][2] It was used by the German Army primarily against Belgian and British targets during the later stages of World War II. The V-2 was the first man-made object launched into space, during test flights that reached an altitude of 189 km (117 miles) in 1944.[3] It was the progenitor of the space race, which ultimately put men on the moon, and resulted in probes that have now left our solar system (see Voyager program).

Peenemünde Museum replica of the first successful V-2 rocket. Like the original, this rocket has the Frau im Mond  logotype at its base.
Peenemünde Museum replica of the first successful V-2 rocket. Like the original, this rocket has the Frau im Mond  logotype at its base.

Contents

[edit] Pre-operational history

As early as 1926 members of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) (Spaceflight Society) had started experimenting with liquid-fueled rockets. Rockets using a solid propellant had been used as weapons by all sides in WWI, and as a result, the Treaty of Versailles forbade solid fuel rocket research in Germany. By 1932 the Reichswehr started taking notice of their developments for potential long-range artillery use, and a team led by General Walter Dornberger was shown a test vehicle designed and flown by Wernher von Braun. Although the rocket was of limited ability, Dornberger saw von Braun's genius and pushed for him to join the military.

Von Braun did so, as eventually did most of the other members of the society. In December 1934 von Braun scored another success with the flight of the A2 (A for Aggregat) rocket, a small model powered by ethanol and liquid oxygen, with work on the design continuing in an attempt to improve reliability. Many different liquid fuels had been developed, but the German military specifically encouraged the use of ethanol as a rocket fuel because Germany had always been hampered by a shortage of crude-oil-based fuels. Throughout WWII a wide variety of military rockets were fuelled by ethanol that was primarily derived from potatoes.

By 1936 the team had moved on from the A2 and started work on both the A3 and A4. The latter was a full-sized design with a range of about 175 km (110 miles), a top altitude of 80 km and a payload of about a tonne. This increase in capability had come through a complete redesign of the engine by Walter Thiel. It was clear that von Braun's designs were turning into real weapons, and Dornberger moved the team from the artillery testing grounds at Kummersdorf (near Berlin) to a small town, Peenemünde, on the island of Usedom on Germany's Baltic coast, in order to provide more room for testing and greater secrecy.

The A3 proved to be problematic, and a redesign was started as the A5. This version was completely reliable, and by 1941 the team had fired about 70 A5 rockets. The first A4 flew in March 1942, flying about 1.6 km and crashing into the water. The second launch reached an altitude of 11 km before exploding. The third rocket, launched on October 3, 1942, followed its trajectory perfectly. It landed 193 km away, and reached a height of 80 km (50 mi) becoming the first rocket to reach outer space.

At first "It was recognised by Hitler that the rocket was neither sufficiently accurate, destructive or plentiful. The Fuhrer had horrified Dornberger in 1939 with his polite and unimpressed observation of the shattering power of the rocket motor. He was too astute, perhaps too conscious of his dignity, to be impressed by mere noise. Perhaps what impressed him was the foolish enthusiasm of others. In October 1942, before the catastrophe at Stalingrad, he recognised both the failings of the rocket, and the burning enthusiasm of its promoters. By July 1943 the positions of 1939 were reversed; now Hitler needed to show that the war was still winnable, needed to keep his soldiers and people's belief in the victory, which had so slowly and narrowly slipped from his grasp. The film of the launch was decisive - but it might he guessed that the master of manipulation was really observing, not the film, but the ardent credulity in the faces of the others during the showing. What he discerned there was what had been missing in 1918 - a definite hope on the horizon, which would so enthuse and reinvigorate his knights and his pawns that they would willingly play their grandmaster's game to the bitter end." [4]


Production started in 1943 on the Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Vengeance Weapon 2) or V-2, at the insistence of Goebbels' propaganda ministry. The Allies were already aware of the weapon - at a test site at Blizna in Poland a fired missile had been recovered by Polish resistance agents from the banks of the Western Bug, and vital technical details had been given to British intelligence.

The British launched a massive bombing campaign by the RAF against Peenemünde, which slowed testing and production considerably as well as killing many key workers, including Dr Walter Thiel, the engineer largely responsible for the design of the V-2 rocket engine. Thiel was killed during the bombing raid of 16-17 August 1943 designated Operation Hydra.

[edit] Technical details

Schematic diagram of a V-2 rocket.
Engine cut-out - 1
Engine cut-out - 1

The V-2 was an unmanned, internally guided ballistic missile. Many of its basic ideas were taken from the work of Dr Robert H. Goddard, noticeably concerning the fuel, engine and guidance.[citation needed]

At launch it propelled itself for a short time on its own power, and its navigation system directed it towards its target during this period. After engine shutdown it continued on what is basically a free-fall trajectory (hence the term ballistic). It had an operational range of about 300 km (200 statute miles) carrying a 1000 kg (2,200 lb) Amatol warhead, with an accuracy circular error probable (CEP) of 11 miles (17 km). This means at a 200 mile (300 km) range, it would have only a 50% chance of being within 11 miles (17 km) of the target. With that kind of accuracy, it could be aimed to hit a city, but not a factory. Modern missiles, the Minuteman for example, have a CEP of 100 meters at a range of 10 000 km (330 ft at 6,200 mi).

There was some experimentation with bigger fuel tanks for improved range before the war ended.

The V-2 was propelled by 3800 kg of alcohol (ethanol and water) fuel, and the oxidizer was 4900 kg of liquid oxygen. The fuel and oxidizer pumps were steam turbines, and the steam was produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide with potassium permanganate catalyst. The water-alcohol fuel was kept in a tank of aluminium to save weight, which put pressure on German war economy as this metal was rare and valuable. Ignition was by injecting two hypergolic substances into the combustion chamber, self-igniting upon mixing, basically creating the spark that lit the main thrust.

The combustion burner reached a temperature of 2500−2700 °C. The alcohol-water fuel was pumped along the double wall of the main combustion burner. This cooled the chamber and heated the fuel (regenerative cooling). The fuel was then pumped into the main burner chamber through 1,224 nozzles, which assured the correct mixture of alcohol and oxygen at all times. Small holes also permitted some alcohol to escape directly into the combustion chamber, forming a boundary layer that further protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the neck where the chamber was narrowest. This boundary layer ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse exhaust plume. (Later, post-V2 engine designs not employing the boundary layer show a translucent plume with shock diamonds.)

The V-2 was guided by a gyroscopic inertial navigation system controlling four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal rudders made of graphite at the exit of the motor. The LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizon and a verticant) for lateral stabilization, and a gyroscopic accelerometer connected to an electrolytic integrator (engine cut-off occurred when a thin coating of silver was electrochemically eroded off of a poorly conducting base). Some later V-2s used "guide beams" (radio signals transmitted from the ground) to navigate towards the target, but the first models used a simple analog computer that adjusted the azimuth for the rocket, and the flying distance was controlled by the moment of engine cut-off, "Brennschluss", ground controlled by a Doppler system or by different types of on-board integrating accelerometers. The rocket stopped accelerating and soon reached the top of the (approximately parabolic) flight curve.

The painting of the operational V-2s was mostly a camouflage ragged pattern with several variations, but at the end of the war a plain olive green rocket also appeared. During tests, the rocket was painted in a characteristic black-and-white chessboard pattern, which aided in determining if the rocket was spinning around its longitudinal axis.

Over 6,000 V-2's were built, of which approximately 3,500 were launched against allied targets. At the end of the war literally hundreds fell into the hands of the allies as war booty.


Gyroscope from a V-2 rocket.
Gyroscope from a V-2 rocket.

[edit] Launch sites

Dornberger had always wanted a mobile launch platform for the missiles, but Hitler pressed for the construction of massive underground blockhouses from which to launch them. According to his plans, V-2s should have arrived from a number of factories in a continuous stream on several redundant rail lines, and launching should have been almost continual.

Construction of the first such site started at Éperlecques, near St Omer in the Pas-de-Calais area of France, in 1943. The British spotted it almost immediately and started a massive bombing campaign that eventually forced the Germans to abandon it, although the large 5000 kg "Tallboy" bombs had little impact.

Another site was then started nearby in a huge quarry and called La Coupole, but it was not long before that too was destroyed by bombing. Eventually they gave up on the area and moved to the south near Cherbourg, but once again the site was discovered and bombed, while the concrete was still wet.

A V-2 rocket on its Meillerwagen transporter
A V-2 rocket on its Meillerwagen transporter

The plan was changed to build large truck-towed trailers for the missiles. An entire convoy for the missile, men, equipment and fuel required about 30 trucks. The missile was delivered to a staging area on a Vidalwagen (made by Vidal) and the local crews installed the warhead. Launch teams then transferred the missile to a Meillerwagen (made by Meiller) and towed it to the launch site. There it was erected onto the launch table, fuelled, armed, gyros were set and the rocket was fired. From arrival at a site to firing took about 90 minutes. The crew could leave the firing site within 30 minutes.

This was very successful, and an average of ten V-2s were launched per day, by far the most large rockets of a single type. After the war, estimates showed that up to 100 V-2s could be launched per day with these trailers, given sufficient supply of the rockets.[5]

The missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running through forests being a particular favorite. The system was so mobile and small that not one Meillerwagen was caught in action by Allied aircraft.

[edit] Peenemünde test launches

Test launches at Peenemünde began in March 1942. Experimental launches continued in spite of air raids on August 17, 1943 and in July/August 1944 until February 21, 1945. An A4/V-2 test rocket carrying prototype guidance systems for the Wasserfall missile project, effectively a V-2 rocket converted to an anti-aircraft role, was launched from Peenemünde on June 13, 1944 and crashed in Sweden. After being examined by Swedish engineers, the parts were sent to the UK.

A V-2 test rocket fired on 30 May 1944 crashed near the test facility at Sarnaki nad Bugiem and was recovered and secured by Polish resistance (Home Army). On the night of 25 July/26 July 1944 it was successfully transported to the UK from occupied Poland by a RAF plane (see Operation Most III).

[edit] Photo gallery: The V-2 and Polish Intelligence

see also Home Army and V1 and V2

Test range at Peenemünde

Failed test at Peenemünde, August 1943

V-2 rocket being recovered from the Bug river after the war

Parts of the V-2 rocket recovered from the Bug river after the war

[edit] V-2 production

V-2 mass production was conducted at the Mittelwerk tunnel system under the Kohnstein mountain, part of the Mittelbau-Dora slave labour camp complex, near Nordhausen, Germany. By late 1943 over 10,500 forced laborers were in Kohnstein and many died due to the conditions (cold and humidity, especially) and heavy labour. 2,900 died between October 1943 and March 1944, and others died during transfers and other work. Fatalities averaged over 100 per day during certain periods. The majority of the slaves were Russian, Polish and French, and Germans forced into compulsory work. During the 18 months of production approximately 20,000 prisoners from the Mittelbau-Dora camp died.

[edit] Operational history

Mittelwerk V-2 production chain.
Mittelwerk V-2 production chain.
The engine of a V-2 rocket.
The engine of a V-2 rocket.

The first unit to reach operational status was Batterie 444. On September 2, 1944 they formed up to launch attacks on Paris, recently liberated, and eventually set up near Houffalize in Belgium. The next day the 485th moved to The Hague for operations against London. Several launch attempts over the next few days failed, but on 8 September both groups fired successfully.

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

Hundreds more were launched that blew up in mid-flight, and never made it into allied statistics. (Final development of the V-2 during the war was in fact to remedy this problem)

The final two exploded on (or near) their targets on 27 March 1945. The last British civilian killed was Mrs Ivy Millichamp, 34, in her home in Elm Grove, Orpington. An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London by V-2 attacks with another 6,523 injured [6]. This understates the potential of the V-2, since many rockets were mis-directed and exploded harmlessly. Accurately targeted missiles were often devastating, causing large numbers of deaths - about 160 in one explosion in a Woolworth's department store in New Cross, south-east London and 567 deaths in a cinema in Antwerp - and significant damage in the critically important Antwerp docks.

[edit] Silence

Because the V-2 traveled supersonically, it reached its target in silence. To a civilian population inured to the idea that they might soon be blown up if they heard an enemy bomber or V-1 flying bomb, this new mode of attack was disconcerting.

It also meant that when the attacks on London began in September 1944, the British government could keep them secret. Explosions could be attributed to other causes or to no particular cause. In this way the Germans were unable to be sure that their weapons were reaching England. 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".

[edit] Countermeasures

Like the V-1, the V-2 was immune to electronic countermeasures. Unlike the V-1, the V-2's speed and trajectory made it invulnerable to anti-aircraft guns and fighters, as it dropped from an altitude of 100–110 km (60–70 miles) at up to four times the speed of sound. A plan was proposed whereby the missile would be detected by radar, its terminal trajectory calculated, and the area along that trajectory saturated by large-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The plan was dropped after operations research indicated that the likely number of malfunctioning artillery shells falling to the ground would do more damage than the V-2 itself.[7]

The only defence against the V-2 campaign was to destroy the launch infrastructure—expensive in terms of bomber resources and casualties—or to cause the Germans to "aim" at the wrong place through disinformation. The British were able to convince the Germans to direct V-1s and V-2s aimed at London to less populated areas east of the city. This was done by sending false impact reports via the German espionage network in Britain, which was controlled by the British (the Double Cross System).

There is a record of one V-2, fortuitously observed at launch from a passing American B-24 Liberator, being shot down by .50 caliber machine-gun fire. [8]

Ultimately the most successful countermeasure was the Allied advance that forced the launchers back beyond range. The underground assembly plant in the Harz mountains near Nordhausen was never bombed.

On 3 March 1945 the allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment near The Hague by a large-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout quarter was destroyed, killing 500 Dutch civilians.

[edit] Assessment

Despite being one of the most advanced weapons in WWII, the V-2 was militarily ineffective. As it lacked a proximity fuze, so it could not be set for airburst; it buried itself in the target area before or just as the warhead detonated. This reduced its effectiveness. Furthermore its guidance systems were too primitive to hit specific targets, and its costs were approximately equivalent to four-engined bombers, which were more accurate (though only in a relative sense— see discussion in strategic bomber), had longer ranges, carried many more warheads, and were reusable. Moreover, it diverted resources from other, more effective programmes. Nevertheless, it had a considerable psychological effect as, unlike bombing planes or the V1 Flying Bomb, which made a characteristic buzzing sound, the V-2 travelled faster than the speed of sound, with no warning before impact and no possibility of defense.

The cost of the V-2 program was approximately US$2 billion in 1944 dollars (approximately US$21 billion in 2005 dollars); and 6048 were built, 3225 launched (US$620,000 each in 2005 dollars). In fact the program can be seen as the German "Manhattan Project", which has cost US$2 billion in 1944 dollars (approximately US$20 billion in 2004 dollars). To put the German effort to mass produce the V-2 in perspective, its cost was at the time estimated to be about 1,000,000 Reichsmark per rocket. This was about the same as four Tiger Tanks or eight Panzer Pzkfw IV tanks. For the 6000 V-2s built, Germany could have built up to 48,000 tanks. However, such comparisons of the opportunity cost of deploying the V2 versus other weapons systems need to consider the realities that Nazi Germany faced and the psychology of the senior Nazi leadership. For example, by late 1944 Nazi Germany did not have the fuel or qualified manpower to field an additional 48,000 tanks. The production of the fuel for one V-2 required 30 tons of potatoes. Sometimes as Germany lacked enough explosives to put in the V-2, concrete was used and sometimes the Germans put in V-2s photographic propaganda of German citizens who had died in allied bombing. With the war all but lost, regardless of the factory output of conventional weapons, the Nazis resorted to V-weapons as a tenuous last hope to influence the war militarily (hence Antwerp as V-2 target), as an extension of their desire to "punish" their foes and most importantly to give hope to their supporters with their miracle weapon[9]. In short, the V-weapons were important to the Nazis even though they were civilian terror weapons with dubious military value.

[edit] Unfulfilled plans

A submarine-towed launch platform was tested successfully, effectively making it the prototype for submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The project codename was Prüfstand XII (Test stand XII), sometimes called the rocket U-boat. If deployed, it would have allowed a U-boat to launch V-2 missiles against United States cities, though only with considerable effort (and likely limited effect)[5].

Twelve dismantled V-2 rockets were shipped to the Japanese. These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on transport U-boats U-219 and U-195 reaching Djakarta in December 1944. A civilian V-2 expert was a VIP passenger on the U-234 bound for Japan in May 1945 when the war ended in Europe. The fate of these V-2 rockets is unknown.

Near the end of the war, German scientists were working on chemical and possibly biological weapons to use in the V-2 program. By this stage, the Germans had produced munitions containing nerve agents sarin, soman and tabun.

[edit] Post-war V-2 usage

At the end of the war, a race between the United States and the USSR to retrieve as many V-2 rockets and staff as possible began.[10] Three hundred trainloads of V-2s and parts were captured and shipped to the United States, and 126 of the principal designers, including both Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger were in American hands. In fact, Von Braun and his team made the conscious decision to surrender to the United States military to ensure they were not captured by the advancing Russians.

In the midst of this, in Operation Backfire in October 1945 the British assembled a small number of V-2 missiles and launched three of them from a site in northern Germany. The engineers involved had already agreed to move to the US when the test firings were complete. The Backfire report remains the most extensive technical documentation of the rocket, including all support procedures, tailored vehicles and fuel composition. In his book My Father's Son, Canadian author Farley Mowat, then a member of the Canadian Army, claims to have obtained a V-2 rocket in 1945 and shipped it back to Canada, where it is alleged to have ended up in the National Exhibition grounds in Toronto.

US test launch of a Bumper V-2.
US test launch of a Bumper V-2.

Under Operation Paperclip the German engineers' stay in the U.S. was legitimised. For several years afterward, the U.S. rocketry program made use of the supply of unused V-2 rockets left from the war, launching over 60 of them. A U.S. V-2 flight in 1946 saw the first animals in space, when fruit flies were launched to study radiation effects. Some V-2s were equipped with a WAC-rocket as a second stage. These rockets were called Bumper. On 24 February 1949 such a rocket reached a then-record altitude of 400 km (250 miles) and a velocity of 8290 km/h (5150 mph) at its launch from White Sands Proving Grounds. The Bumper was also the first rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. Many of these rockets were used for peaceful purposes, including upper-atmosphere research.

Von Braun went to work for the US Army's Redstone Arsenal, eventually settling in Huntsville, Alabama in 1950. He quickly became the father of almost all US rocketry, working on the Redstone, Jupiter, Jupiter-C, Pershing, and Saturn rockets.

The USSR also captured a number of V-2s and staff, letting them set up in Germany for a time. The first work contracts were signed in the summer of 1945. In 1946 they were obliged to move to Kapustin Yar in the USSR, where Groettrup headed up a group of just under 250 engineers. The first Soviet missile was the R-1, an exact copy of the V-2. Starting with the R-1 and soon followed by its evolved R-2 version, the Soviets developed a number of new missile designs that led to the Scud missile.

The designs produced by the German team in Moscow were not put directly into production; local designers incorporated the better features into their own designs. In this way the Soviet Union built up its own rocket design experience. The German team was repatriated in the early 1950s after the local design teams had captured all their knowledge.

Post-war V-2s launched in secret from Peenemünde may have been responsible for a curious phenomenon known as Ghost rockets. In the summer of 1946 there were 225 confirmed sightings (many on radar, and hundreds more unconfirmed) of unexplained objects crossing the skies over Sweden and Finland. The objects behaved in a manner similar to guided missiles with dummy payloads, and an American intelligence memo from the time stated that a series of Soviet test launches was the likeliest explanation.

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] Model rockets

Model rocket V-2s are available in many sizes. For Germans, the 33-cm and 47-cm NORIS models are the best flying versions, because they can be launched without special permission with model rocket engines available in Germany.

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

[edit] Surviving V-2 examples and components

The overview below includes some of the at least 20 V-2s still existing in 2005. Most, but not all, of the listed examples are on public display.

[edit] United Kingdom

  • One at the Science Museum, London.
  • One at the RAF Museum, London.
  • One (painted bright green, and cut through to display the engine and some other interior parts) at the Imperial War Museum, London (on loan from Cranfield University).
  • One at the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford. In addition to the rocket, the museum holds many items of V-2 ancillary equipment, including a Meilerwagen transport and erection trailer, a Vidalwagen road transport trailer, a 15-ton Strabo gantry crane and a Abschussplattform (firing table) together with its towing dolly.

[edit] Australia

  • One at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, including complete Meillerwagen transporter. The rocket has the most complete set of guidance components of all surviving A4s. The 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 now reside in Canberra.

[edit] United States

[edit] Germany

  • One (1944, complete) at the Deutsches Museum in Munich (in the centre of the Museum's spiral staircase).
  • One engine (1944, cut through to reveal technical details) (also at the Deutsches Museum).
  • One engine at the Museum of Technology in Berlin.
  • The chessboard-painted V-2 outdoor exhibit at the Peenemünde Museum is not a genuine rocket, but a replica. However, it is a very exacting piece of construction that incorporates many original components along with remanufactured ones. It was put together by a group that included Peenemünde expert Reinhold Kruger, who worked as an apprentice at Peenemünde during the war.

[edit] France

  • One engine at Cité de l'espace in Toulouse.
  • V-2 display at 'La Coupole' museum, Wizernes, France (Pas de Calais, five kilometers from Saint-Omer). This V-2 is located under the giant dome bunker of Wizernes. The La Coupole museum is inside the bunker where V-2s were planned to be serviced and fired at London. Allied air attacks and late deployment of the rocket meant that the amazing bunker was not used as a firing site for the V-2.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ V-2: A Combat History Of The First Ballistic Missile, T.D. Dungan, 2005
  2. ^ hrw.com, V-2: WORLD'S FIRST BALLISTIC MISSILE, accessed January 16, 2007
  3. ^ Peenemuende, Walter Dornberger, Moewig, Berlin 1985. ISBN 3-8118-4341-9.
  4. ^ Hitler's terror weapons by Roy Irons: The price of vengeance page 181
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ [2]
  7. ^ [3]
  8. ^ [4]
  9. ^ Hitler's terror weapons by Roy Irons: The price of vengeance
  10. ^ "We Want with the West", Time Magazine, Dec. 9, 1946.
  • Dornberger, Walter (1954). V-2. New York: Ballantine Books.
  • Dungan, Tracy D. (2005). V-2: A Combat History of the First Ballistic Missile. Westholme Publishing. ISBN 1-59416-012-0.
  • Huzel, Dieter K. (ca. 1965). Peenemunde to Canaveral. Prentice Hall Inc.
  • King, Benjamin and Timothy J. Kutta (1998). Impact: The History of Germany's V-Weapons in World War II . (Alternately: Impact: An Operational History of Germany's V Weapons in World War II.) Rockville Center, New York: Sarpedon Publishers, 1998. ISBN 1-885119-51-8, ISBN 1-86227-024-4. Da Capo Press; Reprint edition, 2003: ISBN 0-306-81292-4.
  • Piszkiewicz, Dennis (1995). The Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-95217-7.

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