V-2

Main article: Vergeltungswaffe
German: Aggregat-4, Vergeltungswaffe-2
British: Bodyline, Big Ben
Fusée V2.jpg
Peenemünde Museum replica of V-2
Type single stage ballistic missile (area bombing)
Service history
In service September 8, 1944–September 19, 1952
Used by Flag of Germany 1933.svg Nazi Germany
Production history
Manufacturer Mittelwerk GmbH (development by Army Research Center Peenemünde)
Unit cost 100,000 RM January 1944, 50,000 RM March 1945[1]
Produced March 16, 1942
Specifications
Weight 12,508 kg (27,580 lb)[1]
Length 14 m (46 ft)[2] (14 m)
Diameter 1.65 m (5.4 ft)
Warhead 980 kg (2,200 lb) Amatol
Wingspan 3.56 m (11.7 ft)
Propellant 3,810 kg (8,400 lb) of 75% ethanol and 25% water + 4,910 kg (10,800 lb) of liquid oxygen
Operational
range		 320 km (200 mi)
Flight altitude 88 km (55 mi) maximum
Speed maximum: 1,600 m/s (5,200 ft/s); at impact 800 m/s (2,600 ft/s)
Guidance
system		 Gyroscopes for attitude control
Müller-type pendulous gyroscopic accelerometer for engine cutoff on most production rockets (10% of the Mittelwerk rockets used a guide beam for cutoff.)[2]:225
Launch
platform		 Mobile (Meillerwagen)

The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2) was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight,[3] the progenitor of all modern rockets including the Saturn V moon rocket.[4] Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets in World War II, resulting in the death of an estimated 7,250 military personnel and civilians.

An estimated 20,000 inmates at Mittelbau-Dora died constructing V-2s; 9000 died from exhaustion and collapse, 350 hanged (including 200 for sabotage), the remainder were shot or died from disease or starvation.[5][6]

Schematic diagram of a V-2 rocket.

Contents

Developmental history

Following successes at Kummersdorf with the first two Aggregate series rockets, Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel began thinking of a much larger rocket in the summer of 1936[7] based on a projected 25-metric-ton-thrust engine. After the A-4 project was postponed after unfavorable aerodynamic stability testing of the A-3 in July 1936,[8][9] von Braun specified the A-4 performance in 1937,[10] and A-4 design and construction was ordered c1938/1939.[11] During September 28-30 1939, Der Tag der Weisheit (English: the day of wisdom) conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems.[7]:40 By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the A-4. The three key technologies for the A-4 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, and guidance and control.[2] Then Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2; he pointed out that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost.[12]

In early September 1943, von Braun promised the Long-Range Bombardment Commission[2]:224 that the A-4 development was 'practically complete/concluded',[9]:135 but even by the middle of 1944, a complete A-4 parts list was still unavailable.[2]:224 Hitler was impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needing a "wonder weapon" to maintain German morale,[12] Hitler authorized its deployment in large numbers.[13]

Technical details

At launch the A-4 propelled itself for up to 65 seconds on its own power, and a program motor controlled the pitch to the specified angle at engine shutdown, from which the rocket continued on a free-fall (ballistic) trajectory. The fuel and oxidizer pumps were steam turbines, and the steam was produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide with potassium permanganate catalyst. Both the alcohol and oxygen tanks were an aluminium-magnesium alloy.[1]

The combustion burner reached a temperature of 2500−2700 °C (4500 - 4900 °F). 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 cooled boundary layer that further protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the throat where the chamber was narrowest. The boundary layer alcohol ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse exhaust plume. (Later, post-V2 engine designs not employing this alcohol boundary layer cooling show a translucent plume with shock diamonds.)

The V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal graphite vanes at the exit of the motor. The LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizon and a vertical) 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 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 timing of the 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. The rocket reached a height of 80 km (50 miles) before shutting off the engine.[14]

Testing

See also: List of V-2 test launches

The first successful test flight was the third on October 3 1942:

This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel...

– Speech at Peenemünde, Walter Dornberger, October 3, 1942[8]17

Engine cut-out - 1

Two test launches were recovered by the Allies: The Bäckebo Bomb on June 13, 1944 in Sweden and one recovered by Polish resistance on 30 May 1944 from Blizna and transported to the UK during Operation Most III.

Test launches of V-2 rockets (Aggregate-4) were made at Peenemünde, Blizna and Tuchola Forest, and after World War II, at Cuxhaven, White Sands Proving Grounds, Cape Canaveral, and Kapustin Yar.

Various problems were identified during V-2 development and testing:

  • To reduce tank pressure and weight, high flow turbopumps were used to boost pressure.[2]: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 homogenous combustion.[8]:51
  • Film cooling was used to prevent burn through at the nozzle throat.[8]:52
  • Relay contacts were made more durable to withstand vibration and prevent thrust cutoff just after lift-off.[8]:52
  • Ensuring that the fuel pipes had tension-free curves reduced the likelihood of explosions at 3000-6000 ft.[8]:215,217
  • Fins were shaped with clearance to prevent damage as the exhaust jet expanded with altitude.[8]:56,118
  • To counter arrow instability at supersonic speeds, heat-resistant graphite vanes were used as rudders in the exhaust jet.[8]:35,58
Airburst problem
Through mid-March 1944, only 4 of the 26 successful Blizna launches had satisfactorily reached the Sarnaki target area[15]:112,221-2,282 due to Luftzerleger (English: in-flight breakup) on entry into the atmosphere.[16]:100 Initially excessive alcohol tank pressure was suspected, and by April 1944 after 5 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 -- cMay/June, Walter Dornberger and Wernher von Braun set up a camp at the center of the Poland target zone (one impact was 300 feet from an armed missile.)[2]: After moving to the Heidekraut,[7]:172,173 SS Mortar Battery 500 of the 836th Artillery Battalion (Motorized) was ordered[15]:47 on August 30[17] to begin test launches of eighty 'sleeved' rockets.[9]:281 Testing confirmed the so-called 'tin trousers' -- a tube designed to strengthen the forward end of the rocket cladding -- reduced the likelihood of airbursts.[16]:100

Production

Main article: Mittelwerk

A production line was nearly ready at Peenemünde when the Operation Hydra attack caused the Germans to move production to the Mittelwerk in the Kohnstein where 5,200 V-2 rockets were built:[18]

June 23, 1943 RAF reconnaissance photo of V-2s at Test Stand VII
Period of Production Production
Up to 15 Sep 1944 1900
15 Sep to 29 Oct 1944 900
29 Oct to 24 Nov 1944 600
24 Nov to 15 Jan 1945 1100
15 Jan to 15 Feb 1945 700
Total 5200

Launch sites

A V2 launched from a fixed site in Summer 1943

Following Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground Le Blockhaus and La Coupole or from fixed pads such as near the Chateau du Molay[19] were dropped in favor 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 in August 1943 and completed by February 1944).[3] 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., although Raymond Baxter reported that he shot at a V2 from his Sptifire as it was launched.

An average of ten V-2s were launched per day and up to 1000 V-2s could be launched per month, given sufficient supply of the rockets.[20]

Operational history

After Hitler's August 29 declaration to begin Operation Penguin as soon as possible and German agent 'Artist' informed agent 'Tricycle' in September to leave London due to impending danger, the offensive began on September 8, 1944, when Lehr und Versuchs Batterie No. 444[17] (English: Training and Testing Battery 444) launched a single rocket guided by a radio beam directed at Paris[15] which caused modest damage near Porte d'Italie.[7]:218,220,467 The 485th at The Hague launched two against London the same day at 6:43 p.m.,[9]:285 -- the first landed at Chiswick and killed 63-year-old Mrs. Ada Harrison, 3-year-old Rosemary Clarke, and Sapper Bernard Browning on leave from the Royal Engineers.[10]:11 Upon hearing the double-crack of the supersonic rocket (London's first-ever), Duncan Sandys and Reginald Victor Jones looked up from different parts of the city and exclaimed 'That was a rocket!', and a short while after the double-crack, the sky was filled with the sound of a heavy body rushing through the air.[9]:286 Explosions could be attributed to other causes or to no particular cause. 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."

Aftermath of a V-2 rocket attack on the main intersection in Antwerp, Belgium, November 27, 1944

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

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 [21], which is just two people killed per V-2 rocket. However, this understates the potential of the V-2, since many rockets were misdirected and exploded harmlessly. Accuracy increased greatly over the course of the war, particularly on batteries where Leitstrahl-Guide Beam apparatus was installed, with V-2s sometimes landing within meters of the target.[22] 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.

Countermeasures

Main article: Operation Crossbow

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.[23]

The 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.[24]

Ultimately the most successful countermeasure was the Allied advance that forced the launchers back beyond range.

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.

Assessment

The V-2 program was the single most expensive development project of the Third Reich: 6048 were built, at a cost of approximately 100,000 Reichsmarks each; 3225 were launched.

"… 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." (Freeman Dyson)[25]

The production of the fuel3 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.

The V-2 lacked a proximity fuse, so it could not be set for air burst; 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), had longer ranges, carried many more warheads, and were reusable. Moreover, it diverted resources from other, more effective programs. 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 traveled faster than the speed of sound, with no warning before impact and no possibility of defense.

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.[12] The V-2's undeniable value, despite its overall ineffectiveness, was in its novelty as a weapon which set the stage for the next 50 years of ballistic military rocketry, culminating with ICBMs during the Cold War and modern space exploration.

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)[4].

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, however they had never used any of them.

Post-World War II usage

At the end of the war, a race began between the United States and the USSR to retrieve as many V-2 rockets and staff as possible.[26] 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. 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.

Operation Backfire (WWII) V-2 rocket on Meillerwagen (S.I. Negative #76-2755)
British and Canadian

In October 1945, British 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 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.

Post-war V-2s launched in secret from Peenemünde may have been responsible for a curious phenomenon known as Ghost rockets, unexplained objects crossing the skies over Sweden and Finland.

The Canadian Arrow, a competitor for the Ansari X Prize, was based on the V-2.

USSR

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 middle 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. Most of the German team was sent home after that project, but some remained to do research until as late as 1951. Unbeknownst to the Germans, work immediately began on larger missiles, the R-2 and R-5, based on extension of the V-2 technology.

United States

Operation Paperclip recruited German engineers and Special Mission V-2 transported the captured V-2 parts to the United States. At the close of World War II, over 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 in New Mexico.

A committee was formed with both military and civilian scientists to review payload proposals for the reassembled V-2 rockets. This led to an eclectic array of experiments that flew on the V-2s and paved the way 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.

Only 68 percent of the V-2 flights were considered successful. A V-2 launched on on May 29, 1947 landed near Juarez, Mexico and was actually a Hermes B-1 vehicle.[27]

The U.S. Navy attempted to launch a reassembled German V-2 rocket at sea-one test launch from the aircraft carrier USS Midway was performed on September 6, 1947 as part of the Navy's Operation Sandy. The test launch was a failure, as the V-2 involved in the launch splashed down in the ocean only some 10 km (6.2 mi) from the carrier. Film of V-2 launch from USS Midway The launch setup on the Midway's carrier deck is notable in that it used a set of four foldaway arms surrounding the V-2 missile's upper body, in much the same way as Sergei Korolyev's R-7 missile was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soviet Union only a decade later.

The PGM-11 Redstone rocket is a direct descendant of the V-2.

US test launch of a Bumper V-2.

In popular culture

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.

Surviving V-2 examples and components

At least 20 V-2s still existed in 2005.

Australia

Netherlands

Poland

France

A V-2 replica on display in Musée de l'Armée.

Germany

United Kingdom

United States

Notes and References

Note 1: The Peenemünde replica incorporates many original components along with remanufactured ones and was put together by a group that included Reinhold Kruger, who worked as an apprentice at Peenemünde during the war.

Note 2: The WSMR exhibit is Mittelwerk rocket #FZ04/20919 captured during Special Mission V-2 and is painted with a yellow and black paint scheme of the first successful V-2 launched at WSMR on May 10, 1946.

Note 3: The V-2 consumed a third of Nazi Germany's fuel alcohol production and major portions of other critical technologies:[28] 24,000 fighters could have been produced instead of the inaccurate V-weapons.[29]

Citations
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kennedy, Gregory P. (1983). Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Guided Missile. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. p27,74. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Neufeld, Michael J (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. pp. p73,74,101,281. 
  3. ↑ Peenemuende, Walter Dornberger, Moewig, Berlin 1985. ISBN 3-8118-4341-9.
  4. ↑ NOVA science program(s). Sputnik Declassified. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 2008.
  5. ↑ Hunt, Linda (1991). Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990. New York: St.Martin's Press. pp. 72-74. ISBN 0-3120-5510-2. 
  6. ↑ Béon, Yves (1997). Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age. translated from the French La planète Dora by Béon & Richard L. Fague. Westview Press, Div. of Harper Collins. pp. (SC) page tbd. ISBN 0-8133-3272-9. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R. The Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series 36. pp. p32. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Dornberger, Walter (1952 -- US translation V-2 Viking Press:New York, 1954). V2--Der Schuss ins Weltall. Esslingan: Bechtle Verlag. pp. 39. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Irving, David (1964). The Mare's Nest. London: William Kimber and Co. pp. p17. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Middlebrook, Martin (1982). The Peenemünde Raid: The Night of 17-18 August 1943. New York: Bobs-Merrill. pp. p19. 
  11. ↑ Braun, Wernher von (Estate of); Ordway III, Frederick I & Dooling, David Jr. (1985). Space Travel: A History. New York: Harper & Row. p. p45. ISBN 0-06-181898-4. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Irons, Roy, Hitler's terror weapons: The price of vengeance, pp. p181 
  13. ↑ Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 100–104. ISBN 0-19-509514-6. 
  14. ↑ The History Channel V2 Factory: Nordhausen 070723
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Klee, Ernst; Merk, Otto (1963, English translation 1965). The Birth of the Missile:The Secrets of Peenemünde. Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag. pp. p47. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Johnson (1981/1982). V-1, V-2: Hitler’s Vengeance on London. Stein and Day. pp. p100. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Pocock, Rowland F (1967). German Guided Missiles of the Second World War. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc.. pp. p51,52. 
  18. ↑ Richard Ruggles, R. and H. Brodie (1947) An Empirical Approach to Economic Intelligence in World War II, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 42(237):72-91, March 1947.
  19. ↑ Jones, R. V. (1978). Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945. London: Hamish Hamilton. pp. p433. ISBN 0 241 89746 7. 
  20. ↑ Walker, John (September 27, 1993). "A Rocket a Day Keeps the High Costs Away" (html). Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  21. ↑ Air Raid Precautions - Deaths and injuries
  22. ↑ "Mobile Firing Operations & Locations" (html). V2Rocket.com.
  23. ↑ MDA Link
  24. ↑ Discussion of V-2 defences
  25. ↑ Dyson, Freeman (1979). "Disturbing the Universe" (html) p108. Harper & Row.
  26. ↑ "We Want with the West", Time Magazine, Dec. 9, 1946.
  27. ↑ Beggs. "Beggs Aerospace Post-War V-2 Site HERMES" (html). Retrieved on 2008-12-01.
  28. ↑ Oberg, Jim; Sullivan, Dr. Brian R (original draft). "'Space Power Theory" p143. U.S. Air Force Space Command: Government Printing Office. Retrieved on 2008-11-28.
  29. ↑ Harris, Arthur T; Cox, Sebastion (1995). "Despatch on War Operations: 23rd February, 1942, to 8th May, 1945" (html). Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
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