The Aggregat- 4/V2
In the early 1930s, the German military began seeking out new weapons which would not violate the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Assigned to aid in this cause, Captain Walter Dornberger, was ordered to investigate the idea of rockets. Contacting the German Rocket Society, he soon came in contact with a young engineer named Wernher von Braun. Impressed with the his work, Dornberger recruited von Braun in August 1932 to help develop liquid-fueled rockets for the military.
In 1935 Von Braun's team moved to larger facility at Peenemunde on Baltic coast and launched the first A3 three years later. Intended to be smaller prototype of the A4 war rocket, the A3's engine lacked endurance and problems quickly emerged regarding its control systems and aerodynamics. Accepting that the A3 was a failure, the A4 was postponed.
The first major issue was constructing an engine powerful enough to lift the A4. This became a seven-year development process that led to the invention of new fuel nozzles, a prechamber system for mixing oxidizer and propellant, a shorter combustion chamber, and a shorter exhaust nozzle. Next designers were forced to create a guidance system for the rocket that would allow it to reach the proper velocity before shutting off the engines. The result of this research was the creation of an early guidance system which would allow the A4 to hit a city-size target at a range of 200 miles.
As the A4 would be traveling at supersonic speeds, the team was forced to do repeated tests of possible shapes for the A4. While supersonic wind tunnels were built at Peenemunde, they were not completed in time and many of the aerodynamic tests were conducted on a trial and error basis with conclusions based on informed guesswork. A final issue that was overcome was developing a radio system which could relay information about the rocket to it's controllers on the ground. Attacking the problem, the scientists at Peenemunde created one of the first systems to transmit data.
In 1935 Von Braun's team moved to larger facility at Peenemunde on Baltic coast and launched the first A3 three years later. Intended to be smaller prototype of the A4 war rocket, the A3's engine lacked endurance and problems quickly emerged regarding its control systems and aerodynamics. Accepting that the A3 was a failure, the A4 was postponed.
The first major issue was constructing an engine powerful enough to lift the A4. This became a seven-year development process that led to the invention of new fuel nozzles, a prechamber system for mixing oxidizer and propellant, a shorter combustion chamber, and a shorter exhaust nozzle. Next designers were forced to create a guidance system for the rocket that would allow it to reach the proper velocity before shutting off the engines. The result of this research was the creation of an early guidance system which would allow the A4 to hit a city-size target at a range of 200 miles.
As the A4 would be traveling at supersonic speeds, the team was forced to do repeated tests of possible shapes for the A4. While supersonic wind tunnels were built at Peenemunde, they were not completed in time and many of the aerodynamic tests were conducted on a trial and error basis with conclusions based on informed guesswork. A final issue that was overcome was developing a radio system which could relay information about the rocket to it's controllers on the ground. Attacking the problem, the scientists at Peenemunde created one of the first systems to transmit data.
Production:
Early in World War II, Hitler was not particularly enthusiastic about the rocket program, believing that the weapon was simply a more expensive artillery shell with a longer range. As the conflict progressed, Hitler warmed to the program and on December 22, 1942, authorized the A4 to be produced as a weapon. Though production was approved, lots of changes were made to the final design before the first production missiles were completed in early 1944. Initially, production of the A4, now re-designated the V-2, was slated for Peenemunde, Friedrichshafen, and Wiener Neustadt. This was changed in late 1943, after Allied bombing raids against Peenemunde and other V-2 sites led the Germans to believe their production plans had been compromised. As a result, production shifted to underground facilities at Nordhausen and Ebensee. The only plant to be fully operational by war's end was Nordhausen factory. The site utilized slave labor from the nearby concentration camps. It is believed that around 20,000 prisoners died while working at the Nordhausen plant. During the war, over 5,700 V-2s were built at various facilities. |
Operational History of the V-2:
Originally, plans called for the V-2 to be launched from massive blockhouses near the English Channel. This approach was soon scrapped in favor of mobile launchers. Traveling in convoys of thirty trucks, the V-2 team would arrive, and the warhead installed before towing it to the launch sites. There, the missile was placed on the launch platform, armed, fueled, and the gyros set. This set up took approximately 90 minutes and the launch team could clear an area in 30 minutes after launch. This mobile system proved highly successful and up to 100 missiles a day could be launched by German V-2 forces. Also, due to their ability to stay on the move, V-2 convoys were rarely hit by Allied aircraft. The first V-2 attacks were launched against Paris and London on September 8, 1944. Over the next eight months, a total of 3,172 V-2 were launched at Allied cities including London, Paris, Antwerp, Lille, Norwich, and Liege. Due to the missile's ballistic trajectory and extreme speed, there was no effective method for intercepting them. V-2 attacks against English and French targets only decreased when Allied troops were able to push back Germans forces and place these cities out of range. The last V-2-related casualties in Britain occurred on March 27, 1945. Accurately placed V-2s could cause extensive damage and over 2,500 were killed and nearly 6,000 wounded by the missile. |
After the war
Highly interested in the weapon, both American and Soviet forces scrambled to capture existing V-2 rockets and parts at the end of the war. In the conflict's final days, von Braun surrendered to American troops and assisted in further testing the missile before coming to the United States. As the world's first successful large, liquid-fueled rocket, the V-2 broke new ground and was the basis for the rockets later used in the American and Soviet space and ICBM programs. Has this weapon been not been invented, or had von Braun died in the conflict before the weapons completion, the cold war may have never taken place, or at least later in time. The V2 lead the way, and one could say the only major difference with today's missiles and the V2 is the rocket size, and nuclear capabilities. It could have gone the other way though, and had these rockets been introduced even a year or two earlier, we could be living in a very different world.