13 Facts About V-2

At the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2; he opined that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost.

V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal graphite vanes in the jet stream at the exit of the motor.

The V-2 was launched from a pre-surveyed location, so the distance and azimuth to the target were known.

The Operation Pinguin V-2 offensive began on 8 September 1944, when launched a single rocket guided by a radio beam directed at Paris.

Test launches of V-2 rockets were made at Peenemunde, Blizna and Tuchola Forest, and after the war, at Cuxhaven by the British, White Sands Proving Grounds and Cape Canaveral by the U S, and Kapustin Yar by the USSR.

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One of these was the last V-2 to kill a British civilian and the final civilian casualty of the war on British soil: Ivy Millichamp, aged 34, killed in her home in Kynaston Road, Orpington in Kent.

Early on, it was believed that the V-2 employed some form of radio guidance, a belief that persisted in spite of several rockets being examined without discovering anything like a radio receiver.

Only effective defences against the V-2 campaign were 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.

From our point of view, the V-2 program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral disarmament.

V-2 consumed a third of Germany's fuel alcohol production and major portions of other critical technologies: to distil the fuel alcohol for one V-2 launch required 30 tonnes of potatoes at a time when food was becoming scarce.

Psychological effect of the V-2 was considerable, as the V-2, traveling faster than the speed of sound, gave no warning before impact .

The V-2 had no effect on the outcome of the war, but it led to the ICBMs of the Cold War, which in turn were used for space exploration.

The V-2 rocket laid the foundation for the liquid fuel missiles and space launchers used later.