"It
was an unforgettable sight. In the full glare of
the sunlight the rocket rose higher and higher.
The flame from the stern was almost as long as
the rocket itself."
"We have invaded space with our rocket and for
the first time. We have used space as a bridge
between two points on the earth; we have proved
rocket propulsion practicable for space travel.
This third day of October, 1942, is the first of
a new era, one of new transportation—that of
space travel."
—General Walter Dornberger
|
 German General Walter
Dornberger and German rocket scientist Wernher
von Braun were two men with a vision. The drive,
energy and resourcefulness of Dornberger, mated
with the ingenuity and passion of von Braun,
created one of the greatest technological
achievements of the last 100 years. The fact
that this achievement was the product of the
ruthless regime of Nazi Germany—and the fact
that many thousands of people died as a result
of its production and deployment—skews the image
of what otherwise would be considered a
monumental technological triumph.
This is the A-4/V-2
Resource Site. It is devoted to one of the most
awesome weapons of WWII, the V-2 rocket. The V-2
or "Aggregat 4" was the first long-range
ballistic missile to actively be used in combat.
This huge German missile hurtled a one-ton
warhead 50 miles high and hundreds of miles down
range to its target. This site will try to give
you an accurate account of the design,
production and combat deployment of this weapon
during World War 2. The legacy of the German V-2
ballistic missile represents the best and worst
of humankind’s endeavors in the twentieth
century. As fascinating as it was horrific,
historians and scholars have been debating the
real consequences of Germany’s rocket weapon
development program for the better part of 70
years. Even today we are living in the V-2 era.
In an
attempt to build a historical record, this
website will exclude any political agendas.
This website does not support ideology of
National Socialism. This website does
promote the education of many to the events
of the past and strives to balance the
rhetoric of the far right and far left on
this particular subject.
|
"Throughout
1940 and 1941 the components of the V-2 were
developed and captive tests were carried out,
with and without controls. In fact, we had the
whole V-2 mounted in gimbal rings on the test
stand and tested the controls with jet vanes."
"In June 1942 we made the first free-flight
test, which was a failure. The second was also a
failure in part—it reached supersonic speed and
then broke up. The third one on October 3, 1942,
finally was a full success and traveled over 120
miles."
—Wernher von Braun
|
