How to Assemble and Launch a V2 Rocket

Scary film showing captured V2 Rockets being tested just after the War had ended:

Operation Backfire - A4 V2 German Rocket Documentary von Braun - YouTube

Amazing stuff. Even more so being 70 odd years ago

Amazing Indeed. A precursor to the Redstone program and provide an economic boom to Huntsville.

Great! I enjoyed both this and the raising steam video. You brits made some good videos there! Thanks for posting.

At GM I worked with a toolmaker named Eric that was born and raised in Germany and served his toolmaker apprenticeship at Siemens. and then came to the states when he was in his early 20's. When I first met him I ask him where he was from in Germany and he told me that it was a small town in the north that I would have never heard of. I said try me I know quite a bit about germany being of German ancestry. He said fine it's a small town called Peenemunde. I then ask if he ever saw a V2 go up. He couldn't believe anybody in the US would know about V2's. So we talked about V2's for a while and he told me he was about 12 at the end of the war and he saw quite a few go up. He went on to say that most of them went up about 50 feet and exploded. We were good friends from that point until he retired.

Interesting V2 excursion:

Tales from the Morgue: V-2 Rocket, Off Course, Falls Near Juarez

"We aim for the stars." But sometimes we hit London....

jim rozen said:

"We aim for the stars." But sometimes we hit London....

Click to expand...

Jim -

Good one. I especially like the 'blame the German gyro' part of the article. Spin alive and well, 1947 style.

Dale

Most interesting video. In the comments, there were many praising the Germans for inventing rockets.

See comment below from: Robert H. Goddard - Wikipedia

Although Goddard had brought his work in rocketry to the attention of the United States Army, between World Wars, he was rebuffed, since the Army largely failed to grasp the military application of large rockets and said there was no money for new experimental weapons.[14]:297 German military intelligence, by contrast, had paid attention to Goddard's work. The Goddards noticed that some mail had been opened, and some mailed reports had gone missing. An accredited military attaché to the US, Friedrich von Boetticher, sent a four-page report to the Abwehr in 1936, and the spy Gustav Guellich sent a mixture of facts and made-up information, claiming to have visited Roswell and witnessed a launch. The Abwehr was very interested and responded with more questions about Goddard's work.[68]:77[17]:227–8 Guellich's reports did include information about fuel mixtures and the important concept of fuel-curtain cooling,[69]:39–41 but thereafter the Germans received very little information about Goddard.

The Soviet Union had a spy in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. In 1935, she gave them a report Goddard had written for the Navy in 1933. It contained results of tests and flights and suggestions for military uses of his rockets. The Soviets considered this to be very valuable information. It provided few design details, but gave them the direction and knowledge about Goddard's progress.[70]:386–

Paul

Was down my Nans sunday. Shes talked to me before about bombing in the war so I mentioned the V2, she dug out an old leaflet produced by a local shop keeper. I think she was around 15 at the time, 1941 so a bit early for the V2 I think? Not long moved from one of the streets that got hit, lost a good few school mates in that one.
Managed to clip pg 14 but got the lions share.

Digging for more about the making of the above film, I found this:

Operation Backfire (World War II) - Wikipedia

Much more on the V weapons and use by the US and others after the war:

How to Assemble and Launch a V2 Rocket, film wikipedia - Google Search

Paul