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The V2 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 2'), with the technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range [4] guided ballistic missile.The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings of German ...
The existential horror of the V-2 attack on London is the theme of Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow. [31] V-2s were launched against Antwerp and Liège in Belgium; the attack on Antwerp was to prevent use of the Port of Antwerp which was essential for Allied logistics. In the six months following liberation in September 1944, Belgian ...
Plans for aerial reconnaissance of V-2 sites were included [86] in the joint "Plan for Attack on the German Rocket Organization When Rocket Attacks Commence". [87] Based on rocket fuel intelligence the plan also identified primary and secondary liquid-oxygen plants as the third priority targets [citation needed] Mission 572 on August 24 had ...
The first recorded attack on land-based targets using sea-based rockets was carried out by the US submarine USS Barb (SS-220) on June 22, 1944, against the Japanese town Shari. The USS Barb fired 12 5-inch rockets Mk 10 Mod 0, [41] from 4,700 yd (4.3 km) offshore, using a rocket launcher Mk 51 Mod 0 installed on the deck of the submarine. [42] [43]
Crossbow was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched against Britain from 1944 to 1945 and used against continental European targets as well.
The crater was thirty feet across. Earlier that day at 8.39am, a V2 had hit Maisons-Alfort in France, where six people were killed; the V2 had been launched from Petites-Tailles, near Houffalize, in south-east Belgium by Lehr und Versuchsbatterie 444. [3] Eleven houses were completely destroyed, and another fifteen had to be extensively rebuilt.
[5] [8] [11] The main rocket testing, training, and launch site was transferred to Blizna in southeast Poland, outside of the range of Allied bombers. [5] [8] An SS military base near Blizna was set up on 5 November 1943, from which 139 A4 (also known as V-2) rockets were launched for experimental purposes and for training.
It took nearly a week to dig all the bodies out of the rubble. It was the single highest death total from a single rocket attack during the war. [4] Following the attack all public performance venues were closed and the town council ordered that a maximum of 50 people were allowed to congregate in any one location.