The story of V2

              World war 2 wouldn`t be that destructive without the invention of V2. History describes it as mile stone in the rocket technology yet the most deadliest weapon ever designed till the time. The most advanced space technology  was completely derived from the most basic rocket used in the world war 2 by Germany.

Brain behind V2:

               It was the situation where Germany was in complete crisis, almost at the edge of the defeat. But Hitler, the chancellor of Germany at that time, never accepted the defeat and called all the basic scientists and professors of Germany to help in the development of the already existing weapons but with increased capacity. In this situation Walter Dornberger,  who was in charge of rocket research program run by Ballistic Council of the Army weapons department. He was highly interested in ballistics and was ready with a new design of a rocket that has a capacity to hit a target at a range of above  1000 km, with more accuracy and with greater destructive capability. But other scientists believed that this proposal very far from reality  and also an ideal thing to design.

                                                            

                  Hitler and other officials took interest in dornberger`s  rocket, as they were completely concentrating In developing the conventional flying bombs, but Dornberger never gave up. He started his research on making his rocket into reality with few of his colleagues.  In the course , he came across a young scientist  named Warner Von Brown who has a different dimension towards  rocket propulsion. Dornberger appointed him as his assistant scientist to undergo the research. Kummerdorf is the place where they started their work initially in huts, later developed to heavy machinery and highly sophisticated infrastructure extended their workers from hundreds to thousands. And finally the time comes to show the capacity of his rocket to Hitler, as Hitler visited the site, he was very much impressed and given financial and army support to the production of the new rocket in bulk numbers.

        

                   The new production unit was set up in Peenemunde and the work too rapid acceleration. The prisoners caught in the war were forced to do heavy work in the factory without giving prior security to them from the dangerous gases released in the production. Thousands of prisoners were died during the period without proper food and environmental conditions.

 Poor Peenemunde:

               In the other side london got information about the process going on in Germany from secret agencies and the fisher man near the coast. They got scared about the lack of defense against those gigantic rockets. They decided  to attack on Peenemunde before Germany attacks on London and on a fine night Peenemunde was attacked by London air force. It was such a destructive mission , that Germany took about 8 months to recover from that loss , thousands of workers were died. Luckily the officials quarters and the main production unit was not damaged a lot .

A rapid recovery:

           Though it was such drastic blow to the V2 production , dornberger and Von brown never gave up. They changed the production place started to produce the rockets as fast as possible. Hitler was eagerly waiting to attack London with that deadly weapon and he named that missile as VENGENCE shortly V2. He ordered the other neighboring countries to send the prisoners to the work. And this time it was massive , they produced about 450 rcokets per month initially and later the count went to 2000 per month. Now Germany was completely ready to the big war,  the most exciting moment to Hitler and the scientists who worked to their lives on this mission. 

                                                           

Ignition… boost….hit :

   

                    Time comes for Germany to see the destruction of London. The First rocket took off and the destruction started. 10 to 30 people died for each hit some were as expensive as they took 100 and above lives for a hit. This turned London in a graveyard, people who were injured never find any hospitals empty as they were all already filled with the dead bodies.  Germany enjoyed the drama going on in London. 

related links :    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peenem%C3%BCnde_Army_Research_Center

                          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Dornberger

                          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2

books:              Hitler`s Rocket,the story of V2