Peenemünde: Encyclopedia II - Peenemünde - Rocket facility

Peenemünde - Rocket facility

During World War II, Peenemünde hosted the Heeresversuchsanstalt, an extensive rocket development and test site established in 1937. Prior to that date the team headed by Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger had worked in Kummersdorf, south of Berlin. However, Kummersdorf proved too small for testing. Peenemünde, located on the coast, permitted the launching of rockets and their subsequent monitoring across about 200 miles of open water.

Between 1937 and 1945 the Peenemünders developed many of the basics of rocket technology and two weapons, the V-1 and the V-2. Test-firing of the first V-1 occurred in early 1942 and the first V-2 (then called the A-4) first flew on October 3, 1942, from Prüfstand VII. The German Luftwaffe ran the V-1 cruise missile experiments in Peenemünde west, whereas the Heer (army) ran the ballistic missile development (V-2) project. Peenemunde also served as the development site for many cutting-edge night-navigation and radar systems, under the direction of Dr. Hans Plendl.

The Peenemünde establishment also developed other techniques, such as the first closed-circuit television system in the world, installed at Test Stand VII to track the launching rockets.

In the course of World War II some heavy air-raids targeted the site, including an attack by almost 500 RAF heavy bombers on the night of 16 - 17 August, 1943 ("Operation Hydra"). This raid killed, according to an official German report, 815 staff, mostly foreign workers, and Walter Thiel, the head of engine development. This raid prompted the moving of the production of the V rockets underground.

In spite of the raids, many technical installations in Peenemünde remained intact at the end of World War II, because most of the bombs landed on the surrounding woodlands, the housing areas and on the camps for foreign workers.

Much controversy exists over how the Allies found out about Peenemünde. The official British version states that air reconnaissance collected all the information. However, witnesses and documents state that Polish underground army (Armia Krajowa or AK) intelligence and some information from others (including a Danish pilot who photographed something looking like a V rocket nearby) unmasked Peenemünde. British intelligence for years denied that it received any information about Peenemünde from Poland. However copies of reports emerged after the war in Poland. R. V. Jones contradicted himself: first he denied that fact, and later in his book The Wizard War he wrote that many bombs fell on camps of foreign workers who gave the allies information; he failed to point out that these Polish workers had AK membership. Within the last few years Polish politicians and historians have demanded access to British archives (since Britain held archives of most if not all AK reports). So far the British authorities have answered that all AK reports were destroyed.

Apart from Peenemünde, other sites in Germany saw noteworthy rocket launches. Some took place between 1957 and 1964 at Cuxhaven and between 1988 and 1992 at Zingst.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rocket facility", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki