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Germany

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Peenemuende
Credit: © Mark Wade

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Hermann Oberth's Die Rakete zu den Planetenräume (The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space) was published at the very end of 1923. The book made it clear to young German engineers that manned flight into outer space was achievable. It was only necessary to develop the technology!

The first German rocket craze ran from 1928 to 1933. Impatient German enthusiasts such as Opel, Valier, and Tiling demonstrated everything from motorcycles to aircraft powered by existing black powder rockets. Quacks like Zucker capitalized on the craze by equipping large hulls with powder rockets and making outlandish performance claims. Powder rockets were used to send letters from town to town, and 'rocket post' became sought after by philatelists. But the performance of the black powder rocket was so poor that it was evident that they could never be used to reach space.

To those seriously interested in reaching other planets within their lifetimes, it seemed that development of the liquid rocket engine was necessary to build space ships. This would require collaborative effort. In June 1927 Johannes Winkler called to order in Breslau the first meeting of the world's first Society for Space Travel (Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt or VfR). The membership grew from three to 500 within the year. Willy Ley was instrumental in publicizing the Society and editing its newsletter.

The space craze caught the attention of the Ufa film studio. Famed director Fritz Lang began production of the first film to realistically portray spaceflight - Die Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon). Lang turned to Oberth for technical advice, and gave Oberth funding to build and fly a working liquid propellant rocket before the film's premiere. However Oberth was a theoretician, not a practical engineer, and vastly underestimated the task. He fled the capital in panic when he realized that his rocket could not be made to work in time for the film's premiere on 15 October 1929.

Oberth's assistant, Nebel, proposed to use the rocket engine developed for the film as the basis for a 'Mirak' - a Minimum Rocket - that would fly and demonstrate liquid rocket technology to the public. In September 1930 Nebel was able to obtain use of an abandoned German army munitions storage area in a northern suburb of Berlin for use as a Raketenflugplatz - the world's first rocketport. Riedel, the most talented engineer of the VfR 'Berlin Group', worked feverishly to perfect the Oberth engine. But it was Winkler, heading the 'Breslau Group', who flew the HW-1, the first liquid propelled rocket in Germany, in February 1931. Riedel's Mirak Repulsor flew three months later. In parallel with all of this a Hannover Group, headed by Puellenberg, began development of refined liquid propellant rockets.

But events were already conspiring against the rocket enthusiasts. The stock market crash of 1929 had dried up funding from wealthy benefactors. Valier and Tiling were killed in accidents in their laboratories. In 1930 a Colonel Dornberger of the German Army was directed to pursue research into the rocket as a weapon of war from a proving ground at Kummersdorf. An enthusiastic young engineer of the Berlin Group, Wernher Von Braun, was recruited by Dornberger, and in the economic depression many of the other VfR engineers went with him. Nebel, Winkler, and Tiling continued independent work until the end of the summer of 1933. But then the new Nazi government ordered out the Gestapo to shut down all private rocket development in Germany. Only Puellenberg continued development in secret, until finally giving up in 1938.

It took von Braun's German Army team nine years to develop the primitive Mirak through the A1, A2, A3, and A5 into the world's first long range ballistic missile, the A4 - V-2. After the war, groups of German engineers were recruited to transfer the technology to the winning allies. Von Braun and 107 engineers went to American; Groettrup and 307 others to Russia; Bringer and 29 others to France.

Back in occupied Germany, Nebel, Puellenberg, and Staats began renewed work on private rocketry. They formed a new rocket society, and got the Allied ban on German rocket tests lifted in 1952. A new rocketport was founded at Cuxhaven, on the North Sea coast. A new generation of private German rocket enthusiasts flew rockets (with those of Seliger reaching 120 km altitude) from Cuxhaven until 1964. Then Zucker, the old nemesis of the serious racketeers, managed to kill a boy in one his rocket tests. This led once again to the prohibition of further private serious rocket research in Germany again.

Between 1933 and 1942 Wernher von Braun built up what was called the 'Rocket Team' - German engineers, recruited from universities all over Germany, to participate in development of the V-2, the world's first ballistic missile. At the end of the war, those who had experience in this new technology were eagerly sought after by the winning Allied powers. The United States, the Soviet Union, and France moved over 400 of these 'Peenemuende Germans' and their families to new research facilities in the powers' respective countries. The work the Germans did at Huntsville, Vernon, and Gorodomlya led directly to the rockets that would take all three nations to outer space. Indirectly, the Germans also provided the underpinnings of rocketry development in Great Britain and China in the 1960's. In modern terms, this was the single greatest example of technology transfer in history.

This article provides a complete list and biographies of all known German engineers who worked in Allied countries after World War II. What follows should not be taken to mean that these Germans worked in each country alone, without the contributions of hundreds of talented and original engineers of other nationalities. In all cases, the V-2 technology, once assimilated, was improved on and developed further by other engineers and at other companies and government departments. But the Germans provided the groundwork. And in all cases their first post-war rocket designs proved superior and were adopted in preference to designs by 'national' design teams…

France

In October 1944 France formed GOPA, the Operational Group for Guided Missiles, with the objective of obtaining information on advanced German weapons. Under GOPA's auspices Henri Moreau was made the head of CEPA, the Centre for the Study of Guidance Missiles, with the specific objective of putting the V-2 into production in France. With American co-operation France obtained tonnes of technical materials, drawings, and four complete V-1 cruise missiles from Mittelwerk in June 1945. However the Americans, advised by the British, began to be wary of French intentions. The promise to provide ten complete V-2's was withdrawn on 27 February 1946. The V-2 launch bunker at Wizernes had been dynamited by British commandos on 9 May 1945 in order to keep the French from ever being able to put it to use. The French began to recruit German experts then working for the British at Project Backfire at Cuxhaven. By 15 May 1946, Herbert Weiss had convinced 35 German engineers at Cuxhaven to 'defect' to the French. Others soon followed, signing contracts to work in France. By October 1946 the French employed nearly 90 German experts, working in groups at Emmendingen and Puteaux in the French zone. By March 1947 a new purpose-built rocket development center was completed - LRBA (the Laboratory for Ballistic and Aerodynamic Research) at Vernon, France. All the German experts were moved there by May.

The German groups at LRBA worked from 1947-1952. Although the plans for a Super V-2 were shelved on economic grounds, the group successfully developed the Veronique research rocket (chosen for further development in preference to Jean-Jacques Barre's 'pure French' Eole rocket. Evolution of this design led later to the Diamant A satellite launcher and the Ariane European space launcher. Although many of the German team were laid off in 1952 and returned to Germany, others, notably Bringer, continued to work for LRBA and its successor organisations, developing the Viking 2 engine that would power the Ariane.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union overran Peenemuende on 5 May 1945. Work to obtain German industrial and military technology had already been ordered the previous year. Russian rocket engineers were able to locate and persuade hundreds of German engineers to work for the Soviet Union. Some had ideological grounds. Some were attracted by the ability to remain working in Germany (albeit in the Russian zone). Most desperately needed the employment in the collapsed post-war economy. Led by Hermann Groettrup, they were put to work at resurrected design offices, test centres, and factories in the Russian zone from 1945-1947. On Stalin's order they and their families were forcibly removed to the Soviet Union on the night of 22 October 1946. There is no complete documentation, but at least 234 rocket engineers and technicians went to the Soviet Union

The largest contingent, over 129, worked in Filial 1 of NII-88, creating rocket designs in competition with those of institute leader Korolev. They also provided advice to the Russian engineers ordered to copy the V-2 rocket. 23 others worked within Glushko's OKB-456, transferring V-2 propulsion technology and building a subscale prototype of the advanced engine that would later power Soviet ICBM's. Small groups of others were working in other design bureaux and offices of the Aircraft Ministry, transferring technology related to other specific missiles or rocket aircraft.

The Groettrup team was gradually moved away from daily direct contact with Korolev's designers and finally concentrated on Gorodomlya Island. Due to the Soviet obsession with secrecy, they were kept in the dark as to what the Russian missile plans and designs were after the first few years. They were finally left to complete competing designs to Korolev's in isolation, or asked questions on specific issues. Once the Russian engineers had mastered the technology, and the German's own expertise had become stale and outdated, they were allowed to go home in three groups between 1951 and 1953. Baum's team at OKB-456 stayed somewhat longer, the last member not going back to East Germany until 1957. On return the 'Russian Germans' were debriefed by American intelligence wherever possible, but they gave intentionally misleading information as ordered by the Russians.

Baum and Groettrup's engine and rocket designs led directly to the Soviet R-7 ICBM. This awesome rocket started the space race, and is still in use today as the Soyuz 11A511U space launcher. A fuller account of the German team's accomplishments in the Soviet Union is at Early Russian Ballistic Missiles.

United States

Von Braun led a group of 108 leading engineers who chose to surrender to the Americans. They moved the length of Germany to Oberammergau, and made contact with American forces on 2 May 1945. By 27 May they had directed the Americans to 14 tonnes of primary V-2 technical documentation they had hidden in the Harz Mountains as a bargaining chip. On 20 June Secretary of State Cordell Hull agreed they were to be brought to America and work for the US Army. By the end of the year the entire team was in Fort Bliss, Texas, preparing to fire 60 V-2's seized by the Americans on science and research flights. Post-war budget cuts meant ambitious plans to proceed with long-range missiles and orbital launchers were shelved. Some were disappointed - 29 of the team moved to private industry in the United States, 21 returned to Germany. A few new engineers were recruited from Germany, having stayed behind to complete war-interrupted education. But the Army kept the rest of the team together, moving them to Huntsville, Alabama, to work on development of the Redstone ballistic missile.

As the Cold War, and then the Space Race with the Soviet took off, the Americans found themselves on the losing side. The 'all American' Vanguard satellite launcher had blown up. The government reluctantly turned to the German rocket team. Von Braun's Redstone rocket put the first American satellite into orbit and then the first American astronaut into space. They were then charged with developing, in six years, the immense Saturn V booster to take the first American to the moon. After having won the moon race for the Americans, Von Braun found his usefulness at an end. There was no American interest in his lifelong dream of mounting a manned expedition to Mars. It is alleged that President Nixon secretly ordered a purge of the Germans from NASA, and the Peenemuende veterans found themselves sidelined into other jobs or pressured into early retirement.

Great Britain

The British staged an enormous effort in firing three V-2 rockets from Cuxhaven in Cuxhaven in 1946, then lost all interest in pursuing ballistic missiles until the mid-1950's. By late summer 1945 some two hundred Peenemuende scientists, 200 V-2 firing troops, and 600 ordinary POWs were transported to Cuxhaven. Upon arrival, they were split into two groups and interrogated. The information given by each group was then compared to ensure inaccuracies and deceptions were eliminated. However finding the test rockets proved difficult. The Americans had already raided the V-2 factory at Nordhausen and shipped everything usable to New Mexico. The British were able to only come up with enough parts to assemble 8 rockets for testing.

However several key perishable components and firing vehicles were still missing. In a huge enterprise search teams fanned out over the occupied territories, trying to beat American and Russian competitors. 400 railway cars and 70 Lancaster bomber flights brought to Cuxhaven 250,000 parts and 60 specialised vehicles. The hardest items to locate were usable batteries to operate the guidance gyro platforms. Tail units could not be located anywhere and the Americans finally agreed to bring back a few from the United States. A new concrete launch pad was poured and an enormous tower built from prefabricated military bridge elements. 2,500 British troops assisted in completing site construction. Three launches were finally made on October 2 through 15, 1945. On the last launch, observers from the United States, France, and Russia were invited. At this crucial moment in history, unknowingly, many of the leaders of the future space programs were together.

After this event, the British government lost all interest in ballistic missiles. Some of the leading experts they had detained were employed by the French. It was only in the late 1950's that Britain decided to pursue a ballistic missile, the Blue Streak. This used engine technology licensed from Rocketdyne, which in turn had been developed from V-2 technology in consultation with Von Braun's team. This in turn was abandoned after serving as the first stage of the abortive Europa space launcher.

China

China had an indirect debt to the Peenemuende Germans. From the American side, the father of the Chinese space and missile programmes, Tsien Hsue-shen, was a member of Project Lusty - a team of top scientists that entered Germany just behind the American lines, locating and returning to the United States key documents and personnel of the advanced German aircraft and rocketry programs. On May 5, 1945 Tsien found himself interviewing Wernher von Braun and other members of the V-2 Rocket Team in Kochl. Von Braun prepared for Tsien a seminal report, ‘Survey of Development of Liquid Rockets in Germany and Their Future Prospects', which provided the road map for future space vehicle development in the United States. On returning from Germany, Tsien edited the leading findings of the project in the 800-page Jet Propulsion, which would become the classified technical Bible for post-war aircraft and rocket technical research in the post-war United States. Tsien's loyalty to the United States was questioned after American and Chinese troops came into direct combat during the Korean War. After a series of murky and still-controversial events, Tsien was traded to Mao's China in exchange for release of American prisoners of war in September 1955. Once in China, Tsien led the vigorous Chinese effort to develop missile and space rockets.

As part of this effort, the Russians transferred the complete technology and manufacturing processes for the R-2 to China in the late 1950's. The R-2 had been primarily designed by Groettrup's and Baum's teams in Germany in 1946-1947. So from this direction the Peenemuende Germans provided the underpinning for a nation's rocketry. The Long March series of rockets still in use in China derive from the technology brought to the country by Tsien and the R-2.

Here is the list of all known German rocket experts recruited by the Americans, Soviets, and French after World War II. The lists are reasonably complete except for that for the Soviet Union. Links at each name take the reader to fuller biographies on particular individuals.

• Birth of Johannes Kepler - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Kepler, Johnnes. German scientist. Astronomer who derived the laws of planetary motion..

• Tycho Brahe's observes Supernova 1572 - . Nation: Germany.

• Supernova 1604 (Kepler's Nova) - . Nation: Germany.

• Death of Johannes Kepler - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Kepler, Johnnes. German scientist. Astronomer who derived the laws of planetary motion..

• Wilhelm Olbers' Discovery of Asteroid 2 Pallas - . Nation: Germany.

• Karl Harding's Discovery of Asteroid 3 Juno - . Nation: Germany.

• Wilhelm Olbers' Discovery of Asteroid 4 Vesta - . Nation: Germany.

• Johann Galle's Discovery of Neptune - . Nation: Germany.

• Birth of Walter Hohmann - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hohmann. German architect who became interested in interplanetary spaceflight, defined the minimum energy transfer orbit which bears his name in 1916. Rocket enthusiast with VfR but broke off contact after military took over development..

• Birth of Phillip Von Doepp - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Von Doepp. Russian-German expert in guided missile aero design during WW2. Fluent in Russian. Member of the German rocket team, arrived in America under Project Paperclip on 1945.11.16. Worked at Wright Field and in California aerospace..

• Birth of Otto Friedrich Schaper - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Schaper. German expert in guided missiles during World War II. Arrived in America under Project Paperclip on 1945.11.16 aboard the Argentina. Worked at Port Washington, Long Island, New York, USA, until his death in 1967..

• Birth of Bernhard Gerhardt - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Gerhardt. German engineer, member of Rocket Team in the Soviet Union after WW2. Kept there until 1957, the longest of any of the team members..

• Birth of Rudolf Nebel - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel. German rocket enthusiast. Worked for Oberth; helped found VfR; built largest prewar German test rockets. Work shut down by government in 1934. Did not work on rockets during WW2. Promoted civilian rebirth of German rocketry in 1950's..

• Birth of Hermann Julius Oberth - . Nation: Germany, Romania. Related Persons: Oberth. Father of German Spaceflight. His 1923 book outlined the mathematic principles of rocketry and space travel, providing the basis for the space craze in Germany, leading to the V-2 and von Braun's rocket team..

• Birth of Max Valier - . Nation: Germany, Italy. Related Persons: Valier.

  German Austrian engineer and early advocate of the use of rockets for flight. Opel supported Valier's original rocket car tests as publicity. He dreamed of rocket-propelled transatlantic aircraft and later became Opel's competitor. Valier died in a careless accident in 1932, in his laboratory in Berlin, when working on a rocket combustion chamber. It exploded and a small metal fragment hit his pulmonary artery.

• Birth of Johannes Winkler - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Winkler. German engineer. Rocket enthusiast, launched first liquid rocket in Europe on 1931.02.21..

• Birth of Ludwig Leihfeld - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Leihfeld. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Oxygen Plant; Dept. 61/ Laboratory..

• Birth of Hugo Broetler - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Broetler. German welding engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Oxygen Plant; Shop 55..

• Birth of Robert Tschechner - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Tschechner. German specialist engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacture; Laboratory Department..

• Birth of Fritz von Opel - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Opel. German automobile manufacturer and rocketry enthusiast. Grandson of founder of Opel, after graduation, put in charge of testing and publicity. Funded Valier's tests of rocket engines in ground and air vehicles..

• Birth of Herbert Felix Axster - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Axster. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Arthur P Urbanski - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Urbanski. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. As of 1960, Head of Mechanical Systems Analsysis Branch, Quality Division, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Died at Huntsville..

• Birth of Theodore Buchhold - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Buchhold. German professor. Member of the German Rocket Team in the United States after WW2. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Wiesbaden, Germany..

• Birth of Rudolf Hackh - . Nation: France, Germany. Related Persons: Hackh. German engineer. Member of German Rocket Team in France after WW2..

• Birth of Oswald Putze - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Putze. German graduate engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacturing; Dept. 61/Shop 55..

• Birth of Erich K A Ball - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Ball, Erich. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Oskar Morgenstern - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Morgenstern. German-American economist, came to the United States in 1925, and worked at Princeton after 1938. Founded Mathematica, which provided economic analyses to government, notoriously the study that found the shuttle cheaper than expendable LVs..

• Birth of Friedrich Boenisch - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Boenisch. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacturing; Dept. 61/Shop 55..

• Birth of Albert Utsch - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Utsch. German-American design engineer for McDonnell on the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft..

• Birth of Eduard Martin Fischel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Fischel. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, Germany..

• Birth of Alfred Grevesmuehl - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Grevesmuehl. German scientist in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Director of Manufacturing; Dept. 61/Shop 55..

• Birth of Walther Johannes Riedel - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Walther. German manager and engineer who managed development of V-2 rocket engine after the death of Thiel. In the US he transferred this technology to Rocketdyne, which led to the engines for the Redstone, Thor, Jupiter, Atlas, and Saturn I rockets..

• Birth of Karl Franz Hager - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hager. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hermann F Beduerftig - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Beduerftig. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Wilhelm Knack - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Knack. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacturing; Dept. 61/Shop 55..

• Birth of Kurt Kunibert Karlmann Neuhoefer - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Neuhoefer. Austrian-German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Lindenberg - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Lindenberg. German-American rocket technician from Dresden. Died at Fort Bliss, Texas..

• Birth of Theo Vowe - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Vowe. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the German rocket team, went to America after the first group. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Gerd Wilhelm De Beek - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: De Beek. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Alfred H Henning - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Henning. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. Went to the USA with von Braun, by 1960, Deputy Director, Weapons System Coordination Office, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center..

• Birth of Wilhelm Angele - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Angele. German-American engineer. Avid amateur astronomer, control specialist in von Braun's Rocket Team. Became Head of Pilot Manufacturing Development Branch, Guidance and Control Division, Huntsville..

• Birth of Hans Henning Hosenthien - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hosenthien. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Otto Karl Eisenhardt - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Eisenhardt. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Hermann Maus - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Maus. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of August Wilhelm Schulze - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schulze. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Henrik Winskowski - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Winskowski. German design engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Engineering and Design; Dept. 61..

• Birth of Eberhard Julius Spohn - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Spohn. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Heidelberg, Germany..

• Birth of Erich Kaschig - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Kaschig. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Hueter - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hueter. German-Swiss engineer. Member of the German Rocket Team in the United States after WW2..

• Birth of Guenther Hintze - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hintze. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at El Paso, Texas..

• Birth of Anton Beier - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Beier. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Willy Ley - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Ley. German-American writer. German-American writer, extremely effective populariser of the idea of space flight - first in Germany and then in the United States..

• Birth of Walter W B Burose - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Burose. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. Thereafter with the rocket team at Fort Bliss, White Stands, and then at Huntsville. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Hermann E Lange - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Lange. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Rudolph. German-American rocket engineer, with Valier in 1931, von Braun from 1934. Planned V-2 production. Program manager for Redstone, Pershing, and the Saturn V. Retired 1970, but named as a war criminal, returned to Germany in 1984..

• Birth of Heinrich Rothe - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Rothe. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Worked his entire life with the rocket team, at Fort Bliss, White Stands, and then at Huntsville. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Walter Schierhorn - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Schierhorn. German welding engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacturing; Shop 55..

• Birth of Hannes Luehrsen - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Luehrsen. German-American architect. Member of von Braun's team at Peenemuende and in US; designed the buildings, roads, and infrastructure at Peenemuende and at Huntsville..

• Birth of Johann G Tschinkel - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Tschinkel. German-Austrian rocket technician, arrived in the United States under Project Paperclip on 1945.11.16 aboard the Argentina from La Havre. Fluent in English prior to arrival in the United States. Died in Tallahassee, Florida..

• Birth of Werner Kuers - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Kuers. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Herbert R Bergeler - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Bergeler. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. Worked his entire life with the rocket team, at Peenemuende, Fort Bliss, White Stands, and then at Huntsville. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Fritz Mueller - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Mueller, Fritz. German-American guidance system specialist, at Kreiselgeraete from 1933. Worked for von Braun in Germany and America, 1936-1960, involved in guidance platforms for Redstone, Jupiter, Pershing, and Saturn I. Went to private industry in 1960..

• Birth of Albin Wittmann - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Wittmann. German-American engineer. Member of the German rocket team, went to America after the first group. As of 1960, Head of Electrical Systems Analsyis Branch, Quality Division, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Hermann H Kurzweg - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Kurzweg. German-American aerodynamicist, at Peenemuende, then US Naval Ordnance 1946-1960, NASA 1960-1974..

• Birth of Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Steinhoff, Ernst. Austrian-German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Bruno Henning - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Henning, Bruno. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. Engineer who worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Engineering and Design; Dept. 61..

• Birth of Eberhard Friedrich Michael Rees - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Rees. German-American engineer, von Braun's right hand man, in charge of manufacturing 1940-1969 for V-2, Redstone, Jupiter, and rockets stages for Saturn LVs that took America to the moon. Succeeded von Braun as Director at Huntsville 1970-1973..

• Birth of Rudolf Chwalczyk - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Chwalczyk. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacturing; Shop 55..

• Birth of Karl-Heinz Bringer - . Nation: France, Germany. Related Persons: Bringer. German engineer. Developer of the Viking engine and propulsion leader of the German Rocket Team in France after WW2..

• Birth of Josef Maria Boehm - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Boehm. Austrian-German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Max Ernst Nowak - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Nowak, Max. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Carl Heinz Mandel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Mandel. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II, member of von Braun rocket team. As of 1960, Head of Gyro and Stabliizer Branch, Guidance and Control Division, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Died at Madison, Alabama..

• Birth of Kurt Heinrich Debus - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Debus. German-American engineer. At Peenemuende from 1940, designed and operated V-2 test launch facility. In US from 1945, headed design, build, and operation of launch facilities for the V-2, Redstone, Jupiter, and Saturn rockets for Apollo..

• Birth of Friedrich Dhom - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Dhom. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Brownsboro, Texas..

• Birth of Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarz - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schwarz, Friedrich. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Phoenix, Arizona..

• Birth of Friedrich Duerr - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Duerr. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Paul - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Paul. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Ludwig Roth - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Roth. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Walter Milde - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Milde. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. As of January 1947, working at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. Died at Grant, Alabama..

• Birth of Robert Heinrich Karl Paetz - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Paetz. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Bruno Helm - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Helm. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Heinz Haase - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Haase. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union thereafter. Graduate engineer who worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked as Deputy in charge of the Oxygen Plant..

• Birth of Erich Walter Neubert - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Neubert. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Karl Ludwig Heimberg - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Heimburg. German-American engineer. Worked in Japan 1937-1941, then at Peenemuende. Worked on test stands for Wasserfall and A4b. Helped with Backfire. Then joined von Braun team, becoming Director, Test Division, in Huntsville..

• Birth of Gerhard Herbert Richard Reisig - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Reisig. German engineer. Expert in guided missile guidance, telemetry, and control, working for von Braun from 1937. Worked for Dornberger on Wasserfall SAM from 1943. Member of von Braun's Rocket Team in the US from 1947..

• Birth of Hans Gruene - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Gruene. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Heinz Ludwig Schnarowski - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schnarowski. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Bernard A Schriever - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schriever. Key German-American military manager of development of the Thor, Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman ballistic missiles..

• Birth of Gerhardt Drawe - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Drawe. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Willi Schwarz - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Schwarz, Willi. German test engineer in WW2, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked as Deputy to the Test Bench Chief; Laboratory Department..

• Birth of Ernst Helmut Merk - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Merk. German expert in guided missiles during World War II. Arrived in America under Project Paperclip on 1945.11.16 aboard the Argentina from La Havre. As of January 1947, working at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland..

• Birth of Oscar Bauschinger - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Bauschinger. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Rudolph Friedrich - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Friedrich. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Martin Schilling - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schilling. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Willi Mrazek - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Mrazek. German-American engineer. Worked at Peenemuende from early days, but sent to Russian Front before being returned. A loads engineer, he went with von Braun to the US and became Director, Structures and Mechanics Division, at Huntsville..

• Birth of Helmut Hoelzer - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hoelzer. German-American engineer. Worked at Peenemuende from 1939 on V-2 guidance system and Messina telemetry system. Led similar efforts for von Braun's later missiles, becoming Director, Computation Division, at Huntsville..

• Birth of Erich Drews - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Drews. German coppersmith in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Manufacturing; Department Laboratory..

• Birth of Helmut Wilhelm Emil Schlitt - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schlitt. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Rudi Hoelker - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hoelker. German-American engineer. Member of the German rocket team, went to America after the first group. As of 1960, Deputy Director, Aeroballistics Division, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Died at Cambridge, Massachusetts..

• Birth of Wernher von Braun - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: von Braun. German-American chief designer, leader of the 'Rocket Team'; developed the V-2, Redstone, Jupiter, and the Saturn rockets that took US to the moon. He made the idea of space travel popular in the 1950's and a reality in the 1960's..

• Wernher von Braun born in in Wirsitz, Posen. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Von Braun was the second of three sons born to Baron Magnus von Braun and Baroness Emmy von Quistorp..

• Birth of Werner Sieber - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Sieber. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Herbert Walter Fuhrmann - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Fuhrmann. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Bruno Heusinger - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Heusinger. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Dieter Karl F Huzel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Huzel. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Arthur Pilz - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Pilz, Arthur. German master mechanic in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Test Bench; Laboratory Department..

• Birth of Helmut Horn - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Horn. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Konrad Dannenberg - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Dannenberg.

  German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. Liaison between Huntsville and Rocketdyne for development of the engines for the Redstone, Jupiter, and Saturn I rockets; managed development of the Saturn V in the early years; developed concepts for Saturn V-launched space stations. Retired 1973.

• Birth of Bernhard Tessmann - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Tessmann. Austrian-German engineer, leading engine test at Peenemuende from 1936. In 1943 evacuated to Koelpinsee; designed V-2 mobile launcher and planned Zement facility at Ebensee. In US from 1945, worked as von Braun's Deputy Director for Testing..

• Birth of Otto August Hoberg - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hoberg. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Werner Kurt Gengelbach - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Gengelbach. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Hans Josef Lindenmayer - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Lindenmayer. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. Worked in aerodynamics, later returned to Germany..

• Birth of Joachim Wilhelm Muehlner - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Muehlner. German-American radio engineer, at Peenemuende from 1939 . One of the few of von Braun's team that worked on all major programs, from the doppler transponder for the V-2 to the electronic landing systems for the Space Shuttle in 1978..

• Birth of Kurt Paul Erich Patt - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Patt. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Guenther Haukohl - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Haukohl. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Dieter Grau - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Grau. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter, serving in Quality Assurance positions..

• Birth of Albert Franz Zeiler - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Zeiler. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died in Florida..

• Birth of Wolfgang Hermann Steurer - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Steurer. Austrian-German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Werner Voss - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Voss, Werner. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the German rocket team, went to America after the first group. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Albert Puellenberg - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Puellenberg. German engineer. Led the Hannover Group of German rocket experimenters 1931-1935, and renewed German citizen rocketry 1952-1964..

• Birth of Rudi Beichel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Beichel. German-American engineer, on von Braun's team, but left to independently advise US Army on liquid propulsion. Joined Aerojet in 1956, worked on Lox/LH2 Titan I engine conversion, Aerojet large engine studies, and USAF ARES single-stage ICBM..

• Birth of Hans Eiseler - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Eiseler. German graduate engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Engineering and Design; Dept. 61..

• Birth of Friedrich Staats - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Staats. German electronics engineer, worked for Steinhoff at Peenemuende, but stayed in Germany after war. Founded and led the leading German rocket society 1952-1990 (designated sequentially DAFRA, DRG, HOG, DGLR)..

• Birth of Klaus Eduard Scheufelen - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Scheufelen.

  German engineer, V-2 test leader. At end of war headed development of Taifun unguided antiaircraft rocket, characterized as a 'desperation project'. Went to America after the war, working at Fort Bliss. Later returned to Germany and died in Lenningen in 2008.

• Birth of Otto Heinrich Hirschler - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Hirschler. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Ernst Stuhlinger - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Stuhlinger. German-American engineer. Member of the German Rocket Team in the United States after WW2..

• Birth of Gerhard Bernhard Heller - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Heller. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Rudolf Friederich Franz Minning - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Minning. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Werner Tiller - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Tiller. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Ernst E Klaus - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Klaus. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Gustav Kroll - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Kroll. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Rudolf Karl Hans Schlidt - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schlidt. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Emil A H, Hellebrandt - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Hellebrandt. Austrian-German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Karl Sendler - . Nation: Austria, Germany. Related Persons: Sendler. Austrian-German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Werner Kurt-Otto Rosinski - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Rosinski. German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Worked his entire life with the rocket team, at Fort Bliss, White Stands, and then at Huntsville. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

• Birth of Herbert Hans Guendel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Guendel. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Boston, New York..

• Birth of Adolf Karl Thiel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Thiel, Adolf. German-American engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. Died at Palos Verdes Estates, California..

• Birth of Hugo H Woerdemann - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Woerdemann.

  German-American radio systems engineer, first worked with early rocketeers in 1934. Member of the Rocket Team at Peenemuende and the United States until 1950; thereafter working in radio technology for North American Aviation and his own firm, Magnetic Research Corporation. Died a grapefruit rancher in Temecula, California.

• Birth of Johann Klein - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Klein. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Helmut Max Arthur Zolke - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Zolke. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Albert E Schuler - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Schuler. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Ernst Geissler - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Geissler. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Bernhard Hohmann - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hohmann, Bernhard. German test pilot. Chief of Flight Development at Wright FIeld, consultant on astronaut flight safety on Mercury, Gemini, and MOL programs..

• Birth of Alfred Johannes Finzel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Finzel. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Werner Karl Dahm - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Dahm. German-American aerodynamicist, worked at Peenemuende on A9/A10, A7, A4b, and Wasserfall winged missiles. Post-war completed studies, joined von Braun team in US as Head of Aerodynamics Analysis Branch, Aeroballistics Division, Huntsville..

• Birth of Krafft Arnold Ehricke - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Ehricke. Visionary German-American engineer. Protege of Thiel at Peenemuende; early concepts for nuclear and Lox/LH2 engines. Left von Braun team, developed Centaur at Convair 1956-1964. Prolific output of advanced concepts, but poor program manager..

• Birth of Alfred Klippel - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Klippel. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Electrical Circuits; Shop 55..

• Birth of Hans Joachim Oskar Fichtner - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Fichtner. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Josef Martin Michel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Michel, Josef. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Walter Jacobi - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Jacobi. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Paris Gun begins bombardment of Paris - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 40 km (24 mi). Range: 131 km (81 mi).

  The rail-mounted weapon could hurl a 120 kg shell with 7 kg of explosive to a range of 131 km. During the 170 second trajectory the shell reached a maximum altitude at the edge of space - 40 km. This was the highest altitude attained by a man-made object until the first successful V-2 flight. From March through August of 1918, three of the guns shot 351 shells at Paris from the woods of Crepy, killing 256 and wounding 620. As a military weapon the gun was a failure - the payload was minuscule, the barrel needed replacement after 65 shots, and the accuracy was only good enough for city-sized targets. But as a psychological tool it was remembered when the V-1, V-2 and V-3 weapons were being developed two decades later.

• Birth of Theodor Anton Poppel - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Poppel. German-American engineer, ember of von Braun's team, expert in guided missile ground support during WW2, and continued in that role in the US. Played a key role in designing Saturn I LC34, and the Saturn V's VAB and Transporter-Crawler..

• Birth of Fritz Vandersee - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Vandersee. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Otto Meier - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Meier. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Oxygen Plant; Laboratory Department..

• Birth of Werner Baum - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Baum. German engineer, member of Rocket Team in the Soviet Union after WW2. Worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952 as Deputy of the Chief and Technical Designer; Dept. 61..

• Birth of Rosemarie Tannhaeuser - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Tannhaeuser.

  German manager. Member of the German Rocket Team in the Soviet Union after WW2. Secretary who worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked as Secretary in Dept. 61/Shop 55. Returned to Germany and passed away at the age of 97 in Berlin-Weissensee.

• Birth of Siegfried Reinhard - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Reinhard. German designer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked in Engineering and Design; Dept. 61..

• Birth of Hans Rudolf Palaoro - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Palaoro. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Freiherr Magnus von Braun - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: von Braun, Magnus. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Treaty loophole permits German rocket development. - . Nation: Germany. Signing of Treaty of Versailles disarmed Germany of a military air force but did not include rockets as potential weapons, thus leaving Germany free under international law to develop them..

• Birth of Heinz Knittel - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Knittel. German precision mechanic, in the rocket team in Russia. Worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's bureau 1947-1952 in the Test Bench and Laboratory Departments. One of the group that fired V-2 rockets at Kapustin Yar in 1946..

• Birth of Oskar F Holderer - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Holderer. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

• Birth of Heinz Albert Millinger - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Millinger. German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter. German expert in guided missiles during WW2. As of January 1947, working at Fort Bliss, Texas. As of 2008 living in Marburg, Germany..

• Birth of Walter Fritz Wiesemann - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Wiesemann. German-American engineer. Reassigned from Luftwaffe to Peenemuende in 1941. Worked on anti-aircraft rockets, went to America with von Braun's team in 1945, working on Huntsville projects until retirement in 1970..

• Birth of Lisa Neumeister - . Nation: Germany, Russia. Related Persons: Neumeister. Wife of a German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the Soviet Union, worked as a translator for rocket engine developers in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952..

• Oberth proposes circumlunar flight - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Oberth.

  In a discussion of the uses of an interplanetary rocket, Hermann Oberth proposed circumlunar flight to explore the hidden face of the moon and discussed the possibility of storing cryogenic fuels in space. A spacecraft could rendezvous and dock in earth orbit with a fuel capsule. When the spacecraft reached the vicinity of a planet, it would detach itself from the capsule and descend to the surface. On departure, the spacecraft would ascend and reconnect to its fuel supply for the return trip.

• Die Rakete zu den Planetenräume published. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Oberth, von Braun.

  Die Rakete zu den Planetenräume (The Rocket Into Interpanetary Space) by Hermann Oberth was published in Germany, and was the genesis for considerable discussion of rocket propulsion. The book would have a huge and life-changing impact on ten year old Wernher Von Braun.

• Valier-Oberth Moon Gun - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Oberth, Valier.

  In the 1920's members of the VfR (Society for Space Travel) amused themselves by redesigning Verne's moon gun. In 1926 rocket pioneers Max Valier and Hermann Oberth designed a gun that would rectify Verne's technical mistakes and be actually capable of firing a projectile to the moon.

• VfR established. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Esnault-Pelterie, Hohmann, Oberth, Winkler.

  Johannes Winkler forms the first society for space travel in Breslau. The Society for Space Travel (Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt), is better known by its abbreviation 'VfR'. From the three people that attended the first meeting, it would grow to 500 members within the year, including most of the European space pioneers - Oberth, Hohmann, von Hoefft, von Pirquet, Rynin, and Esnault-Petrie.

• Von Pirquet Moon Gun - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Ley, Oberth, Valier.

  Further improvements to the Valier-Oberth gun were suggested by Willy Ley and Baron Guido von Pirquet of Vienna. To achieve the necessary muzzle velocity, it would be necessary to construct the gun with angled lateral chambers. These design concepts would be put to military use in the V-3 Hochdruckpumpe cannon of World War II.

• First rocket car - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Opel, Valier.

  Max Valier campaigned to get automobile magnate Fritz von Opel interested in rocket-powered automobiles. Valier proposed to use different combinations of compressed black powder rockets manufactured by Friedrich Wilhelm Sander of Wesermuende. Sander's rockets were 80 cm long, 12.5 cm in diameter, and could came in two versions. The centre-bore rockets provided 180 kgf for 3 seconds, while the end-burners provided 20 kgf for 30 seconds. Valier proposed to use combinations of these motors to first boost an automobile to high speed with the high-thrust rockets, then use low-thrust units to maintain velocity. This had no practical application but would demonstrate the potential of rockets to the German public, at the same time giving Opel publicity. The first secret test, at Ruesselsheim, used a one high thrust and one low thrust motor in a small stock Opel. The results were unimpressive - the vehicle went only 140 m in 35 seconds.

• Opel Rak - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Opel, Valier.

  After two tests the day before, which showed that a good fraction of Brander's rockets would either fail to ignite or explode, Valier made the first official rocket car run for the press. Of 12 rockets attached to the 'Rak' vehicle (a motor car stripped of engine and brakes), five failed to function, but the vehicle reached 110 kph and the press was mightily impressed. Opel received an unexpected amount of free publicity and funded Valier in further rocket car development.

• Opel Rak II - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Oberth, Opel, Valier.

  Fritz von Opel personally drives rocket-car Opel Rak II, equipped with 24 Brander powder rockets, to 200 kph at Berlin. The same day Oberth is debating the German scientific establishment, trying to overturn their belief that space flight using liquid rockets is theoretically impossible. The VfR regard Valier's experiments with Opel as publicity stunts, threatening the credibility of their society.

• First manned rocket-powered aircraft flight. - . Crew: Stamer. Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Lippisch, Opel, Stamer.

  A rocket-boosted glider is flown by Friedrich Stamer from the Rhoen Mountains in Western Germany. The development was funded by Opel, the canard-layout glider designed by Hans Lippisch, and the powder rockets developed by Sander. As in the Opel ground vehicles, a boost rocket (360 kgf for 3 seconds) was to accelerate the glider down the launch ramp. A sustainer rocket (20 kgf for 30 seconds) would keep the aircraft in flight. It was hoped to develop a method of launching gliders that would allow the pilot to get airborne without assistance - that did not require a tow aircraft or the eight-man crew needed to pull back the rubber band on existing rail launchers. Tests with smaller motors in models showed the high-thrust motors were too powerful, so the full-scale tests used a standard rubber-band rail launcher with only the low thrust motors installed. After two attempted flights, Stamer finally made a successful flight, firing two 20 kgf motors one after the other. The glider flew about 1.5 km in 70 seconds. On the second flight the first motor exploded, setting the aircraft on fire. Stamer landed successfully but further attempts were abandoned.

• Opel Rak III - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Opel, Valier. The third Opel rocket-car is mounted on railroad tracks near Celle. The first run, with 10 rockets, reached 290 kph. A second run, with 24 rockets, jumped the tracks and demolished the vehicle..

• Opel Rak IV - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Opel, Valier. The fourth Opel rocket-car is destroyed when one motor explodes, setting off all off the other motors simultaneously. The car jumps off the tracks at the start. Rail authorities prohibit further experiments and Opel Rak V never runs..

• Noordung orbiting space observatory - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Noordung, Oberth. Spacecraft: Noordung.

  Hermann Noordung (pseudonym for Capt. Potocnik of the Austrian Imperial Army) expanded the ideas of Hermann Oberth on space flight in a detailed description of an orbiting space observatory. The problems of weightlessness, space communications, maintaining a livable environment for the crew, and extravehicular activity were considered. Among the uses of such an observatory were chemical and physical experiments in a vacuum, telescopes of great size and efficiency, detailed mapping of the earth's surface, weather observation, surveillance of shipping routes, and military reconnaissance.

• First JATO takeoff. - . Nation: Germany. Use of a battery of solid-propellant rockets on Junkers-33 seaplane, the first recorded jet-assisted take-off of an airplane, made in tests near Dessau, Germany..

• Opel Sander Rak 1 flies. - . Crew: Opel. Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Lippisch, Opel.

  Opel sponsored resumption of tests of rocket-boosted gliders near Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. These involved a design by Lippisch, boosted by 16 powder rockets of 23 kgf each. With Opel at the controls, the glider successfully launched itself from a 20-m long rail launcher, and he flew the aircraft for ten minutes. However the landing went badly - the design had a landing speed of 160 kph, and with a total weight of 270 kg, a high wing loading. Opel survived but the glider had to be written off. This was Opel's last involvement with rocketry. General Motors, the majority owner of the Opel company, prohibited further rocketry work after the stock market crash. Fritz von Opel left the country and moved to Switzerland.

• Frau im Mond (The Girl in the Moon) premieres in Berlin. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel, Oberth.

  The film, directed by Fritz Lang, with Hermann Oberth as technical consultant, provided a realistic portrayal of the rollout and launch of a liquid-propellant booster sending a manned expedition to the moon. Lang provided Oberth with funds to build and launch a liquid-propellant rocket to publicise the film. Oberth's rocket, using a conical combustion chamber to mix liquid oxygen and gasoline, was 1.8 m tall and was to have been launched to an altitude of 64 km over the Baltic Sea from Greifswalder Oie. One of the assistants hired by Oberth to fabricate the rocket was Rudolph Nebel, a World War I fighter pilot with (unfortunately) little actual engineering experience. Oberth also had no practical engineering or organizational ability, and was unable to produce the liquid rocket in the four months allotted. He then turned to an 11-m tall hybrid rocket that was to burn a to-be-determined carbon compound with liquid oxygen. This also proved impossible, and Oberth simply gave up and left town - returning, however, for the film's premiere. Ufa studios took ownership of the unfinished rockets.

• VfR regroups - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Ley, Nebel, Oberth, Riedel, Klaus, Winkler.

  Winkler had resigned as president. Oberth is back in Berlin, and a meeting is held, with Nebel, Wurm, Oberth, Klaus Riedel, Winkler, and Willy Ley in attendance. It was decided to try and get the Oberth rocket materials back from Ufa and press on to demonstrate flight of a liquid propellant rocket. For this purpose the Oberth rocket was much too ambitious and probably wouldn't work anyway. Nebel proposes building a new 'Minimum Rakete' or 'Mirak' to demonstrate that it could be done. Work begins to obtain funds to ground test and perfect Oberth's 'Kegelduese' conical rocket motor.

• VfR bankrupt. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel. Nebel, general secretary of the VfR, files bankruptcy papers with the German courts. However he does not inform any of the other members of his actions. The fact is not known until 1933..

• VfR evening in Berlin - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Oberth, Winkler. The VfR presents itself to the scientific community in Berlin. Winkler gives a lecture at the auditorium of the Central Post Office, and the Oberth rocket, Kegelduese, and other articles are displayed..

• Valier rocket car - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Valier. Valier has arranged for Dr Weyland to develop a new, powerful liquid rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and gasoline. The car made its first slow run this day, but combustion of the motor was poor and acceleration of the vehicle low..

• Death of Max Valier, rocket pioneer, as the result of a careless accident in his laboratory in Berlin. - . Nation: Germany, Italy. Related Persons: Valier.

  German Austrian engineer and early advocate of the use of rockets for flight. Opel supported Valier's original rocket car tests as publicity. He dreamed of rocket-propelled transatlantic aircraft and later became Opel's competitor. Valier died in a careless accident in 1932, in his laboratory in Berlin, when working on a rocket combustion chamber. It exploded and a small metal fragment hit his pulmonary artery.

• Valier killed in rocket engine explosion - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Valier.

  German Austrian engineer and early advocate of the use of rockets for flight. Opel supported Valier's original rocket car tests as publicity. He dreamed of rocket-propelled transatlantic aircraft and later became Opel's competitor. Valier died in a careless accident in 1932, in his laboratory in Berlin, when working on a rocket combustion chamber. It exploded and a small metal fragment hit his pulmonary artery.

• VfR demonstrates rocket motor to German government officials - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Ley, Nebel, Oberth, Riedel, Klaus, von Braun.

  The VfR fires its 'Kegelduese' liquid oxygen and gasoline-fueled rocket motor in a demonstration for the Director of the Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in an attempt to secure financial support. Nebel had arranged the demonstration and runs the Kegelduese for 90 seconds. It generates 7 kgf and consumes 6 kg of liquid oxygen and 1 kg of gasoline in that time (specific impulse 90 seconds). Participating are Oberth, Nebel, Riedel, Ley, and Von Braun. Nebel's Mirak is not yet ready to test.

• Mirak experiments - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel, Riedel, Klaus.

  Nebel and Riedel conduct a series of tests of the Mirak rocket at the farm of Riedel's grandparents near Bernstadt, Saxony. They slowly perfect the motor, finally achieving significant net thrust by September, when the motor explodes, ending the test series.

• Raketenflugplatz Berlin - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel. Nebel signs the $4/year lease for the worlds first 'Rocket Port', an abandoned German army munitions storage area on 10 square kilometres on Tegeler Weg in the Berlin northern suburb of Reinickendorf. The numerous bunkers are ideal for rocket motor tests..

• Kummersdorf selected for missile development. - . Nation: Germany.

  German Army Ordnance Office, after reviewing work of Goddard and others, decided to establish rocket program and to equip artillery proving ground at Kummersdorf to develop military missiles. The German Army issues the first budget for rocket development - 5,000 Reichsmarks.

• Poggensee instrumented rocket reaches 450 m. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.45 km (0.28 mi).

  Karl Poggensee launched a powder rocket at a field near Berlin. Although the rocket technology did not represent a forward step, the rocket was was instrumented with a barometer, a camera, and a velocity measurement device. The rocket also set an altitude mark that Winkler, Nebel, and the other German liquid rocketeers had to beat in order to prove the superiority of the liquid fuel rocket.

• Winkler HW-1 rocket - first liquid-fuel rocket in Europe. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Winkler. Apogee: 0.0030 km (0.0019 mi).

  Funded by a Mr Hueckel, Winkler flies the first European liquid propellant rocket at Dessau, Germany. It is 60 cm high, weighs 5 kg, including 1.7 kg of liquid oxygen and methane propellants. The rocket consists of three tanks - one for the fuel, one for the oxygen, and one for the nitrogen gas that pressure-feeds the motor. The motor is a simple 18-inch long cylinder, housed at the centre of the prismatic rocket. The rocket reaches only 3 m in the first test due to a malfunction.

• First liquid rocket hardware developed for the Germany Army. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Walter. Walter Riedel, and Arthur Riedel, at the Heylandt Company, built the first 20 kgf liquid propellant engine for the Heereswaffenamt. It featured a double-walled cylindrical combustion chamber, and was used to test different propellant combinations..

• HW-1 reaches 500 m. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Winkler. Apogee: 0.50 km (0.31 mi). Winkler's HW-1 rocket reached 500 m over Dessau, Germany..

• Second Mirak explodes - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel.

  Nebel and the other designers realise that using liquid oxygen to cool the combustion chamber simply would not work - it turned to gas, and the excessive pressure eventually burst the oxygen tank. They turn to a water-cooled combustion chamber. The end result was an aluminium pressure-fed engine that weighed 85 g but produced 32 kgf while burning 160 g of liquid oxygen and gasoline per second - a specific impulse of 200 seconds. The new design proves reliable and is demonstrated to visitors from the American Rocket Society in April 1931.

• VfR/AIS meeting. - . Nation: Germany. Raktenflugplatz in Germany was visited by Mr. and Mrs. G. Edward Pendray as official representatives of the American Interplanetary Society, who upon their return organized the experimental program of the society..

• Tiling rocket - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Tiling. Apogee: 0.80 km (0.50 mi). Reinhold Tiling, financed by Baron von Ledebour, publicly demonstrates his compressed black powder rocket design at Osnabrueck. The 1.8 m long rocket uses flip-out wings for recovery, and reach altitudes of 800 m..

• Heyland motor - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Valier. Heyland completes development testing of the rocket motor intended for Valier's rocket car. It weighs 18 kg and is capable of producing 160 kgf for several minutes. Although powerful, the specific impulse is thought to be fairly low..

• Mirak II / Repulsor - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Klaus. Apogee: 0.0020 km (0.0012 mi).

  Riedel improvises a rocket, using the thrust chamber developed for the Mirak, fed by two long tanks containing liquid oxygen and gasoline, which would form guiding sticks for the forward-mounted engine. The lashed-together rocket rises to 20 m on its first 'static' test.

• Mirak II / Repulsor I rocket reaches 60 m. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.0060 km (0.0037 mi).

  First official test flight of the Mirak (Minimum Rakete) II. A flight-weight version of Riedel's 'flying test stand' takes off into a looping trajectory, sending the VfR experimenters running for cover, but reaching 60 m altitude in the process. Attending were Wernher Von Braun, Klaus Riedel und Kurt Heinisch (Rudolf Nebel, the chief engineer, was in Kiel at the time).

• Mirak II / Repulsor 2 - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Klaus. Apogee: 0.0060 km (0.0037 mi). Range: 0.60 km (0.37 mi). The rocket reaches 60 m before heading off horizontally over the Raketenflugplatz, ending up in a tree outside the perimeter, 600 m from the launch point..

• Mirak II / Repulsor 3 - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Klaus. Apogee: 0.18 km (0.11 mi). Range: 0.60 km (0.37 mi). This is the first Repulsor equipped with a recovery parachute. It reaches 180 m, but then the parachute deploys early, and it falls into the same clump of trees as Repulsor 2, 600 m from the launch point..

• Mirak II rocket reaches height of 500 m - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.50 km (0.31 mi). VfR successfully fired an improved Mirak (Minimum Rakete) II rocket to height of 500 m..

• Mirak II / Repulsor 4 - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Klaus. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi).

  The perfected Repulsor has the propellant tanks close together at the centreline, to form a guide stick in the manner of Congreve's war rockets. It reaches an altitude of 1000 m, and the parachute recovery system functioned perfectly at apogee. Subsequent such 'one stick' Repulsors' will reach 1500 m altitude and 3000 m range - in fact, they are normally launched only partially-fuelled to prevent them landing outside the perimeter of the Raketenflugplatz.

• Raketenflugplatz featured in newsreel - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 1.50 km (0.90 mi). Range: 3.00 km (1.80 mi).

  After one year of operation of the worlds first 'rocket port', the Ufa weekly newsreel carries an extensive film report on the VfR's experiments. By then 270 engine test runs had been completed, as well as 87 test flights of Repulsors. However the filmmakers also capture an errant rocket leaking gasoline onto a shack owned by the police, which burns down. This leads to further restrictions on VfR activities at the site.

• Mirak III rocket completed. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 4.00 km (2.40 mi). It would reach an altitude of 4000 m in subsequent tests..

• V-1 engine concept patented. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Schmidt, Paul.

  German engineer, Paul Schmidt, working from design of Lorin tube, developed and patented a ramjet engine later modified and used in the V-1 Flying Bomb. The concept of the world's first jet-powered cruise missile was originated by Flight Staff Engineer Bree. The pulse engine was based on a French patent dating to the 1890's. The engine, which operated by creating 500 fuel-air explosions per minute, was designed for a specific operational altitude. The guidance system consisted of propellor in the nose. When this had turned a preset number of times (corresponding to the desired range to the target), the counter pushed the missile's rudder hard over, resulting on a dive to the ground. A V-1 could be produced for one tenth of the cost of a V-2.

• Dornberger put in charge of Kummersdorf. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger. The German Army Ordnance Office formalized its rocket develoment program by placing Captain-Doctor Walter Dornberger in charge of Research Station West at Kummersdorf..

• Nebel demonstrates VfR liquid rocket to the German Army. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.0700 km (0.0435 mi).

  Nebel contacted the German Army and proposed the use of liquid fuel rockets as war missiles. He arranged for Army representatives to observe a demonstration launch at Kummersdorf. Riedel and Von Braun prepare the rocket, which was 3.5 m long and 10 cm in diameter, had a gross lift-off mass of 20 kg, an empty mass of 10 kg, and a thrust of 60 kgf. The new design featured the engine forward of the stack, followed by the liquid oxygen tank, then the alcohol tank, then the manometers and other elements of propellant pressurisation. The new-design engine was developed by Walter Riedel and Arthur Rudolph at the Heylandt Company. The rocket reached an altitude of 20 to 70 m before veering horizontally into a forest. An exhaust velocity of 2000 m/s was expected, but only 1700 m/s was demonstrated.. The Army is seemingly unimpressed. However a month later they hire Von Braun, who drops out of sight.

• Von Braun joins German Army missile program. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun.

  Wernher von Braun joined the German Army Ordnance Office rocket program at Kummersdorf. He is working on a 300 kgf thrust liquid propellant engine, which has been tested with an exhaust velocity of 1700 m/s, but it is believed can be tuned up to as much as 1900 m/s. This is to power the A1 rocket, which is to have the same tractor configuration as the 20 kg test rocket launched in August 1932. The main issue is how to solve the problem of keeping the rocket stabilised in flight, as the August test demonstrated. The A1 is to be 1.4 m long x 30 cm in diameter, a 150 kg gross takeoff weight, and 40 kg of propellant., allowing a 16.5 second burn time.

• HW-2 - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Winkler. Apogee: 0.0030 km (0.0019 mi).

  Following an aborted attempt on 29 September, Winkler launches his HW-2 rocket from Pillau on the Baltic. He had worked for months at the Raketenflugplatz developing the new device. However on launch day an explosive propellant mix developed in the internal compartments of the rocket, and after igniting and rising only 3 m, it was blown to smithereens.

• Private rocket development in Germany winds down - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Riedel, Klaus.

  As the influence of Nazism in German Society increases, the VfR disintegrates in political disputes and withdrawal of funding by its wealthiest backers. In this period it occurs to Riedel that alcohol may prove a better fuel than gasoline - primarily because as a fuel it needs much less of the expensive and difficult-to-handle cryogenic liquid oxygen. Experiments determine that 60% alcohol to water is the best fuel mixture, and for the first time use the fuel to cool the combustion chamber before leading it into the chamber - regenerative cooling.

• Magdeburg Project - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel.

  Mengering, an engineer working for the city of Magdeburg, is entranced by the theories of Peter Bender, who proposes that the people of the earth are in fact living on the inside surface of a hollow sphere. He believes that this can be proven. A rocket fired vertically from Magdeburg should impact south of New Zealand. Mengering convinces the city authorities to fund experiments leading to this objective. Nebel, now a member of the Nazi Party, obtains a contract of 25,000 Marks for the first step. He will build a rocket that will carry a man to an altitude of one kilometre, from where the pilot will bail out and return to earth by parachute. The rocket is to be fired on 11 June 1933 in a huge event publicizing the city. The Pilot Rocket would be in the form of the VfR Repulsors, with the passenger in a bullet-shaped fairing over the engine compartment, and the propellants being stored in two long cylindrical tanks trailing the engine. It was to be 7.6 m tall and powered by an engine of 600 kgf. A prototype was to be built first, 4.6 m tall, powered by a 200 kgf motor. This would not be capable of carrying a pilot, but would have a parachute for recovery.

• Rocket test stand explosion at Kummersdorf. - . Nation: Germany. No one was injured and more stringent safety precautions were taken in the future..

• Magdeburg Project tests - . Nation: Germany.

  A test stand is completed for ground test of rocket engines of up to 1000 kgf. Tests of the 200 kgf motor begin on 22 March. Motors explode on 25 March and 3 April, but by the end of April, 20 test runs have been conducted and the motor is considered reliable enough for flight test (despite several burn-throughs of the throat).

• Zucker rocket launched at Cuxhaven - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Zucker. Apogee: 0.0150 km (0.0093 mi).

  Zucker's amazing 'operational rocket'. was supposedly a recoverable cruise missile, 5 m long, with a thrust of 360 kg and a takeoff mass of 200 kg. In actuality the missile was only an enormous hull equipped with eight powder rockets. Zucker showed up in Cuxhaven on the German North Sea coast in the winter of 1933, ready for a long-range demonstration (15 km, from the coast to Neuhaven Island). After being stuck in a ditch while being taken out to the field for a February launch attempt, the great day finally came in April 1933. A huge crowd of local folk and officials gathered to witness the event. After staggering 15 m into the air, the torpedo came crashing down.

• Magdeburg launch attempt - . Nation: Germany.

  First attempt to launch the subscale prototype of the Magdeburg Pilot Rocket. A launch stand 9 m tall is erected in the countryside near Magdeburg. However the rocket develops insufficient thrust to clear the tower. Other attempts on 10 and 11 June are also unsuccessful, due to leaky valves and other quality problems. The rocket is returned to the shop for rework.

• Magdeburg launch - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.0100 km (0.0062 mi). Range: 0.31 km (0.19 mi).

  The 200 kgf prototype rocket is finally launched. However it catches on one of the rails in the launch tower and is flung horizontally as it clears the tower. It flies 300 m horizontally over the pastures, then slides along the ground for 10 m more. It is relatively intact, but the Magdeburg city officials are not interested in funding further attempts. Nebel receives only 3200 Marks for his work.

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi). Range: 0.10 km (0.06 mi).

  The Magdeburg prototype rocket is reworked into a four-stick design and flown from Lindwerder Island at Tegeler Lake near Berlin. It reaches 1000 m, loops a few times, then thrusts straight toward the earth. The parachute deploys at the last moment and the rocket splashes down in the lake 100 m from the launch stand. It is recovered.

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.0060 km (0.0037 mi). After an aborted launch, the rocket does clear the tower but on oxidiser valve fails to open. The rocket reaches only 60 m but splashes down in the lake and is recovered..

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.0010 km (0.0006 mi). After objections by the owner of the previous launch location, tests are moved to Schwielow Lake, with launch from the stand erected on a motor boat. The rocket explodes soon after lift-off..

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.0020 km (0.0012 mi). Second attempt from Schwielow Lake. The rocket goes horizontal and hits the water in the lake's steamboat channel. It cannot be recovered..

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 2.00 km (1.20 mi). Third launch from Schwielow Lake. Rocket flies out of sight and is not found..

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.10 km (0.06 mi). Fourth launch from Schwielow Lake. This employs a new design with two longer tanks in place of four shorter propellant tanks. Results 'poor'..

• Nebel rocket - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 0.10 km (0.06 mi). Final launch from Schwielow Lake using the new design. Results again 'poor'..

• End of Raketenflugplatz - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Nebel, Riedel, Klaus.

  Nebel is presented with a water bill of 1600 Marks for 1930-1933. He and the VfR are unable to pay, so the government cancels the lease and takes the property back. Klaus Riedel manages to arrange employment for himself and several of the VfR technicians with Siemens, which also agrees to allow them to store the Raketenflugplatz rockets and technical materials in a company warehouse. After Riedel and the others are recruited by the Army and leave for Peenemuende, Nebel allegedly sells of these materials. In any case they disappear.

• Death of Reinhold Tiling - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Tiling.

  German rocket pioneer, developed wing-recovered powder rockets. Inspired by Oberth lecture in 1924. By 1931 demonstrated stable flight to 7 km, first rocket launch from airplane 1932. By 1933 he had demonstrated his rockets to a small crowd at Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin, but the rest of the event was called off by police after one of his first shots went into the grandstands. In his propellant processing room, where he uses his proprietary process to compress black powder into solid rocket propellant, a fire breaks out. Tiling, and his assistant Angelika Buddenboehmer, are killed.

• Saenger begins rocket engine tests. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Saenger. Eugen Saenger begins a series of rocket engine tests in Vienna. He methodically explores various propellant combinations and additives through the end of 1934..

• Rakatenflugtechnik published. - . Nation: Germany. Spacecraft: Dynasoar. Eugen Sänger of Germany published his classic Rakatenflugtechnic, which dealt with rocket motor design and high-speed flight in the atmosphere..

• The VfR rocket team unravels. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Ley, Nebel. Willy Ley decides to leave for America in the face of increased Nazi domination of German society. Most of the VfR experimenters end up at Peenemuende, working on development of the V-2. Some, such as Nebel, remain private citizens..

• Birth of Dr George Warren Simon - . Nation: Germany, USA. Related Persons: Simon. American physicist payload specialist astronaut, 1978-1985..

• Liquid rocket explosion kills three. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Wahmke. Dr Kurt Wahmke and two technicians were testing a 90% H2O2/Alcohol combination at Kummersdorf when the chamber exploded, killing them. These were the first and only deaths of technicians in the history of German rocket development..

• Von Braun receives doctorate. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun.

  His public doctoral thesis, "About Combustion Tests," was completed in very little time (one source states that he joined the SS at this time). The actual thesis was later revealed to be a classified Army document. This dissertation, "Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket", was dated 16 April 1934 but did not surface until 70 years later. It detailed the construction and design of the A2 rocket that would fly later that year.

• A2 rocket 'Max' successfully launched. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 2.20 km (1.37 mi).

  Von Braun's German Ordnance group launches A-2 'Max' from the Island of Borkum in the North Sea before the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. The rocket is at an altitude of 1.7 km at burn-out, and reaches 2.2 km before falling back to impact 800 m from the launch point.

• A2 rocket 'Moritz' successfully launched. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 3.50 km (2.10 mi).

  Von Braun's German Ordnance group launches the second of two A-2 rockets ('Moritz') successfully to a height of 3.5 km on the Island of Borkum in the North Sea. Burnout is at 1.8 km, and the rocket ascends more vertically than the test the previous day, reaching a greater altitude and impacting 500 m from the launch point.

• Me-163 rocket engine development begins. - . Nation: Germany.

  There was no interest within the German Aviation Ministry at that time in rocket engines as primary propulsion for a combat aircraft. Due to the rocket engine's high fuel consumption, it was seen as only useful in providing Jet Assisted Takeoff for conventional propeller aircraft.

• He-112 rocket engine static tests. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Heinkel, Ernst. First static tests of Heinkel He-112 with rocket engines performed in Germany..

• First test of liquid rocket engine intended for use on aircraft - . Nation: Germany. Spacecraft Bus: German Rocketplanes. Spacecraft: Junkers 'Junior'.

  A 300 kgf engine was installed in a Junkers 'Junior' aircraft fuselage at Kummersdorf. This was the first rocket engine installation in an aircraft. But the problem to be solved was how to ensure continuous operation of the engine during aircraft manoeuvres. The rocket team finally built a big carousel, capable of testing the engine installation at up to 5 G's.

• A3 rocket tested. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Germans tested A-3 rocket with 1,500 kgf thrust which served as basis for military weapon specifications..

• Go-ahead to build Peenemuende - . Nation: Germany.

  The missile test range is to be a combined Army / Air Force test ground. Von Braun had found the location in December 1935, after his first choice - Briz on the island of Ruegen - was taken over by the Deutsch Arbeitsfront as a 'Kraft durch Freude' recreation camp. During his Christmas holiday, Von Braun toured the cost, and found Peenemuende. It seemed perfect - 400 km of ocean to the east for use as a missile shooting range, room along the path on the coast for tracking radars.

• Von Braun enters Luftwaffe. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Wernher Von Braun joins the German Air Force and receives pilot training at Frankfurt/Oder and Stolp..

• A4 wind tunnel tests - . Nation: Germany.

  The tests showed that the A3 configuration was unstable in flight and that it was going to take a lot of trial and error to identify the correct aerodynamic shape for the supersonic missile. Therefore the decision was taken to go slow on development of the A4 until tests with the A3 were complete. The 25 tonne thrust engine would also have to be built and proven in ground tests to determine its actual characteristics before a lot of effort was put into final design and construction of the rest of the rocket. So a series of test launches of the A3 to test the A4 control and guidance systems were undertaken, while Test Stand I at Peenemuende was prepared for tests of the 25 tonne engine.

• Ground broken at Peenemuende - . Nation: Germany.

  First objective is development of the A4 strategic ballistic missile, later dubbed the V-2. The missile is to deliver a one tonne high explosive payload to double the range of the Paris Gun of World War I (250 km - the Paris Gun could deliver a ten kg, 21 cm diameter shell to 125 km range). To provide a reserve, the missile was designed for a 1500 m/s burnout velocity, which resulted in a 275 km range. Accuracy was to be 2 to 3 per mille, versus typical artillery shell accuracy of 4 to 5 per mille. These requirements indicated a 25 tonne thrust engine, powering a 12 tonne missile, with a 2100 m/s exhaust velocity, burning 8 tonnes of propellant in 65 seconds. The requirement to transport the missile by rail limited the diameter to 1.6 m, which in turn led to a 14 m length. Span with the detachable tail fins was 3.5 m.

  Several major issues had to be solved during development. The first was what wing and body shapes would be stable at supersonic velocities. Another was building adequate ground facilities for the intensive tests needed to develop the 25 tonne thrust motor. For this purpose a static test facility was built at Peenemuende capable of handling 100 tonne thrust motors, seen as the next step after the A4. Another major problem was developing high-capacity pumps to deliver the liquid oxygen at a temperature of -185 deg C.

• First supersonic wind tunnel. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hermann, Rudolf.

  Following problems with testing of the A3 (a subscale version of the planned V-2) by Dr Hermann, Von Braun proposes to the Germany army that a supersonic wind tunnel be constructed at a cost he estimates as 300,000 Marks. Other parts of the Army are not supportive of the facility, but it is finally built, costing millions more than Von Braun estimated.

• Rocketplane stand tests completed at Kummersdorf - . Nation: Germany. During the year the team had proven installation of a 1000 kgf engine, installed in a He-112, at burn times of up to 90 seconds..

• German rocketplane tests - . Nation: Germany. Spacecraft Bus: German Rocketplanes. Spacecraft: He-112.

  Three flight tests were made between February and April in a He-112 equipped with a 300 kgf liquid fuel rocket engine by Flight-Captain Erich Warsitz from Neuhardenberg near Berlin. On the final flight Warstiz smelled something burning, and made an emergency belly landing. He survived but the aircraft had to be written off. Engine exhaust had flowed back into the space between the engine and fuselage and burnt cables. Work on this engine continued at Area 4 at Peenemuende. The planned application was a 1000 kgf JATO pod, with a burn time of 30 seconds, to boost bombers into the air.

• Birth of Sigmund Werner Paul 'Sig' Jaehn - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Jaehn. German pilot cosmonaut 1976-1978. First German astronaut. 1 spaceflight, 7.9 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz 31 (1978)..

• Peenemünde opened. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Thiel, Walter, von Braun.

  Joint German Army-Air Force rocket research station opened at Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea. The Army Ordnance rocket program under Capt. Walter Dornberger moved 90 of its staff from Kummersdorf. Thiel and five staff working on V-2 rocket engine development remained at Kummersdorf until the summer of 1940, when the test stands at Peenemuende were finally completed..

• Von Braun joins Nazi Party. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Wernher Von Braun joins the Nazi Party..

• First A3 launch - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 0.10 km (0.06 mi). Range: 0.30 km (0.19 mi).

  First launch of an A3 rocket. New facilites being built at Peenemuende were not ready, so the A3 launches were made from the offshore island of Greifswalder Oie. The A3 launched on this day was 6.5 m long and 70 cm in diameter. The engine occupied the first 2 m of the fuselage. The missile had a 750 kg lift-off mass, including 450 kg of propellant, which was pressurised to 20 atmospheres. The 1.5 tonne thrust engine had a 1900 m/s exhaust velocity and a 45 second burn time. The parachute deployed 3 seconds after launch, and the engine cutoff at 6.5 seconds. The rocket impacted and exploded 300 m from the launch point.

• A3 launch - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 0.10 km (0.06 mi). Range: 0.30 km (0.19 mi). Second launch of an A3. Same result as the first - the rocket made a quarter turn after launch, then reached only 100 m before the parachute jettisoned and the missile crashed into the sea a short distance from the launch stand..

• A3 launch - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 0.10 km (0.06 mi). Range: 0.30 km (0.19 mi). Third launch of an A3. No parachute deployment and the engine cut-off early. The rocket impacted into the Baltic Sea and sank..

• A3 launch - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi).

  Final launch of the A3. The rocket is fired without the parachute that ruined the first two attempts, but in heavy fog. It is more successful than earlier shots, but at 800 to 1000 m altitude it also veers over and thrusts its way downward into the ocean. Analysis showed that the fins steering the rocket could not overcome the 8 m/s wind blowing at the time of the launch. Further study shows that at the low speed of initial rocket acceleration, a wind as little as 4 m/s would be enough to topple the rocket. A rudder area ten times greater than is needed to control the rocket at low speeds. This result leads to the decision to abandon the A3 configuration and build the A5 to support development of the A4 missile.

• A4 engine tests begin - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Poehlmann, Thiel, Walter.

  The engine delivered 18 months after design started was so compact, that the length of the A4 could be cut in half. Walter Thiel, a gifted and systematic researcher, was responsible for the engine design. He had great difficulties in obtaining stable combustion, and preventing burn-through of the chamber walls. Various injector patterns were studied in a 1.5 tonne thrust chamber. His research finally reduced the combustion chamber length from 2 m to 30 cm, while the exhaust velocity was increased from 2000 m/s to 2100 m/s, and eventually reached 2280 m/s. However the reduction in the cooling area of the chamber also increased problems in preventing hot spots and burn through. This was finally solved by using a conical throat exit and a mixing chamber ahead of the burning chamber. The 1.5 tonne thrust engine was initially run at 15 bar pressure, versus the 50 bar desired. But whenever the combustion chamber pressure was increased, burn-throughs occurred, as well as forcing increases in the mass of the pumps and tanks. Therefore finally the decision was taken to leave the chamber pressure at 15 bar.

  The next step was to make a 4.5 tonne thrust by clustering three of the 1.5 tonne engines as preburners. However Thiel still had burn-throughs in test runs. Poehlmann suggested the use of film cooling, which finally solved the problem. For the 25 tonne thrust engine, Thiel simply used 18 x 1.5 tonne thrust chambers, feeding a common mixing chamber. This was on the test stand in early 1939.

• A5 delivered to Peenemuende. - . Nation: Germany.

  The first A5 drop test model is delivered to Peenemuende just weeks after the third A3 test. Production is planned at a rate of 10 per month to define the A4 aerodynamic configuration. Objective of the first tests is to break the sound barrier - in the wind tunnel no configuration of fins had managed to go through the barrier without disintegrating. The only test possibility was to drop the model from a great height, and let gravity accelerate it to supersonic speeds. The model weighs 250 kg and is 1.6 m long and 20 cm in diameter.

• Von Braun is discharged from the Luftwaffe. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun.

• Rocket fighters - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger. Spacecraft: He-122, He-176, Me-163.

  The first rocket fighter, the He-176, powered by a Walther engine, was tested at Peenemuende. In competition, Dornberger's team developed a 120-second duration engine to power the He-122. However loss of control in unpowered flights of the latter resulted in it crashing and being eliminated from further consideration. Dornberger's team left further rocket fighter engine development to Walther, and concentrated on the A4 and follow-on ballistic missiles.

• A5 launches from Greifswalder Oie - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 12 km (7 mi).

  In the summer of 1938 the decision is made to go ahead with four A5 tests from Greifswalder Oie without the stabilising system or a parachute. The first missile ascended into a low wind, and reached 8 km altitude, nearing but not exceeding the sound barrier. Maximum altitude reached in the test series is 12 km.

• A5 stabilisation system tests - . Nation: Germany.

  In order to test the A4's stabilisation system, Walter, Kiel, is subcontracted to build a large number of model A5's. Like the drop test models, these are 20 cm and 1.6 m long. However they weigh only 47 kg gross lift-off mass, with a 27 kg empty mass. The rocket engine burns 85% hydrogen peroxide monopropellant using a calcium permanganate catalyst. The engine produces 120 kgf for 15 seconds, and has an exhaust velocity of 1000 m/s. The design objective is a low cost, reliable, and simple rocket, which will allow a large number of trail-and-error test launches to be made within a tight budget. The fins developed for the A4 as a result of these tests were shorter and wider than those of the A3. They owed nothing to aircraft wing designs of the times, which couldn't withstand supersonic speeds. But they were still too affected by the wind, tending to set the rocket on a rotation around its long axis during ascent.

• First A5 drop test. - . Nation: Germany.

  The model is dropped from a He-111 bomber from 7000 m. It breaks through the sound barrier at 1000 m altitude at a speed of 360 m/s. The stabilising fins keep the maximum oscillation of the model to within 5 degrees from vertical. The drogue ring parachute then deployed to decelerate the model to 100 m/s, followed by the main parachute which slows it to 5 m/s when it impacts in the ocean.

• JATO tests at Peenemuende - . Nation: Germany.

  From 1939-1940 a series of rocket engine tests to support development of a JATO pod were conducted from Peenemuende-West with a He-111. It was found that liquid oxygen was not an appropriate oxidiser for civil use, so the engineers at Walther - Kiel introduced hydrogen peroxide as an alternate. The Walther engine was simpler than the rocket team's prototype, could produce 1000 kgf for 300 seconds, and was capable of taking a rocket fighter to 12 km altitude within two minutes from engine start.

• Hitler visits Kummersdorf-West - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Hitler, Valier.

  This was the first time he became acquainted with liquid rocket engine technology. 300 kgf and 1000 kgf engines were fired in his presence. A colour-coded cutaway model of the A3 rocket was presented and its systems explained. Hitler was quiet throughout the exhibits and asked no questions. Afterwards, while taking lunch at the mess hall, he asked only about the development schedule (clucking when told), the range of the missile, and the impact on the schedule if synthetic 'Eisenbled' was substituted for light metal alloys in the rocket frame. Hitler spoke of deceased rocket pioneer Max Valier - he had known him in Munich, but dismissed him as a dreamer. Dornberger countered by comparing the state of rocket development to the early days of the zeppelin, when Lillienthal made the first primitive experiments. Hitler in turn dismissed airships as dangerous, filled with explosive gas . The Fuehrer finally departed with handshakes and few words. His summary of the day: 'Es war doch gewaltig' (it was impressive, nevertheless). The rocket team was dismayed - it was the first time a visitor had exhibited no reaction to the power the rocket engines when fired for their benefit. But on the plus side, Von Brauchtisch said he was astounded at the progress made by the team in only a few years. Dornberger believed Hitler was enthralled with artillery and tanks, and was unimpressed with rocket technology. He thought Hitler didn't understand the possibilities and didn't believe the time had come yet for development of the rocket as a weapon.

• Birth of Lutz T Kayser - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Kayser. German engineer and low-cost rocket pioneer. 1975-1987 developed Otrag concept - clustered large numbers of low-cost storable liquid rocket modules to reduce costs by 10x. Tested in Congo and Libya, but project killed by vested interests..

• A4 in crisis - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Hitler.

  After Hitler's visit, it finally it became clear to Dornberger that either support for the project would have to come from the highest level, or that Peenemuende should abandon rocket research and be devoted to more pressing war needs.

  Meanwhile the results of the air war over London showed that the A4 could be an economic weapon. Bombers were averaging only 5 to 6 missions, dropping only 6 to 8 tonnes of bombs before being shot down. Once the loss of trained flying crews was considered, the bomber cost 30 times more than the A4 to deliver a tonne of explosives on London compared to the expendable A4 at its production price of 38,000 Marks. But time was being lost in convincing others in the German leadership that the missile should be put into production.

• Wernher von Braun proposed to the German Reich Air Ministry a "fighter with rocket drive". - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Bachem, Fieseler. Spacecraft Bus: German Rocketplanes. Spacecraft: Von Braun Rocketplane.

  The vertical take-off interceptor would reach 8 km altitude in 53 seconds and then manoeuvre toward the aircraft to be intercepted. The design was developed further by Fieseler as the Fi-166, which retained the rocket takeoff but used a turbojet for a longer cruising flight. The Ministry finally rejected the vertical-takeoff rocket interceptor concept at the end of 1941. The concept was revived at the end of the war as the Bachem Natter.

• A4 full scale development authorised - . Nation: Germany. Von Brauchtisch gave the go-ahead for the A4 to enter full development as a weapon system for the German Army..

• Goering tours Kummersdorf-West - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hitler. Unlike Hitler, he was enthusiastic about the potential of rocket technology..

• Birth of Eberhard 'Eb' Koellner - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Koellner. German pilot cosmonaut, 1976-1978..

• Rocket development given highest priority - . Nation: Germany.

  Von Brauchtisch obtained the highest priority for development of the A4. This was used in early 1940 to get 4,000 soldiers with the necessary engineering and technical backgrounds released from the Army and sent to Peenemuende's 'Versuchskommando-Nord'. Nevertheless there was a constant fight for priority in obtaining materials.

• A-5 development rockets with gyroscopic controls and parachutes - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Apogee: 7.00 km (4.30 mi).

  New test series at Greifswalder Oie. The island had changed a lot, with massive new concrete installations. Three A3's were flown with a new Siemens control system. The first was launched vertically, reaching 7 km at 45 seconds into the flight at the time of engine cut-off. Both the drogue and main parachutes functioned correctly, and the rocket splashed down in the harbour and was recovered a half hour later by a motor boat (the rocket could float for up to two hours before water entering the empty propellant tanks would sink it).

• Second functional A5 launch. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 7.00 km (4.30 mi). This was a vertical launch, replicating the first launch of the series, and was again recovered successfully..

• Third functional A5 launch. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 4.00 km (2.40 mi). Range: 6.00 km (3.70 mi).

  This was the first test of the pitch-over manoeuvre required for the operational A4. The test went perfectly - the rocket pitched over 4 seconds after lift-off, reaching 4 km altitude, and was 6 km downrange from the launch point when the drogue parachute deployed. The rocket was recovered from the ocean successfully. This was finally a complete success after seven years of developmental effort. But the rocket had not broken the sound barrier.

• Further A5 test launches. - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 18 km (11 mi). The German rocket team successfully fired and recovered further A5 development rockets with gyroscopic controls and parachutes, attaining altitude of 12 km and a range of 18 km..

• A9 basic research and design - . Nation: Germany.

  By adding wings to the A4, the 800 m/s of kinetic energy the rocket had at cut-off could be exploited in a glide attack, extending the range of the missile from 250 km to 550 km. Such a supersonic aircraft had never been flown and presented many aerodynamic and engineering problems in 1943. Various tests of the A4's with wings began in early 1940. These were successful, and the configuration was dubbed the A9. The trajectory for such a missile involved a boost to an apogee of 29 km, then a stable glide at 20 km altitude at a speed of 1250 m/s. At the end of the glide, the missile would have descended to 5 km altitude, then make a vertical dive on the target in the fashion of the Fi-103/V-1. The A9 would be equipped with wings with a total area of 13.5 sq m. A manned version of this boost-glide rocketplane was also designed. This could reach a conventional airfield 600 km from the launch point in only 17 minutes, landing at a speed of 160 kph. Another possibility to further extend range would be a catapult-launched A9, using the technology developed for the V-1. This would provide an extra velocity of 350 m/s, further extending the missile's potential range.

• Peenemuende wind tunnel goes into operation. - . Nation: Germany.

  The tunnel was used an average of 500 hours per month. 1000 cubic metres of vacuum vessels were pumped to a 98% vacuum in three to five minutes by three banks of double vacuum pumps. When vented, they provided the tunnel with 20 seconds of run time at velocities from Mach 1.2 to Mach 4.0, or 1500 m/s. Models 4 to 5 cm in diameter x 30-40 cm long could be accommodated in the tunnel, instrumented at 110 data points. These tests showed that drag increased 70% at the sound barrier and that the centre of pressure on the missile moved back one-half calibre. The wind tunnel runs showed that the basic A4 shape was all right, but that it needed load-carrying wings and a new rudder for the higher-speed A9 glider version. Huge trial and error was required to develop an A9 configuration that was stable, but not so stable that the control surfaces were too large. An arrow wing was the best performing, but the control surfaces were then in the turbulent flow of the wing and inadequate. Swept wings provided 12% less glide ratio than the arrow wing, resulting in a 60 km loss of range. Trapezoidal wings were the final solution, the end of a long iterative process.

  Peenemuende-developed delta wings were adapted to Army artillery rounds of the 105 mm flak gun and K5 280 mm cannon, decreasing drag by 35%. The result was an increase of 6 kg in the explosive load, a 6 kg increase in the iron mass of the round, but with a range increase from 59 to 90 km. Equipped with a new, lighter warhead, and a sabot boosting a slimmer round, the gun could shoot projectiles to a range of 135 to 150 km, with an accuracy of 2 per mill.

• A4 radio guidance tests - . Nation: Germany.

  In early 1940 a Do-17M aircraft was equipped with a Siemens fully automatic autopilot. This was designed to keep the aircraft within a 50 mhz guidance beam, which was produced at a 3 kW transmitter installed at Bornholm Island in Denmark, northeast of Peenemuende. The aircraft would capture the beam b flying within 1 degree of the its centre at a distance of 2 km from the transmitter. After a 140 km flight the aircraft would still be within 20 m of the correct position. The beam had a total effective range of 200 km. The Peenemuende team remembered its accuracy by the fact that on each test they would always fly over the same small red house in Bornholm on the coast.

  Use of the system on the A4 was complicated by the problem of the electrical charge that formed on the rocket body during flight through the atmosphere, and the electrical ions in the rocket exhaust, both of which made good reception of radio signals difficult. 90% of a 50 mhz signal was attenuated at the critical moment of engine cut-off. Another accuracy issue was oscillation of the rocket once it was out of the atmosphere - the rudders in the exhaust did not act smoothly, producing the equivalent of pilot-induced oscillations. The solution was to develop a missile that rode the beam during the entire boost phase, not just converging with it at the point of engine cut-off.

  Many partial system test stands were used to solve these control and guidance problems, most notably a full-up 'iron bird' that could be used to test the effect of new systems on existing components.

• Design A9/A10 of the two stage transatlantic ballistic missile began in 1940. - . Nation: Germany.

  First flight would have been in 1946. Work on the A9/A10 was prohibited after 1943 when all efforts were to be spent on perfection and production of the A4 as a weapon-in-being. Von Braun managed to continue some development and flight tests of the A9 under the cover name of A4b (i.e. a modification of the A4, and therefore a production-related project). In late 1944 work on the A9/A10 resumed under the code name Projekt Amerika, but no significant hardware development was possible after the last test of the A4b in January 1945.

• Von Braun learns of Saenger's secret work at Trauen - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hermann, Rudolf, Saenger, Thiel, Walter, von Braun.

  Saenger's advanced rocketry work was so secret that Von Braun was not even aware of it until one of his team, looking for a new method of rocket ignition, heard of its existence. Von Braun, Walter Thiel, and Rudolf Hermann were finally given a tour of Saenger's advanced facilities at Trauen.

• A4 rocket development removed from priority list. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hitler.

  After the military success in Poland, Hitler believes development of expensive 'wonder weapons' are unnecessary to win the war. The A4 and other rocket projects are removed from the priority list, making acquisition of necessary materials and engineers difficult.

• First full-duration test of A4 engine. - . Nation: Germany. The engine is run at 25 tonnes thrust for 60 seconds on Test Stand I at Peenemuende..

• Hitler invades Norway, Denmark - . Nation: Germany.

• Von Braun promoted to SS Untersturmfuehrer. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Von Braun's membership in the SS is 'renewed' and he is promoted to Untersturmfuehrer with the SS number 185068. According to some accounts he had joined the SS as early as 1934..

• Hitler invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg - . Nation: Germany.

• Hitler invades France - . Nation: Germany.

• Peenemuende test stands completed. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Thiel, Walter. Thiel and the remaining staff of the rocket team at Kummersdorf moved to Peenemuende..

• Saenger attends hypersonics conference at Peenemuende. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Saenger, von Braun. Reciprocating his visit to Saenger's Trauen facility earlier in the year, Von Braun obtains permission for Saenger to attend a hypersonics symposium at Peenemuende..

• A4 facilities - . Nation: Germany.

  The A4 assembly hall at Area 7 at Peenemuende was 30 m high and 50 m long. After assembly, the missile was moved to the cold flow test stand. There each rocket was tested and calibration documents were generated, necessary for the launch troops to take into account when preparing the rocket and programming its guidance system. The launch pad itself was ringed by a 7 m wide concrete embankment, and sunk 6 m into the ground. The viewpoint was 150 m from the pad, at the southern, smaller end of the complex.

  The pad was surrounded by instrumentation rooms. Water was delivered at 500 litres/second through a 1.20 m diameter pipe to a molybdenum steel cooling section, consisting of many pipes running around the exhaust blast diverter. Other test stands included number 10, where the effects of the rocket exhaust on different material surfaces was tested; and number 8, where newly delivered engines were fired and calibrated. These certification tests ran as long as 650 seconds on the water-cooled stand. Area 9 was used for launches of the Wasserfall surface-to-air missile, and Area 2 for tests of the A4 using nitric acid and Visol as propellants. Area 4 was devoted to firing tests of engines installed in aircraft fuselages, and Area 3 contained the 1000 kgf engine test stand. This stand included pump and steam test stands, and a hydrogen peroxide plant. Area 6 was built to the same design as the largest test stands at Kummersdorf, and used for A5 tests. Hundreds of A5's were shot from Greifswalder Oie.

• A4 engine improvements - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Beck, Thiel, Walter.

  Throughout the early 1940's Thiel and his team sought to produce a single chamber 25 tonne thrust engine in place of the kludged prototype engine that used 18 separate 1.5 tf chambers. They managed to demonstrate a 60 second burn time in the 18-chamber design, but the engine itself was considered too complicated to fabricate in production, requiring thousands of hand-assembled tubes to introduce fuel and oxidiser into the chamber. Thiel sought to replace these thousands of tubes with a simpler injection system - rows of simple bored holes on a flat injector plate at the head of the chamber. Beck at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden developed a ring-pattern injector that worked well in subscale engines. But the design proved unstable in the 25 tf engine. Therefore, it was decided to stick with the 18-head chamber for V-2 production.

• The V-3 Hochdruckpumpe supergun conceived - . Nation: Germany.

  Coenders at Saar Roechling proposed the concept of sequentially electrically activated angled side chambers to provide additional acceleration of a shell during its passage up the barrel of the gun. This allowed a muzzle velocity of over 1500 m/s. A 140 m long cannon using this concept would be capable of delivering a 140 kg shell over a 165 km range. Funding is finally obtained to build a subscale prototype.

• Birth of Dr Ulf Dietrich Merbold - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Merbold. German physicist payload specialist astronaut 1978-1998. 3 spaceflights, 49.9 days in space. Flew to orbit on STS-9 (1983), STS-42, Soyuz TM-20..

• Full-scale development of A4 authorised. - . Nation: Germany. Following the loss of the air war with Britain, the German military leadership realises that missiles offer the only possibility of attacking London. Development of the A4 to the point of production-readiness is authorised..

• Me-163A first flight. - . Nation: Germany.

  Messerschmitt Me-163A powered by "cold" H. Walther rocket successfully flown at Augsburg, Germany, development of which had begun in 1937, but "cold" engine proved unreliable. Flights were also made in October which reached speeds of 1,003 km/hr, or Mach 0.85.

• Von Braun promoted to SS Obersturmfuehrer. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun.

• Mach 10 wind tunnel designed. - . Nation: Germany.

  In preparation for the A9/A10 transatlantic missile, the Peenemuende team completed design of a Mach 10 wind tunnel. However construction would not begin for another two years due to priority on devoting all available engineering time to getting the A4 into production.

• A4 series production - . Nation: Germany. An initial series of prototypes were built at the factories of Dip-Ing Stahlknecht, then a second line was opened up at Dr Eckener's Zeppelinwerke..

• Peenemuende team's ambitions - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger.

  Von Braun was obsessed by grandiose futuristic fantasies, and Dornberger felt he constantly had to throw cold water on the engineer to keep them in check. But this tendency was easily overshadowed by Von Braun's fantastic ability to solve a technical problem, to throw all the extraneous ballast overboard and concentrate on the solution. In the moment the solution was technically realised, Von Braun no longer had any interest in the issue and dropped it.

  There was never any doubt that manned space travel was Von Braun's life goal. The technology needed for manned flight presented many such technical challenges. He realised early on that only multi-staged liquid propelled rockets could achieve his dream. Rockets certainly needed lighter propellant tanks, but there was a practical technical limit to this, and in any case, there still had to be a payload. Von Braun knew that liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen was the ultimate propellant combination, but also that learning how to handle liquid hydrogen would be a long-term affair. A one-year study at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden and Peenemuende showed that other propellant combinations could produce no more than a 20% improvement in specific impulse compared to the existing V-2 technology. Therefore a multistage rocket was the only way to achieve orbital spaceflight.

• V-2 s/n 1 moved to Test Stand VII at Peenemuende. - . Nation: Germany. The missile was used for facility checks and checking of launch procedures..

• V-2 s/n 1 explodes during engine test run. - . Nation: Germany.

  The missile was being tested on Test Stand VII; no launch had been planned. G Harry Stine noticed that the German rocket scientists at White Sands were very reluctant to talk about the details of the failure, but finally managed to get the real story from Konrad Dannenberg:

  The first A.4 missile was a hand-made job. Motor tests preceding the first flight were to be carried out in a huge, mobile test stand, which held the entire missile. However, this first A.4 never flew; it found its end in the test stand. In order to clamp the missile into the stand without attaching the thrust mounts to the missile structure, a large steel corset was built. Unfortunately, the builders of this corset did not take into account the shrinkage of the missile components when the frigid liquid oxygen was pumped aboard. The first A4 shrank, dropped out of the corset, and was a total wash-out.

  The test was to have examined the behavior of the guidance system and the graphite steering vanes in the exhaust flow. The corset had pivot mountings on it to allow the missile to be deflected while its motor was being fired, to see how fast the steering vanes responded, and what amount of corrective force they developed. After the failure, the Peenemuende team was embarrassed by the fact that they had overlooked something as obvious as the fact that cold things shrink.

• V-2 4001 - . Nation: Germany. First full-scale static testing .

• A4 reliability development - . Nation: Germany.

  The early failure rate of the A4 prototype missiles was extremely high, so the Peenemuende rocket team had to develop new measures to test and improve reliability down to the component level. This included improved quality control during manufacture, and test of the missile's components in all weathers, not just in heated laboratories. This resulted in the overall missile failure rate declining from 17% in the early test series to 4% in the final series. The V-1/Fi-103 cruise missile had a 28% higher failure rate, even though it was a simpler design.

• V-2 4002 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. First V-2 launch..

• Submarine launch of powder rockets - . Nation: Germany.

  Solid propellant rockets were fired from a submerged platform off Greifswalder Oie to test the concept of a submarine-launched missile. The idea came from Steihoff, an engineer on the rocket team whose brother was a submarine captain. 20 to 30 Wurfgeraete of the Army's smoke corps, equipped with flammable oil or explosive warheads, were shot at the coast from up to 3 km away. The concept was to put enemy coastal oil storage tanks into flames. At Swinemuende a launcher was installed aboard a Submarine and salvoes of 20 rockets successfully fired from 10 to 15 m under water. The launcher was unnoticeable on the submarine, and the dispersion of the rockets was only a bit worse than a shot from land. But the German Navy wouldn't accept simply using an existing Army launcher. They insisted on developing a different one themselves, which would take a year, putting deployment of the system beyond the end of the war.

• V-2 4003 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4004 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Steep climb. Range 190 km .

• V-2 4005 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Steam generator fault. Range 147 km..

• Von Braun promoted to SS Hauptsturmfuehrer. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun.

• V-2 4006 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Vetical test to 67 km. Range 14 km..

• V-2 4007 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• A4 priority - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Speer. Dornberger clashes with Speer over priority for the A4..

• Train-launched A4. - . Nation: Germany.

  A rail-launched A4 was considered from the beginning of the project. At the end of 1942 the first train launcher wagon was completed and trials began from Test Stand VII at Peenemuende. In service the trains would have hidden in double-tracked train tunnels. Development was interrupted to get the vehicle-towed standard version of the weapon into service.

• Peenemuende team's spaceflight plans - . Nation: Germany.

  Using catapults and wings an A9 might nearly achieve 1000 km range, but the only solution for transatlantic missions was the two-stage A9/A10. The A10 boost stage was to have a total mass of 87 tonnes, of which 62 tonnes would be propellant. The stage's 200 tonne thrust motor would burn for 50 to 60 seconds, taking the A9 upper stage to 1200 m/s. Then the A9 would separate and burn its engine, reaching an apogee of 55 km, followed by a long hypersonic glide in the atmosphere. The second stage would be equipped with air brakes for deceleration over the target, followed by a parachute for recovery in the water. The A9/A10 would reach a maximum velocity of 2800 m/s, and have a range of 4100 km, and a total flight time of 35 minutes. Full-scale development was underway, when further significant work on the project was stopped at the end of 1942. Only the Advanced Projects Group, under the direction of Dip-Ing Roth and Ing Palt, continued design of the missile. It was also planned to develop, after the war, a stratospheric rocket that could travel in 40 minutes from Europe to America. After that, the target was orbital spaceships that could reach 8 km/sec and 500 km orbital altitude. Beyond that, space stations and the burial in space of the embalmed bodies of the rocket developers and men of the rocket service. Manned expeditions to the moon were also a popular theme for research. Finally, the use of nuclear energy to achieve interstellar travel was studied by the Advanced Projects Group.

• V-2 4009 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• A4 guidance development - . Nation: Germany.

  Using its original gyroscopic guidance package, the A4 demonstrated a 4.5 km CEP up to 1943, with 100% of the shots falling within 18 km of the target. Many factors contributed to this inaccuracy - out of tolerance guidance system components, and poor alignment of the gyro platform prior to firing. One solution developed was a radio correction system similar to that used by aircraft for landings in poor visibility. A moving radio beam would follow the correct course, and the rocket would manoeuvre to stay within the beam. But there was no support within the Army for full development of such a system - their priority was in developing and deploying distance-measuring radio navigation systems for the aviation forces. A radio guidance unit was not used aboard an A4 until near the war's end, and that used an adaptation of a system designed for a beam-riding air-launched missile. But even using the radio correction technique, the engineers were unable to get the rocket's CEP under 2 km.

• Further work on the A9/A10 ICBM was prohibited - . Nation: Germany.

  All efforts were to be spent on perfection and production of the A4 (V-2) as a weapon-in-being. Von Braun managed to continue some development and flight tests of the A9 under the cover name of A4b (i.e. a modification of the A4, and therefore a production-related project).

• German nuclear-powered rocket development deferred. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger. Dornberger contacts Heisenberg on the potential of using nuclear power for rocket propulsion. Heisenberg was able to make no firm commitment as to when such a system would be available..

• V-2 4010 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Showdown meeting on A4 - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Degenkolb, Dornberger, Hitler, Speer, Todt.

  Speer meets with Von Braun and Dornberger. A 1:100 model of the planned bunker construction-launch facility for the rocket to be built by Organisation Todt on the British channel was exhibited. Speer reveals that Hitler could not decide about the rocket as a weapon. He did not believe the rocket team's plans could be made to work. But Speer did authorise them to proceed with construction on his own authority - he hoped Hitler could be brought around eventually. But he emphasised that Dornberger would have to use his personal connections to get industry moving on the project. But Dornberger was thwarted when the Army put Degenkolb in charge of organising production of the missile. Degenkolb was a sworn enemy of Dornberger's, and had been implicated in the 'suicide' of General Becker in early 1940. Degenkolb set up a Nazi-supported bureaucracy in parallel to that of Dornberger's, requiring the approval of the Army weapons bureau on any decisions. Degenkolb had the sponsorship of Todt and Saur, who in turn followed the party line - 'like the Fuehrer, we are not yet won over to the concept of a long range missile'.

  In order to productionise the A4 design, Degenkolb began authorising many detailed changes. He didn't understand that every change had to be proven in test first, and only incremental steps could be taken. Stahlknecht had planned to produce 300 A4 missiles per month by January 1944, and 600 per month by July 1944. Degenkolb unrealistically decreed that 300 per month be achieved by October 1943, and 900 per month by December 1943.

• V-2 4011 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Steep roll; Burnout at T+64.5 seconds. Range 105 km.

• Peenemuende privatisation - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Degenkolb, Dornberger, Siemens.

  In a meeting with Professor Hettlage, of the Financial and Organisational Ministry of the German Defence Industry, it was proposed that Peenemuende be made a private country, with the Nazi Party and selected corporations (AEG, Siemens, Lorenz, Rheinmetall) being its shareholders. Dornberger saw Degenkolb behind this plan, and was determined to keep Peenemuende an Army proving ground. He felt that an asset, on which several hundred million Marks had been invested by the government, was being handed over to private hands for 1 to 2 million Marks. The investors intended to recover their entire investment back on a fee paid for each missile built. In the end Dornberger managed to keep Peenemuende an Army proving ground, but then he had to fight off an attempt by AEG to take over the electronics side of the development team. The rocket team's electronic engineers were years ahead of the rest of the industry, and a tempting target.

• V-2 4012 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Flat trajectory; Burnout at T+61 seconds. Range 196 km.

• V-2 4013 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• A4 production plans - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Degenkolb.

  A4 missiles were to be produced at Peenemuende, Friedrichshafen, and the Raxwerken at Wiener Neustadt. But problems began immediately - the Army expected the rockets to be as easy to build as locomotives; there was no engineering staff or time available to productionise the prototype design; there were no staff available to properly train production engineers and technicians. Degenkolb threatened to imprison the rocket team's engineers if they didn't get the missile into production on schedule. He was oblivious to the difficulties of achieving this.

• V-2 4016 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Hitler's dream - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hitler.

  Hitler dreamed that no A4 missile could ever reach England. The result was that the program lost its priority amidst other pressing armaments programs, and the necessary engineers and production rocket engines could not be obtained. While losing priority, the high security classification remained, so it was not possible to recruit non-German engineers and technicians for the work. The production schedule inevitably slid. Finally the government decided to competitively evaluate the Fi-103 cruise missile (V-1) against the A4 ballistic missile (V-2) leading to the selection of a single weapon for mass production by July of 1943.

• V-2 4018 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Vertical; Burnout at T+60 seconds. Range 133 km.

• V-2 4019 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-3 tests. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Hitler.

  The V-3 cannon was tested at Misdroy on Wollin Island (now Miedzyzdroje, Poland). The gun was a 60 m long constant-pressure cannon developed by Coenders of the Roechling firm in Saarbrucken. The gun was laid at a 45 degree angle in the dunes. Aiming was accomplished by arranging wood blocks under the concrete sections. The gun demonstrated a 15 km range with a sabot-launched, arrow-shaped warhead. The tests were conducted under Kammler, who was responsible for all V-weapons. Dornberger had been opposed to the concept, but everyone else was enthusiastic, due to Hitler's support and unending fascination with artillery.

• Himmler visits Peenemuende - . Nation: Germany.

  This was the first review of the facilities by the SS commander. He pledged support, but instead the SS set up its own rocket research centre at Grossendorf, near Danzig. This marked yet another struggle for control of the programme. Himmler was defeated in this effort, but he would take his revenge later.

• V-2 4017 - . Nation: Germany. Burnout at T+64.5s Flight duration 310 seconds..

• V-2 4020 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+64s; 287 km; nav err. Range 287 km.

• V-2 development detected by British Intelligence. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. Prime Minister Winston Churchill of England was informed of reports on German experiments with long-range rockets..

• V-2 4021 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+60s; 252 km; nav err. Range 252 km.

• V-2 4022 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Switch failure. Burnout at T+62 seconds. Range 250 km..

• V-1/V-2 fly-off - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Degenkolb, Dornberger, Speer.

  A government commission, consisting of Speer, Milch, Doenitz, and Fromm viewed launches of the competing missiles at Peenemuende. The V-1/Fi-103 was much cheaper than the V-2/A4, but it was slow and low - it operated at 160 m/s at an altitude of between 200 and 2000 m - and vulnerable to enemy flak batteries and interceptors. It provided the enemy with a forewarning of attack by its characteristic engine noise and the cut-off of that noise when it went into its terminal dive. It could only be launched from fixed concrete launch ramps, making the launchers vulnerable to enemy air attack. The V-2 was mobile, more accurate, could not be intercepted, and gave the enemy no warning of attack in its supersonic ballistic course to the target. In the end, the commission could find no overwhelming advantage to either of the very different weapons, and both were ordered into production. The positive advantages of each weapon outweighed the negatives. In the tests before the commission, the Fi-103 had bad luck, and achieved no successful shots for two of the A4. '2:0 for your team', Milch told Dornberger. Speer claimed he 'always supported' the A4 but Dornberger ruefully noted they had lost 18 months in delays, primarily due to Degenkolb's incompetence. Speer pressed Dornberger - if Degenkolb really can't make it happen, then just give me the word. He'll be dismissed. But Degenkolb was not dismissed - he had Saur's complete backing.

• V-2 4025 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4026 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+66s; Flight duration 349 seconds. Range 265 km.

• V-2 4024 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+56s; Flight duration 248 seconds. Range 138 km.

• Dornberger promoted - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Degenkolb, Dornberger.

  Dornberger was promoted to Major General. But Degenkolb was still in charge of A4 production, and had sent four engineers to spy at Peenemuende, asking them to provide recommendations on reorganisation of the place, promising the four that they would be made directors of the new enterprise.

• V-2 firing range to be established in Poland. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun.

  It is decided to move testing of production V-2s and training of combat launch crews from the Baltic Sea to the middle of Poland, at Heidelager, near Blizna. German units here operationally test fired over 100 V-2's, launching 10 on one day, only a small number of which were fully successful.

• First Me-163B flight. - . Nation: Germany. Messerschmitt Me-163B rocket interceptor powered by Walther "hot" engine successfully flown at Bremen, Augsburg, and near Leipzig, Germany. Over 300 Me-163B's were produced by Junkers by the end of 1944..

• A4 development - . Nation: Germany.

  Area 7 was used for tests of the A4's pyrotechnic igniters. The missile could be ordered to cut off its engine by radio if it veered inland. Delays in development were inevitable - a 'Peenemuende Minute' corresponded to 11 minutes or more on the watch. On one memorable occasion, the missile ignited, but its fuel pump did not reach full speed. The rocket reached only 4.5 m altitude before hovering, its abnormally low thrust exactly counterbalancing the mass of the missile. The film operator kept his post, only 100 m from the fantastic sight. As the rocket consumed propellant, its weight was reduced, and it slowly moved skyward, reaching 10 m, then 22 m, and slowly drifting out of the launch pad area. It finally crashed only 40 m beyond the blast wall. The cameraman stayed at his post through all of this.

• V-2 4023 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+62s; Flight duration 287 seconds. Range 62 km.

• V-2 4029 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+63s; Flight duration 291 seconds. Range 238 km.

• V-2 4031 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+61 seconds. Range 238 km.

• V-2 4028 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+63s; Exploded at 70 seconds. Range 75 km.

• V-2 4030 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+65s; Flight duration 318 seconds. Range 287 km .

• V-2 4036 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+65 seconds. Range 235 km.

• Von Braun promoted to SS Sturmbannfuehrer. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: von Braun. He was assigned to the Staff of the Oberabschnitt Ostsee..

• Himmler's second visit to Peenemuende - . Nation: Germany.

  The rocket team and SS entourage discussed politics until 4 am. The next morning, the first demonstration launch of a V-2 failed - the missile turned west at an altitude of 200 m, and crashed in the woods outside of Peenmuende-West, destroying three aircraft on the nearby runway. Fortunately no one was killed. The second launch in the afternoon was successful. But the bureaucratic efforts by the SS and other organisations to take over the rocket program from the Army continued.

• V-2 4038 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4040 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+64 seconds. Range 236 km.

• V-2 4033 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Peenemuende given highest priority - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Hitler, Speer, Steinhoff, Ernst.

  Dornberger, Von Braun, and Steinhoff (at the controls) fly aboard a He-111 to the Fuehrer bunker in East Prussia. There they give Hitler a review of the V-2 program, the first since his visit to Kummersdorf in March 1939. The appointment was for 11:30, but then delayed to 17:00.

  When they were finally ushered into his presence, Dornberger was shocked at the terrible and changed appearance of the Fuehrer. The team begins their briefing, in the presence of Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Butale, and Speer. The presentation began with a film of preparations and launch of an A4 on the 3 October 1942. Von Braun narrated the film, which had proven a real crowd-pleaser in the past. It showed the A4 in production at the vast assembly hall at Peenemuende, the vertical roll-out, the huge launch complex, and finally launch. Von Braun then presented a model and plans for the hardened production/launch bunker that was being built on the English Channel.

  Hitler loved the bunker model, and declared he wanted to build not one, but three such facilities. Dornberger argued that mobile launchers would be militarily less vulnerable and less costly, but Hitler was unconvinced. The 7 m thick bunker walls, he declared, would 'draw every allied bomber like flies to honey. Every bomb they drop there will be one that does not fall on Germany'. Hitler asks if the payload can be increased to 10 tonnes (in order to accommodate a nuclear warhead) or if a 2,000 per month production rate was possible (in order to make mass attacks on Britain with conventional explosive or chemical payloads). Dornberger replies that it would take four to five years to develop a missile with greater payload, and that production was limited by the German industrial capacity for alcohol (used as fuel in the missile).

  Dornberger noted that they did not dream of the possibility of short-term availability of nuclear energy in 1936, when the specifications for the missile were set. In any case, after the loss of the heavy water plant in Norway, it would take years to develop nuclear weapons. Hitler was visibly upset that the V-2 would not turn out to be a war-deciding weapon. But Dornberger pointed out it was a great psychological weapon - unstoppable, something against their which there was no defence.

  Hitler stated that 'I have only had to excuse myself to two men in my life - and one of them was von Brauchtisch, who always championed the importance of your work, and the other is you. If we had this weapon in 1939, Britain would have conceded, and there would have been no war.

  Hitler finally ordered that the V-1 and V-2 missile programs be given the highest priority in the defence ministry. Immediately needed staff and material began flowing into the program. Saur immediately ordered a production goal of 2,000 missiles per month, despite the fact that there was no prospect of producing enough alcohol fuel or training enough launch crews to actual fire the missiles at such a rate. However, there was no disagreement, since any industry leader who did not commit to meeting this production goal was threatened with immediate replacement. German alcohol production would mean the maximum number that could ever be fired was 900 per month.

• V-2 given top priority. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hitler, von Braun. Adolf Hitler gave the German V-2 program highest military priority..

• V-2 4034 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4041 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 program in crisis - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Degenkolb, Dornberger, Thiel, Walter.

  With only four months to go before Degenkolb's mandated production of 900 missiles per month, the engineers declare the missile is not ready for production. A workable engine has been developed, but it is complex, suitable for prototypes only, and the engineers involved do not have the experience to turn it into something designed for mass production. Continuous changes on the engine also affect other parts of the rocket, resulting in drawing changes simultaneous with the effort to mass-produce detailed parts. Thiel and his team declare that in fact development of the A4 can never be finished before the war's end. They recommend that plans to put it into production should be stopped. Thiel, at the verge of a nervous breakdown, led this engineering 'revolt', although Rees was the spokesman. They declare they would stop work at Peenemuende and retire to the university. Von Braun argued against this position, demanding that production continue. Dornberger suffered a crisis of confidence in the rocket team as a result of this fight, but decided to continue trying to get the missile in production and fielded with the Germany Army.

• V-2 4054 - . Nation: Germany. Burnout at T+68 seconds. Flight duration 270 seconds..

• Death of Walter Thiel - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Thiel, Walter. German engineer, talented designer at Peenemuende, in charge of development of the engine for the V-2. Killed in the air raid in August 1943, a setback to the project..

• Peenemünde attacked by RAF. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Reitsch, Thiel, Walter, von Braun.

  The Royal Air Force attacked Germany's Peenemünde Rocket Research Center, causing heavy damage and delaying V-weapon program by months.

  With the V-2 development program already in crisis, the Allies launch a massive bombing raid against Peenemuende. On that evening test pilot Hanna Reitsch was visiting the launch site. At 23:30 the air raid siren sounded. 600 British bombers drop 1500 tonnes of ordnance on the launch centre. However many bombs fell in the ocean around the peninsula, or buried themselves harmlessly in sand dunes. The resident area was hardest hit, while the Luftwaffe station at Peenemuende West was not touched. 47 British bombers were shot down - they were told before the raid that this was the most important mission of the war, and that their commanders would accept a 50% loss rate. 735 people were killed in the raid on the ground, including 178 of the 4000 inhabitants of the residential area. A large number of the foreign slave workers in the Trassenheide concentration camp barracks were also killed.

  After the tremendous raid the rocket team wander around the devastated facility, half-clothed, the buildings bathed in a weird light and everything covered in fine sand, as if flour was dropped over everything. Thiel and Walther - the two leading rocket engineers in Germany - were killed in the raid, and virtually all major facilities were damaged. The saving grace was that the soft sand of Peenemuende attenuated the blast of many bombs. Nine bombs hit the main assembly hall, but while there was splinter damage to some of the machine tools, there was no decisive hit that would prevent production from continuing. It was estimated that operations could resume in 4 to 6 weeks.

  The raid was not unexpected. The high altitude contrails of the V-2 test launches were called 'frozen lightning' and could be seen from Sweden on clear days. The location and purpose of Peenemuende appeared in a crossword puzzle in a illustrated magazine published in central Germany in early 1943. British reconnaissance flights to locate the launch facilities had been recognised for what they were.

  This raid, together with the bombing of V-2 production lines at the Zeppelinwerke in Friedrichshafen and the Raxwerke in Wiener Neustadt convinced Saur to reduce the V-2 production rate goal to 900 per month.

• V-2 production facilities bombed - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Hitler, Todt.

  Ten days after the raid on Peenemuende, the British bomb the V-2 production/launch bunker under construction at Watten. Seven further bunkers (four in Pas-de-Calais, three at Cherbourg) continued to be built. Soon thereafter, V-2 production plants at Wiener Neustadt and Friedrichshafen are also bombed. Clearly the Allies had detected and targeted the infrastructure of the V-2 production program. In response to the raids, the decision was made that Organisation Todt would build an underground V-2 factory at a chalk mine in Witzen. The bunker at Watten would be used only as a liquid oxygen production plant. Hitler had mandated a 7 m thick protective roof there, which cannot be penetrated by Allied bombs. It was decided that the roof would be jacked up, the sides filled with concrete, and construction work would continue underground despite the perpetual bombing.

• V-3 in launch bunkers under construction at Mimoyecques, France. - . Nation: Germany.

  The operational version being built in the chalk cliffs of France used 4 to 5 m long T-shaped sections, assembled to a total length of 150 m, and capable of shooting shells over a 170 km range. However it took a large number of reloaders to put powder in each T-arm after a shot - the planned weapon could only be fired once every five minutes. Furthermore every third shot caused the barrel in one of the T-sections to crack, meaning it had to be removed and replaced. Bunkers in the Pas de Calais were being built for the weapon, but they were subject to incessant bombing and finally overrun by Allied troops before they could be completed.

• Submarine-launched V-2 - . Nation: Germany.

  Director Lafferenz of the German Worker's Front proposed towing of a 3 m diameter x 30 m long capsule containing a single V-2 by submarine. This was later refined to a single submarine towing three 500 tonne capsules, each with a V-2, its propellants, and launch equipment. At the launch point water tanks would be flooded in the capsule to bring it upright, with the top above the surface. The top would be opened, then launch troops would enter to prepare and fuel the rocket, followed by launch. But the pressing problem of solving the A4's reliability problems and getting it into production delayed any further work on the concept until the end of 1944.

• Dornberger meets with Hitler - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Hitler. Hitler decides to continue work on the bunkers. In Dornberger's opinion, this wastes resources that could have resulted in an earlier, full deployment of the V-2 using motorised, mobile batteries..

• German 'ski ramps' - . Nation: Germany.

  British photo-intelligence interpreters discover what they call 'ski ramps' along the Atlantic coast of occupied Europe. These are 100 m long, and a total of 21 are discovered by mid-November. It is soon noted that whatever their location, all of the ramps point toward London. Fantastic theories are proposed - they are iceberg or poison gas launchers.

• V-2 4049 - . Nation: Germany. First Field Battery launch. Burnout at T+64 seconds. Flight duration 272 seconds..

• V-2 4071 - . Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4067 - . Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4069 - . Nation: Germany. Burnout at T+63 seconds. Flight duration 286 seconds..

• Development of ballistic missiles authorized. - . Nation: Germany. Gen. H. H. Arnold, Chief of Air Staff, directed and authorized emphasis on research, development, and procurement of guided missiles, as indicated by known German advances..

• Heidelager Test - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4043 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany. First Heidelager test launch. Successful..

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. success.

• Mach 10 wind tunnel construction begins. - . Nation: Germany. A4 development is completed, so Peenemuende engineers can turn to full-scale development of the A9/A10. Construction of a Mach 10 wind tunnel to test hypersonic aerodynamic configurations for the missile begins..

• Decision to destroy the ski ramps - . Nation: Germany. Although their purpose is not understood, it is decided to start a bombing campaign to destroy the German 'ski ramps'. By December 1, 64 had been found, and 75 by 21 December..

• V-2 4073 - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Burnout at T+63 seconds. Flight duration 286 seconds..

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4060 - . Nation: Germany. Burnout at T+69 seconds. Flight duration 247 seconds..

• V-2 4059 - . Nation: Germany. Burnout at T+33 seconds. Flight duration 104 seconds..

• Nation: Germany.

• Raid against V-1 launchers - . Nation: Germany. A raid is launched by Allied 1300 aircraft. The tactics have been developed at Eglin AFB, Florida, where a replica 'ski ramp' was built in an effort to understand its purpose and how best to bomb it..

• V-2 4091 - . Nation: Germany.

• First V-2 deliveries from Mittelwerk - . Nation: Germany. 4 or 5 missiles are 'delivered' in order to meet the end-of-the-year date set by the German leadership. They are immediately returned to the tunnel for rework..

• V-2 guidance development - . Nation: Germany.

  Early A4's were equipped with a radio-controlled cut-off system. These were replaced in service versions by self-contained integrating accelerometers. Professors Bucholz and Wagner at Darmstadt had developed the system, which was shown to have the same accuracy as the radio-controled system. This system had been tested as early as the fall of 1939, but no production quantities were available until mid-1944. Gyroscopic guidance systems from Kresselgeraete GmbH were tested, but found to have inferior accuracy to the acceleromter-based system. For better precision a double integrator system was needed, but this could not be developed before the war's end. Virtually all A4 systems were developed by the engineers at Peenemuende rather than by industry. Some said that it would have been better handled by industry, but in fact there was no such thing as rocket technology when Von Braun's team began their work - it all had to be created.

• V-2 sounding rockets - . Nation: Germany. Apogee: 189 km (117 mi).

  The Peenemuende team developed scientific payloads for a sounding rocket version of the V-2, to measure cosmic rays, meteoroid flux, and so on. However due to the pressure to solve the missile's reliability problems, these were never flown from Germany. Only after the war could these plans be implemented in New Mexico. However during the war there were some vertical shots of the missile to test its stability and behaviour in a vacuum. On one such shot the missile reached 189 km altitude. On another occasion four launch troops were killed when the missile ascended, then veered 90 degrees, turned again, and impacted in the launch pit at the point of launch.

• Production V-2's exploding in flight. - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Riedel, Walther.

  The production series of V-2's are exploding in flight, and the engineers cannot determine the reason. Peenemuende engineers sought to recover 30% of the missiles for detailed examination. This showed that re-entry heating did not weaken the missile's structure. There was no scorching of the 0.6 mm thick paint applied to the interior of the missile. Only the outer paint showed signs of scorching. The missile still suffered in-flight explosions - attributed to the re-entry heating of 480 deg C and residual propellant vapours that still escaped despite the better sealing. Dornberger thought the liquid oxygen tank was the problem, while Von Braun suspected the alcohol tank. To try to determine the cause, five V-2's were shot with the engine running until all of the alcohol was depleted. These were followed by six shots with improved glass wool insulation of the liquid oxygen tank, over the objections of Riedel III, head of manufacturing at Peenemuende. Three of these shots were made in one morning, and all went off course. These were in turn followed by a series of highly instrumented launches from Peenemuende. The improvements developed as a result of these tests improved the missile reliability from 30% to 70% immediately, and then the reliability slowly increased to 80% as additional changes were made. Only in the last months of the war was it found that the forward part of the outer hull was failing in flight. Once this was strengthened with a belt of sheet metal, the V-2 achieved essentially 100% reliability.

  This entire process was going on while production was ramping up at the underground facility at Mittelwerk. There was pressure from the highest quarters to get the missile fielded and attacks on England underway. Every change resulting from these tests and research meant that the production line at Mittelwerk had to be stopped, and retrofits made to undelivered missiles.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4032 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4082 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4077 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. success.

• V-2 4074 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. success.

• Mittelwerk Eval - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. success.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. success.

• V-2 4106 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. success.

• V-2 4098 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4085 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4112 - . Nation: Germany.

• Test mission - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Apogee: 0 km (0 mi).

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• V-2 4084 - . Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht.

• Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. success.

• V-2 4151 - . Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4126 - . Nation: Germany.

• Test mission - . Nation: Germany. Agency: Wehrmacht. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi).

• Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4116 - . Nation: Germany.

• V-2 4088 - . Nation: Germany. Burnout at T+59 seconds. Flight duration 282 seconds..

• V-2 4128 - . Nation: Germany.

• V-2 problems begin to be understood - but Peenemuende Rocket Team leaders arrested by SS - . Nation: Germany. Related Persons: Dornberger, Hitler, Riedel, Walter, Steinhoff, Ernst.

  The cause of early detonation of the warhead during the engine burn time is understood, but the crashes at the end of the trajectory are still a mystery. Dornberger is ordered to report to Hitler at Berchtesgaden. The call is received at 7 pm in the evening, following a bomb raid and ice storm. Dornberger is told that on the following morning Von Braun, Riedel II, and Groettrup are to be arrested for sabotage of the A4 program. Groettrup selects Dr Steinhoff as his representative. The men are accused of not putting all their energy in development of the A4 as a weapon - instead only using the financing of the Reich to support their private plans for manned spaceflight. Dornberger know he cannot complete the program without these men - Von Braun and Riedel were the key leaders, and Groettrup was head of the electrical systems section. Dornberger finally achieves their release by demonstrating to the SS that the biggest impediment to the program was Hitler's dream that the A4 would never reach London. After a few days in detention, Von Braun was moved to Schwedt, and then freed. The others were allowed out a bit later.

• Nation: Germany.