Peenemuende Credit - © Mark Wade

First launch site in the world, used for development of the V-1, A-4/V-2, Wasserfall, and other missiles. Engine test stands built for A-9/A-10, A-11, A-12 intercontinental missiles/satellite launchers.

• Name: Launch Site P10. Latitude: 54.1620 N. Longitude: 13.8150 E. Launch Pads: 1. A4b.

• Name: Test Stand P7. Latitude: 54.1730 N. Longitude: 13.8010 E. Launch Pads: 1. A4b, V-2.

Peenemuende Credit - © Mark Wade

• End 1933 - The VfR rocket team unravels. 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.

• April 1936 - Go-ahead to build Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• July 1936 - A4 wind tunnel tests Launch Vehicle: V-2, A3. 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.

• August 1936 - Ground broken at Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: V-2, Paris Gun. 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.

• September 1936 - First supersonic wind tunnel. Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• February 1937 - German rocketplane tests Launch Vehicle: 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.

• May 1937 - Peenemünde opened. Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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..

• 1937 December 4 - First A3 launch Launch Vehicle: A3. Engine cutoff at 6.5 seconds.. 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.

• 1937 December 6 - A3 launch Launch Vehicle: A3. Engine cutoff early.. 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.

• 1937 December 8 - A3 launch Launch Vehicle: A3. Engine cutoff early.. 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.

• 1937 December 11 - A3 launch Launch Vehicle: A3. Engine cutoff early.. 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.

• January 1938 - A4 engine tests begin Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• Spring 1938 - A5 delivered to Peenemuende. Launch Vehicle: V-2, A3, A5. 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.

• July 1938 - Rocket fighters Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• Summer 1938 - A5 launches from Greifswalder Oie Launch Vehicle: A5. 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.

• September 1938 - A5 stabilisation system tests Launch Vehicle: V-2, A5. 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.

• September 1939 - First A5 drop test. Launch Vehicle: V-2, A5. 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.

• During 1939-1940 - JATO tests at Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: Me-163. 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.

• April 1939 - A4 in crisis Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1939 September 5 - A4 full scale development authorised Launch Vehicle: V-2. Von Brauchtisch gave the go-ahead for the A4 to enter full development as a weapon system for the German Army.

• 1939 September 30 - Rocket development given highest priority Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• October 1939 - A-5 development rockets with gyroscopic controls and parachutes Launch Vehicle: A5. 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).

• October 1939 - Second functional A5 launch. Launch Vehicle: A5, V-2. Apogee: 7.00 km (4.30 mi). This was a vertical launch, replicating the first launch of the series, and was again recovered successfully.

• October 1939 - Third functional A5 launch. Launch Vehicle: A5, V-2. 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.

• October 1939 - Further A5 test launches. Launch Vehicle: A5, V-2. 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.

• November 1939 - Peenemuende wind tunnel goes into operation. Launch Vehicle: V-2, A4b, A9/A10. 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.

• Late 1939-1943 - A9 basic research and design Launch Vehicle: V-2, A4b, A9/A10, V-1. 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.

• Early 1940 - A4 radio guidance tests Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1940 March 21 - First full-duration test of A4 engine. Launch Vehicle: V-2. The engine is run at 25 tonnes thrust for 60 seconds on Test Stand I at Peenemuende.

• Summer 1940 - Peenemuende test stands completed. Launch Vehicle: V-2. Thiel and the remaining staff of the rocket team at Kummersdorf moved to Peenemuende.

• 1941-1944 - A4 engine improvements Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• During 1941 - A4 facilities Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• December 1941 - Mach 10 wind tunnel designed. Launch Vehicle: V-2, A9/A10. 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.

• 1942-1944 - Peenemuende team's ambitions Launch Vehicle: A9/A10/A11/A12. 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.

• During 1942 - A4 series production Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1942 February 25 - V-2 s/n 1 moved to Test Stand VII at Peenemuende. Launch Vehicle: V-2. The missile was used for facility checks and checking of launch procedures.

• 1942 March 18 - V-2 s/n 1 explodes during engine test run. Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• May 1942 - A4 reliability development Launch Vehicle: V-2, V-1. 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.

• 1942 June 13 10:52 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Crashed 1.3 km from pad; oscillating motion from moment of lift-off.. A-4 2 LC: P7. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi). Range: 1.30 km (0.81 mi). First test of the German A-4 (V-2) rocket unsuccessful at Peenemünde, Germany. The missile never guided correctly, and crashed 1.3 km from the pad after 36 seconds of powered flight.

• Summer 1942 - Submarine launch of powder rockets Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1942 August 16 11:15 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Nose cone broke off.. A-4 3 LC: P7. Apogee: 11 km (6 mi). Range: 8.70 km (5.41 mi). Engine burned for 45 seconds and total flight time was 194 seconds.

• 1942 October 3 14:58 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 4 LC: P7. Apogee: 48 km (29 mi). Range: 190 km (110 mi). First successful launch and flight of 5 tonne German A-4 rocket (V-2) at Peenemünde, which traveled 190 km. The engine burned for 58 seconds, and total flight time was 296 seconds. The missile impacted 6 degrees left of the intended course.

• 1942 October 21 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 5 LC: P7. Apogee: 40 km (24 mi). Range: 147 km (91 mi). The steam generator was seen to vent from T+66 to T+88 seconds. The engine burned for 84 seconds, and total flight time was 250 seconds. The missile impacted 3 degrees left of the intended course.

• 1942 November 9 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 6 LC: P7. Apogee: 67 km (41 mi). Range: 14 km (8 mi). Vertical shot to test systems. The engine burned for 54 seconds, and total flight time was 273 seconds.

• 1942 November 28 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Guidance failure. Missile tipped in flight.. A-4 7 LC: P7. Apogee: 5.00 km (3.10 mi). Range: 8.60 km (5.34 mi). The engine burned for 37 seconds, and total flight was 171 seconds.

• 1942 December 1 - Train-launched A4. Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• December 1942 - A4 priority Launch Vehicle: V-2. Dornberger clashes with Speer over priority for the A4.

• End 1942 - Peenemuende team's spaceflight plans Launch Vehicle: V-2, A9/A10, A9/A10/A11, A9/A10/A11/A12. 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.

• 1942 December 12 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. T-stoff explosion at lift-off.. A-4 9 LC: P7. Range: 0.10 km (0.06 mi). The engine burned for 4 seconds before the missile exploded 100 m from the pad.

• 1943-1944 - A4 guidance development Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 January 7 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Engine failure.. A-4 10 LC: P7. Missile exploded at ignition.

• 1943 January 25 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. A-4 11 LC: P7. Apogee: 40 km (24 mi). Range: 105 km (65 mi). Trajectory too steep, and the missile rolled in flight. The engine burned for 64.5 seconds, and total flight was 278 seconds. The missile impacted 7 km left of the intended course.

• 1943 February 3 - Peenemuende privatisation Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 February 17 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 12 LC: P7. Apogee: 30 km (18 mi). Range: 196 km (121 mi). Trajectory too shallow. German A-4 (V-2) rocket traveled 196 km after launch from Peenemünde. The engine burned for 62 seconds, and total flight was 243 seconds. The missile impacted 1 km right of the intended course.

• 1943 February 19 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Fire in the aft compartment.. A-4 13 LC: P7. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi). Range: 4.80 km (2.98 mi). The missile traveled backwards, crashing 4.8 km inland from the pad. Burn time was 1.8 seconds, flight time 5.2 seconds, and the missile landed 163 degrees off the intended trajectory.

• March 1943 - A4 production plans Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 March 3 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Explosion in the aft compartment.. A-4 16 LC: P7. Range: 1.00 km (0.60 mi). Vertical flight interrupted by an explosion in the aft compartment. The engine burned for 33 seconds, and total flight was 128 seconds.

• 1943 March 18 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. A-4 18 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 133 km (82 mi). Trajectory too steep, the rocket rolled in flight. The engine burned for 60 seconds, and total flight was 268 seconds. The missile impacted 12 km right of the intended course.

• 1943 March 25 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Control failure.. A-4 19 LC: P7. Range: 1.20 km (0.75 mi). Staggering rotation of the rocket in flight, vertical flight, ending in an explosion. The engine burned for 28 seconds, and total flight was 102 seconds.

• April 1943 - Himmler visits Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 April 14 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 20 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 287 km (178 mi). The missile impacted on land, 38 km right of the intended course. The engine burned for 66 seconds, and total flight was 320 seconds.

• 1943 April 22 14:25 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 21 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 252 km (156 mi). The missile impacted on land, 22 km right of the intended course. The engine burned for 59 seconds, and total flight was 310 seconds.

• 1943 May 14 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 22 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 250 km (150 mi). Cut-off mechanism disabled and missile allowed to burn to fuel depletion. The engine burned for 62 seconds, and total flight was 315 seconds. The missile impacted 900 m right and 20 km beyond the aimpoint.

• 1943 May 26 11:00 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 26 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 265 km (164 mi). Test of the engine cut-off mechanism. The engine burned for 66.5 seconds, and total flight time was 349 seconds. The missile impacted 7 km right and 5 km beyond the aimpoint.

• 1943 May 26 1630? 16:30 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. A-4 25 LC: P7. Apogee: 10 km (6 mi). Range: 27 km (16 mi). Test of the early cut-off mechanism and engine control. The engine burned for 40 seconds, and total flight time was 200 seconds. The missile impacted 0.3 km left of the intended trajectory.

• 1943 May 26 - V-1/V-2 fly-off Launch Vehicle: V-2, V-1. 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.

• 1943 May 27 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 24 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 138 km (85 mi). The engine burned for 55 seconds, and total flight time was 248 seconds. The missile impacted 1.6 km right and 9 km beyond the aimpoint.

• 1943 May 28 - Dornberger promoted Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 June 1 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 23 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 235 km (146 mi). Test of the early cut-off mechanism and engine control. The engine burned for 62 seconds, and total flight time was 287 seconds. The missile impacted 3 km left of the intended trajectory.

• June 1943 - A4 development Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 June 11 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 29 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 238 km (147 mi). The engine burned for 63.5 seconds, and total flight time was 291 seconds. The missile impacted 5 km right and 2 km short of the aimpoint.

• 1943 June 16 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 31 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 221 km (137 mi). Test of the early cut-off mechanism and engine control. The engine burned for 60.5 seconds, and total flight time was 264 seconds. The missile impacted 3.4 km right of the intended trajectory.

• 1943 June 22 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. A-4 28 LC: P7. Apogee: 5.00 km (3.10 mi). Range: 35 km (21 mi). Test of the early cut-off mechanism and engine control. Missile ascended vertically and exploded at T+70 seconds. The engine burned for 62.5 seconds, and total flight time was 200 seconds. The missile impacted 5 km right of the intended trajectory.

• 1943 June 24 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 30 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 287 km (178 mi). Cut-off mechanism disabled and missile allowed to burn to fuel depletion. The engine burned for 65.1 seconds, and total flight was 318 seconds. The missile impacted 12 km right and 47 km beyond the aimpoint.

• 1943 June 26 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 36 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 235 km (146 mi). Test of the engine cut-off mechanism. The engine burned for 64.9 seconds, and total flight was 316 seconds. The missile impacted 4.7 km right and 5 km short of the aimpoint.

• 1943 June 29 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 40 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi). Range: 236 km (146 mi). The impact was not observed. The engine burned for 63.6 seconds, and total flight was 276 seconds. The missile impacted 11.8 km right and 4 km short of the aimpoint.

• 1943 June 29 - Himmler's second visit to Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 June 29 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Guidance failure. Impacted near runway, killing three.. A-4 38 LC: P7. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi). Range: 3.00 km (1.80 mi). The missile entered a roll, headed in reverse inland, exploding in the woods by the runway of the Peenemuende West Luftwaffe test ground, killing three airman.The engine burned for 15 seconds, and total flight was 26.5 seconds. The missile impacted 178 degrees from its intended course.

• 1943 July 1 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure on ignition.. A-4 33 LC: P7. Test of the engine cut-off mechanism. The missile cut-off immediately after ignition, exploding on the pad.

• 1943 July 7 - Peenemuende given highest priority Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 July 9 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure on ignition.. A-4 34 LC: P7. Test of the engine cut-off mechanism. The missile cut-off at ignition.

• 1943 July 9 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure on liftoff.. A-4 41 LC: P7. Test of the engine cut-off mechanism. The missile veered inland, and impacted in the pumping station within the pad area.

• August 1943 - V-2 program in crisis Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 August 17 - Peenemünde attacked by RAF. Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1943 August 27 - V-2 production facilities bombed Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• Fall 1943 - Submarine-launched V-2 Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• September 1943 - Dornberger meets with Hitler Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• October 1943 - German 'ski ramps' Launch Vehicle: V-1. 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.

• 1943 November 9 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 43 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi).

• 1943 November 10 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 73 LC: P7. Apogee: 95 km (59 mi).

• December 1943 - Mach 10 wind tunnel construction begins. Launch Vehicle: V-2, A9/A10. 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.

• 1943 December 3 - Decision to destroy the ski ramps Launch Vehicle: V-1. 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.

• 1943 December 25 - Raid against V-1 launchers Launch Vehicle: V-1. 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.

• During 1944 - V-2 guidance development Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• Beginning of 1944 - V-2 sounding rockets Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1944 January 27 - Mittelwerk Eval Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. A-4 17003 LC: P7. The first lot of missiles delivered from Mittelwerk had many manufacturing defects and were for the most part had to be reworked. S/N 17003 was the only one judged suitable for flight.

• 1944 February 29 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: Wasserfall. Failure. Wasserfall 2

• 1944 March 8 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: Wasserfall. Wasserfall 3 Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi).

• 1944 March 15 - V-2 problems begin to be understood - but Peenemuende Rocket Team leaders arrested by SS Launch Vehicle: V-2. 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.

• 1944 April 15 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. LC: P7. Apogee: 90 km (55 mi).

• 1944 May 26 1300? 13:00 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. LC: P7. Apogee: 90 km (55 mi).

• 1944 May 26 1500? 15:00 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. LC: P7. Apogee: 1.00 km (0.60 mi).

• 1944 June 1 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. LC: P7.

• 1944 Jun - Vertical test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Apogee: 176 km (109 mi). During the war there were some vertical shots of the missile to test its stability and behaviour in a vacuum. The precise dates were not recorded, but these became the first manmade objects to reach what was later defined as outer space (over 100 km altitude).

• 1944 Jun - Vertical test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Steering failed at 30 m altitude.. Apogee: 189 km (117 mi). On one such vertical shot the missile reached 189 km altitude - date unknown.

• June 1944 - Renewed effort by the SS to take over Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: V-2. The plan this time was for the launch centre to be privatised, made part of Siemens, with the SS running day-to-day operations. Dornberger was unsuccessful in fighting this effort off, and in July-August 1944 a series of government decrees gave the SS full control.

• 1944 June 13 15:03 - V-2 crashes in Kalmar, Sweden and is passed to British Launch Vehicle: V-2. Failure. A-4 V89 LC: P7. Apogee: 50 km (31 mi). The loss had occurred when a V-2 was being used to test the Wasserfall command guidance system. The rocket was being hand-guided and went into a cloud. The operator tried to turn it around, but instead it went out of sight in horizontal flight. Unknown to the Peenemuende rocket team, it continued north until it ran out of fuel and crashed, relatively intact (for a V-2). The question came down days later to Dornberger whether an A4 or Fi-103 launched from Peenemuende was unaccounted for - parts of a missile had been reportedly found in Sweden. Allied examination of this wreckage led to the incorrect belief that the V-2 was radio-controlled. Dornberger was asked by the leadership whether the V-2 design could be copied by the Allies based on the wreckage recovered. The answer was yes. But could they put it into production in a short time? Dornberger assured the leasdership the Allies could not. Hitler was furious and was going to have heads roll over the matter. Dornberger was called to Hitler's Quarters in Rastenburg, but was sent back without seeing the Fuehrer. Hitler had finally decided that the crash was actually a good lesson to Sweden, showing them what to expect if they joined the Allies. In addition, he was pleased with Dornberger's assessment that the Wasserfall radio guidance system would send the Allies down the wrong track in their understanding of the weapon. In fact, the remains of the V-2 were flown to England for Allied analysis, and the predicted incorrect conclusion regarding V-2 guidance was reached.

• 1944 August 8 - Obergruppenfuehrer Kammler of the SS put in charge of the V-2 program. Launch Vehicle: V-2. Dornberger was relegated to command of the training batteries for the rocket troops. Von Braun spoke to Dornberger, telling him that he must accept the situation and assist Kammler. Following the July 1944 assassination and coup attempt against Hitler, Dornberger had no backing in the leadership for keeping the program in Army hands. Dornberger finally agreed to cooperate - rockets had been his life's work, and he could not bear not to be involved. Dornberger hoped to 'put my words in Kammler's mouth and make them appear to be his'. All Army commanders in the rocket program were dismissed and replaced by SS officers - Kammler was in complete control.

• 1944 August 30 11:25 - Ma117 Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 18299 Apogee: 93 km (57 mi).

• 1944 September 2 15:45 - Ma93 Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 18293 Apogee: 35 km (21 mi).

• 1944 September 13 16:47 - M140 Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 18181 Apogee: 64 km (39 mi).

• 1944 October 30 - Wasserfall test Launch Vehicle: V-2, Wasserfall. Apogee: 18 km (11 mi). Range: 26 km (16 mi). The Wasserfall surface to air missile was launched from a table, as was the V-2. The missile was optically steered to its target, and had a potential range of 26 km and ceiling of 18 km, with a flight speed of 600 m/s. Goering observed the first launch from Test Stand IX. He was immensely fat, wearing a fantastical outfit, downing pills every five minutes, and uninterested in the proceedings. Dornberger ruefully noted that the Reich is losing the war due to the leadership's shortsightedness. They had not accepted Von Braun's rocket plans in 1939 or the Panzerfaust in 1942. They only became interested in the latter when the first American bazooka fell into German hands in Tunisia.

• 1944 December 1 - Work resumes on train-launched A4. Launch Vehicle: V-2. At Kammler's orders work resumes on getting the train-launched version of the A4 into service.

• 1944 December 7 17:00 - Ma333 Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 19874 Apogee: 104 km (64 mi).

• 1944 December 9 - Boosted A4b test planned. Launch Vehicle: A4b. 10 solid propellant rockets were delivered from the Wehrmacht to Pruefstand XII. Work was to be completed by the end of March to begin flight test of an extended-range using solid rocket boost. However Peenemuende was evacuated before the first flight test could be undertaken.

• 1944 December 9 17:10 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 19020 Apogee: 106 km (65 mi).

• 1944 December 12 11:14 - Ma191 Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. A-4 18783 Apogee: 81 km (50 mi).

• 1944 December 15 - Submarine-launched A4 work resumes. Launch Vehicle: V-2. The first construction drawings were released for the submarine-launched version.

• 1944 December 27 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: A4b. Failure. Work on a winged version of the A4 had been stopped in early 1943. Now, with the Allies overrunning launch sites in Belgium and Holland, Kammler ordered it resumed in order to have a long-range version of the weapon that could reach England and Allied continental rear areas from Germany. Within weeks the wind tunnel results generated since 1940 were reviewed, and a prototype winged version of the missile built. On the first launch, the steering failed at 30 m, and the missile crashed a short distance from the pad. Several more test articles were on hand, but testing could not resume immediately due to a shortage of alcohol fuel.

• 1944 December 31 - Peenemuende rocket team faces the New Year Launch Vehicle: V-2, Taifun, Wasserfall, A4b. It was for them a depressing time. The V-2 came too late to affect the outcome of the war. The years 1939-1942, when Hitler had blocked development and production of the V-2, were lost years. By this time, the Peenemuende staff was allocated as follows: 135 were working on Taifun anti-aircraft barrage rocket; 1940 were working on the V-2; 1220 were working on the Wasserfall surface-to-air missile; 270 were working on the A4b winged V-2; and 660 were in administrative positions. Meanwhile Kammler was constantly underway, trying to deploy the wonder weapons he believed would save the Reich. He could only be met at one-hour meetings at autobahn intersections, on his way from one place to another.

• 1945 January 8 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: A4b. The rocket failed in flight.. A-4b 1 LC: P7.

• 1945 January 12 - Arbeitstab Dornberger Launch Vehicle: V-2. Speer puts Dornberger in charge of an office within the Munitions Ministry to oversee further development of the A4 and other rockets, drawing on staff from Peenemuende. Everyone knew the war would be over in a few months -- nothing could be accomplished. Kammler still made sure that Dornberger was only responsible for technical aspects. All further developments of the A4 had been on hold for years, and any further work was now impossible. Only simple things could be worked on, such as converting 6 cm smoke rockets to use as an air-to-air weapon. In the short turnaround typical of the times, the team drove to Kummersdorf and built a 21-cm diameter pipe that could fire a barrage of four smoke rockets. Two days later, it was reported back that the device was used successfully in combat, and it was put into production. It was first used against allied bombers over Schweinfurt in January 1945.

• 1945 January 15 - Train-launched A4 abandoned. Launch Vehicle: V-2. Allied air superiority made the train-launched version unviable as a weapon, compared to the truck-towed missile, which was more easily moved and concealed. Further work on the system was abandoned.

• 1945 January 24 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: A4b. A-4b 2 LC: P10. Apogee: 80 km (49 mi). The first successful launch, this reached 80 km altitude and 1200 m/s. It then flew stably in supersonic flight using its 13.5 sq. m. wing. The automatic guidance system was designed to keep the missile on course in both supersonic and subsonic flight regimes. However the wing broke off shortly after the beginning of the glide. This concluded work on the A4b/A9; the increasingly chaotic situation in Germany prevented further flight tests.

• 1945 February 7 - Submarine-launched A4 abandoned. Launch Vehicle: V-2. Evacuation of Peenemuende brought work on the submarine-towed version to an end.

• 1945 February 8 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Apogee: 90 km (55 mi).

• 1945 February 10 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Apogee: 90 km (55 mi).

• 1945 February 14 - Test mission Launch Vehicle: V-2. Apogee: 90 km (55 mi).

• Late February 1945 - Final Von Braun visit to Peenemuende Launch Vehicle: V-2. All launch activity has been shut down.

• 1945 May 5 - Soviet Army occupies Peenemuende. Little is found. Western intelligence is convinced that the Soviets conduct missile tests from Peenemuende in the late 1940's (the Scandinavian 'ghost rockets'). But Russian historical sources available after the downfall of the Soviet Union do not support this belief.

• 1945 May 5 - Peenemünde occupied. Launch Vehicle: V-2. Russian ground forces occupied Peenemünde, Germany.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• Dornberger, Walter, Peenemuende, Moewig, Berlin 1985.. ISBN: 3811843419. German-language account of the development of the V-2 by the Commander of the Peenemuende rocket development centre. More at amazon.com...