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N0KFQ > TODAY 27.03.15 17:00l 56 Lines 2497 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 51332_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 27
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150327/1500Z 51332@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1945
Germans launch last of their V-2s
On this day, in a last-ditch effort to deploy their remaining V-2
missiles against the Allies, the Germans launch their long-range
rockets from their only remaining launch site, in the
Netherlands. Almost 200 civilians in England and Belgium were
added to the V-2 casualty toll.
German scientists had been working on the development of a
long-range missile since the 1930s. In October 3, 1942, victory
was achieved with the successful trial launch of the V-2, a
12-ton rocket capable of carrying a one-ton warhead. The missile,
fired from Peenemunde, an island off Germany's Baltic coast,
traveled 118 miles in that first test.
The brainchild of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, the V-2 was
unique in several ways. First, it was virtually impossible to
intercept. Upon launching, the missile rises six miles
vertically; it then proceeds on an arced course, cutting off its
own fuel according to the range desired. The missile then tips
over and falls on its target at a speed of almost 4,000 mph. It
hits with such force that the missile burrows itself into the
ground several feet before exploding. The V-2 had the potential
of flying a distance of 200 miles, and the launch pads were
portable, making them impossible to detect before firing.
The first launches as part of an offensive occurred on September
6, 1944, when two missiles were fired at Paris. On September 8,
two more were fired at England, which would be followed by over
1,100 more during the next six months. On March 27, 1945, taking
advantage of their one remaining V-2 launch site, near The Hague,
the Germans fired their V-2s for the last time. At 7 a.m., London
awoke to a blast-one of the bombs had landed on a block of flats
at Valance Road, killing 134 people. Twenty-seven Belgian
civilians were killed in Antwerp when another of the rockets
landed there. And that afternoon, one more V-2 landed in Kent,
England, causing the very last British civilian casualty of the
war.
By the end of the war, more than 2,700 Brits had died because of
the rocket attacks, as well as another 4,483 deaths in Belgium.
After the war, both the United States and the Soviet Union
captured samples of the rockets for reproduction. Having proved
so extraordinarily deadly during the war, the V-2 became the
precursor of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) of
the postwar era.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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