V-2 Rocket Hits London 8 September

On this day, 8 September, 1944, the first V-2 rocket was fired at London. The V-2 rocket (which gets its name from the German 'Vergeltungswaffe 2' or "reprisal weapon 2", was an early ballistic missile used by Germany during the later stages of World War II against mostly British and Belgian targets. The Germans had been developing the weapon since as early as 1927 and the V-2 was put into production in 1943. Our chaps were already aware of the weapon because an earlier test at Blizna in Poland, a fired missile had been recovered by Polish resistance agents from the banks of the Western Bug, and the details had passed on to British intelligence.

The British, in an attempt to delay the construction of the weapon, launched a massive bombing campaign against Peenemunde which, although successful, also killed many slave workers.

Most of the engineers involved in the project were keen on a mobile launch system, but, luckily for us, Hitler pressed for the construction of massive underground launch complexes. Adolf's grand plan was to have the rockets produced at dozens of factories which could be shipped to the launch sites in a continuous stream by rail and launched immediately. Bonkers, of course, every time a launch site was started our chaps bombed it out of existence, sometimes while the concrete was still wet. This delayed development considerably. Eventually, Adolf gave in and a mobile launch system was developed from which the missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running though forests being a particular favourite. The system was so mobile and small that not one Meillerwagen was ever caught in action.

V-2 mass production took place at the Mittelwerk tunnel system under the Kohnstein mountain, part of the Mittelbau-Dora slave labour camp complex, near Nordhausen, Germany. Fatalities among the slave labourers was staggering, over 100 died every day and the majority of the slaves were Russian, Polish and French, although there were also prisoners of war, foreign workers and Germans forced to compulsory work.

When in full swing, 3172 V-2s were fired, of which 1402 were fired at England, with 1358 of them landing on London. Unlike the V1 Flying Bomb (or Buzz Bomb, as it was known), which made a characteristic buzzing sound, the V-2 traveled faster than the speed of sound, with no warning before impact and no possibility of defence. However, apart from the psychological effect, the V-2 was militarily ineffective. Its guidance systems were too primitive, each one cost as much as a four-engined bomber, which was more accurate, had a longer range, carried many more warheads, and was (providing our brave boys didn't shoot them from the sky) reusable.

Nevertheless, in all, 7000 civilians were killed in London by V-2 rockets.

After the war, Von Braun, who was the designer, went to work for the US Army. He became the father of almost all US rocketry, working on the Redstone, Jupiter, Jupiter-C, Pershing, and Saturn rockets. So that's alright then.