Frank Toogood
The Battlefield Guide
Guiding Member of the
Guild of Battlefield Guides,
Badge Number 39
The Battlefield Guide
Guiding Member of the
Guild of Battlefield Guides,
Badge Number 39
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Alternatively, there's always
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+44 (0)1916 45 1812
+44 (0)7948 56 2085
Film
Film footage of the V–1 falling on London and the home counties.
Fact...
...in July 1944, three weeks after German V-1 "Buzz Bombs" first struck England on June 12th and 13th, American engineers at Wright Field, fired a working copy of the German Argus As 014 pulse–jet engine, "reverse–engineered" from crashed German V–1s that were flown back to the United States from England for analysis. The reverse engineering provided the design of America's first mass–produced guided missile, the JB–2. The Republic Aviation Corp. was to have built the airframe for the JB–2, but sub–contracted the airframe to Willys–Overland.
Ford Motor Company built the engine, which was a copy of the V–1's 900–lb. thrust Argus–Schmidt pulse–jet.
Film
Film footage of Wernher von Braun with original sound track during the testing of the V–2 at Peenemünde.
Fact...
...unlike the V–1, the V–2's speed and trajectory made it invulnerable to anti–aircraft guns and fighters, as it dropped from an altitude of 100–110 km (60–70 miles) at up to four times the speed of sound. A plan was proposed whereby the missile would be detected by radar, its terminal trajectory calculated, and the area along that trajectory saturated by large–calibre anti–aircraft guns. The plan was dropped after operations research indicated that the likely number of malfunctioning artillery shells falling to the ground would do more damage than the V–2 itself.
Talk
Call Frank for free on your PC
or Mac using Skype
Find out more about the
benefits of Skype »
Alternatively, there's always
the telephone:
+44 (0)1916 45 1812
+44 (0)7948 56 2085
Film
Film footage of the V–1 falling on London and the home counties.
Fact...
...in July 1944, three weeks after German V-1 "Buzz Bombs" first struck England on June 12th and 13th, American engineers at Wright Field, fired a working copy of the German Argus As 014 pulse–jet engine, "reverse–engineered" from crashed German V–1s that were flown back to the United States from England for analysis. The reverse engineering provided the design of America's first mass–produced guided missile, the JB–2. The Republic Aviation Corp. was to have built the airframe for the JB–2, but sub–contracted the airframe to Willys–Overland.
Ford Motor Company built the engine, which was a copy of the V–1's 900–lb. thrust Argus–Schmidt pulse–jet.
Film
Film footage of Wernher von Braun with original sound track during the testing of the V–2 at Peenemünde.
Fact...
...unlike the V–1, the V–2's speed and trajectory made it invulnerable to anti–aircraft guns and fighters, as it dropped from an altitude of 100–110 km (60–70 miles) at up to four times the speed of sound. A plan was proposed whereby the missile would be detected by radar, its terminal trajectory calculated, and the area along that trajectory saturated by large–calibre anti–aircraft guns. The plan was dropped after operations research indicated that the likely number of malfunctioning artillery shells falling to the ground would do more damage than the V–2 itself.
Peenemünde
In 1930 Wernher von Braun attended the Technical University of Berlin. Whilst working on his thesis; Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket, the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun to begin his work at Kummersdorf. By the end of 1934, von Braun's group had successfully launched two Aggregate series rockets (A–2; "Max" and "Moritz"), reaching a peak height of 2,200 metres. On the basis of those tests, the A–3 programme was started. Generals von Brauchitsch, Fromm and Olbricht considered the development work at Kummersdorf worth promoting. However, the significantly larger A–3 long–range rocket clearly called for new test facilities with longer launch ranges.
Following visits to Peenemünde, a small fishing village on the Baltic island of Usedom by von Braun in December 1935 and Dornberger in January 1936, a swiftly arranged meeting between the Army and Luftwaffe was arranged in April. Dornberger, von Braun, Wolfram von Richtofen, Albert Kesselring and other members of the military studied the plans, maps and diagrams of the new proposed site. Peenemünde was chosen as the ideal place to establish the research and development centre because it was remote, inaccessible, wooded and faced out to the sea – an ideal place to maintain the necessary secrecy and security.
According to Dornberger, the Reich Air Ministry paid 750,000 reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the northern peninsular of Usedom so that the Army Research Centre Peenemünde (Heersesversuchsanstaldt Peenemünde, HVP) could be established. Although the site was shared with the Luftwaffe (Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe), the Army was in overall command.
If you click and drag the map, you can move it to view any part of map.
Peenemünded was to be divided in two – The Army Research Centre (Peenemünde Ost) consisted of Werk Ost and Werk Süd, while Werk West (Peenemünde West) was the Luftwaffe Airfield and Test Site for the V–1 Flying Bomb.
The HVP organisation under the direction of von Braun was made–up of nine departments; Technical Design Office, Aeroballistics and Mathematics Laboratory, Wind Tunnel, Materials Laboratory, Flight, Guidance, and Telemetering Devices, Development and Fabrication Laboratory, Test Laboratory, Future Projects Office and the Purchasing Office.
By 1938 the facility was virtually complete. Several missiles were developed by the HVP, including the A–4 Vergeltungs- waffen–2 (V–2), Wassefall, Schmetterling, Rheintochter, Taifuin and Enzain missiles. They also developed the first close circuit television in the world in order to track the test launching of the V–2.
In 1939 work began on the development of the V–2 production plant at Süd Werk, including the Fertigungshalle 1 (F–1, Mass Production Plant No.1), which was completed in 1943. On completion, it not only became Germany's largest single spanned building, but also housed a concentration camp for the workers.
If you click and drag the map, you can move it to view any part of map.
The 3rd of October 1942 saw the first successful launch of the V–2 at the principal testing facility known as Test Stand VII, (Prufstand VII, P–7). The new weapon accelerated to almost Mach 5, reaching a peak height of 84.5km and covered the 190km flight in 296 seconds, becoming the world's first ballistic missile and first man–made object to achieve sub–orbital spaceflight.
In May 1942 photographs of Peenemünde had been taken by a Spitfire whilst on a reconnaissance flight to Kiel, but they were disregarded until more photographs were taken by a de Havilland Mosquito in April 1943 during a reconnaissance flight to Stettin. Firm evidence for the existence of rockets were identified by Reginald Victor Jones from photographs taken by a Spitfire during a sortie in June as "a whiteish cylinder about 35 feet long and 5 or so feet in diameter with a blueish nose and fins at the other end".
Following the discovery of the V2, Winston Churchill said; "Peenemünde is… beyond the range of our radio navigation beams and… we must bomb by moonlight, although the German night fighters will be close at hand and it is too far to send our own. Nevertheless, we must attack it on the heaviest possible scale". To that end, Operation Hydra (Operation Order No.176) was conceived by the RAF. It was not only to destroy the Peenemünde facility, but it was also to specifically target the scientists too, in the first precision bombing raid of the war.
The raid took place on the night of the 17/18th of August 1943 and consisted of three waves; the first concentrated on the sleeping and living quarters, the second on the factory workshops and the third wave the experimental station.
To divert German night fighters from Operation Hydra, a group of Mosquitoes at the same time conducted Operation Whitebait – the dropping of typical pathfinder markings over Berlin, which was expected to draw the Luftwaffe's night fighters to the defence of the German capital and away from Operation Hydra. It was a success until the Luftwaffe realised that Operation Whitebait was a deception, by which time it was too late for Peenemünde.
While the majority of the 596 bombers reached the target, RAF losses on the raid amounted to 40 aircraft with 245 men killed or taken prisoner.
The British Official History states that the attack "may have caused two months delay". Although the raid was not effective, one of the scientists, Walter Thiel was killed together with his family. They are buried with the 815 workers (most of them foreign prisoners of war), whose camp at Trassenheide was mistakenly hit during the raid.
However, Operation Hydra did cause the production of the V–2 to be transferred from Peenemünde to the Middelwerk in the Kohnstein Mountain near Nordhausen. In October 1943, the Army and SS gave their approval for the withdrawal of the guided missile development programme from Peenemünde, which was bombed three more times a year later by the US 8th Air Force to counter suspected hydrogen peroxide production.
Despite this, the last V–2 was launched from Peenemünde in February 1945. Three months later in May, Peenemünde and the island of Usedom were finally captured by the Russians, who were ordered to destroy the facility.
Take a tour with The Battlefield Guided to Peenemünde and see for yourself the remains of the Army Research Centre and learn more about the development of the V–2, Operation Hydra and what became of Peenemünde after the World War 2.
In 1930 Wernher von Braun attended the Technical University of Berlin. Whilst working on his thesis; Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket, the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun to begin his work at Kummersdorf. By the end of 1934, von Braun's group had successfully launched two Aggregate series rockets (A–2; "Max" and "Moritz"), reaching a peak height of 2,200 metres. On the basis of those tests, the A–3 programme was started. Generals von Brauchitsch, Fromm and Olbricht considered the development work at Kummersdorf worth promoting. However, the significantly larger A–3 long–range rocket clearly called for new test facilities with longer launch ranges.
Following visits to Peenemünde, a small fishing village on the Baltic island of Usedom by von Braun in December 1935 and Dornberger in January 1936, a swiftly arranged meeting between the Army and Luftwaffe was arranged in April. Dornberger, von Braun, Wolfram von Richtofen, Albert Kesselring and other members of the military studied the plans, maps and diagrams of the new proposed site. Peenemünde was chosen as the ideal place to establish the research and development centre because it was remote, inaccessible, wooded and faced out to the sea – an ideal place to maintain the necessary secrecy and security.
According to Dornberger, the Reich Air Ministry paid 750,000 reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the northern peninsular of Usedom so that the Army Research Centre Peenemünde (Heersesversuchsanstaldt Peenemünde, HVP) could be established. Although the site was shared with the Luftwaffe (Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe), the Army was in overall command.
If you click and drag the map, you can move it to view any part of map.
Peenemünded was to be divided in two – The Army Research Centre (Peenemünde Ost) consisted of Werk Ost and Werk Süd, while Werk West (Peenemünde West) was the Luftwaffe Airfield and Test Site for the V–1 Flying Bomb.
The HVP organisation under the direction of von Braun was made–up of nine departments; Technical Design Office, Aeroballistics and Mathematics Laboratory, Wind Tunnel, Materials Laboratory, Flight, Guidance, and Telemetering Devices, Development and Fabrication Laboratory, Test Laboratory, Future Projects Office and the Purchasing Office.
By 1938 the facility was virtually complete. Several missiles were developed by the HVP, including the A–4 Vergeltungs- waffen–2 (V–2), Wassefall, Schmetterling, Rheintochter, Taifuin and Enzain missiles. They also developed the first close circuit television in the world in order to track the test launching of the V–2.
In 1939 work began on the development of the V–2 production plant at Süd Werk, including the Fertigungshalle 1 (F–1, Mass Production Plant No.1), which was completed in 1943. On completion, it not only became Germany's largest single spanned building, but also housed a concentration camp for the workers.
If you click and drag the map, you can move it to view any part of map.
The 3rd of October 1942 saw the first successful launch of the V–2 at the principal testing facility known as Test Stand VII, (Prufstand VII, P–7). The new weapon accelerated to almost Mach 5, reaching a peak height of 84.5km and covered the 190km flight in 296 seconds, becoming the world's first ballistic missile and first man–made object to achieve sub–orbital spaceflight.
In May 1942 photographs of Peenemünde had been taken by a Spitfire whilst on a reconnaissance flight to Kiel, but they were disregarded until more photographs were taken by a de Havilland Mosquito in April 1943 during a reconnaissance flight to Stettin. Firm evidence for the existence of rockets were identified by Reginald Victor Jones from photographs taken by a Spitfire during a sortie in June as "a whiteish cylinder about 35 feet long and 5 or so feet in diameter with a blueish nose and fins at the other end".
Following the discovery of the V2, Winston Churchill said; "Peenemünde is… beyond the range of our radio navigation beams and… we must bomb by moonlight, although the German night fighters will be close at hand and it is too far to send our own. Nevertheless, we must attack it on the heaviest possible scale". To that end, Operation Hydra (Operation Order No.176) was conceived by the RAF. It was not only to destroy the Peenemünde facility, but it was also to specifically target the scientists too, in the first precision bombing raid of the war.
The raid took place on the night of the 17/18th of August 1943 and consisted of three waves; the first concentrated on the sleeping and living quarters, the second on the factory workshops and the third wave the experimental station.
To divert German night fighters from Operation Hydra, a group of Mosquitoes at the same time conducted Operation Whitebait – the dropping of typical pathfinder markings over Berlin, which was expected to draw the Luftwaffe's night fighters to the defence of the German capital and away from Operation Hydra. It was a success until the Luftwaffe realised that Operation Whitebait was a deception, by which time it was too late for Peenemünde.
While the majority of the 596 bombers reached the target, RAF losses on the raid amounted to 40 aircraft with 245 men killed or taken prisoner.
The British Official History states that the attack "may have caused two months delay". Although the raid was not effective, one of the scientists, Walter Thiel was killed together with his family. They are buried with the 815 workers (most of them foreign prisoners of war), whose camp at Trassenheide was mistakenly hit during the raid.
However, Operation Hydra did cause the production of the V–2 to be transferred from Peenemünde to the Middelwerk in the Kohnstein Mountain near Nordhausen. In October 1943, the Army and SS gave their approval for the withdrawal of the guided missile development programme from Peenemünde, which was bombed three more times a year later by the US 8th Air Force to counter suspected hydrogen peroxide production.
Despite this, the last V–2 was launched from Peenemünde in February 1945. Three months later in May, Peenemünde and the island of Usedom were finally captured by the Russians, who were ordered to destroy the facility.
Take a tour with The Battlefield Guided to Peenemünde and see for yourself the remains of the Army Research Centre and learn more about the development of the V–2, Operation Hydra and what became of Peenemünde after the World War 2.
Above
A V–2 test rocket at the Historic Technical Information Centre at Peenemünde, on the Baltic Island of Usedom.
Itinerary
Below are the sites that would be visited on the tour. As each tour is bespoke, you will receive confirmation of your personal itinerary with your booking confirmation.
By special arrangement flights can be taken over Usedom in a light aircraft from the private Peenemünde airfield.
Email
Fields marked (*) are required
Alternatively you can
write, sending to:
Frank Toogood
The Battlefield Guide
Cobwebs Barn
Canterbury Grange
Bocking, Braintree
Essex CM7 5NA
United Kingdom
Extra
Other sites to see whilst at Peenemünde from the Cold War are Russian and GDR:
The Juliett–class U461 was built in the early sixties and saw active service with the Red Flag Baltic Fleet well into the eighties. The ship and its crew have carried out long patrol–missions in the North-Atlantic during the Cold War. It was armed with various torpedos and 4 Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles, which could be fired from the top of the ship when it emerged to sea–level. At the end of the eighties the Juliett–class submarines were generally used as reserves and finally taken out of service. Since 1998 the U461 can be seen in the harbour of Peenemünde.
Numbering well over 12,500 production examples, the Mil Mi–8 (NATO code–name: "Hip") can be viewed as one of the most successful multi–role helicopter designs of all time. Having first flown in 1967, it is still in operational service today with many armed forces around the world.
Guided–missile patrol craft (PGG), which served in the GDR–navy from 1986 until 1990 (NATO code–name: "Tarantula 1").
A V–2 test rocket at the Historic Technical Information Centre at Peenemünde, on the Baltic Island of Usedom.
Itinerary
Below are the sites that would be visited on the tour. As each tour is bespoke, you will receive confirmation of your personal itinerary with your booking confirmation.
- Historic Technical Information Centre, Peenemünde Museum
- Power Station*
- Rememberance Memorial
and Chapel - Oxygen Factory*
- Consentration Camp*
- Werk Ost Railway Station*
- Main Checkpoint*
- Main living quarters*
- Airfield and
V–1 launch site* - Karlshagen Cemetary
and Memorial - V–1 Developemnt Bunkers*
- Dyke Pumping Station
- Schwabes Hotel, Zinnowitz
By special arrangement flights can be taken over Usedom in a light aircraft from the private Peenemünde airfield.
Fields marked (*) are required
Alternatively you can
write, sending to:
Frank Toogood
The Battlefield Guide
Cobwebs Barn
Canterbury Grange
Bocking, Braintree
Essex CM7 5NA
United Kingdom
Extra
Other sites to see whilst at Peenemünde from the Cold War are Russian and GDR:
- Jet Fighters
- Helicopters
- Bunkers
- War Ship
- Submarine
The Juliett–class U461 was built in the early sixties and saw active service with the Red Flag Baltic Fleet well into the eighties. The ship and its crew have carried out long patrol–missions in the North-Atlantic during the Cold War. It was armed with various torpedos and 4 Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles, which could be fired from the top of the ship when it emerged to sea–level. At the end of the eighties the Juliett–class submarines were generally used as reserves and finally taken out of service. Since 1998 the U461 can be seen in the harbour of Peenemünde.
Numbering well over 12,500 production examples, the Mil Mi–8 (NATO code–name: "Hip") can be viewed as one of the most successful multi–role helicopter designs of all time. Having first flown in 1967, it is still in operational service today with many armed forces around the world.
Guided–missile patrol craft (PGG), which served in the GDR–navy from 1986 until 1990 (NATO code–name: "Tarantula 1").
