Author Topic: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket  (Read 7719 times)

Offline Rusty_Barton

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Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« on: 09/30/2008 08:45 am »
Here are links to YouTube videos showing how a V2 rocket was deployed and launched in the field in WW2.

WW2 - The "how to deploy and Launch" of a German V2 (pt1)


WW2 - The "how to deploy and Launch" of a German V2 (pt2)

Offline simonbp

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #1 on: 10/06/2008 12:43 am »
Not exactly "point and shoot", but then again how many rockets have manhandling the support equipment as standard procedure?

Simon ;)

Offline edkyle99

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #2 on: 10/06/2008 01:38 am »
Not exactly "point and shoot", but then again how many rockets have manhandling the support equipment as standard procedure?

Simon ;)

Somehow, the Germans managed to launch more than 3,100 of these things over the course of only seven months.  That's nearly 15 per day on average.  Strategically unimportant, the armchair generals keep telling us, but imagine how miserable and terrifying it would have been to have to live through such a barrage.

 - Ed Kyle

Offline simonbp

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #3 on: 10/06/2008 04:15 am »
I know; my grandparents were living in London at the time...

Simon ;)

Offline Captain Scarlet

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #4 on: 10/06/2008 03:50 pm »
I know; my grandparents were living in London at the time...

Simon ;)

The V2 and the Doodlebugs were very clever weapons for the Germans, but you still can't beat a good old style carpet bombing, as the RAF did to Dresden.

The Dambusters were a good example of low tech physics that dealt a bigger blow than the V2 ever could.

Luftwaffe couldn't deal with the RAF anyway, so I suppose they had to take this route.

Offline SimonShuttle

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #5 on: 10/06/2008 06:24 pm »
I know; my grandparents were living in London at the time...

Simon ;)

The V2 and the Doodlebugs were very clever weapons for the Germans, but you still can't beat a good old style carpet bombing, as the RAF did to Dresden.

The Dambusters were a good example of low tech physics that dealt a bigger blow than the V2 ever could.

Luftwaffe couldn't deal with the RAF anyway, so I suppose they had to take this route.

The bombing of Dresden, and the carpet bombing of Germany was nothing to be proud of. Bomber Harris wanted to send a strong message to Hitler, but his orders meant the RAF killed 100,000 German citizens :(

I know it was a dirty war until the US finally got involved, and we were fighting to survive against all odds, but there's nothing "good" about that.

Offline kevin-rf

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #6 on: 10/08/2008 01:17 pm »

I know it was a dirty war until the US finally got involved,

Other than the US used the leasons learned from Dresden and firebombed the heck out Japan, taking more lives that way than where taken in total during the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

Amazing how manpower intensive the V-2 was. Definately not a shoot an scoot weapon.
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Offline sbt

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #7 on: 10/10/2008 07:21 am »
Amazing how manpower intensive the V-2 was. Definately not a shoot an scoot weapon.

When you watch the videos bear in mind that this is 'Deploy and Launch'. Everything up to 2 minutes into Video 2 is Logistics and Deployment. Launch site operations were actually relatively streamlined and were, in terms of the ISTAR and attack assets available at the time, very quick. It took 90 minutes from arrival to launch and a further 30 minutes to clear the site.

Counter V2 operations focused on attacking the logistics chain, such as the heavily bunkered O2 plant. They were also complicated by the Germans using centre of The Hague, with all the surrounding friendly (to the allies) civilians, as a launch site - the largest strike against the sites cost the lives of 500 Dutch civilians. Ultimately the answer was to capture the launch areas.

There was also a major deception effort, that the Germans fell for despite flying V2s with locator beacons, to convince German Intelligence that the rockets were 'landing long' - in the end most V2s targeted at London fell on open countryside in Kent and Sussex.

In Strategic terms the V2 campaign did have an effect. The negative effect on the Germans of concentrating so much 'Technical Capital' on the project was significant. They would have been much better advised to have concentrated on 'Wasserfall', the anti-aircraft rocket. Industrially each V2 was the equivalent in production terms of a front line fighter, however by the time it entered service the Germans had neither the fuel nor the experienced pilots to make use of 3000 more fighters (the Germans even ended up firing some V2s with inert warheads due to problems with explosives production), the damage was done earlier in terms of technical manpower and facilities that could have been concentrated on more useful things.

On the allied side London was evacuated of children again and significant strike effort went into neutralising the V2 (and the V1) through attacks on its infrastructure. Finally the port of Antwerp, important to the allies operations in Europe, received over half the V2s fired (1610 over 7 months), which disrupted operations there.

Rick
I am not interested in your political point scoring, Ad Hominem attacks, personal obsessions and vendettas. - No matter how cute and clever you may think your comments are.

Offline iamlucky13

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #8 on: 10/14/2008 04:32 am »
Not exactly "point and shoot", but then again how many rockets have manhandling the support equipment as standard procedure?

Simon ;)

Think about it in another context. A medium bomber like the Ju-88 carried only slightly larger payload, but took a ground crew no trivial effort to service, fuel, and arm for each mission, plus a flight crew of four flying perhaps 4-6 hours, facing fighters and flak. The effort to launch a V-2 might be a lot, but not so much more than launching a manned aircraft, and only one V-2 was claimed to have been shot down over the course of the war.

Quote from the end of the second video about the first successful launch:
"Do you realize what we have accomplished today? Today the spaceship was born."
« Last Edit: 10/14/2008 04:32 am by iamlucky13 »

Offline luke strawwalker

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #9 on: 11/25/2008 04:13 pm »
Even the solid-fuel Pershing missiles had a lot of support equipment and 'manhandling' in preparation for firing... I found this manual awhile back doing some research to build a scale Pershing II model rocket.  Interesting read... OL JR :)
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Offline iamlucky13

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Re: Video - How to deploy and launch a V2 rocket
« Reply #10 on: 11/26/2008 08:32 pm »
One of the guys I work with used to be a Pershing crewmen in the army. I might have to ask him a little bit more about it.

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