In March 1939, Hitler visited the missile center at Peenemünde. In September of the same year, at a rally in Danzig, he announced that the time would soon come when Germany would use weapons "that could not be used against her." It is quite obvious that it was not about chemical weapons, which by that time were already at the disposal of a number of Western countries and the USSR.
Contrary to forecasts
Few people seriously think about the fact that already in 1944 the rocket forces of the Third Reich were actively using ballistic and cruise missiles, while the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition did not even have any close analogues of such weapons. At the end of the same year, assessing the prospects for the development of liquid-propellant rocket engines, the future founder of Soviet cosmonautics S. P. Korolev wrote in a memorandum for the Aviation rocket engines . German ballistic missiles have left no stone unturned on these predictions.
The first swallow
On September 8, 1944, at 18:38, German rocket forces performed the world's first combat launch of the first single-stage ballistic missile V-2, aka FAU-2, or A-4. It was developed by the famous German engineer, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Werner von Braun. The mass of the rocket was about 13 tons, the length was 14 meters. The warhead weighing about one ton was located in the head compartment. The liquid engine was powered by 75% ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. The maximum flight speed of the V-2 reached 6120 km / h, range 320 km, trajectory altitude of about 100 km. Until December 1944, 1561 ballistic missiles were fired by the German missile forces, including 924 missiles to Antwerp and 447 missiles to London. In addition to London, thirteen English cities were subjected to rocket fire. A total of 537 more missiles fell in different parts of Britain. True, the combat effectiveness of the FAU-2 missiles was extremely low. On average, only 1-2 people died from each of them. Nevertheless, in terms of its technical characteristics, the V-2 was a unique scientific and technological achievement at that time. The creation of the rocket, as well as the industrial infrastructure for its production, became a catalyst for the world rocketry and served as an impetus for the further development of fundamental and applied sciences.as well as the industrial infrastructure for its production became a catalyst for world rocketry and served as an impetus for the further development of fundamental and applied sciences.as well as the industrial infrastructure for its production became a catalyst for world rocketry and served as an impetus for the further development of fundamental and applied sciences.
The success of the Germans in the development of rocketry turned out to be simply stunning for the future winners. Domestic and foreign experts could not believe that such a perfect design could exist in the mid-40s. Why did such advanced technology as the V-2 undoubtedly not have a significant impact on the course of World War II?
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Secret stuffing
It is known that the V-2 project took over the most valuable resources of the war economy, causing an acute shortage of capacities in other industries of the Third Reich. While the German army was in desperate need of fuel, and the Allies bombed nitrogen factories and other vital supply centers, the Minister of Armaments and War Industry Albert Speer, on Hitler's personal orders, used more than half of the country's production capacity to produce V-2 missiles! The V-2 project encroached on the resources of the German aviation industry - a significant reduction in the production of electrical equipment, starting in the summer of 1943, crippled the production of the latest fighters. The production of submarines and radars has decreased. The most serious blow was dealt to the program for the production of anti-aircraft guided missiles. Why would such a forward-looking military economist like Speer allow such huge resources to be allocated to the V-2 project at the expense of the rest of the military industry? Much becomes clear if we pay attention to the fact that the design weight of the V-2 warhead, like the V-1 (weighing up to a thousand kilograms), was determined by chemists and nuclear physicists! Indeed, it would be strange if the leadership of the Third Reich, which had repeatedly declared about the "weapon of retaliation", had in mind only a ton of ordinary explosives.it would be strange if the leadership of the Third Reich, which had repeatedly declared about the "weapon of retaliation", had in mind only a ton of ordinary explosives.it would be strange if the leadership of the Third Reich, which had repeatedly declared about the "weapon of retaliation", had in mind only a ton of ordinary explosives.
It is known that neither ballistic nor cruise missiles have ever been effective weapons without the use of weapons of mass destruction, which include nuclear weapons. The technical improvement of "conventional ballistics" is not able to compensate for its main drawback - an unacceptable ratio between the damaging effect and cost. Considering the V-2 project in this context, it should be borne in mind that the process of in-line production of missiles was hampered by the constant improvement of the design. In the process of hostilities, the necessary working "run-in" and subsequent "fine-tuning" of the ballistic missile carrier to the required condition took place. As a result of this "fine-tuning" the number of rejects has decreased significantly. So, during the V-2 launches carried out in the last week of October 1944, out of 266 missiles, only 14 misfired.
Thus, there is good reason to believe that there were plans in the Third Reich to equip a V-2 ballistic missile (and possibly a V-1 cruise missile) with a nuclear warhead. Only in this case will Speer's actions receive any reasonable explanation. The nuclear version is also supported by the British intelligence data obtained by it in 1943 and reporting the creation by the Nazis of a missile equipped with an atomic warhead with a range of up to 800 kilometers.
In 2002, a collection of declassified documents edited by L. D. Ryabev “The USSR Atomic Project” was published in Moscow. It published the "Review of IV Kurchatov" On the material under the title "On the German atomic bomb", received from the GRU of the General Staff of the SC "on March 30, 1945. In the document, the future father of the Soviet atomic bomb comments on "a description of the design of the German atomic bomb, intended for transportation on a rocket engine of the" FAU "type. Soviet specialists were interested in missiles primarily as the most promising means of delivering nuclear weapons over long distances. So the active development of German missile technology was "sharpened" precisely for the Soviet atomic program.
Half a step beyond the horizon …
Meanwhile, along with the V-2 missile, German rocket scientists with feverish haste were developing a more advanced means of delivering an atomic charge - the world's first two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile A-9 / A-10. The planned flight range was 5500 kilometers, and the estimated flight time was 35 minutes. This missile was intended to shell New York and Washington. American counterparts of the Atlas and Titan ICBMs will be created only 15 years after the end of World War II.
The first stage was the A-10 rocket (height - 20 meters, diameter - 4.12 meters, launch weight - 87 tons). The second stage (A-9) was a cruise modification of the A-4b missile, carrying 910 kilograms of explosives or equipped with a cockpit. An additional A-11 booster stage planned for the A-9 / A-10 would allow space satellites to be launched. Another upper stage, A-12, turned the system into a four-stage rocket, where the A-9 would act as an orbital shuttle.
For the construction of the A-9 / A-10 ICBMs at the end of 1943 in the foothill massif in the Gunden area (northeastern Austria) on the shore of Lake Traunsee, construction of a giant underground complex, codenamed Zement, began. It is known that two successful tests of the A-9 missile were carried out before the end of the war. Whether the tests of the A-9 / A-10 project were carried out as a whole is unknown. But in 1944, the V-2 rocket made its first suborbital space flight, reaching an altitude of 188 kilometers.
Both the Soviet rocket and space programs and some American ones (the Hermes program) began with the launch of captured and later modified V-2 rockets. The first Chinese ballistic missiles, Dongfeng-1, also launched from the development of the Soviet R-2 missiles, created on the basis of the V-2 design.
Alexey KOMOGORTSEV