Peenemündes position in Germany

Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German island of Usedom on the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic coast. Usedom (Polish name Uznam) is an island north of the mouth of the Oder river, where it flows into the Szczecin Bay (ger: Stettiner Haff, pol: Zalew Szczeciński). ... Peene (Polish: Piana) is a river in Germany and also a western strait or a branch of Oder River out of three straits conecting the Lagoon of Szczecin with the Bay of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea, between the islands of Usedom and the German mainland. ... The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of east and central Europe, and the Danish islands. ...

Rocket facility

During World War II, Peenemünde was the location of the Heeresversuchsanstalt, an extensive rocket development and test site established in 1937. Prior to that date the team headed by Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger had worked in Kummersdorf, south of Berlin. However, Kummersdorf was too small for testing. Peenemünde, located on the coast, was chosen as rockets could be launched and monitored across about 200 miles of open water. A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... In May 1964, von Braun stands at his Marshall Space Flight Center desk in Huntsville, Alabama with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... Major-General Dr Walter Robert Dornberger (September 6, 1895 - June 27, 1980) was a German army officer whose career spanned World Wars I and II. During the 1930s and 40s, he directed Germanys rocket and missile programmes, which culminated in the V-2. ... Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde at 52°05 N and 13°20 E, around 25km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. ...

From 1937 until 1945, the Peenemünders developed many of the basics of rocket technology and two weapons, the V-1 and the V-2. Test firing of the first V-1 occurred in early 1942 and the first V-2 (then called the A-4) on October 3, 1942, from Prüfstand VII. The V-1 cruise missile experiments were run by the German Luftwaffe in Peenemünde west whereas the ballistic missile development (V-2) was a project run by the Heer (army). 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Vergeltungswaffe 1 Fi 103 / FZG-76 (V-1), known as the Flying bomb, Buzz bomb or Doodlebug, was the first modern guided missile used in wartime and the first cruise missile. ... German test launch. ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 3rd October Organization is also the name of a Marxist terrorist group . ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... A Tomahawk cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. ... The Luftwaffe (literally, air weapon, pronounced looft-vaaf-feh) is the air force of Germany. ... Polish missile wz. ... Heer is the German word for army. ...

RAF Photo-Reconnaissance picture of Peenemünde Test Stand VII

Also other techniques were developed at Peenemünde: so was at Test stand VII the first close-in-television system in the world installed to track the launching rockets.

A number of heavy air-raids targeted the site, including an attack by almost 500 RAF heavy bombers on the night of 16-17 August, 1943 ("Operation Hydra"). This raid killed some 700 staff, including Walter Thiel, the head of engine development. This raid prompted production of the V rockets to be moved underground. Strategic bombing is a military strategem used in a total war style campaign that attempts to destroy the economic ability of a nation-state to wage war. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force of the United Kingdom. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Walter Thiel (March 2, 1910 - August 17, 1943) was a German engineer who largely designed the rocket engine that powered the V-2 missile. ...

At the end of World War II, von Braun and most of the scientists fled to be captured by the Americans while the site and most of the technicians were captured by the Soviets and British, who they feared would try them for war crimes for the V-2 attacks on London. The actual site was, in accordance with an agreement, destroyed with explosives by the Red Army. A war crime is a punishable offense, under international law, for violations of the law of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... Red Army flag The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ...

In spite of the raids many technical installations were not destroyed at end of World War II in Peenemuende, because most bombs were thrown on the housing areas and the camps for the foreign worker. Most destruction of the technical facilities of Peenemünde was done by the Soviet Army between 1948 and 1961. Only the power station, in which is now a museum, the airport and the railway link to Zinnowitz remained workable. The plant for production liquid oxygen is a ruin at the entrance of Peenemünde. Most other buildings and facilities are nearly completely destroyed.

There is much controversy about how the allies found out about Peenemünde. The official British version is that all information was collected by air reconnaissance. However there are witnesses and documents which state that Peenemunde was discovered thanks to Polish underground army (Armia Krajowa or AK) intelligence and some information from others (including Danish pilot who photographed something looking like a V rocket near Peenemünde). English intelligence for years denied that it received any information about Peenemünde from Poland. However copies of reports were found after the war in Poland. R. V. Jones contradicted himself, first denying that fact, and later in his book The Wizard War writing that many bombs fell on camps of foreign workers who gave the allies information (he failed to mention that these workers were Poles and were from AK). Within the last few years Polish politicians and historians have demanded access to British archives (since most if not all AK reports were stored in England). So far the British authorities have answered that all AK reports were destroyed. For other meanings of Home Army see: Home Army (disambiguation) The Armia Krajowa or AK (Home Army) functioned as the pre-eminent underground military organization in German-occupied Poland, which functioned in all areas of the country from September 1939 until its disbanding in January 1945. ...

Peenemünde was not the only site in Germany where remarkable rockets were launched. There were also rocket launches in Germany between 1957 and 1964 at Cuxhaven and between 1988 and 1992 at Zingst. 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cuxhaven beach at sunset Cuxhaven is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, with about 55000 inhabitants. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

External links

• Pro-Polish site (http://www.dnai.com/~salski/No05-06Folder/Jedd-Poland-Contribution.htm)
• http://www.v2rocket.com/