GERMANS FIRE V-2 ROCKET FROM PEENEMUNDE
Berlin, Germany (JFK+50) On October 3, 1942, Germany successfully fired a V-2 rocket from Peenemunde, an island off the Baltic coast.
The V-2 was fired at Paris on September 6, 1944 and thousands were launched against Great Britain during the remainder of WWII.
The rocket, traveling at 118 miles per hour, was virtually impossible to defend against. The project to build the rocket was led by Wernher Von Braun.*
*Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977) was born in Poland & educated at the Technical University of Berlin. WVB earned a PhD at Friedrich Wilhelms University.
After WWII, he came to the U.S. & was director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was chief architect of the Saturn V rocket which sent American astronauts into space.
JFK+50 NOTE
The V-2 was one of three types of "vengeance weapons" employed by the Nazis to strike terror upon civilian populations & disrupt enemy military operations. They included the V-1 & V-3.
