The
V-2 (
Vergeltungswaffe 2, "Retribution Weapon 2"), technical name
Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range
guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a
liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during WW2 in
Germany as a "
vengeance weapon", assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the
Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first man-made object to travel into space by crossing the
Kármán line with the vertical launch of
MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.
Research into military use of long-range rockets began when the studies of graduate student
Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German
Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first
London and later
Antwerp and
Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, and a further 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.
As Germany collapsed, teams from the
Allied forces—the United States, the United Kingdom, and the
Soviet Union—raced to capture key German manufacturing sites and technology. Wernher von Braun and over 100 key V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans and many of the original V-2 team ended up
working at the
Redstone Arsenal. The US also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established V-2 production, and moved it to the Soviet Union.
