Doctor Wernher von Braun, the mastermind behind the lethal German V-2 rocket, woke up in the
middle of the night after hearing the raid sirens of the Peenemünde Army Research Center complex.
Still with sleep in his eyes, he made his way to the raid alert communications center to see if the
enemy had truly discovered the top-secret facility on the quiet island of Usedom in the Baltic Sea.
The artificial fog system surrounding the secret complex was activated to shroud it from any eyes
above. There must be something wrong with the sirens, a tired engineer muttered.
There were no enemy aircraft in the area. Yet, as von Braun and his team headed back to
their quarters, one of the guards noticed something odd. A flare lit up the sky,
then another, and another. Soon, the artificial fog had disappeared, completely exposing the base.
The roaring sound of a hundred engines signaled the beginning of Operation Hydra:
Britain’s plan to get rid of the V-2 rocket program. Von Braun and
the entire team of German scientists were about to face a rain of bombs…
The Secret Lab Peenemünde,
or River Mouth of the Peene River, was located on the island of Usedom, on the Baltic Sea,
and it housed a secret facility concealed by artificial fog to keep it under the
radar for enemy reconnaissance aircraft. Here, German scientists worked diligently
in the Reich’s classified rocket program. The scientists, known as the rocket men,
had been fascinated by rocket development since the aftermath of World War 1. The
Treaty of Versailles severely limited Germany´s use and development of conventional weapons.
Renowned German scientists and engineers turned to rocketry to avoid the treaty's restrictions. In
the 1920s, Fritz von Opel and Max Valier directed the large-scale rocket program Operal-RAK,
a series of rocket vehicles used for racing. This rocket rumble paved the way for the
Wehrmacht’s interest in rocketry for military purposes during the early 1930s. An experimental
center to test rockets was built on the outskirts of south Berlin. Still,
it soon grew and was relocated to the small fishing village of Peenemünde.
The area was perfect for rocket tests as it was remote and looked out to over 300 miles
of German sea that were safe to use as a firing range. The Luftwaffe and the Heer split the costs
of the facility. They finished it by 1937, naming it the Military Experimental Station Peenemünde.
The base was located in an authentic nature reserve untouched by man. Pomeranian deer,
ducks, swarms, and other wildlife roamed freely through the thick bushes of the woods.
A security boundary isolated the entire facility from the rest of the towns on the peninsula. They
avoided cutting down too many trees to conceal the research centers from the inquisitive
eyes of nationals and foreigners alike. Here, in this silent place, the German military
literally developed rocket science. The Vengeance Weapon
The main objective of the concealed facility at Peenemünde was to develop a liquid-fueled
rocket capable of carrying a warhead of high explosives for military bombardment.
German scientists expected that such a weapon would develop a thrust of 45,000 pounds and
carry a one-ton warhead that could strike a target over 160 miles away. The result
would be a much more powerful weapon of destruction with a greater strike distance
of over 200 miles and 55,000 pounds of thrust. The first long-range guided ballistic missile
would later become the Vergeltungswaffe or V-2 “Vengeance Weapon.” The three early test
rockets of the project were given the vague name Aggregat or “machine unit.”
The A-4 and A-5 rocket development fell under Walter Dornberger, a World War 1
veteran. One of his younger staff members was 19-year-old student Wernher von Braun, who
dreamed of sending a rocket to the moon one day. The development of the secret rocket program
advanced rapidly. By October 1942, several milestones had been reached. During a test,
one of the rockets defied gravity and thrust into the stratosphere, breaking through the
sound barrier and later tilting to a horizontal trajectory, coming down on the intended target.
The seasoned Dornberger turned to Von Braun and said: (QUOTE) “Today, the spaceship was born.”
With most of the coasts of France, Belgium, and The Netherlands under German control,
the scientists at Peenemünde were ready to test their new weapon against the enemy.
Although secrecy was maintained, Propaganda Minister Goebbels told the German populace
the army was working on a new wonder weapon that would make the Allies pay
for the indiscriminate bombing of German cities. Unfortunately for him, British Intelligence began
receiving information about the secret facility and decided to act accordingly.
Operation Crossbow Intelligence gathering began at the
outbreak of the war in 1939 when the British Naval Attaché at Oslo received an anonymous
letter and a small package containing details of long-range rockets being tested at Peenemunde.
The information from the Oslo Report was later confirmed by another Stockholm leak
supplied to the British in 1942. Nevertheless, the British never acted on this until late 1943,
when captured German generals and other officers were heard talking about the rocket program.
Additionally, members of the Austrian resistance group, including Roman Catholic priest Heinrich
Maier, managed to supply the American Office of Strategic Services with drawings of the
V-2 rocket and its manufacturing facilities. On June 29, 1943, Chief of the Imperial General
Staff General Sir Alan Brooke wrote in his diary: (QUOTE) “The Defence Committee met to discuss the
new rocket weapon the Germans are supposed to be developing. It Arrived at the conclusion
that a definite threat exists, and that we should bomb Peenemünde at the earliest possible date.”
This initiated Operation Crossbow, a codename employed by the Anglo-American air forces to
destroy all the German facilities tasked with developing the long-range V-1 and V-2
rockets. Some of these sites were already under construction in Northern France with aims to reach
further into Great Britain. The Hydra Strikes
One of the subsidiary targets of Crossbow was Operation Hydra: the destruction of Peenemünde.
The name paid homage to the Greek multi-headed mythological figure because the operation
comprised several parts. It would be attacked in three consecutive waves in over an hour.
Sir Arthur Harris, Commander in Chief of Bomber Command,
envisioned three targets to be decimated for the operation to be successful. The
first was the experimental facility, where most of the research work and development was done.
The second objective was the two large factory workshops, where the British believed the rockets
were assembled. The third target comprised the living and sleeping quarters. The intent was
to take the lives of all the scientists and essential personnel working at Peenemünde.
It was assumed that most scientists and engineers would be sleeping during the raid, convincing the
Air Ministry that they could eliminate them and the soldiers from the Wehrmacht barracks nearby.
Two labor camps would also be hit due to their proximity to three primary
objectives. Only one camp, the power station, and the liquid oxygen plant would be spared.
Due to the short summer nights, the earliest date for the night bombing
operation was mid-August. The complex was over 9.6 square miles, representing a small
target for Bomber Command. Accuracy was essential. Consequently, most of the 600 aircraft assigned to
Hydra were equipped with H2S radar to guide them to the location and strike their targets from a
distance of 8,000 feet instead of the standard altitude of 19,000 feet, to maximize accuracy.
De Havilland Mosquito pathfinders would drop color-coded flares over the sleeping quarters
during the first wave, the factory workshops for the second wave, and the experimental facilities
in the last assault. Night Attack
On the night of August 17, 1943, the British launched Operation Whitebait, a diversionary raid
on Berlin to lure Luftwaffe night fighters from Peenemünde and leave it defenseless for Hydra.
Number Eight Group of the RAF reached the skies of Belin at 11:00pm to simulate the
raid. Mosquitoes were dispatched to several Luftwaffe airfields across
the region to further confuse the defenders. At 12:35am on August 18, the British strike
force dropped the color-coded flares for the first assault wave. Von Braun and
other scientists were awakened in the night by air raid sirens and saw the artificial
fog system slowly shroud the facilities. Von Braun recalls watching a flare lighting
up through the fog and covering the sky like a Christmas tree. The attack had begun.
Mere seconds later, the first bombs began to strike the once solitary and undisturbed
Peenemünde Complex. The first wave of 244 Stirlings and Halifaxes began dropping their
bombload over the sleeping quarters of the German scientists with pinpoint accuracy.
Unfortunately, one-third of the RAF aircraft bombed the nearby labor camp and took the lives
of over 500 prisoners. The second wave, comprised of 113 Lancasters and almost
20 pathfinders, commenced 30 minutes later. The bombers targeted the V-2 rocket facilities
and dropped over ninety 4,000-pound bombs and seven hundred 1,000-pound bombs
flying at altitudes of over 12,000 feet. The last run of British bombers attacked
their objectives with overwhelming force. 117 Lancasters and 52 Halifax
swept the area, destroying over 50 buildings. Luftwaffe night fighters began to show up, which
led the Allied bombers to drop their remaining payload anywhere they could. The angered Germans
reacted quickly and set their sights on 28 bombers that were shot down before they left the complex.
Despite the three successful waves, the British failed to accomplish their objective
of destroying the sleeping quarters and taking the lives of German scientists and engineers.
Although the complex was severely bombed, it remained operational. This led the Wehrmacht to
relocate the V-2 sites to other areas. Propaganda minister Goebbels would later say the secret
program was only delayed for eight weeks. The first V-1 rocket would take to the skies
on June 13, 1944, to strike London. Then, on September 8, the first V-2 took off. Although
extremely powerful, they were produced in small numbers that did little to change the war's
outcome against the Allied forces. Whichever the case, Germany had won the rocket weaponry race.