Ghost Rocket Ghost Town : Germany's V2 Test Center at Peenemunde

Long before the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933, German scientists had been fascinated by the vision of future space exploration and had been experimenting with rocket technology accordingly. Visionaries like Hermann Oberth, Max Valier and Fritz Lang had helped to create a veritable German rocket cult back in the "ultra modern" 1920s of Weimar Germany and the many scientists who followed in their footsteps, the young Wernher von Braun among them, were intent upon creating rockets which would one day allow man to leave the earth's atmosphere.

Von Braun and the others eventually reached this noble goal, of course, but not before having taken an unprecedented and terribly bloody detour: By the end of World War II, Germany's V2 ballistic missile may have indeed been the first man-made object ever to enter outer space (117 miles), but these deadly "ghost rockets" - called so because they were supersonic and exploded before anyone could hear them approaching - not only killed thousands of unsuspecting civilian victims directly, they were indirectly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands more of the slave-laborers who were forced to help build them, as well.

During this dark era, the small town of Peenemünde on the island of Usedom, located directly on the Baltic coast near the border between Germany and Poland, was home to the high-tech center for research and testing of these infamous unmanned V2 ("blockbuster") guided missiles, as well as the V1 ("buzz bomb") models. Although most of the Peenemünde facility was actually destroyed during and directly after the war, a large museum at the test center grounds nevertheless exists today and offers its visitors over 5000 m² of fascinating exhibition area filled with special exhibitions, a reference library and cinemas; and the museum guides offer tours of the grounds in three languages.

As terrible as these high-tech weapons of old were, one should also remember that these missiles which were the forefathers of the American and Soviet rocket systems that were used throughout the space race and moon landing, as well as for the systems which carry our space exploration programs into space this very day. But during World War II, and despite what turned out to be its ineffectiveness militarily, the V2 was one of the most terrifyingly advanced weapons ever built and struck horror into the populations of the cities it targeted.

Although the British had caught wind of Peenemünde as early as 1939, it was at first unclear as to what the facility's function might be. The SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) needed years before it could piece together the fragmented information coming in and it wasn't until early 1943 before aerial photographs began to confirm their growing suspicions. Later that year, a captured German general in a bugged interrogation room carelessly made reference to Peenemünde's real purpose. The subsequent increased number of reconnaissance flights soon brought back unmistakable images of rockets at the facility.

The British wasted no time in attacking Peenemünde by launching Operation Hydra in August 1943, the largest British action taken against a single target during the war. A fleet of 596 aircraft carrying 1924 tons of bombs attacked at half the normal altitude in bright moonlight. The facility was badly damaged, but not completely destroyed. The attack did however force the Germans to relocate their rocket production facilities underground, at the Mittelwerk factory, a mine in the Harz mountain range. And it was later here that most of the slave labor atrocities took place.

The bombing of Peenemünde may have delayed further development and production of the V1 and V2 rockets, but it ultimately could not stop the coming rocket attacks, which began in the summer of 1944. The Germans fired their missiles from large and highly mobile truck-towed trailers. These convoys and their launching crews could have their rockets ready to fire within 90 minutes. Although numerous European cities were partly devastated by the attacks, London was the hardest hit. From June 1944, London and southern England came under attack from the V1 flying bombs. By September the V2s also began falling.

But the Allied armies were now engaged in Operation Overlord to liberate Europe and the German rocket attacks, though deadly and terrifying, would be relatively short-lived. All in all the V2 killed more people in its production than in its use. As many as 20,000 slave laborers sent to the Mittelwerk factory died. Nearly 7000 bombing victims died in the London and Antwerp V2 attacks. Over 6000 V2 rockets were built and roughly half of them were fired.

Although Peenemünde's rockets were strategically insignificant during the Second World War, the technology developed here has led to enormous changes in the world. It is now a ghost town of sorts; on one hand it was the breeding ground for weapons of mass destruction, on the other hand it was a cradle to a future we are living in now.