The V-2 missile launch site, Blizna was the site of a
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
German
V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
missile
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...
firing range
A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by militar ...
.
[The modern museum is built on the exact site of the former V-2 launch site. PhaseII building of the museum was completed in 2011.] Today there is a small museum located in the ''
Park Historyczny Blizna'' (Historical Park) in
Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).''
Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
, Poland.
After the
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...
of the
V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
rocket launch site in
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, en, " Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...
, Germany, in August 1943, some of the test and launch facilities were relocated to Blizna in November 1943.
[ Middlebrook 1982, p.222.] The first of 139 V-2 launches was carried out from the Blizna launch site on 5 November 1943.
History
After the
air raid on
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, en, " Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...
on 17 August 1943, German strategic command decided to divide the work on the V-2 rocket among three independently operating centres.
Assembly plants were transferred to underground factories that had been built in a massive hollow cave complex in the
Harz
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
mountains in Germany.
[ Wnuk 2012, p.26–29 (Bogdan Chrzanowski)] The research, development, and design (codenamed "Project Cement") were handled by secret offices in
Ebensee
Ebensee am Traunsee (Central Bavarian: ''Emsee'') is a market town in the Traunviertel region of the Austrian state of Upper Austria, located within the Salzkammergut Mountains at the southern end of the Traunsee. The regional capital Linz lies ...
, near the banks of
Lake Traunsee in Austria.
[ The main rocket testing, training, and launch site was transferred to ]Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).''
Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
in southeast Poland, outside of the range of Allied bombers. An SS military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...
near Blizna was set up on 5 November 1943, from which 139 A4 (also known as V-2) rockets were launched for experimental purposes and for training.[ Jena1806.Com: 2009][ Zak, Anatoly: RussianSpaceWeb.Com: 2011] The site was operational until early July 1944. Test launches also continued at Peenemünde until 21 February 1945.
Before construction began in Blizna, there was nothing there but uncleared forest. The Nazis used slave labour from the nearby ''SS Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager'' concentration camp in Pustków to build new infrastructure, starting with concrete roads, then a narrow-gauge railway line linking to the station at Kochanówka village.[ Wiąk 2003, p.435–439.] They built barracks, bunkers, buildings and all the specialised equipment needed for the operation and firing of rockets.[ Wnuk 2012, p.36 (Marek Flis, Mirosław Surdej)] In addition, efforts were made to disguise the site as much as possible. They did this by building an artificial village; cottages and barns were made of plywood, lines were hung with clothes and bed-sheets, and imitation people and animals were created using gypsum plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
.
The site was considered to be of such high strategic importance that it attracted personal visits from many of the Nazi régime's most elite officers; Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
and ''SS-Obergruppenführer
' (, "senior group leader") was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissio ...
s'' Hans Kammler and Gottlob Berger
Gottlob Christian Berger (16 July 1896 – 5 January 1975) was a senior German Nazi official who held the rank of '' SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS'' (lieutenant general) and was the chief of the SS Main Office responsible ...
visited in September 1943, and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
visited in the spring of 1944. The commander of the site was Major-General Dr Walter Dornberger, leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket program.[ Dornberger 2004 p.18.] Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
, creator of the V-2, the central figure in Germany's pre-war rocket development program, and post-war director of NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's Marshall Space Flight Center, worked at the Blizna test site and personally visited the test missile impact areas to troubleshoot any problems discovered during trials.[ Gatland, Kenneth William: Project Satellite: 1958 p.82]
British Intelligence were very keen to obtain information about the new V-2 missile site. The first reports came in October 1943 from the Polish underground Home Army () Intelligence HQ in Warsaw, stating that a number of villages around Dębica were being forcibly evacuated.[ Campbell 2012, p.187] This area was already known for its SStraining centre SS-Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager. Further reports brought information about a new railway line being constructed in the same vicinity, leading to Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).''
Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
. A report made on 14 February 1944 gave information about a sighting of a rocket " long and ith
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
a weight of seven tons". On 22 February the report was of a projectile " long, ith
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
a diameter f and a weight of twelve tons". These missiles were being fired 24 hours a day. The codebreakers
Cryptanalysis (from the Greek language, Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach C ...
at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...
in England also managed to decrypt vital information from German communications.[ Campbell 2012, p.188] These made mention of " (experimental staff) Siegfried" and of "''SS-Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager''". Many more communications were intercepted and decrypted, which together with information from the Polish, helped British Intelligence build up a good picture of what was going on.
The missile testing ground at Blizna was quickly located by the Polish resistance movement, the Armia Krajowa, thanks to reports from local farmers. The site was constantly under observation by Armia Krajowa and the Polish Peasant Battalions.[ Wnuk 2012, p.40. (Marek Flis, Mirosław Surdej)] Due to Blizna's perceived strategic importance, Armia Krajowa (AK) had many field agents operating covertly in the area; these included AK Kolbuszowa
Kolbuszowa ( yi, קאלבאסאוו) is a small town in south-eastern Poland, with 9,190 inhabitants (02.06.2009).
Situated in the Sandomierz Forest in the Subcarpathian Voivodship (since 1999), it is the capital of Kolbuszowa County. Kolbus ...
(code name: "Kefir"), AK Dębica (code name: "Deser") and AK Mielec
Mielec ( yi, מעליץ-Melitz) is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 wa ...
(code name: "Mleko").[ These field agents even managed to obtain pieces of the fired rockets, by arriving on the scene before German patrols.][ Wnuk 2012, p.44. (Marek Flis, Mirosław Surdej)] These fragments were then smuggled by AK agents to secret labs in Warsaw, where the rocket parts were analysed by specialist teams, headed by Professors Marceli Struszyński and Janusz Groszkowski Janusz () is a masculine Polish given name.
It is also the shortened form of January and Januarius.
People
*Janusz Akermann (born 1957), Polish painter
*Janusz Bardach, Polish gulag survivor and physician
* Janusz Bielański, Roman Catholic pri ...
, and glider constructor Antoni Kocjan
Antoni Kocjan (12 August 1902 – 13 August 1944) was a renowned Polish glider constructor and a contributor to the intelligence services of the Polish Home Army during World War II.
Early life and education
Antoni was the son of Michal ...
. Vital information about the rocket propellant was discovered when numerous reports came in of a strong smell of alcohol at the crash sites.[Relacja Aleksandra Rusina, 23 IX 2007, z zbiorach Marka Flisa. ][The V-2 propellant formula comprises: fuel, alcohol, ]liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...
, hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3% ...
and sodium permanganate
Sodium permanganate is the inorganic compound with the formula Na MnO4. It is closely related to the more commonly encountered potassium permanganate, but it is generally less desirable, because it is more expensive to produce. It is mainly avai ...
(catalyst
Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...
). AK agent Aleksander Rusin (code name: "Rusal") was one of these witnesses. A V-2 missile crash-landed near to his observation location near Mielec
Mielec ( yi, מעליץ-Melitz) is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 wa ...
. Rusin ran up to the crash site and found an intact working motor, which he managed to measure and sketch shortly before it exploded.
In early March 1944 British Intelligence Headquarters received a report of an Armia Krajowa agent (code name: "Makara") who had covertly surveyed the Blizna railway line
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
and observed a freight car
A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...
heavily guarded by SS troops containing "an object which, though covered by a tarpaulin
A tarpaulin ( , ) or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforce ...
, bore every resemblance to a monstrous torpedo". Subsequently, a plan was formed to make an attempt to capture a whole unexploded V-2 rocket and transport it to Britain.[ Wnuk 2012, p.48. (Marek Flis, Mirosław Surdej)][ Łubieński 1976 p.157.] The plan was to stop the train in the forested area between Brzeskie and Tarnów
Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarn ...
.[
Despite meticulous planning by Armia Krajowa, the security on the German supply trains had been increased dramatically and the plan had to be called off at the last minute, as it had become unfeasible.][ Around 20 May 1944, a relatively undamaged V-2 rocket fell on the swampy bank of the ]Bug River
uk, Західний Буг be, Захо́дні Буг
, name_etymology =
, image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg
, image_size = 250
, image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland
, map = Vi ...
near the village of Sarnaki, south of Siemiatycze
Siemiatycze ( uk, Сім'ятичі ''Simiatychi'', be, Сямятычы ''Siamiatyčy'') is a town in eastern Poland, with 15,209 inhabitants (2004). It is situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Białystok V ...
, and local Poles managed to hide it before Germans arrived. The rocket was then dismantled and smuggled across Poland. During the night of 25–26 July 1944, the Polish resistance (Home Army and V1 and V2
Military intelligence on the V-1 and V-2 weapons developed by the Germans for attacks on the United Kingdom during the Second World War was important to countering them. Intelligence came from a number of sources and the Anglo-American intellige ...
) secretly transported parts of the rocket out of Poland in Operation Most III
Operation Most III ( Polish for ''Bridge III'') or Operation Wildhorn III (in British documents) was a World War II operation in which Poland's ''Armia Krajowa'' provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket.
Ba ...
(BridgeIII or WildhornIII), for analysis by British Intelligence
The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and d ...
. The missile fragments were picked up by an American C-47 Dakota aeroplane from an AK agent (code name: "Motyl") in an abandoned airfield between the villages of Jadowniki Mokre and Wał-Ruda
Wał-Ruda is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Radłów, within Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship
Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, is ...
, near Żabno
Żabno is a town and municipality on the river Dunajec in southern Poland, north of Tarnów. Since Poland's administrative reorganization in 1999, Żabno has been a part of Tarnów powiat which belongs to Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Before adm ...
, at the junction of the Dunajec and Wisła
Wisła (; german: Weichsel; cs, Visla) is a town in Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland, with a population of about 11,132 (2019), near the border with Czech Republic. It is situated in the Silesian Beskids mountain range in t ...
rivers, Poland.[ Breuer 1993, p.55.]
On 13 July 1944, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
wrote a letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
, informing him about the German V-2 missiles being tested in Blizna. In his letter, Churchill asked Stalin to instruct his troops, who were about away from Dębica, to search for and preserve safely any apparatus and installations found at the base after it was captured by the advancing Soviet Army
uk, Радянська армія
, image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg
, alt =
, caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army
, start_date ...
. He also asked Stalin to allow British experts to visit Dębica to examine the missile base. Stalin granted Churchill's requests; however, at the same time he instructed his army intelligence and USSR State Defense Committee
The State Defense Committee (russian: Государственный комитет обороны - ГКО, translit=Gosudarstvennyĭ komitet oborony - GKO) was an extraordinary organ of state power in the USSR during the German-Soviet War (Grea ...
People's Commissar
Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and Ea ...
for Aviation Industry, Alexei Shakhurin, to get ready for the examination of the German missiles. Shakhurin was ordered to have his weaponry experts in Dębica long before the British arrived. In late July 1944, the advance of the Red Army forced the Germans to evacuate the base at Blizna, and launch activities were moved to the Tuchola Forest
The Tuchola Forest, also known as Tuchola Pinewoods or Tuchola Conifer Woods, (the latter a literal translation of pl, Bory Tucholskie; csb, Tëchòlsczé Bòrë; german: Tuchler or Tucheler Heide) is a large forest complex near the town of Tuch ...
. The Red Army reached Blizna on 6 August 1944, about ten days after the Germans had moved out. Many of the first remnants of V-2 missiles were recovered by troops of the 60th Army
The Red Army's 60th Army was a Soviet field army during the Second World War. It was first formed in reserve in the Moscow Military District in October 1941, but soon was disbanded. It was formed a second time in July 1942, and continued in servi ...
commanded by General Pavel Alekseyevich Kurochkin. British intelligence agents were eventually granted access to the launch site in September 1944. Their mission was to collect as many remaining rocket parts and as much intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
on the site as they could. By then, the Red Army had already cleared out most of what the Germans had left and had shipped it to the Soviet Union, following Stalin's instructions. However, the British did manage to fill several crates with some useful V-2 rocket parts, which were then transported to England with the full co-operation of the Soviets. When the crates were opened in London, they did not have the expected contents; instead, they contained old rusty truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...
and tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...
parts, which had probably been substituted by Soviet agents.
See also
* List of Blizna V-2 test launches
* Rocket launch site
* '' SS-Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager''
* Operation Osoaviakhim
Operation Osoaviakhim ()
was a secret Soviet operation under which more than 2,500 former Nazi German specialists
(; i.e. scientists, engineers and technicians who worked in specialist areas)
from companies and institutions relevant to military a ...
*
References
Footnotes
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Dungan, Tracy D. (2005). ''V-2: A Combat History of the First Ballistic Missile''. Westholme Publishing. .
*
* Huzel, Dieter K. (c. 1965). ''Peenemünde to Canaveral''. Prentice Hall Inc.
* Piszkiewicz, Dennis (1995). ''The Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War''. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. .
Sources
* First Launch: 1943-11-05. Last Launch: 1944-07-24. Number: 277 . Location: Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).''
Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
, Poland. Longitude: 21.6162 deg. Latitude: 50.1819 deg.
* Diver – a secret British Defence Instruction specified the code name: "Enemy Flying Bombs will be referred to or known as 'Diver' aircraft or pilotless planes" to alert defences of an imminent attack (often called Operation ''Diver'', particularly post-war, without citation).
*
*
*
*
* The initial version of this article is based upon the history section of article Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).''
Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
of the English edition of Wikipedia.
* :
Gallery
File:Artilleriezielfeld-Blizna (Artillery Target Area at Blizna), 1943.jpg, V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
rocket in Blizna, 1943
File:Aggregat4-Schnitt-engl.jpg, Layout of a V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
rocket
File:Blizna 010 - V2 missile.jpg, Replica V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
missile in Blizna V-2 War Museum
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880, Peenemünde, Start einer V2.jpg, A V-2 missile
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
being launched in summer 1943
File:This boy's dead body, aflame, bears ghastly witness of the horror of the damage done by V-2 on main intersection in... - NARA - 531329.tif, Aftermath of a V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
rocket attack on the main intersection in Antwerp, Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, 27 November 1944
File:London V2 Frissell2.jpg, Aftermath of V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
bombing at Battersea, London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, 27 January 1945
File:An-2 at Blizna005.jpg, Post-war 1946 Russian Antonov An-2 aeroplane at Blizna V-2 Museum
File:V2 missile fragments.jpg, V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
missile fragments Blizna V-2 War Museum
File:Esquema de la V-2.jpg, A US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
cut-away of the V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
File:Home Army intelligence on V1 and V2.JPG, Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...
intelligence reports on V-1 and V-2
The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
missiles
External links
Park Historyczny Blizna
BLIZNA – Poligon rakietowy V-1 V-2
Video on YouTube
Instagram photos
* Archived
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
Truppenubungsplatz Heidelager
'. German test range for production V-2 missiles.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blizna V-2 missile launch site
Blizna :''See also Blizna, Podlaskie Voivodeship. For the Polish film of this name see The Scar (1976 film).''
Blizna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ostrów, within Ropczyce-Sędziszów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south- ...
World War II sites in Poland
World War II sites of Nazi Germany
World War II museums in Poland
Military operations involving the Home Army
Ropczyce-Sędziszów County
Weaponry articles needing attention to structure