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Rockets and People
north-northeast from the small town of Blizna to the bend of the Bug River in the
Siedlce-Sarnaki area east of Warsaw. The range and all of its facilities were thoroughly
camouflaged. Construction was carried out by the prisoners of the Pustkow
concentration camp (approximately 2,000 people), who were later all killed.
The 444th Test Battery, the “Blizna Artillery Range,” was located in the villages
of Blizna and Pustkow. The 444th Test Battery conducted the first experimental
launch in Blizna under field conditions on 5 November 1943, and the first combat
use of the A-4 began just one year later.
During the test firings in Poland there was one failure after another. Some rockets
failed to take off; immediately after ignition the circuit would reset itself. Some
took off and immediately fell on their tails, destroying the launch pad. Others
exploded at an altitude of several kilometers due to fires in the tail section, crashed
due to control system failures, or broke up in the air due to aerodynamic heating
of the oxidizer tanks. Only 10–12 percent of the launched missiles reached their
targets. Series production at Mittelwerk was already running at full speed, and the
Peenemünde specialists were desperately attempting to determine the causes of the
mid-air breakups by performing series after series of new test launches. Such a
method now seems anachronistic to us because, as a rule, we are tasked with ensuring
the successful launch of a new missile on the first attempt. At that time there
was no other way to gain experience.We went part way down that difficult path
at Kapustin Yar from 1947 to 1950. 7
The lack of multi-channel telemetry systems also played a role. Messina-1, the
first radio telemetry system, had only six channels. But even its use was limited at
the Polish test range due to radio silence.The Red Army offensive was rolling—
the eighteenth and last test launch near the village of Blizna took place on 30
August 1944.The Blizna test battery was restationed in an area south of Liège, and
the first combat firing was conducted from there. It was aimed at Paris.Three days
later they began routine firing against London using long-range ballistic missiles.
Thanks to the actions of the Polish partisans and underground, the British intelligence
service had received valuable information concerning the test range in
Poland.They had even managed to send an airplane to pick up missile parts gathered
by the partisans from missile crash sites. The Brits had also obtained the
remains of rockets that crashed in Sweden.
There was no time to waste, and Churchill appealed for help directly to Stalin.
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FROM CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CHURCHILL AND STALIN
Personal Top Secret Message from Mr. Churchill to Marshal Stalin:
1. There is reliable information to the effect that for a substantial period
of time the Germans have been conducting missile tests from an exper-
7. Kapustin Yar was the location in central Asia where the Soviets test-fired their V-2 and V-2-derived missiles
in the late 1940s and early 1950s.