Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

made now of graphite rather than molybdenum, in the
exhaust stream during the first few seconds of flight,
when the airflow over the conventional control surfaces
was insufficient. The team's work on the remote
north coast of Germany under increasingly difficult
conditions between 1938 and 1945 was actually to
change civilisation itself - if not in the sense that at
least some of them intended - by enabling man to
leave earth for the first time.
During 1938, work proceeded on the new design,
and by the year's end, four unguided launches had
been made to a distance of 17km (10.6 miles), and an
altitude of 11,000m (36,000ft). Work on the guidance
system continued. By October 1939, a month or so
into World War II, the guidance and control package
- in fact, every essential component of the A4 except
its warhead and motor - had been assembled in the
rocket, and test firing commenced. The results were
successful, and in early 1940 Dornberger thankfully
ordered work on the A4 to begin once again, with a
production target date of mid-1943. He bargained
without Adolf Hitler.
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES
Above: Many of the A4s captured intact found their way
to the United States (as did most of the development
team). This A4 is being readied for launch, probably at the
White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.
By July 1940, it seemed that Hitler's war would be
over by the year's end, with virtually all of Europe
under his control, the Soviet Union pacified by treaty,
and Britain isolated. It was then that the Führer gave
the fateful order to cancel any research project which
could not be guaranteed to show results within 12
months. One of the first casualties was Dornberger's
war rocket. Or so, at any rate, went the theory. In fact,
Dornberger managed to evade the directive by continuing
to work on individual components, including the
25,000kg- (55,1251b-) thrust engine, and was also
able to continue the A5 programme, which was still
supplying much-needed data on flight characteristics.
In fact, test firings of the new motor, the brainchild
of Dr Walter Thiel, had already begun. These tests had
revealed that there would be additional problems in its
operation, relating purely to scale, particularly in