V-2 rocket facilities were military installations associated with Nazi Germany's V-2SRBM ballistic missile, including bunkers and small launch pads which were never operationally used.
Development, testing, and production facilities
V-2 research was conducted at the Peenemünde Army Research Center with most Peenemünde test launches conducted from Test Stand VII. After having moved the launch training facility named "Heimat-Artillerie-Park 11 Karlshagen/Pomerania" from Köslin near Peenemünde,[1] the Training and Testing Battery 444 (German: Lehr- und Versuchsbatterie Nr 444) conducted "live warhead trials"[2] from the Heidelager military area near Pustkow and Blizna, Poland, into the target area at the Pripet Marshes 200 miles (320 km) to the northeast.[3] With the advances by the Russian armies, the Blizna testing site was evacuated on September 8, 1944, to the Heidekraut testing-ground in the Tuchola Forest in Polish Pomerania.[4] In mid-January 1945, testing moved to the forests to the south of Wolgast, and then to the area of Rethun on the Weser river west of Hannover though no launches were conducted from either location.[5]: 173 Plans for production facilities at Demag-Fahrzeugwerke[5]: 74 in Berlin-Falkensee, Raxwerke, and the Zeppelin Works in Friedrichshafen were never completed.[6] The initial production plant at Peenemünde and the plant's forced laborers were transferred to the Mittelwerk underground plant and nearby Dora camp of KZ Dachau to produce the operational V-2 rockets. Near the Mittelwerk was a servomotor production facility in a salt mine[5] and a quality control facility at Ilfeld.
Eight main storage dumps were planned and four had been completed by July 1944.[10] These were all captured before being used. The storage depot at Mery-sur-Oise was bombed on August 2, 1944.[11] Work had been started in August 1943 and completed by February 1944;[10] and the depots (including those at Bergueneuse and Villiers-Adam) included "service buildings for testing V2 sub-assemblies in the vertical position".[8] Testing of production motors at the Southern Works was originally conducted in late 1943 at Oberraderach near Friedrichshafen,[5]: 95 but was shut down shortly after going into operation because firings were visible from Switzerland across Lake Constance.[6]: 207 Raxwerke motor testing equipment was eventually moved to the Redl-Zipf facility in central Austria, which used forced labor of the Schlier-Redl-Zipf[6]: 207 subcamp of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
Liquid oxygen supply had been identified as the bottleneck that would limit the number of rockets that could be launched as early as August 1941 by military planners.[6]: 142 As the rocket campaign started in early September 1944 liquid oxygen was produced at five sites: underground installations at the Redl-Zipf (5 machines generating ca. 300 tons/month) and Lehesten (9 machines) rocket engine test facilities, an old mine in Wittring/Sarreguemines (5 machines), an old steel plant in Liège Tilleur (5 machines) and the Oberraderach test site (4 machines). The factories were operated using KZ slave labor. Original plans had also included liquid oxygen production in the Watten and Wizernes bunker complexes but machines were taken out and construction work ceased in July 1944 after repeated Allied bombings. From October 1944 liquid oxygen for operations was also sourced from the two production sites in Peenemünde (4 machines). Liège was liberated by the Allies on 8 September, the Wittring site in early December 1944. The oxygen machines were taken out to be installed at the Lehesten site and at the Mittelwerk underground factory. At the end of the V-2 campaign in early March 1945 liquid oxygen was supplied from Oberraderach, Lehesten, Redl-Zipf and opportunistically in small quantities from local producers as the transport infrastructure collapsed.[12]