Age of the rocket
By the end of August the V 2 was actually ready for use. Over 65.000 changes had to be carried out to make them reliable. But also here, as in the case of the V 1, the official start of the V 2 campaign should end in a fiasco on September 6. Two rockets which should be fired at Paris suffered a burn-out seconds to the start. She staggered however, came to a standstill on the floor plate and therefore could then be checked. The failure reason was a faulty I-device which aroused the burn-out the fault could be eliminated within two days.
The Londoners heard at 18.43 the typical double bang of a supersonic flight on September 8. They did not hear, unlike the V 1, the impact in Chiswick which should kill three people and hurt 17. Until September 18, the V 2 batteries on the island of Walcheren and near The Hague launched 25 rockets, 15 of those hit Greater London. The battery in The Hague retreated later to Germany the one on Walcheren was withdrawn to Staveren in Friesland later.
The V 1 attack was also continued. He 111 bombers furthermore carried flying bombs into the English airspace and launched them. The launch pads were pulled back up to the Reich and stationed in the Eifel, in the Sauerland and in the eastern Westerwald. Primary objectives were the port of Antwerp and the city of Liège, the main reloading point of the U.S. army during the battle of the port.
At the end of 1944 Kammler decided on the use of the new "Rheinbote" rocket which had been developed by the company Rheinmetall in Düsseldorf. This four-stage projectile with solid fuel had a weight of 1,750 kg, of which merely 20 kg were attributed as a warhead. In January 1945 this weapon came into action and was fired on Antwerp two hundred times, nothing is known about its effect.
At this time, in December 1944 Hitler surprised the Allies in the Ardennes. A push on Antwerp and the cut off of the Allies from their reinforcements was the main attempt. Here, a smaller version of the high pressure pump, called "Tausendfüssler" (wireworm), came into action. Only few shells were fired, nothing is known about their effect. A model of a Röchling shell can be inspected in the Luxembourg National Military Museum of Diekirch.
Early February 1945, a Fi 103 with an improved range of 375 km came into action. As of February 20 the operation "Pappdeckel" (thin cardboard) then began with the city of London as main target zone. Wachtels teams had already used up more than 19 000 flying bombs in February. But they only succeeded in firing 275 "Cherry stones" off three ramps near Delft until March. They were then pulled back to the Reich on March 29.
The rocket troops of SS Gruppenführer (major general) Kammler also had to retire from Holland. The last V 2 fell on the London suburb of Orpington on March 27. Altogether, 517 rockets were launched on London and 1.265 on Antwerp. Another 517 projectiles struck elsewhere in England, the V 1 caused 6 000, the V 2 2 700 victims in London
Am Ende des Krieges begann die Aktion „Paperclip“. Die Alliierten organisierten eine fieberhafte Suche nach Wissenschaftlern der Geheimwaffen und deren Fertigungs- und Forschungsstätten. Südlich von Hamburg, 15 km südöstlich von Dahlenburg, fand man eine unterirdische Luftmunitionsanstalt, die 2.000 Flugbomben enthielt. Die Hälfte davon hatten primitive Kanzeln mit simplen Bordinstrumenten direkt vor dem Strahlrohr. Es gab weder ein Landefahrwerk, noch die Möglichkeit für den Piloten auszusteigen. Wenig später entdeckte man die Testfliegerin Hanna Reitsch in einem Krankenhaus. Sie lüftete das Geheimnis.
Diese Maschinen, von denen einige sogar als Doppelsitzer konstruiert wurden, sollten einem Selbstaufopferungskommando als Einsatzwaffe dienen. Hanna Reitsch selbst war es, die Hitler den Vorschlag dieser SO (Selbstopferung) Einheit machte. Dieser war jedoch zunächst gegen einen Kamikazeeinsatz, ließ aber zu, dass Versuche in Rechlin geflogen wurden. Hanna Reitsch selbst unternahm mehrere Versuche mit dieser Fi 103 (Reichenberg III), um Trimmprobleme zu beseitigen. Zum Glück kam es nie zu solchen Einsätzen.
