Excavated last month is an aerial view of the crater formed by the V2 rocket's explosion in 1944. It was an orchard before the rocket struck it 77 years back. (Image credit to Colin Welch
The remains of a V2 rocket that was fired by Nazi Germany at London in World War II were found in South East England. It crashed into a field and exploded just before it reached its target.
They claim that this is the sixth major excavation at a V2 site by conflict archaeologists Colin and Sean Welch. The brothers have spent more 10 years studying the locations of Nazi "vengeance arms" directed at the British capital.
They have also excavated impact points of many V1 flying bombs, which were precursors to modern cruise missiles. These flying bombs were mostly launched from catapults in Nazi occupied France in 1944/45.
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The latest V2 excavation was near Platt. This is a village near Maidstone. Crater Locators found more than 1,760 lbs (800 kg) of metal debris. These include large fragments from the rocket's combustion chamber.
Although the site is now farmland, it was once an orchard before the rocket hit. Sean Welch, Live Science, said that although no one was injured by the impact, one elderly woman claimed that her hearing was damaged.
At the end of September, the team used a mechanical digger as well as shovels to excavate a bomb crater that had been covered with earth. It was not yet known where it was located. The team will spend 18 months conserving the objects, before creating an archaeological report for county's historical archives.
Colin Welch stated that the team used metal detectors in order to find the most severe remnants of the blast. They were over 14 feet (4.3 metres) underground.
He said that although the rocket travels at three-and-a-half times the speed sound, detonation does not occur at supersonic speeds. The rocket must be at least 5ft [1.5m] below the ground before it can properly detonate."
Image 1 of 3. Several unlaunched V2 Rockets were captured by the invaders Americans after World War II. They were later used in the US Space Program. April saw the first V2 launch at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. 15th of April 1946. Image credit: Public domain. Image 2 of 3 V2 rockets launching in Germany during a 1943 test flight. The V2s were the predecessors to modern intercontinental ballistic weapons (Image credit: German Federal Archives/Public Domain) Image 3 of 3 A modified V2 was launched from White Sands Missile Range, Oct 24, 2003. The first space photograph was taken from space by a 35mm motion picture camera aboard the 1946. Image credit: U.S. Army
Revenge weapons
V1 and V2 flying bombs and rockets were the last-ditch "Wunderwaffen", or "wonder arms" that the Nazi leadership hoped would change the tide of war against Germany, but it was too late.
According to Smithsonian Institute's Air and Space Museum - Adolf Hitler ordered V1s and V2s to be deployed against London after the destruction of German cities by the Allies in 1943 and 1944. His propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called them "Vergeltungswaffe," which means "revenge arms." On June 13, 1944, the first V1 struck London and the first V2 on September 7, 1944.
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V1s flew at approximately the speed of a fighter aircraft at the time. Royal Air Force pilots quickly learned how to shoot them down and knock them off their course. Because they made so much noise, the pulse-jet engines were nicknamed "buzz bombs". People could hear them approaching and seek shelter.
Image 1 of 3. The V2 impact site in the southeast of England near Platt is the sixth Colin and Sean Welch have excavated in more than ten years. (Image credit to Colin Welch. Image 2 of 3. The team spent four days excavating at the site of the 1944 impact site using a mechanical dig, shovels and metal detectors. The blast's deepest remains were found more than 14 feet below the surface. (Image credit to Scott Wishart) Image 3: Colin Welch is seen here with a piece from the rocket. He and Sean Welch also excavated dozens of V1 impact sites in southeast England. (Image credit: Scott Wishart)
However, the V2 rockets were the first supersonic weapons. They were highly feared as no one could hear their coming and because they flew too fast and high to be intercepted. The rockets were launched by the German military from Germany at an altitude of approximately 50 miles (80 km). They then crashed to their targets, traveling speeds of up to 3,500mph (5,600 km/h).
V2s are more advanced, but V1s are much more affordable to make. V1s tend to explode at ground level rather than after entering ground, which makes them more effective weapons, Colin Welch stated.
According to the Imperial War Museum London, the V2 rocket attack on London left behind 9,000 civilians and military personnel. The Vergeltungswaffen of Germany combined may have killed as many as 30,000, according to estimates.
Image 1 of 2. In addition to serial numbers and the chemical composition for the metal alloy from which they were made, it is not known why these parts were done. However, some parts have a code with three letters that corresponds with the Nazi-occupied European factory where they were manufactured. Image 2 of 2. This oxygen feed valve is used to fuel the rocket's combustion chamber. The excavators recovered more than 1,760 lbs of blast metals. Image credit to Colin Welch
Night launches
Many V2 rockets missed the British capital and ended up landing in Kent. Colin and Sean Welch believe this is because the rockets were launched at night, when the targeting was less precise. They believe that the V2 campaign was progressing and the launches could have been spotted by Allied radar operators who would then direct fighter squadrons to the location. They claimed that the Germans began launching V2s at night, when most fighters were unable to fly, in order to avoid Allied aircraft strikes. This led them to poor accuracy from ground crews who aimed rockets.
Some of the twisted-metal remnants of V2 that crashed near Platt in 1944 were embossed in a three-letter code, which indicates the location of the Nazi-occupied Europe factory where the part was manufactured.
Historiographers believed that all of the V2s built after the war were constructed in underground tunnels near Nordhausen at the foot Germany's Harz Mountains.
It now appears that Nordhausen was a manufacturing plant, and that the three-letter codes indicate that the Nazis manufactured the V2 parts in factories as far as occupied Czechoslovakia.
Von Braun is controversial himself. Although he claimed to not know anything about Nazi atrocities, he was a member the Nazi paramilitary SS ("Schutzstaffel") and more than 12,000 forced laborers were killed on his V2 production line in a single calendar year according to the White Sands Missile Range Museum.
After the war, however, von Braun was captured by America and made a pioneer in the Space Race. In 1960, he was named director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. There he created the rockets that launched the Apollo spacecraft to its destination.
Post-war Germany's American military captured many V2s in various stages of assembly, and sent them to America where they were used as the foundation for the fledgling American space program. A modified V2 was launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in 1946. It reached an altitude 65 miles (105km) and took the first space photograph of Earth, Air & Space Magazine reported.
Original publication on Live Science
