Nazi Megastructures "Series 1" (2/6) : V2 Rocket Bases
For educational purposes
Discover how Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun heralded the birth of ballistic missiles and laid the technological foundations for the space race.
Discover how Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun heralded the birth of ballistic missiles and laid the technological foundations for the space race.
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00:00Hidden in forests and under mountains across Europe are the remains of a top-secret Nazi
00:11weapons program.
00:12That's an incredible structure.
00:15A vast network of research labs, launch pads and missile silos.
00:21And a terrifying weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen before.
00:28It could break the sound barrier.
00:30The world's first ballistic missile.
00:33This changes the face of warfare, this changes the history of the modern age.
00:37I'm a total devastation, complete devastation.
00:43This is the story of a Nazi genius who built cutting-edge bases to create a revolutionary
00:48space-age weapon and the technology that ultimately put men on the moon.
00:55The V2 rocket program.
01:03The biggest construction projects of World War II, ordered by Hitler to secure world
01:10domination.
01:11Now they survive as dark reminders of the Führer's fanatical military ambitions.
01:18These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:25Saturday, the 3rd of October, 1942.
01:38A team of Nazi scientists arrive at one of Germany's most secret military installations
01:44to launch a completely new kind of weapon.
01:49Leading them is Wernher von Braun.
01:51At the age of just 30, he's the world's leading rocket scientist.
02:01Von Braun's goal is to create the world's first long-range guided missile.
02:06A weapon that the Nazis hope will decide the outcome of World War II.
02:33Years ago, this looked completely different.
02:37Rocket scientist and V2 expert Dr. Olaf Schabilsky is standing on the very spot where this launch
02:43happened more than 70 years ago.
02:48You have to imagine that the trees weren't here.
02:50It was all level, partially paved.
02:55This is Peenemunde, a vast Nazi laboratory built to win World War II.
03:06In 1942, the Nazis dominate Europe, but the war will soon turn against them.
03:13America, Britain and Russia are fighting back, and Hitler has pinned his hopes on rockets
03:19to pound Britain into submission.
03:23In Hitler's mind, this is terror.
03:25It's about scaring the population, and he feels that he can frighten Britain with this
03:29weapon sufficiently to drive them out of the war.
03:33It was a weapon that had its beginnings over 10 years earlier.
03:42In the 1920s, teenage genius von Braun was part of an amateur rocket craze sweeping Germany.
03:51This history has fascinated Martin Temer, head of rocketry at Dresden University, all
03:56his life.
03:58Rockets became very popular.
04:00You had societies forming in Germany.
04:03Young people got together trying to build little rockets.
04:07Rockets were previously fueled by gunpowder, but that meant they were unguided, unpredictable
04:15and only able to travel a few hundred meters.
04:18As a weapon, the greatest danger they posed was to the people launching them.
04:24Its early development rockets were loud, they were certainly colorful and bright and potentially
04:28scary for things like cavalry, but they were in no way a significant battlefield weapon.
04:35In the early 1930s, von Braun started working with a new technology, liquid-fueled rockets,
04:43a powerful weapon with the potential to travel huge distances.
04:49His work catches the attention of the German army.
04:54They ask von Braun to demonstrate his latest prototype.
05:13Mr. von Braun, a moment please.
05:16The launch is a failure, but surprisingly, the military offer him the funding he needs.
05:24What is your ambition?
05:26I want to get on the moon, to build the rocket that will put the first man on the moon.
05:32It's possible.
05:33We can do it.
05:35And it's all due to Hitler.
05:41When he comes to power in the 1930s, he greenlights almost unlimited funding for military projects.
05:49Hitler is fascinated with scale.
05:51He wants big, bigger, biggest.
05:53He builds his stadium in Nuremberg for his rallies to be the biggest stadium on the earth.
05:58He wants to build the biggest motorway system on earth.
06:01He wants to build more tanks, more aircraft than anyone else in the world has.
06:06He is absolutely fascinated with scale.
06:13Hitler starts rearming Germany.
06:16And in 1935, the Nazis order Wernher von Braun to establish the world's first rocket base.
06:24A high-tech facility where he can build, test and launch his most recent designs.
06:34It will be the largest weapons lab on earth, with the highest levels of secrecy.
06:40Von Braun's first task is to identify a remote location where the new complex can be hidden
06:45from other countries.
06:49He selects Peenemunde on the Baltic coast, a wilderness of dunes, marshes and forests
06:5650 kilometres from the nearest major town.
07:03Christian Muldhofer-Vogt is the leading expert on what remains of the rocket base.
07:10We are entering the research centre area and here was the first checkpoint.
07:19There were fences, there were dogs.
07:29Hidden in the forest are the remnants of one of the largest military complexes ever built.
07:40Peenemunde is a location where modern science was invented, part of the history of mankind.
07:49It's the perfect place to test rockets, for one reason.
07:54The flight had to be documented for the whole time and so you need a straight coastline.
08:03The coastline, more than 250 kilometres long, could be rigged with cameras to monitor rockets
08:08in flight.
08:11With the site chosen, work can begin on the missile base itself.
08:17In August 1936, over 10,000 workers descend on Peenemunde.
08:25Over 25 square kilometres, they build labs for more than 2,000 scientists, missile factories
08:31and launch pads.
08:33To keep it all top secret, they plan to design and build everything on site.
08:38But this will require a vast amount of electricity.
08:41So von Braun builds a power station, burning over 200 tonnes of coal every day, as rocket
08:48physicist Professor Martin Tamar explains.
08:51Well, it's really terrific.
08:53It was one of the largest power plants that were built in the late 1930s just to supply
08:58a research centre.
08:5930 megawatts of power, most of that was used to make a rocket propellant, liquid oxygen.
09:05That gives you unlimited possibilities.
09:16Seventy-five percent of the energy produced goes to a vast liquid oxygen plant that manufactures
09:22the vital rocket fuel.
09:26As big as a football field, the liquid oxygen factory produces 13,000 kilograms of fuel
09:32per day, enough for three V2 rockets.
09:39This place was definitely groundbreaking, so you had facilities, you invented facilities
09:44that didn't exist before.
09:46The rocket isn't the only scientific marvel.
09:49So is the technology required to design it.
09:53The site's wind tunnel is the first in the world that can simulate the missile's incredible
09:57speed.
09:59Just imagining a supersonic wind tunnel Mach 4.4 speeds, you couldn't think about such
10:05kind of facilities before.
10:09The V weapons development at Pinamunda cost over 30 billion dollars in today's money.
10:16By 1938, the facility is operational, and full control is handed to Werner von Braun.
10:31But away from the isolation of Pinamunda, events are about to give added urgency to
10:36von Braun's work.
10:38Hitler is planning to plunge Europe into war.
10:42There are some key people in the German government who see von Braun's rocket development as
10:46a potential key weapon in the war that will come.
10:50After investing billions, the army are impatient to get their hands on a working missile.
10:58But there's a problem.
11:06Von Braun's first prototypes suffer a succession of failures.
11:11The engines are underpowered, and he can't control the rockets in flight.
11:17Von Braun was struggling with explosions on the launch pad, off the pad, and in the air.
11:25The timing couldn't be worse.
11:27Von Braun has just been ordered to demonstrate his latest engine to the Fuhrer himself.
11:35At stake is the future of the entire Nazi rocket program.
11:51In March 1939, a group of high-ranking Nazis gather at a top-secret location to watch a
11:57test firing of Werner von Braun's latest rocket engine.
12:02All eyes are on the Fuhrer.
12:13Mein Führer, we believe that a rocket could reach a speed of 5,000 kilometers per hour
12:18in only 30 seconds.
12:23The engine functions perfectly, but while Hitler continues funding the project, he refuses
12:32to prioritize the weapon.
12:35It may seem surprising that Hitler wasn't interested in something so obviously futuristic
12:39and cutting-edge, but a strategic rocket force is well beyond what Hitler thinks he needs.
12:46In September 1939, Hitler's armies invade Poland.
12:53The Second World War has begun.
12:57Within a year, much of Western Europe has been occupied.
13:03Hitler's faith in conventional weapons is proved correct.
13:08When Hitler does invade Western Europe, he does it in a matter of weeks, and he does
13:11it with, effectively, a conventional army.
13:14Tanks, infantry, airplanes operating in cooperation.
13:17Why does he need any more strategic weapon?
13:20Why does he need rockets?
13:25Undeterred, von Braun continues to push ahead with designing a functional flying missile.
13:35Every test is filmed by a camera crew, and with no computers to simulate launches, the
13:40only way to test a rocket is to do it for real.
13:57We're here in the Holy of Holies at Peenemünde.
14:00This is where they wanted to prove whether their rockets could fly.
14:07The launch site is surrounded by huge banks of earth and reinforced concrete to protect
14:11the scientists.
14:21The rockets are supposed to take off and fly along the coast, but launches often go dangerously
14:27wrong.
14:57This is a fire extinguisher, or rather a hydrant for extinguishing the possible explosion.
15:04As well as risking lives, every rocket failure destroys thousands of valuable components.
15:10So the engineers spend weeks setting up each test.
15:16Before a rocket could be launched, in case thousands of scientists were blown up, it
15:21had to be prepared.
15:24The launch pad is in the center.
15:27Next to it is an engine test area with a flame pit, faced by a concrete observation bunker.
15:33A railway ferries the rockets to the launch pad from a preparation hangar, nine stories
15:40high.
15:46The rockets were hung in a test building.
15:49The electrics and electronics were checked.
15:53When they were okay, it was ferried on a rail-like runway into the testing area that
15:58we see over there.
16:09The excitement reached its climax just before the rocket was launched, when the relays were
16:15laid out and one hoped that it would be successful.
16:44But success is proving elusive.
16:47In the summer of 1942, there is a series of V2 rocket test failures.
16:52It was a step by step and trial and error.
16:57It was a very difficult task.
17:02Examining all the remaining parts, so you check for every piece of evidence to identify
17:08the specific cause of the failure.
17:14Yvon Brown has two major technical problems to solve.
17:19The first problem is creating an engine that can power a 13 ton rocket more than four times
17:24the speed of sound, carrying enough fuel to travel a distance of nearly 200 kilometers.
17:31It seems like the rocket goes up very steep and everything seems to look okay, but it
17:37seems like probably there's a premature engine cut off.
17:47The extreme heat produced by burning fuel is damaging the engine.
17:52Yvon Brown's solution is to pump the fuel through a double skin around the engine.
17:59The colder fuel extracts enough heat to keep the engine functioning.
18:07Yvon Brown's next problem is keeping the rocket stable and on course once in the air.
18:25Well, as you can see, first the rocket takes off, looks okay, but then immediately you
18:30see how it starts to roll and tumble.
18:33So it seems like there is a guidance and navigation problem.
18:37It goes off in the wrong direction.
18:43At the time, there is no way to steer a rocket from the ground.
18:50So to keep the V2 on course, Yvon Brown gets the rockets to steer themselves using gyroscopes
18:56and a series of rudders.
19:11After years of research, Yvon Brown finally believes he has a rocket that will work.
19:16Saturday, the 3rd of October 1942, Yvon Brown and his army paymasters await the launch of
19:31his latest prototype missile.
20:00Very good.
20:01Yes, but will it reach the target?
20:16Do you realize what we've done?
20:19The spaceship is born!
20:21Yes, indeed.
20:23If you think our headaches are over, I'm telling you, they're just beginning!
20:37In complete secrecy and unknown to the Allies, Wernher von Braun has created the first ballistic
20:44missile.
20:45He's launched a 13-ton rocket through the Earth's atmosphere and over a distance of
20:50190 kilometers, eventually crashing into the Baltic Sea.
20:55And he's close to delivering Germany's military a much-needed boost.
21:00By late 1942-43, the war is not going terribly well for Hitler.
21:04His shock invasion of Russia is starting to bog down and he is hemorrhaging troops and
21:09equipment and money into Russia.
21:11Worse, the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor and this has brought the Americans into the
21:15war against the Axis.
21:17An increasingly desperate and self-deluded Hitler starts talking mysteriously about these
21:21wonder weapons, which will somehow pull Germany out of its extremely dire situation.
21:28One of these wonder weapons is von Braun's rocket.
21:34In July 1943, von Braun and his army chief, Dornberger, are summoned to meet Hitler.
21:40I'm told you've made some useful progress, Dornberger.
21:52Is that correct?
21:53Yes, my Führer.
21:54Von Braun will explain.
21:55Bitte.
21:56What you can see here is the first projectile to be launched into outer space.
22:09Within 30 seconds, it is traveling at around 5,000 kilometers per hour.
22:17It can strike London within three minutes.
22:20Its warhead contains one ton of high explosives.
22:24We need a bigger warhead.
22:27A bigger warhead may not be possible, my Führer.
22:31I want total devastation, complete devastation.
22:44Von Braun becomes a victim of his own success.
22:46He wants Hitler's attention and now he's got it.
22:49The Führer instantly demands thousands of these weapons.
22:53He demands V2s to be produced at a rate orders of magnitude greater than what von Braun is
22:57capable of producing.
23:02What the Führer doesn't realize is that he has seen the only successful launch of the
23:06rocket.
23:13But as von Braun focuses on producing a reliable weapon, Allied aircraft take over German skies.
23:21And unknown to the Germans, an Allied aerial reconnaissance photo has uncovered the Nazis'
23:26top secret base at Piena Munda.
23:29British bombers are closing in.
23:36Throughout the summer, Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi engineers work day and night
23:40to build a reliable missile.
23:43All he needs is a little more time and he'll be able to deliver Hitler a devastating new
23:48weapon.
23:52Good evening, Herr Director.
23:53Good evening.
23:54Do you have a cigarette for me, please?
23:56Is that the artificial fog?
23:58Everyone take cover!
24:02Everyone take cover!
24:03Piena Munda is under attack from over 500 British aircraft.
24:07The top secret base is no longer secret.
24:21We've got to save the planes!
24:2610 years of work by thousands of people is going up in smoke.
24:36The Allies hope that the raid will set back the rocket by months or even years.
24:41If Project Leader von Braun is killed and his work destroyed, the program will be stopped
24:46in its tracks.
24:50Over 1,800 tons of bombs are dropped on Piena Munda.
25:00Here was an impact and this impact caused this hole here, this crater.
25:11The enormous size of Piena Munda makes it an easy target for Allied bombers.
25:18Once the British intelligence establishment works out what Piena Munda is, it's a sitting
25:22duck.
25:23It's all above ground and there's very little the Germans can do to protect it from the
25:27massive Allied air superiority.
25:31Von Braun survives, but Piena Munda is no longer safe.
25:35It's impossible to defend from aerial attack.
25:39His rocket research centre will have to move out of reach of Allied bombs if it's going
25:44to achieve its aim of flattening London.
25:48Engineers immediately scout for new locations deep inside Germany.
25:55But where can they hide the giant rockets and all the equipment needed to manufacture
25:59them?
26:02The answer lies in an abandoned mine in central Germany called Mittelwerk.
26:09Jens Christian Wagner is a leading authority on the site.
26:15Right here in the middle of Germany there was a huge underground tunnel system which
26:20had been constructed since 1936.
26:23It was a gypsum quarry.
26:25Nazi officials decided to change this into an underground rocket factory.
26:31Piena Munda was this incredible centre of science and technology, and now they're trying
26:38to do the same thing in Mittelwerk, which is a dark, wet cave.
26:487,000 slave labourers carve out two parallel tunnels, totalling over 3,000 metres long.
26:57One holds a road and double track railway for supplies.
27:02The second contains machinery to build the rockets.
27:06Connecting them are 46 smaller tunnels, each 150 metres long.
27:12In all there were 11 kilometres of tunnels, with a floor space of 93,000 square metres.
27:19This is part of the production assembly line of the V2.
27:29So from the perspective of the Nazis, this was very successful.
27:35This factory was finished in four months.
27:40But just as the factory finally begins to produce rockets,
27:45von Braun suddenly finds himself with a new master.
27:49As the war is going increasingly poorly for the Germans,
27:52the SS make power grabs throughout the military establishment.
27:55One of the objects of these power grabs is von Braun's V2 programme.
27:59It's a machine gun.
28:01It's a machine gun.
28:03It's a machine gun.
28:05It's a machine gun.
28:08One of the objects of these power grabs is von Braun's V2 programme.
28:20SS General Hans Kammler made his name by increasing the efficiency of the cremation ovens at Auschwitz.
28:30Hans Kammler was ruthless.
28:33He was an engineer of destruction.
28:37He took control of the entire factory and its staff of slave labourers.
28:47Von Braun is ordered to focus on the design flaws,
28:50and leave the manufacturing to Kammler.
28:55Production increases from 50 rockets in January 1944 to 437 in May.
29:01But these rockets are assembled in appalling conditions, and most don't work.
29:08The first rockets that were thrown together there
29:11were bolted and screwed together by unskilled workers and prisoners.
29:19They were junk. Utter junk.
29:23By 1944, the Nazis desperately need the rockets.
29:28The war has turned decisively against them.
29:33The Russians are advancing in the east,
29:38and Allied aircraft are destroying German cities.
29:44The Mittelwerk facility is ordered to produce 900 rockets per month.
29:49And Kammler uses brutal methods to increase production.
29:55Many prisoners died,
29:58beaten,
30:02murdered by SS and civilian overseers.
30:08Most of them died by exhaustion,
30:11others by starvation.
30:15About 10,000 prisoners had to live and to die here underground.
30:28Kammler rushes V2 rockets off the production line at Mittelwerk.
30:33But there is still a huge problem to overcome.
30:38Where to build the launch pads?
30:42And how to protect them?
30:47The Germans can't launch the V2 from Mittelwerk, it's too far away.
30:50They have to move the weapon closer to its principal target, which is Britain,
30:54and so they have to launch them from somewhere in northern France.
30:59Hitler ignores army requests for small, less detectable mobile sites,
31:03and orders the construction of a massive rocket base, called La Coupole.
31:09Hitler inevitably gets involved in the debate,
31:12and again, almost inevitably, chooses the big engineering solution to the problem.
31:16He goes for a big, static missile launching site.
31:23Beneath a vast concrete dome,
31:26the rockets can be prepared and then launched at London.
31:34That's an incredible structure, really.
31:39Arthur van Beveren is a leading authority on German fortifications in northern Europe.
31:48It's really an amazing structure, 71 metres in diameter,
31:545 metres thick, 55,000 tonnes.
31:59They laid a huge amount of concrete over the mountain,
32:03and dug out the chalk underneath it.
32:07Building this dome in the way they did,
32:09allowed them to continue the work inside the mountain,
32:13while being under constant air attacks.
32:25The dome's density and shape meant that even the largest bombs couldn't penetrate it.
32:32You can see a block of concrete over there,
32:35which is actually part of the wall where the V2 rocket came out.
32:39And it would be driven towards that flat area over there,
32:43and that's the actual launching platform.
32:51This would be the place where the trains would go right into the mountains.
32:55The V2 rockets would be on trains, horizontal,
32:59and drove right into this tunnel.
33:04In 1944, the Nazis are desperate for working rockets.
33:08They're being pushed back by the Allies in Italy,
33:11and the Russians in Eastern Europe.
33:14They plan to stockpile V2s in these tunnels until they're needed.
33:18We're now entering a part of the tunnel which is normally restricted,
33:22because it's unfinished,
33:25and it's kind of dangerous and unstable inside here.
33:30We're now deep, hundreds of meters into the mountain.
33:34The V2 rockets needed fuel, which was liquid oxygen,
33:38and the idea was that they build a liquid oxygen factory inside this mountain,
33:44and it would provide enough liquid oxygen to fire at least 15 V2 rockets every day.
33:55The tunnels of this huge engineering project
33:59house hospitals, barracks, and every facility
34:03that the crews need to live entirely underground.
34:08You can actually see how they dig through these chalk walls.
34:13They can almost do it by hand, here and here.
34:19Wow, this is what I think it is.
34:25It really looks like one of the drills they would use in 1944.
34:30Let's see if it fits.
34:34I guess so.
34:37It fits perfectly.
34:40It's amazing to find after 70 years, still inside these tunnels.
34:47You can see one of those beams.
34:50I don't know if it's a safe plan to go underneath.
34:55It's totally rotten.
35:00Underneath the dome, a giant hall is constructed,
35:04where the missiles can be prepared for launch.
35:07We're now entering the octagonal room.
35:11Well, room, it's the massive six-story hall,
35:16which is underneath the dome.
35:19It's 24 meters high in total, inside a mountain.
35:23It's absolutely amazing.
35:28The V2 rockets will be brought in from the tunnels,
35:32put here, and will be set vertical.
35:40And you can see we've got one floor here, one there,
35:44and more floors.
35:46Each floor had its own crew.
35:48For example, fueling and a warhead.
35:51Once the V2 rocket was filled,
35:54it would be driven outside to the launching emplacement,
35:58and it would be fired against London.
36:04The Nazis planned that La Coupole
36:06will launch up to 15 rockets a day to smash London.
36:10As soon as the weapons arrive from Germany,
36:13the capital will face an unstoppable bombardment.
36:24But back at Mittelwerk,
36:26the missiles emerging from the underground factory
36:29are still plagued by a reliability problem.
36:32The biggest problem we have
36:34is the materials and manufacturing quality.
36:37And SS-General Kammler
36:39is putting extreme pressure on von Braun
36:42to find a solution.
36:54In the first half of 1944,
36:56the Nazi ballistic missile is approaching completion,
37:00and Wernher von Braun's rockets
37:02are nearly ready to decimate Britain.
37:05They're given a name, V2,
37:07V for Vergeltungswaffe, or vengeance weapon.
37:12There is just one obstacle to overcome.
37:15After the rocket's launch, many suffer technical problems.
37:19They climb high into the stratosphere,
37:22but then something malfunctions.
37:253,000 individual components have to work together,
37:29and if a bearing or a relay doesn't work
37:32or a valve isn't properly sealed,
37:34the rocket won't fly.
37:37Von Braun didn't understand
37:39why the rocket's body was failing.
37:41One factor makes his job even harder.
37:44In 1944, there's no technology
37:46capable of capturing close-up images
37:49of the rocket at high altitude.
37:52With the Allies hammering Germany,
37:55he makes a desperate last-ditch gamble.
37:59He decides to get up close to a malfunctioning rocket
38:03as its wreckage falls to the ground.
38:11V2
38:20Von Braun narrowly escapes with his life,
38:23but finds the answer.
38:25He sees that the rocket's body
38:27has been deformed before it hits the ground.
38:30From this, he deduces that the structural framework
38:33of the rocket and its outer skin
38:35are buckling under the extreme pressures
38:38of supersonic flight.
38:41Von Braun reinforces the fuselage
38:43and the failure rate drops dramatically.
38:46Two years after the first flight,
38:48Von Braun had finally built a reliable rocket.
38:56V2s begin to roll off the production line.
39:00London is only weeks away from bombardment.
39:04But in June 1944,
39:06the V2 program suffers two huge body blows.
39:11The Allies receive intelligence
39:13that Lacoupole is a possible launch site.
39:16It is hit by a succession of massive British bombs.
39:21Lacoupole has one major design flaw.
39:24Its roof is impenetrable, very, very thick concrete,
39:27but the chalk around it is extremely soft.
39:30The bombing raids crush all the supporting
39:33and logistical tunnels around Lacoupole,
39:35effectively putting Lacoupole out of action
39:38before it even fires its first rocket.
39:41Then the Allies storm the Normandy beaches on D-Day.
39:48Just as Von Braun is ready to unleash
39:50the V2 campaign against Britain,
39:52the Allies attack and land in northern France.
39:55The sites that Von Braun needs
39:57to launch his weapon against Britain
39:59are threatened by the oncoming Allied army.
40:05Hitler has made a critical mistake.
40:08The big, static site he demanded
40:10was easy for the Allies to attack.
40:12In desperation, the Nazis rush
40:14to mount the rockets on mobile launchers,
40:17as the army had originally requested.
40:21A mobile missile launcher can be moved anywhere you want it to.
40:24It can be hidden in forests or in built-up areas.
40:27It offers the advantage of being harder to find.
40:34After 11 years of development,
40:36SS General Hans Kammler
40:38commands the first missile attack on London
40:41on September 8, 1944.
40:48Hitler's terror weapon is finally unleashed.
41:06What Hitler hopes to do with the V2 campaign
41:09is to destroy London and other major cities.
41:12He hopes to drive the British out of the war.
41:18In six months, over 3,000 rockets are fired
41:21towards London, southern England and Belgium.
41:29If you're a civilian on the ground,
41:31you've got this rocket moving supersonically,
41:34which you can't hear,
41:36and which has been launched only a few minutes before.
41:38There's no possible way they can get you warning.
41:40There's no way for you to hide.
41:42It's an extremely frightening event.
41:57But the V2 has arrived too late to turn the war.
42:01By 1945, the Allies are swarming into Germany,
42:05pushing the mobile launch sites
42:07out of range of Allied cities.
42:09The last V2 to hit London
42:11explodes on March 27, 1945.
42:15In total, more than 5,000 people
42:17have been killed by the weapon.
42:23If large numbers of V2s
42:25had been available six months earlier,
42:27D-Day may never have happened.
42:31But the sheer size and cost of the project
42:34meant that it arrived too late to save Germany,
42:37and may even have helped to defeat it.
42:43On May 2, 1945,
42:45von Braun surrenders to American forces in Bavaria.
42:49The USA now had the brains
42:51of the rocket programme in custody.
42:55Five days later, the war in Europe is over.
42:59But von Braun's career
43:01as a rocket scientist has just begun.
43:04Von Braun and 600 other German scientists
43:07and their families are shipped to America,
43:11along with 100 complete V2 rockets.
43:17Under the Americans, he had the possibility
43:19to pursue his research in the direction
43:21he had always wanted to go,
43:23which was towards the direction of space travel.
43:26Von Braun was fated by President Kennedy,
43:29and he finally achieved his life's ambition
43:32when his Saturn V rocket
43:34put Neil Armstrong on the moon.
43:41NASA gave him its Distinguished Service Medal in 1969.
43:45His V2 may not have won the war,
43:48but it ultimately conquered space
43:51and changed the course of human history.
43:56One giant leap for man,
43:58one giant leap for mankind.