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  V-2 rockets displays: how many and where?

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Author Topic:   V-2 rockets displays: how many and where?
Gordon Reade
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Posts: 334
From: USA
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 01-15-2005 04:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Gordon Reade     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I know of one V-2 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., but are there any others still left? If so, where are they?

Steve Smith
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From: Wichita, Kansas, USA
Registered: Mar 2002

posted 01-15-2005 04:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Steve Smith   Click Here to Email Steve Smith     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is one at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. They have restored several others. One is at White Sands, New Mexico, and I believe another is at National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton.

I should also note that the Cosmosphere has a V-1 also. They are both authentic, restored. They are in the "German" room along with an engine from a "Komet" Rocket plane and its display. Many a heroic pilot was killed developing them. Many burned by the hypergolic fuels that would spill out from vibrating fuel lines below the pilots seat.

It is a very interesting display; shows the contributions of the Germans, and how the rockets and scientists were the pawns of evil and warfare, and yet the start of great science. As von Braun once said after the first successful V-2 (A-4) test "It was a great achievement — it just landed on the wrong planet." He wanted to go to space!

The room pays solemn tribute to the sacrifice of the enslaved workers. I
believe about 10,000 were "worked to death," which is more than twice the victims killed by rocket attack. I also believe that the V-2 program cost more than America's atomic bomb program.

There is also an interesting exhibit on the target sites (also in Antwerp, Belgium, and the Netherlands at port facilities), the accuracy of the V-2 compared to the unguided V-1, spies and counter spies, and the heroics of the British in holding on and defending their country and the world (thanks from a Yank).

There were German spies in London radioing back to Germany to confirm the bearings of the strikes. They received German war medals. Only they were decorated British counter spies radioing back the wrong bearings. This caused the V-2's to miss many targets.

One very clever thing by a Spitfire pilot was tipping the V-1 with his wing to take the V-1 off target. There is an actual picture enlarged.

An extremely interesting, but very chilling exhibit. Let's not forget the sacrifice of DORA!

Gordon Reade
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From: USA
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 01-15-2005 08:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Gordon Reade     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was wondering just how rare they were.

I wonder if any still exist outside of the USA. You'd think that London would have one.

Mike Dixon
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From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 01-15-2005 09:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Apparently they have a V-1 and V-2 in a museum at Hendon, North London.

Down here, we have a V-1 at our National War Museum in Canberra ACT.

FFrench
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From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-16-2005 12:15 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gordon Reade:
You'd think that London would have one.
I saw one on display at the Science Museum in London over Christmas. There used to be one at the Imperial War Museum in London too, but as it was over a decade since I visited, it may be the same one and was moved.

You can also visit New Cross in London and see a row of old Victorian buildings, with a rather out of place post-war building complex stuck in the middle of the row. This is the site of one of the worst V-2 hits on London ever, in terms of civilian casualties. Missed my father by about a mile...

Philip
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From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 01-16-2005 04:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The excellent museum in LaCoupole in the North of France has a V-1 and a V-2 on display. A must visit this museum as it sits in the very concrete massive bunker from which the Germans wanted to assembly and launch two V-2s simultaneously. The museum is amazing (the concrete dome remained intact as Allied bombings couldn't destroy it).

By the way, the white building you see on the photos of LaCoupole website is just the entrance hall with a souvenir shop. Behind it lays a long tunnel (used by trains supplying the dome with rocket parts). You walk through and get inside the hill after which you climb steps to get in the massive dome itself...

eurospace
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From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 01-16-2005 04:57 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think there is a V-2 in the German Museum on Science and Technology (Deutsches Museum) at Munich, but I have not seen it myself.

At Peenemünde, they do not have one, nor do they have one at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial Site at Nordhausen (they got a few remaining engines).

nasamad
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From: Essex, UK
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 01-16-2005 12:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for nasamad   Click Here to Email nasamad     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not a complete V-2, but I know one landed in my village on 14 Feb, 1945 at 03:05. It left a crater 41 feet wide and 14 feet deep that is still in the field to this day!

For the past three years the field has been part of a local golf club and the crater is now more subdued and used as a pond, I don't know if anything was found while they were landscaping the area.

Apparently the rocket was from "Voorburg."

machbusterman
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From: Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Registered: May 2004

posted 01-17-2005 07:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for machbusterman   Click Here to Email machbusterman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is definately a V-2 on display at the IWM in London. It is on display in the main concourse.

DavidH
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From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted 01-18-2005 12:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for DavidH   Click Here to Email DavidH     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is one at Marshall Space Flight Center, and at least one more at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. The one at Marshall:

Danno
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From: Ridgecrest, CA - USA
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 01-18-2005 04:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Danno     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is one at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

gliderpilotuk
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From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-19-2005 05:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for gliderpilotuk   Click Here to Email gliderpilotuk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here's list of the "survivors."

Within a mile of where I live there were two V-2/V-1 attacks. Easy to spot as there are unusually modern houses in a row of Victorian terraced houses.

Only the Hawker Tempest could catch a V-1 in level flight and the technique was to slip a wing under the V-1's wing (without touching!) just to disturb the airflow and throw the gyroscopes. Of the 10,000 V-1s fired at England over 1,500 were shot down by Tempests, Mosquitos, Spits and Mustangs.

NC Apollo Fan
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From: Belmont, NC USA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 01-19-2005 01:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NC Apollo Fan   Click Here to Email NC Apollo Fan     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is also one at Duxford, just outside of Cambridge (I do not think that this one has been specifically mentioned). As I recall it was actually mated with the launch mechanism, which made it quite unique. It has been a couple of years since I last visited Duxford, so my memory could be a bit off.

And yes, as Derek mentioned there is still a V2 at the Imperial War Museum. I was there just a short time ago.

machbusterman
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From: Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Registered: May 2004

posted 01-20-2005 08:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for machbusterman   Click Here to Email machbusterman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As for the missile at Duxford; it is actually a V-1 "Doodlebug" which is complete with launch rail/dolly and is situated between the 8th AF museum hangar and the WWII aviation hangars.

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