Lost in Space: The Defeat of the V-2 and Post-War British Exploitation of German Long-Range Rocket Technology

Lost in Space: The Defeat of the V-2 and Post-War British Exploitation of German Long-Range Rocket Technology

Blog Article

In September 1944 the United Kingdom became the first country in history to be subject to a sustained ballistic missile campaign.The V-2 rocket was the culmination of a 20- year read more research programme in Germany, but the operational history was less than seven months and had no appreciable impact on the outcome of the war.Countering the missiles was a two to three-year British intelligence priority but despite the seismic technological change the missiles heralded, Britain remained cautiously interested in exploiting the technologies and the scientist behind them.This was, arguably, to cast a long shadow over British space ambitions and strategic capabilities.

This paper considers the developmental and operational history of the V-2 from both an operational and intelligence perspective, and then considers the challenges - and outcomes - of taking advantage of the technologies, neflintw-r6mpw set against a background of post-war austerity and competing strategic requirements.