Like many Nazi ideas, what looked good on paper was, in reality, somewhat different. The Rocket craze of the late 1920s led directly to the development of one of Nazi Germany's most expensive weapon systems, which was technologically astounding, but militarily rubbish

Today we're going to look at how that all began, the race to develop the A-4 rocket, the building of a massive test site to create the weapons and talk about what the A-4/V-2 was, how it was supposed to work, how the technical challenges were over come, and ask the question no one did at the time - why bother?


00:00 Big Rockets, Bad Ideas: The V2 Story
00:55 The "So What" Question
03:04 Rocket Fever - the late 1920s
06:51 The Lads in Grey Step in
08:50 von Braun’s Faustian Pact
11:21 Peenemünde: Onwards and Sometimes Upwards
13:42 Size Matters: The A4 Concept
19:26 Getting the Gang Together: The V-2 Engineers Come Together
22:36 A QUick Tea Break and som Blantant Self Promotion
23:51 The A4 and Other Rockets: A Timeline
27:28 Anatomy of the A4
29:26 Guidance and Gyroscopes: Making It Go the Right Way
35:09 The Rocket Engine: Controlled Fire and Clever Plumbing
38:36 The V-2 Turbopump: The Wolverine
46:54 Survivor’s Club



[1] Guy Walters, Stealing Hitler’s Rocket, Head of Zeus, 2026 p.27 (Kindle ed)

[2] Tooze, Wages of Destruction p. 750 gives German GDP in 1937 as RM73.757bn, approximate cost of the V2 programme whilst Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p.273 gives the total cost of the A4/V2 project, excluding vehicles, warhead and guidance systems as RM900m

[3] Michael J. Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era (New York: Free Press, 1995), Kindle Edition pp. 122–124

[4] Stephen Ransom & Hans-Hermann Cammann, Me163 Rocket Interceptor, Crecy Publishing, 2021, pp.30–32

[5] Micheal Nuefled, Von Braun, 2007, Smithsonian (Kindel Ed), p.50

[6] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, pp. 19–21.

[7] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 23.

[8] Neufeld, *Von Braun*, p.55

[9] Neufeld, *Von Braun*, p.61

[10] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 32.

[11] Neufeld, *Von Braun*, pp.64–65

[12] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 50

[13] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 51

[14] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 52.

[15] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 179

[16] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 59.

[17] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 98 & 121 – A-9 development stopped in 1942, A-10 was never more than a paper study

[18] As above, worth picking out the A-10 proposals as theoretical

[19] [A4 / V2 Rocket in detail: Turbopump](A4 / V2 Rocket in detail: Turbopump) “V2 Turbo Pump Part 1”

[20] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p.65 and on

[21] For those who’re so minded there’s a complete explanation of the V2 engine systems here: John A. Halchak, James L. Cannon and Corey Brown, “Materials for Liquid Propulsion Systems,” in Aerospace Materials and Applications (AIAA, 2018), p.15 and onward

[22] “Analysis and Evaluation of German Attainments and Research in The Liquid Rocket Engine Field. Volume 4. Propellant Injectors”, which you can get in pdf form online has a really good description of how this works.

[23] Walters, Stealing Hitler’s Rocket, p.27

[24] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 80.

[25] [A4 / V2 Rocket in detail: Turbopump](A4 / V2 Rocket in detail: Turbopump) – I make no apologies for referencing the same YT video here, it is art, go and watch it

[26] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 88

[27] Neufeld, *The Rocket and the Reich*, p. 85

[28] [The riddle of the V2 rocket shape](The riddle of the V2 rocket shape)