The German V-2 rocket story at a glance.
Its full name was Vergeltungswaffe 2, meaning Vengeance Weapon 2.
It traveled at 3,500 mph, had a 2,200-pound warhead, and had a range of about 200 miles.
The single most destructive attack by a V-2 was when it fell on a cinema in Antwerp, Belgium, killing 561 moviegoers.
The Germans spent more than $3 billion (in 1954 money) on its development – more than twice what the Americans spent on the ‘Manhattan Project’ that created the atomic bomb.
More than 10,000 forced laborers died building the V-2 rockets, about twice as many people than were killed by being hit by the V-2.
The people of London and Antwerp referred to the V-2 as “Phantom Thunder”, due to the sudden devastation brought on by the rockets.
It was estimated that more than 60,000 changes were made to the V-2 rocket engine’s design before it was ready for operational production.
The engine burned 33 gallons of liquid oxygen every second to create the rocket’s 56,600 pounds of thrust.
To toss a 27,000-pound missile 50 miles into the sky, the V-2 engine had to develop more than 500,000 horsepower – three times the power produced by the turbines of the ocean liner Queen Mary.
The engine was barely over five feet long.