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 L-Glutathione ballistic missile campaign.The V-2 rocket was the culmination of a 20- year 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 BROWS SERUM 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, set against a background of post-war austerity and competing strategic requirements.