V2: The Nazi rocket that launched the space age

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

interesting, currently reading "Wages of Destruction" on the WW2 Nazi economy (fascinating book btw).

Turns out the entire V2 program was aggressivily pushed by Speer as a political ploy to increase his control over the economy/arms production/Luftwaffe since the V2 was an "Army" program and therefore under his initial jurisdiction.

While technically interesting, the V2 Rocket program was prohibitively expensive and tied up valuable raw materials while contributing very little to the German war effort. Classic Boondoggle.

Not to mention, it was an indiscriminant weapon of terror like the buzz bomb. With no guidance system it was a fire and forget weapon of mediocre destruction. Hardly worth the expense.