V-2 launch train

[World B4]

https://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/westerwald.html"The second batterie (2./836) was one of the best and most experienced launching crews. On November 3, 1944, they launched a final V2 against Antwerp before they were ordered back to the experimental station at Peenemünde to do testing for the railway launching equipment (V2 train) in nearby Karlshagen. Other experimental launches were performed near Buddenhagen under the command of WaPrüf 10. They would remain in the east until January 23, 1945."

German V-Weapon Sites 1943-1945:
"An experimental railroad launch system for the A-4 missile was developed and tested in 1944, but its use was rejected due to the vulnerability of the European railway network to Allied air attack. The Red Army later captured this equipment and used it in the late 1940s in its early ballistic missile program. (NARA)"

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/652459064756301944/

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View: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/652459064756301887/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/652459064756301894/

View: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/652459064756301894/

 

[kocovgoce]

In the USSR there were SS-18s launched from trains. Perhaps the roots of the Soviet rocket trains are from these German V-2s.

 

[Archibald]

V-2 on trains ? I'm not really surprised, considering all the wild ideas considered by the nazis by 1944 - by this standard, it is a pretty reasonable one.
The Soviets: R-1 and R-2 were direct offsprings of the V-2, so not really surprising either they tried their luck at train launching.

but its use was rejected due to the vulnerability of the European railway network to Allied air attack.

"Vulnerability" is an understatement. Before D-day the wallies methodically bombed the heck out of France, Germany, Belgium railway networks. To slow down any troops coming from Germany. This turned into a liability later (August 1944) for the wallies, when their overstretched their logistics, notably the Red Ball Express.

 

[Nicknick]

The railways in Germany have largly been left intact. Towns like Düren were totally devestaded exept in the proximity of the railways.

 

[xena]

Oh railway was bombed like hell but the Germans were fast to repair damages.

 

[Justo Miranda]

The idea is good; they could launch and then hide in a tunnel.

 

[Nicknick]

Oh railway was bombed like hell but the Germans were fast to repair damages.

no, they weren't, at least in the west it is still ,visible today. Around the main Railway lines, you see more intact old buildings than in the ret of the town. The allied wanted to use the railways for themself, but some historiens wonder why the British didn't focus on the rail system instead of city centers. Some say, the strategy was more about wiping out German culture than finishing the war as fast as possible.

 

[martinbayer]

Some say, the strategy was more about wiping out German culture than finishing the war as fast as possible.

As a post war born native German, my one correction would be replacing "culture" with "fascist ideology" in the statement above.

 

[Nicknick]

The concept of whipping out the culture of the enemy wasn’t new at the time and of course, the German Reich very much wanted to archive the same with many other cultures.

The main devastations of German cities happened in the very last phase of the war, when the destruction of railway lines would have made much more sense than the destruction of historic city centers. This was not done to finish of the Nazis as quick as possible…

 

[Archibald]

The idea is good; they could launch and then hide in a tunnel.

Bingo. Free hardened shelters, more than enough against conventional bombing.

 

[Cjc]

Oh railway was bombed like hell but the Germans were fast to repair damages.

Well more like high leval bombers gust didn't have the precision to hit railway tracks reliability, the French railway system was completely wrecked by middium and figter bombers.