Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon on December 22, 1942
Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon: On this day Adolf Hitler signed the order for mass production, when Albert Speer assumed final technical data would be ready by July 1943. However, many issues still remained to be solved even by the autumn of 1943.
The V-2 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, “Retribution Weapon 2”), technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile.
The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a “vengeance weapon”, assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first man-made object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on June 20, 1944.
Research into military use of long-range rockets began when the studies of graduate student Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary,[6] the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, and a further 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.
As Germany collapsed, teams from the Allied forces - the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union - raced to capture key German manufacturing sites and technology. Wernher von Braun and over 100 key V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans. Eventually, many of the original V-2 team ended up working at the Redstone Arsenal. The U.S. also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established V-2 production, and moved it to the Soviet Union.
Library Of Congress / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / National Archives.gov / BBC
/ Engineering and Technology History (ETHW).org / Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum / History.com
/ Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon on December 22, 1942 (YouTube)
The Old Salt’s Corner
Sailor's Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas a calm night at sea,
We nestled in our racks for a Holiday Routine.
When from the ventilation there came such a clatter,
We jumped from our bunks to see what's the matter.
When from the vent fell this big dust covered dude,
He was dressed up in red with a bad attitude.
Yelling, “Those ducts are all filthy!” as he brushed off his clothes,
“Don't just damn stand there, where's the DCPO?”
He arose from the deck, then he peered all around,
Then from his mouth came a bellowing sound.
”This berthing's a disgrace!” then he called us by name,
“Now Boatswain, Now Corpsman, please explain!”
This was not the Santa I remembered from youth,
He smelled of cheap whiskey, he was rough and uncouth.
”Now, look here you bastards” he said as he strolled,
“You'd best trice this place up, or you'll get nothing but coal!”
“You'll make this space pretty, military, and neat!”
Then he looked down at our boots that lay right near his feat.
”Well, what do we have here?” he said with a frown,
“Who the hell polished these? Recruit 'Buster brown'?!”
He walked around slowly, he missed not a mark.
He even spotted dust bunnies, right there in the dark!
”You've got high dust and low dust, and that overhead it needs cleaning!”
We all stood dumbfounded as his words kept on streaming.
“Which man here is senior!?” Then asked St Nick,
“You'd better shit me and answer…and SHIT ME ONE QUICK!”
The First Class stepped forward, his heart pounding hard,
“Now look right here shitbirds, this asshole's in charge!”
“These racks will be tight! This damn deck it will shine!
I don't want to hear bitching! I need not hear you whine!”
So we gathered our foxtales, our buckets, and swabs,
We all worked all in silence to finish the job.
It took almost an hour finish our space,
He just sat drinking coffee and stuffing his face.
Then on re-inspection he explained with a huff,
“Now this is more like it! Now you’re not so screwed up!”
We all stood there smiling, awaiting our gifts,
But Santa just snapped out “What's the matter dumb-shits!?”
“Get back to your racks! This will be my last warning!
Just like on shore, the gifts come in the morning!”
It seemed like eternity until reveille sounded,
We threw back our curtains as all our hearts pounded.
But what were our gifts? For what did we suffer?
A pallet of rags and a shiny new buffer!
Attached to our new buffer, we found a short note,
We all gathered 'round to see what he wrote.
“Next year at Christmas, best have all your shit wired!”
Signed:
Fair Winds
S.C. Clause
BMCM (Retired)
A Sailor's Christmas - Jimmy Buffett
“I’m Just Sayin”
“Don't forget that I cannot see myself;
that my role is limited to being the one who looks in the mirror.”
“There is small merit in mocking goodness,
tweaking charity;
it is much more comic to deprive people of their petty little existence
for no reason at all
for a lark.”
“There’s no reason to live,
but there’s no reason to die, either.
The only way we can still show our contempt for life is to accept it.
Life is not worth the bother of leaving it.
Out of charity, one might spare a few individuals the trouble of living, but what about oneself?
Despair, indifference, betrayal, fidelity, solitude, the family, freedom, weight, money, poverty, love, absence of love, syphilis, health, sleep, insomnia, desire, impotence, platitudes, art, honesty, dishonor, mediocrity, intelligence
- nothing there to make a fuss about.
We know only too well what those things are made of,
no point in watching for them.”
~ Jacques Rigaut