V2 Rocket (Luftwaffe)
Static Model

The most futuristic weapon of the Second World War, the V2 rocket (Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retaliation weapon 2) was the first liquid-fueled ballistic missile used by any nation. This 14-ton vehicle took less than four minutes to deliver a 2,150-pound explosive warhead to a target 200 miles away. In doing so its parabolic flight reached an maximum altitude of about 60 miles, and a maximum speed of almost 3,500 mph. Arcing down from the edge of space, the V2 was undetectable and unstoppable.

After a long and difficult development process that commenced in 1940, the first operational launch against enemy territory took place on September 5, 1944, when a rocket fired from Belgium hit Paris. A few days later the first of more than 1,000 V2s launched against England struck London from its launch site in the Netherlands. More than 500 V2s hit London by the end of the war, but the port of Antwerp took the brunt of the rocket campaign with 1,265 hits. Launch numbers would have been higher, but Allied air operations pounded permanent V2 installations in France, forcing the Germans to rely on mobile launchers.