The "America Rocket"
This project is still surrounded in secrecy. The German rocket engineers did not
want the Americans to know the full picture of their technology before they
escaped to America as Germany fell.
By the beginning of 1944 both the V1 and V2 programmes had fallen under the
auspices of the Gestapo who, after Allied attacks on Peeumunde, had moved the
test and research site to Poland, well out of reach of the Allied bombers.
Von Braun had stated that no A10 rocket had been made or fired, it was just a
project.
What is known is an A9, in effect a winged version of the V2, thus with more
range, was developed and launched.
The V10 rocket was initially to have a larger version of the V2 rocket, almost
the same motor that was used in the US Saturn rocket.
It was also planned to use a multiple rocket system to launch the V10, and this
was most certainly still on the drawing board by the time the Russians overran
the test site.
All they found in the way of personnel was lower grade scientists some of whom
were of Jewish backgrounds.
It is rumoured that one V10 was successfully launched, but what is certain is
that the secrets of the V10 project formed the basis of rocketry for most of the
western countries after the war.
Had the V10 come to fruition during the war, it would have given the Germans a
vehicle with which to attack the eastern seaboard of America.
The one ton explosive warhead would not have been worthwhile, but a more likely
warhead would have been a nerve gas such as Sarin, of which the Germans had
large stocks or even a dirty nuclear bomb.
The Germans would have been able to produce such a bomb by early 1946, and all
that held the project up was a close proximity fuse.
Interestingly the first concept of a multi stage rocket envisaged having the
second stage inside the first. Although a true multistage rocket had been
developed in the V4 "Rhine Messenger"
