Brecourt Page 3
The question remains, why did the Germans put so many resources behind the V2
rocket that could only deliver the same explosive as a medium bomber?
The answer may lie in the fact that the Germans would have had the capability in
1946 to launch the V9/V10 rockets against all of England and even as far as
America.
These rockets may not have carried conventional explosives, as the Germans by
then would have had access to nuclear waste material.
Some sources state that at Brecourt and at Sottevast small nuclear reactors
would have been installed to produce radioactive isotopes on site.
The Germans also had access to quantities of nerve gas, mainly Tabun and Sarin,
both of which cause immediate death by absorption through the skin, and to which
there was no known antidote.
Both of these would have been a far more deadly use for the later variants on
the V2.
Because of the speed of the V2 the rocket hit the ground and usually buried
itself thirty feet underground.
This restricted the V2 to delivering conventional payloads until a solution
could be found which allowed the rocket to be detonated above the ground.
There are plans that have been published that show a variant of the V2 which had
smaller fuel tanks, moved forward.
The payload section was further back, in the middle section.
The possible reason for this was that the V2 warhead exploded on impact, and in
1944 no solution to inventing a close proximity fuse had been found.
Had a close proximity fuse been available it would have enabled the rocket to be
detonated above the ground, and made the use of nerve gas or nuclear waste a
possible payload for the V2.
This would have reduced the range of the rocket to around 150 miles, but if a
conventional warhead was not fitted, but a nuclear waste or a biological warhead
fitted the payload weight would not have been as heavy.
This would have enabled the rocket to reach its normal target range of around
250 miles, and with the solid booster rocket, the eastern coast of America could
be reached. This could possibly have been ready by spring 1946.
