Hitler's Miracle Weapons: The Secret History of the Rockets and Flying Craft of the Third Reich
Volume 2: From the V-1 to the A-9: Unconventional short- and medium range weapons

The first strategy was for the SS, with the help of foreign volunteers and the newly created SS Panzer and Panzer Grenadier divisions, to hold the enemy as far as possible away from the borders of Germany during the period from 1944 to 1946. Meanwhile, it was planned to push forward mass production of the new miracle weapons. This included new jet aircraft and rockets which would be far more effective than the  later V-1 and V-2 Vergeltungswaffen. These new weapons systems would - so it was hoped -put Germany in the position of being able to begin a new, decisive offensive in 1947.

The German rocket program was among the most expensive weapons programs to have been developed as of 1944, Georg claiming that the V-1 and V-2 programs cost 3 Billion dollars. This meant that each V-1 cost 50,000 dollars and each V-2 500,000! What this massive amount of money brought was only 20,000 tons of explosives rained down on enemy targets. Strategically, this program forced the Allies to divert their attack from the broad-front approach favored by Eisenhower to the thrust Montgomery carried out in Market-Garden to deprive the Germans of their launch sites in range of England. That the V-weapons could be effective is shown by the bombardment of Antwerp. Allied estimates were that the transport capability was reduced to only 25% of its potential in the later part of the war.

In heavily built-up areas of London, a single V-2 rocket could destroy or damage 600 houses. In doing so, it was not the blast or the effect of the explosive which was the decisive factor, but the massive shaking of the earth. The impact momentum of a V-2 was the same as if 50 loco­motives each weighing 100 tons had struck each other simultaneously at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour. And because it was not possible to give any warning of the V-2, their impacts led to great indirect economic losses in the form of lost working hours and of workers not turning up at their places of work. According to British reports, these effects involving interruptions to production and adverse effects on working discipline in London were more serious than the destructive effect of the explosive charge in Hitler's second V-weapon.

And it was precisely this weapon which was to have a dia­bolical effect on the further course of the Second World War.

On 7 September 1944, the first phase of the 'battle of London' had come to an end with the loss of the German V-1 launch bases in France to the advancing Allied troops. Only one day later, however, a new chapter in the history of Hitler's 'push-button warfare' began with the launch of the V-2 rockets against London from Dutch bases in the vicinity of the Hague.

Witnesses to the rocket impacts in Britain described "an explosion which sounded like a clap of thunder, which was immediately followed by the sound of a heavy body rushing through the air". The inhabitants of London could not explain these explosions, because neither German air­craft nor V-ls had been seen beforehand. But remarkably, neither the British Government nor the leadership of the Third Reich gave any explanation in the subsequent two months as to the cause of these explosions which increas­ingly shook southern Britain.

Then, in March 1944, Hitler then made an unequivocal statement about the real purpose of his V-weapons pro­gramme. Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel gives an account of this in his book Trotzdem. Hitler had a high regard for the young Luftwaffe officer and placed special confidence in him. He was even able, later, to present Rudel as a suitable candidate to succeed him.

On 29 March 1944, at the Oberberghof in Berchtesgaden, Rudel received from Hitler and the distinguished military decoration of the Knight's Cross with Diamonds. Rudel then describes what happened after he received the decora­tion. "We were drinking tea together and talking for anoth­er two hours. Innovations in weapons technology, the war situation and history are the main topics of conversation. He made particular mention to me of the V-weapons, which we have just begun to deploy. People should not overestimate the effect of these weapons at the present time, said Hitler, because the accuracy of the missiles was still very poor. But, he went on, this would not always be the case, because at the moment all he wanted was to have rockets which were able to fly without any problem. Later, Hitler said, there would be an explosive which was like no normal explosive such as we know at the moment, but something entirely different, which would be powerful enough to effect a positive outcome to the war. He said that the development of this explosive was far advanced, and that it would soon go into production. For me, all this is completely new territory, and I can't imagine what he is talking about. Later, I hear that the explosive power of the new rocket will be based on atomic power".

This means that, in Hitler's own words, the V-1 was to be armed with nuclear warheads as well as the V-2.