PEENEMUENDE rocket-science! Krauts to the Moon... A Nazi Legacy.

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Peenemuende...what is it then?





It's the tip of the German island of Usedom, the most north-eastern slither of today's Germany and part of its Baltic seaboard. The river Peene flows into the Baltic Sea here (muende= mouth...Peene-Rivermouth for a direct translation) and is part of what makes Usedom an island, only separated from the mainland by 2 "canals".

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The former small fishing village of Peenemuende was part of the German Baltic coast trade routes for centuries.
Germany after WW1:





Alternately occupied and overrun by the Swedish King, Poland, some Habsburg blue-bloods and others, as well as being the HQ of the Teutonic Knights,
a "religious" order of murderous thugs and mercenaries best known and feared through the (so called) religious crusades of the Middle Ages.





It sure was never dull up here...



...and then came the Nazis, taking over Usedom-island and its environs (some small outer islands in the shallow Baltics) to set up a rocket-research facility.


Initially a High-Tech "playpen" for some space-flight dreamers, Hitlers war-lust and sheer endless resources quickly became the light-that-drew-the-moths and scientists flocked in by the hundreds.




Things quickly blew out of proportions, the small fishing village turned into Command Headquarters, a brandnew coal-powered powerstation together with piers, docks, cranes, railways to transport coal brought in by coastal freighters night and day to power the rapidly expanding research facilities, a new dual-track railhead from the mainland including a lifting bridge to keep the ever-increasing shipping going, housing, roads, an expansive new airport with rocket-launching ramps, large-area lighting, tunnels and bunkers for after-dark production and all sorts of other industrial facilities like production facilities for liquid fuels and gases for rocket-propulsion.

Starting ramp for a V1 launch down the beach




Not to mention hotels, entertainment, sport and cultural facilities for the relaxation of scientists, their families, support staff and visiting Nazi observers and controllers.
For the later mass-production of V1 and V2 rockets even a Concentration Camp was added to make sure of satisfying the ever-increasing demand for "cheap and disposable" labour.
(another reason for the quite extensive rail-head and shunting yards/ sheds/ fencing etc).

After British forces finally detected and bombed the facility, the entire operation and production of the V1 and V2 was moved ~500km inland to Nordhausen in the Hartz Mountains where a formerly planned underground fuel storage facility was converted and greatly extended (by yet another purpose-built onsite Concentration Camp).

The famous A4 launch pad for the later, more advanced V2 rockets.:
(the A4 launch pad design is still the standard for all rocket launch sites around the globe today, pic shows the original site and what it looks like today)





Peenemuende became deserted, the power station continued on to 1990 under East-German rule, which in turn didn't possess the means to convert the existing facilities into anything productive.
(or even modernize any part of it)
Today much of the infrastructure at Peenemuende has been gobbled up by nature again (with 100s of remnants left in the Nature Reserves covering the northern tip of Usedom), the old airfield has been downsized and re-opened after the German reunification, the sandy beaches are mostly open to walkers and kite-surfers once more...





and the massive, rusting hulk and infrastructure of the power-station, piers, loading, cranes, gantries etc and surrounding sites have been converted into a colossal open-air museum, the
Peenemuende Historical Technical Museum.
https://museum-peenemuende.de/?lang=en







Strap on those walking boots, it'll be a long day.
Because cobbling together rockets up here certainly wasn't the only flash-bang stuff....

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For the tech-heads, some exceptional doco and rare, original footage.
Operation Backfire

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ok, looks like the pic server has one of its very rare "outs"....maybe that rocket-stuff here gave it a flame-out :-)
I'll keep going, pics will be back at some time.

[Hytram]

a "religious" order of murderous thugs and mercenaries best known and feared through the (so called) religious crusades of the Middle Ages.

Nothing much has changed then... Just the location

Originally Posted by glitch

ok, looks like the pic server has one of its very rare "outs"....maybe that rocket-stuff here gave it a flame-out :-)
I'll keep going, pics will be back at some time.

They are watching.. Always watching


Carry on