Nazi-Megastructures - V2 Rocket Bases

Michael Konnar

7/10/2025

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Transcript

00:00Hidden in forests and under mountains across Europe are the remains of a top-secret Nazi

00:11weapons program.

00:12That's an incredible structure.

00:15A vast network of research labs, launch pads, and missile silos.

00:21And a terrifying weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen before.

00:26It could break the sound barrier.

00:30The world's first ballistic missile.

00:33This changes the face of warfare.

00:35This changes the history of the modern age.

00:37I'm on total devastation.

00:39Complete devastation.

00:43This is the story of a Nazi genius who built cutting-edge bases to create a revolutionary

00:48space-age weapon.

00:49And the technology that ultimately put men on the moon.

00:55The V2 rocket program.

01:03The biggest construction projects of World War II.

01:08Ordered by Hitler to secure world domination.

01:12Now they survive as dark reminders of the Führer's fanatical military ambitions.

01:18These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.

01:25Saturday, the 3rd of October, 1942.

01:38A team of Nazi scientists arrive at one of Germany's most secret military installations

01:43to launch a completely new kind of weapon.

01:48Leading them is Werner von Braun.

01:51At the age of just 30, he's the world's leading rocket scientist.

01:56Von Braun's goal is to create the world's first long-range guided missile.

02:05A weapon that the Nazis hope will decide the outcome of World War II.

02:11It's broken a sound barrier.

02:32Years ago, this looked completely different.

02:37Rocket scientist and V2 expert Dr. Olaf Szabilski is standing on the very spot where this launch

02:43happened more than 70 years ago.

02:47You have to imagine that the trees weren't here.

02:50It was all level, partially paved.

02:55This is Pinamunde, a vast Nazi laboratory built to win World War II.

03:01In 1942, the Nazis dominate Europe, but the war will soon turn against them.

03:14America, Britain and Russia are fighting back, and Hitler has pinned his hopes on rockets to

03:19pound Britain into submission.

03:21In Hitler's mind, this is terror.

03:25It's about scaring the population, and he feels that he can frighten Britain with this weapon

03:29sufficiently to drive them out of the war.

03:33It was a weapon that had its beginnings over 10 years earlier.

03:42In the 1920s, teenage genius von Braun was part of an amateur rocket craze sweeping Germany.

03:50This history has fascinated Martin Tamar, head of rocketry at Dresden University, all his life.

03:58Rockets became very popular.

04:00You had societies forming here in Germany.

04:03Young people got together trying to build little rockets.

04:07Rockets were previously fueled by gunpowder.

04:12But that meant they were unguided, unpredictable, and only able to travel a few hundred meters.

04:19As a weapon, the greatest danger they posed was to the people launching them.

04:23In its early development, rockets were loud.

04:26They were certainly colorful and bright, and potentially scary for things like cavalry.

04:29But they were in no way a significant battlefield weapon.

04:35In the early 1930s, von Braun started working with a new technology, liquid-fueled rockets.

04:43A powerful weapon with the potential to travel huge distances.

04:49His work catches the attention of the German army.

04:54They asked von Braun to demonstrate his latest prototype.

05:05The launch is a failure, but surprisingly, the military offer him the funding he needs.

05:23What is your ambition?

05:26I want to get on the moon, to build the rocket that will put the first man on the moon.

05:32It's possible.

05:33We can do it.

05:35And it's all due to Hitler.

05:40When he comes to power in the 1930s, he greenlights almost unlimited funding for military projects.

05:48Hitler is fascinated with scale.

05:50He wants big, bigger, biggest.

05:53He builds his stadium in Nürburgring for his rallies to be the biggest stadium on the earth.

05:58He wants to build the biggest motorway system on earth.

06:01He wants to build more tanks, more aircraft than anyone else in the world has.

06:06He is absolutely fascinated with scale.

06:08Hitler starts re-arming Germany.

06:16And in 1935, the Nazis order Werner von Braun to establish the world's first rocket base.

06:22A high-tech facility where he can build, test and launch his most recent designs.

06:30It will be the largest weapons lab on earth, with the highest levels of secrecy.

06:40Von Braun's first task is to identify a remote location, where the new complex can be hidden

06:45from other countries.

06:49He selects Pinamunda on the Baltic coast, a wilderness of dunes, marshes and forests 50 kilometers from

06:57the nearest major town.

07:03Christian Muldorfer Vogt is the leading expert on what remains of the rocket base.

07:10We're entering the research center area, and here was the first checkpoint.

07:19There were fences, there were dogs.

07:27Hidden in the forest are the remnants of one of the largest military complexes ever built.

07:40Pinamunda is a location where the modern science was invented, part of the history of mankind.

07:49It's the perfect place to test rockets, for one reason.

07:52The flight had to be documented for the whole time, and so you need a straight coastline.

08:03The coastline, more than 250 kilometers long, could be rigged with cameras to monitor rockets in flight.

08:11With the site chosen, work can begin on the missile base itself.

08:14In August 1936, over 10,000 workers descend on Pinamunda.

08:24Over 25 square kilometers, they build labs for more than 2,000 scientists, missile factories, and launch pads.

08:33To keep it all top secret, they plan to design and build everything on site.

08:37But this will require a vast amount of electricity.

08:41So von Braun builds a power station, burning over 200 tons of coal every day.

08:48As rocket physicist Professor Martin Tamar explains.

08:51Well, that's really terrific.

08:53It was one of the largest power plants that were built in the late 1930s just to supply a research center.

08:5930 megawatts of power, most of that was used to make a rocket propellant, liquid oxygen.

09:05That gives you unlimited possibilities.

09:1675% of the energy produced goes to a vast liquid oxygen plant that manufactures the vital rocket fuel.

09:23As big as a football field, the liquid oxygen factory produces 13,000 kilograms of fuel per day.

09:34Enough for three V2 rockets.

09:39This place was definitely groundbreaking.

09:41So you had facilities, you invented facilities that didn't exist before.

09:46The rocket isn't the only scientific marvel.

09:49So is the technology required to design it.

09:53The site's wind tunnel is the first in the world that can simulate the missile's incredible speed.

09:59Just imagining a supersonic wind tunnel, Mach 4.4 speeds, you couldn't think about such kind of facilities before.

10:09The V-weapons development at Pinamunde cost over 30 billion dollars in today's money.

10:16By 1938, the facility is operational and full control is handed to Werner von Braun.

10:23But away from the isolation of Pinamunde, events are about to give added urgency to von Braun's work.

10:37Hitler is planning to plunge Europe into war.

10:41There are some key people in the German government who see von Braun's rocket development as a potential key weapon in the war that will come.

10:50After investing billions, the army are impatient to get their hands on a working missile.

10:55But there's a problem.

11:05Von Braun's first prototypes suffer a succession of failures.

11:09The engines are underpowered and he can't control the rockets in flight.

11:17Von Braun was struggling with explosions on the launch pad, off the pad and in the air.

11:21The timing couldn't be worse.

11:27Von Braun has just been ordered to demonstrate his latest engine to the Fuhrer himself.

11:31At stake is the future of the entire Nazi rocket program.

11:43In March 1939, a group of high-ranking Nazis gather at a top secret location to watch a test firing of Werner von Braun's latest rocket engine.

12:00All eyes are on the Fuhrer.

12:13Mein Führer, we believe that a rocket could reach a speed of 5,000 kilometers per hour in only 30 seconds.

12:23The engine functions perfectly.

12:25But while Hitler continues funding the project, he refuses to prioritize the weapon.

12:34It may seem surprising that Hitler wasn't interested in something so obviously futuristic and cutting edge.

12:40But a strategic rocket force is well beyond what Hitler thinks he needs.

12:46In September 1939, Hitler's armies invade Poland.

12:52The Second World War has begun.

12:55Within a year, much of Western Europe has been occupied.

13:02Hitler's faith in conventional weapons is proved correct.

13:07When Hitler does invade Western Europe, he does it in a matter of weeks and he does it with effectively a conventional army.

13:13Tanks, infantry, airplanes operating in cooperation.

13:17Why does he need any more strategic weapons?

13:19Why does he need rockets?

13:25Undeterred, von Braun continues to push ahead with designing a functional flying missile.

13:30Every test is filmed by a camera crew.

13:38And with no computers to simulate launches, the only way to test a rocket is to do it for real.

13:43The launch site is surrounded by huge banks of earth and reinforced concrete to protect the scientists.

13:58The rockets are supposed to take off and fly along the coast.

14:10But launches often go dangerously wrong.

14:23But launches often go dangerously wrong.

14:35This is a fire extinguisher, or rather a hydrant for extinguishing the possible explosion.

15:01As well as risking lives, every rocket failure destroys thousands of valuable components.

15:10So the engineers spend weeks setting up each test.

15:15Before a rocket could be launched, in case thousands of scientists were blown up, it had to be prepared.

15:21The launch pad is in the center.

15:27Next to it is an engine test area with a flame pit, faced by a concrete observation bunker.

15:34A railway ferries the rockets to the launch pad from a preparation hangar, nine stories high.

15:40The rockets were hung in a test building. The electrics and electronics were checked.

15:53When they were okay, it was ferried on a rail-like runway into the testing area that we see over there.

15:59The excitement reached its climax just before the rocket was launched.

16:14When the relays were laid out, and one hoped that it would be successful.

16:26But success is proving elusive.

16:46In the summer of 1942, there is a series of V-2 rocket test failures.

16:51It was a step-by-step and trial and error. It was a very difficult task.

17:02Examining all the remaining parts, so you check for every piece of evidence to identify the specific cause of the failure.

17:13Von Braun has two major technical problems to solve.

17:17The first problem is creating an engine that can power a 13-ton rocket more than four times the speed of sound.

17:26Carrying enough fuel to travel a distance of nearly 200 kilometers.

17:30Well, it seems like the rocket goes up very steep, and everything seems to look okay.

17:36But it seems like probably there's a premature engine cutoff.

17:40The extreme heat produced by burning fuel is damaging the engine.

17:52Von Braun's solution is to pump the fuel through a double skin around the engine.

17:56The colder fuel extracts enough heat to keep the engine functioning.

18:07Von Braun's next problem is keeping the rocket stable and on course once in the air.

18:12Well, as you can see, first the rocket that takes off looks okay.

18:29But then immediately you see how it starts to roll and tumble.

18:32So it seems like there is a guidance and navigation problem.

18:35It goes off in the wrong direction.

18:43At the time, there is no way to steer a rocket from the ground.

18:50So to keep the V-2 on course, Von Braun gets the rockets to steer themselves using gyroscopes and a series of rudders.

19:05So to keep the V-2 on course, you can see how it is.

19:10After years of research, Von Braun finally believes he has a rocket that will work.

19:21Saturday, the 3rd of October, 1942.

19:28Von Braun and his army paymasters await the launch of his latest prototype missile.

19:35It's broken the sound barrier.

19:59Very good.

20:00Yes, but will it reach the target?

20:16Do you realize what we've done?

20:19The spaceship is born.

20:21Yes, indeed.

20:22If you think our headaches are over, I'm telling you, they're just beginning.

20:37In complete secrecy and unknown to the Allies,

20:40Werner Von Braun has created the first ballistic missile.

20:44He's launched a 13-ton rocket through the Earth's atmosphere and over a distance of 190 kilometers,

20:52eventually crashing into the Baltic Sea.

20:55And he's close to delivering Germany's military a much-needed boost.

20:59By late 42-43, the war is not going terribly well for Hitler.

21:03His shock invasion of Russia is starting to bog down, and he is hemorrhaging

21:08troops and equipment and money into Russia.

21:11Worse, the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, and this has brought the Americans

21:15into the war against the Axis.

21:17An increasingly desperate and self-deluded Hitler starts talking mysteriously about

21:20these wonder weapons, which will somehow pull Germany out of its extremely dire situation.

21:28One of these wonder weapons is Von Braun's rocket.

21:34In July 1943, Von Braun and his army chief Dornberger are summoned to meet Hitler.

21:39I'm told you've made some useful progress, Dornberger.

21:52Is that correct?

22:02What you can see here is the first projectile to be launched into outer space.

22:07Within 30 seconds, it is traveling at around 5,000 kilometers per hour.

22:17It can strike London within three minutes.

22:19Its warhead contains one ton of high explosives.

22:24We need a bigger warhead.

22:27A bigger warhead may not be possible, my Führer.

22:31I want total devastation. Complete devastation.

22:37A bigger warhead may not be possible, my Führer.

22:44Von Braun becomes a victim of his own success.

22:46He wants Hitler's attention, and now he's got it.

22:49The Führer instantly demands thousands of these weapons.

22:52He demands V2s to be produced at a rate orders of magnitude greater than what Von Braun is capable of producing.

22:58What the Führer doesn't realize is that he has seen the only successful launch of the rocket.

23:07But as Von Braun focuses on producing a reliable weapon, Allied aircraft take over German skies.

23:20And unknown to the Germans, an Allied aerial reconnaissance photo has uncovered the Nazis' top secret base at Pinamunda.

23:27British bombers are closing in.

23:35Throughout the summer, Werner Von Braun and his team of Nazi engineers work day and night to build a reliable missile.

23:42All he needs is a little more time, and he'll be able to deliver Hitler a devastating new weapon.

23:48Good evening, Herr Direktor.

23:53Good evening. Do you have a cigarette for me, please?

23:55Yes.

23:55Is that the artificial fog?

23:57Everyone take cover!

24:02Everyone take cover!

24:03Pinamunda is under attack from over 500 British aircraft.

24:08The top secret base is no longer secret.

24:18We've got to save the plans!

24:30Ten years of work by thousands of people is going up in smoke.

24:36The Allies hope that the raid will set back the rocket by months or even years.

24:41If Project Leader Von Braun is killed and his work destroyed, the program will be stopped in its tracks.

24:48Over 1800 tons of bombs are dropped on Pinamunda.

25:01Here was the impact, and this impact caused this hole here, this crater.

25:11The enormous size of Pinamunda makes it an easy target for Allied bombers.

25:16Once the British intelligence establishment works out what Pinamunda is, it's a sitting duck.

25:23It's all above ground, and there's very little the Germans can do to protect it from the massive Allied air superiority.

25:31Von Braun survives, but Pinamunda is no longer safe.

25:35It's impossible to defend from aerial attack.

25:38His rocket research center will have to move out of reach of Allied bombs if it's going to achieve its aim of flattening London.

25:47Engineers immediately scout for new locations deep inside Germany.

25:52But where can they hide the giant rockets and all the equipment needed to manufacture them?

26:01The answer lies in an abandoned mine in central Germany called Mittelwerk.

26:06Jens Christian Wagner is a leading authority on the site.

26:15Right here in the middle of Germany, there was a huge underground tunnel system which had been constructed since 1936.

26:22It was a gypsum quarry. Nazi officials decided to change this into an underground rocket factory.

26:35Pinamunda was this incredible center of science and technology.

26:39And now they're trying to do the same thing in Mittelwerk, which is a dark, wet cave.

26:45Fire!

26:507,000 slave laborers carve out two parallel tunnels, totaling over 3,000 meters long.

26:58One holds a road and double-track railway for supplies.

27:02The second contains machinery to build the rockets.

27:06Connecting them are 46 smaller tunnels, each 150 meters long.

27:10In all, there were 11 kilometers of tunnels with a floor space of 93,000 square meters.

27:23This is part of the production assembly line of the V2.

27:27So from the perspective of the Nazis, this was very successful.

27:37This factory was finished in four months.

27:41But just as the factory finally begins to produce rockets, von Braun suddenly finds himself with a new master.

28:00As the war is going increasingly poorly for the Germans, the SS make power grabs throughout the military establishment.

28:05One of the objects of these power grabs is von Braun's V2 program.

28:09SS General Hans Kammler made his name by increasing the efficiency of the cremation ovens at Auschwitz.

28:27Hans Kammler was ruthless.

28:31He was an engineer of destruction.

28:32Now he takes control of the entire factory and its staff of slave laborers.

28:46Von Braun is ordered to focus on the design flaws and leave the manufacturing to Kammler.

28:53Production increases from 50 rockets in January 1944 to 437 in May.

29:00But these rockets are assembled in appalling conditions and most don't work.

29:08The first rockets that were thrown together there were bolted and screwed together by unskilled workers and prisoners.

29:20They were junk, utter junk.

29:22By 1944, the Nazis desperately need the rockets.

29:31The war has turned decisively against them.

29:36The Russians are advancing in the east.

29:41And Allied aircraft are destroying German cities.

29:44The middle work facility is ordered to produce 900 rockets per month.

29:53And Kammler uses brutal methods to increase production.

29:59Many prisoners died.

30:02Beaten.

30:06Murdered by SS and civilian overseers.

30:09Most of them died by exhaustion.

30:15Others by starvation.

30:18About 10,000 prisoners had to live and to die here underground.

30:24Kammler rushes V-2 rockets off the production line at middle work.

30:36But there is still a huge problem to overcome.

30:41Where to build the launch pads.

30:43And how to protect them.

30:45The Germans can't launch the V-2 from middle work.

30:51It's too far away.

30:52They have to move the weapon closer to its principal target.

30:55Which is Britain.

30:56And so they have to launch them from somewhere in northern France.

31:00Hitler ignores army requests for small, less detectable mobile sites.

31:05And orders the construction of a massive rocket base.

31:08Called La Coupole.

31:10Hitler inevitably gets involved in the debate.

31:12And again almost inevitably chooses the big engineering solution to the problem.

31:17He goes for a big static missile launching site.

31:24Beneath a vast concrete dome.

31:26The rockets can be prepared and then launched at London.

31:34That's an incredible structure really.

31:38Arthur van Beveren is a leading authority on German fortifications in northern Europe.

31:48It's really an amazing structure. 71 meters in diameter.

31:54Five meters thick. 55,000 tons.

31:59They laid a huge amount of concrete over the mountain.

32:03And dug out the chalk underneath it.

32:07Building this dome in the way they did.

32:09Allowed them to continue the work inside the mountain.

32:13While being under constant air attacks.

32:15The dome's density and shape meant that even the largest bombs couldn't penetrate it.

32:33You can see a block of concrete over there.

32:35Which is actually part of the wall where the V2 rocket came out.

32:39And it would be driven towards that flat area over there.

32:43And that's the actual launching platform.

32:51This would be the place where the trains would go right into the mountains.

32:55V2 rockets will be on trains horizontal.

32:58And drove right into this tunnel.

33:01In 1944 the Nazis are desperate for working rockets.

33:09They're being pushed back by the allies in Italy.

33:11And the Russians in Eastern Europe.

33:13They plan to stockpile V2s in these tunnels until they're needed.

33:18We're now entering a part of the tunnel which is normally restricted.

33:21Because it's unfinished.

33:24And it's kind of dangerous and unstable inside here.

33:30We're now deep hundreds of meters into the mountain.

33:34The V2 rockets needed fuel which was liquid oxygen.

33:39And the idea was that they built a liquid oxygen factory inside this mountain.

33:45And it would provide enough liquid oxygen to fire at least 15 V2 rockets every day.

33:54The tunnels of this huge engineering project house hospitals,

34:01barracks and every facility that the crews need to live entirely underground.

34:09You can actually see how they dig through these chalk walls.

34:14I can almost do it by hand here and here.

34:17Wow. If it's what I think it is.

34:25Really looks like one of the drills they would use in 1944.

34:30Let's see if it fits. I guess so.

34:36Yeah. It fits perfectly.

34:40It's amazing to find after 70 years.

34:43Still inside these tunnels.

34:48You can see one of those beams.

34:50Don't know if it's a safe plan to go underneath.

34:55It's totally rotten.

35:00Underneath the dome, a giant hall is constructed,

35:03where the missiles can be prepared for launch.

35:05Now entering the octagonal room.

35:10Well, room, it's the massive six-story hole, which is underneath the dome.

35:19It's 24 meters high in total.

35:21Inside a mountain, it's absolutely amazing.

35:25The V2 rockets will be brought in from the tunnels, put here, and will be set vertical.

35:40And you can see we've got one floor here, one there, and more floors.

35:46Every floor had its own crew, for example, fueling and a warhead.

35:51Once the V2 rocket was filled, it will be driven out outside to the launching emplacement,

35:58and it will be fired against London.

36:00The Nazis planned that La Coupole will launch up to 15 rockets a day to smash London.

36:10As soon as the weapons arrive from Germany, the British capital will face an unstoppable bombardment.

36:16But back at Mittelwerk, the missiles emerging from the underground factory are still plagued by a reliability problem.

36:32The biggest problem we have is the materials and manufacturing quality.

36:37And SS General Kamler is putting extreme pressure on von Braun to find a solution.

36:46In the first half of 1944, the Nazi ballistic missile is approaching completion.

37:00And Werner von Braun's rockets are nearly ready to decimate Britain.

37:05They're given a name. V2. V for Vergeltungswaffe, or vengeance weapon.

37:12There is just one obstacle to overcome.

37:14After the rocket's launch, many suffer technical problems.

37:19They climb high into the stratosphere.

37:22But then, something malfunctions.

37:263,000 individual components have to work together, and if a bearing or a relay doesn't work,

37:32or a valve isn't properly sealed, the rocket won't fly.

37:38Von Braun didn't understand why the rocket's body was failing.

37:41One factor makes his job even harder.

37:45In 1944, there's no technology capable of capturing close-up images of the rocket at high altitude.

37:53With the Allies hammering Germany, he makes a desperate, last-ditch gamble.

37:58He decides to get up close to a malfunctioning rocket as its wreckage falls to the ground.

38:05Von Braun narrowly escapes with his life, but finds the answer.

38:25He sees that the rocket's body has been deformed before it hits the ground.

38:31From this, he deduces that the structural framework of the rocket and its outer skin

38:36are buckling under the extreme pressures of supersonic flight.

38:39Von Braun reinforces the fuselage, and the failure rate drops dramatically.

38:47Two years after the first flight, Von Braun had finally built a reliable rocket.

38:51V-2s begin to roll off the production line.

39:01London is only weeks away from bombardment.

39:05But in June 1944, the V-2 program suffers two huge body blows.

39:11The Allies receive intelligence that La Coupole is a possible launch site.

39:16It is hit by a succession of massive British bombs.

39:19V-2s begin to roll off the bombs.

39:22La Coupole has one major design flaw.

39:25Its roof is impenetrable, very, very thick concrete, but the chalk around it is extremely soft.

39:30The bombing raids crush all the supporting and logistical tunnels around La Coupole,

39:34effectively putting La Coupole out of action before it even fires its first rocket.

39:41Then the Allies storm the Normandy beaches on D-Day.

39:45Just as Von Braun is ready to unleash the V-2 campaign against Britain, the Allies attack and land in northern France.

39:55The sites that Von Braun needs to launch his weapon against Britain are threatened by the oncoming Allied army.

40:01Hitler has made a critical mistake.

40:08The big static site he demanded was easy for the Allies to attack.

40:13In desperation, the Nazis rushed to mount the rockets on mobile launchers, as the army had originally requested.

40:19A mobile missile launcher can be moved anywhere you want it to. It can be hidden in forests or in built-up areas. It offers the advantage of being harder to find.

40:29After eleven years of development, SS General Hans Kammler commands the first missile attack on London on September the 8th, 1944.

40:49Hitler's terror weapon is finally unleashed.

40:52What Hitler hopes to do with the V-2 campaign is to destroy London and other major cities. He hopes to drive the British out of the war.

41:16In six months, over 3,000 rockets are fired towards London, southern England and Belgium.

41:32If you're a civilian on the ground, you've got this rocket moving supersonically, which you can't hear, and which has been launched only a few minutes before.