ROCKET BOMBS

Grey River Argus, 23 November 1944, Page 2

ROCKET BOMBS

APPEARANCE IN BRITAIN "LONDON, Nov. 22 Many other illustrations of the terrific speed of “V2” .the German rocket bomb are now being published by newspapers in telling the story of the new weapon. A spectator said:— “I saw something whizzing across the sky It resembled a globe with tentacles at the end. One part fell in a house and another in a garden some distance away.” . Another said: — “I saw a streak of lio-ht with 'a reddish glow, which seemed to have a ball of fire at the head, diving vertically to the earth and turning the whole sky incandescent. It seemed to be alight when it hit the ground. I counted fourteen before me explosion, which seemed to be double. They roar like a falling waterfall.” . ~ A woman feeding ducks in the country suddenly saw a brilliant silver glitter' in the sky. It was going very fast, she said, “faster than a flying bomb. It seemed about 10,000 teet up. It had a rounded nose and tapered to a point behind. It trailed something white, possibly condensation. It was like a torpedo tearing across the sky. It passed out of sight and I heard an explosion two minutes .and a half later.” A reporter saw against the blue sky a vertical white streak resembling the exhaust tracks which aircraft make, but descending at an incredible speed. A minute later came a distant explosion. The same man walking along the landing of his house at night time saw a vivid flash, suggesting that somebody had flashed an electric torch. A second later came a shattering double reveberation and a long, thounderous rumble. It wa's a V2 exploding three miles away. Examples of its destructiveness are seven killed and others injured when a V2 demolished several houses. One of the first victims dug out was a two-year-old baby. Seven sleepers in another district were killed in their beds by a rocket falling just before dawn. A man walking in the street was killed by a splinter after a rocket tell, killing and injuring several. Light were killed when a rocket fell behind a bus crowded with early morning workers in a southern England town. A policeman had every, button blown from his tunic and 'his helmet and torch blown away. He was unhurt. Two men who climed a tree to trim the branches were blown down and stunned. When they revived they saw themselves lying on the edge of a huge crater. One lost bis trousers. Neutral reports suggests that equipment from which the V2 weapon is fired is carried on six lorries. The rocket missile is fired vertically from a steel platform, not much larger than a tennis court. The rockets are brought to the ramps by a miniature train running on small gauge rails. During the actual launching, the ramp is constantly sprayed with jets of ice-cold water because, as the rocket shoots into the air, it develops heat which expands the ramp s stee frame, thereby bending it. Casualties among crews are reported to be extremely high. The rocket’s explosive charge is packed into the front and weighs a little under a ton—rather less than the flying bomb warhead. Dr J'ean Picard, the Swiss professor of aeronautical science, who once ascended into the stratosphere in a balloon said recently in Minneapolis (US) it was reasonable to assume that'the V2’s could reach an altitude of sixty or seventy miles. He added that once the great air resistance of the lower stratospheie was overcme there was no limit to the height attainable by rockets. It then became merely a matter ot weight of fuel and weight of explosive.