I've kind of gotten in an argument with a guy on another forum about the V-2. Mostly about it's accuracy and reliability. I know wasn't the most reliable weapons designed during the war, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't all that accurate. IIRC less than half of those fired hit thier intended targets the rest failing mid-flight/on the launchpad, or missing entirely. Any thoughts? Link to argument: http://worldwardestiny.forumup.net/view ... wardestiny
Like Ricky said in another thread, the V2 had trouble hitting London. That's a pretty big target to miss. It was also extremely expensive to make and difficult to operate; its only advantage was that it was practically invisible and inaudible (and too fast to be stopped anyway) until it landed.
The CEP (circular error probable) for a V-2 was something on the order of 15-20km, meaning that only 50% of them would land within 15-20km of the target point. Given the gyroscopic navigation and control mechanism, this was about as good as it could get. I think there were some experiments done to try and use radio beacon navigation, but this was easily defeated in WWII and even if successful would probablyhave resulted in a CEP of 5-10km. You had some chance of hitting somwhere within the limits of a reasonably sized city, but specific targeting would have been impossible. The V-2 rockets were also terribly unreliable, frequently blowing up on the pad or just after lift-off.
A lot depends on your definition of "accuracy" and at what point a launch is successful. As stated, a proportion exploded on / shortly after launch. A proportion of the "successful" launches exploded "airburst" on the way down. Excluding those, it would probably be possible to work out a CEP based on the German aiming point(s) and actual impact locations. Also, remember the V2 was a "vengance weapon", not designed for tactical use but to put fear into the hearts of the enemy. Under those circumstances, good accuracy is not required -- random detonations over a city are better. Tom PS -- the (NASA approved) film of Werner von Braun's life was called "We Aim for the Stars" In Britain, it acquired the unofficial subtitle "but sometimes we hit London"
