The V-2 page on Astronautix has a section on Reliability and Accuracy
that's quite informative. See below, underlining by me.
V-2 Reliability and Accuracy
What was the reliability and accuracy of the V-2? Dornberger's memoirs
proudly note the improvement as fixes were made to solve the in-flight
explosion problems. V-2 missile reliability as tested increased from 30% in
January 1944 to 70% immediately before combat firings began in September
1944. Dornberger claims it reached nearly 100% after the final technical
fix was introduced into production in December 1944. Some authors credit
combat missiles with a reliability of 80% to 90%, quite remarkable
considering that they were inherently fragile, built underground by slave
labor, and transported in incredibly difficult conditions to the launch
sites. No total tally exists, but detailed figures for certain months and
places show losses all along the distribution chain. Of 6,001 missiles
submitted for final inspection, 231 were missiles previously rejected and
reworked (4%). Unit records for December 1944 to February 1945 show 12% of
the missiles received by the units were rejected on the spot as unsuitable
for firing. Of the launches made in the same months, 10% were observed as
launch failures within sight of the launch units themselves. British
post-war studies would seem to indicate that another 12% landed in the sea
or remote areas of the British land mass and were not recorded as
impacts. *This
indicates that at least one third of the V-2's either never launched due to
quality problems or crashed within 100 km of the launch point.*
What was the accuracy of the V-2? This question reduces to one of
philosophy - if a missile misses the aim point by half the range, does that
shot count against the missile's accuracy calculation or is it a failure,
counted in the reliability calculation? Tests of prototype V-2's in 1943
indicated a 4.5 km CEP (circular error probable - the radius within which
50% of the shots impact). 100% of the shots fell within 18 km of the
target. A radio beam guidance update system was introduced in December
1944, which in tests produced a 2 km CEP. *In reality, in the campaign
against Britain, 518 rockets were recorded as falling in the Greater London
Air Defence Zone of 1225 fired, implying an average CEP of 12 km.*
Part of this lack of accuracy was attributable to a skillful British
disinformation campaign. Nazi agents in Britain were the only source of
information to the Germans as to where the missiles actually hit. Most of
these agents had been turned by British intelligence and were sending back
false reports as to the impact points of the rockets. These false reports
indicated that the missiles were going long and impacting beyond London. As
a result of corrections due to this false information, the German average
impact point moving farther and farther east as the campaign went on. The
average impact point for the entire campaign ended up on the eastern edge
of the Greater London Air Defence Zone.
Had accurate post-attack reports been available to the Germans, the CEP
would have been more like 6 km, reinforcing Dornberger's claim that by the
end of the campaign the missile was close to achieving its tested accuracy.
Without the British disinformation campaign, the number of the Allied
victims of the V-2 would have been more than doubled, demonstrating the
effectiveness of that operation. However even at its best accuracy made the
V-2 was hugely cost-ineffective. Its primary purpose could only be
psychological, and in that it suffered in comparison to the V-1. Although
the V-2 was ineffective as a weapon of war, the tremendous investment by
the Nazis proved a gift to the Allies. The V-2 development and production
program, as a proportion of gross national product, ranked with the
American's Manhattan atom bomb program. After the war captured German V-2's
were launched by the British, Americans, and Russians. Personnel and
technology from the V-2 formed the basis for subsequent rocketry
developments throughout the world.
From here. http://astronautix.com/v/v-2.html
Cheers,
drew
On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 10:38 AM Elliot Robert <elliotr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Charles, The New York flight hasn't been debunked, but the Germans never
gave any real evidence of the flight, which might be some peoples valid
definition of debunked. The two pilots who first mentioned the flight
during their interrogation had their stories backed up by none other than
Albert Spear. Why would the only top level Nazi to denounce Hitler,
apologize for his role in it all, then turn around and lie once the war was
over about a test flight? Doesn't seem realistic to me but this is far
enough from rockets for me.
On Mon, May 13, 2019 at 8:35 PM <willsrw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Henry
Had the German built ME 262 instead of V2s, the Allied bombing campaign
over Europe would have been seriously hindered. I've read comments that a
much larger Me 262 force might have delayed VE Day by as much as a year.
Other problems were also catching up with the Third Reich, like a lack of
fuel. Goring had advocated for more Me 262s but Hitler wouldn't hear of
it. Some of my Air Force History types friends speculate more Me262s may
have also pushed the Allies into turbine technology much quicker. Needless
to say, Hitler bet on the wrong technology.
Rick Wills
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Henry Spencer
Sent: Monday, 13 May, 2019 12:56 PM
To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] Re: video of V-2 launch procedures
On Sun, 12 May 2019, Ken wrote:
No, that's what I meant, if Hitler used sensibility he would of pumped
more money and sooner into the V-2, even 6 months sooner and England
would of surrendered under a barrage of V-2 ballistic missile attacks.
Hardly. Dropping occasional 1t loads of high explosive at random on
London and its vicinity simply wasn't very useful. Even multiplying the
number of V-2s by a factor of ten -- straining the limits of what a more
aggressive program might have done -- would merely have elevated it from a
minor nuisance to a somewhat more serious nuisance. The average V-2 fired
at London killed two people in England; the entire V-2 campaign against
London and Antwerp delivered less high explosive than a single large RAF
bombing raid on Germany.
"... those of us who were seriously engaged in the war were very grateful
to Wernher von Braun. We knew that each V-2 cost as much to produce as a
high-performance fighter airplane. We knew that German forces on the
fighting fronts were in desperate need of airplanes, and that the V-2
rockets were doing us no military damage. From our point of view, the V-2
program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral
disarmament." -- Freeman Dyson (who was living and working in London).
The first successful V-2 flight was back in 1943.
1942, actually (Oct 3rd). But there is a big difference between "first
successful flight" and "ready for operational service" -- in fact, even
when it did go into service, the V-2 wasn't really ready, as witness the
large number of failures. (About 1600 fired against Antwerp produced about
600 hits.)
Henry
