During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

developed many

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...

and precision-guided munition systems. These included the first cruise missile, the first

short-range ballistic missile A short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of about or less. In past and potential regional conflicts, these missiles have been and would be used because of the short distances between some countries and their rela ...

, the first guided surface-to-air missiles, and the first

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...

Organisations

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, " Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...

rocket test site

People involved

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

Walter Dornberger Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger (6 September 1895 – 26 June 1980) was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World War I and World War II. He was a leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket programme and other projects a ...

Walter Thiel Walter Thiel (3 March 1910, Breslau – 17 August 1943, Karlshagen, near Peenemünde) was a German rocket scientist. Thiel provided the decisive ideas for the A4 (V-2) rocket engine and his research enabled rockets to head towards space. Lif ...

Max Kramer Dr. Max Otto Kramer (8 September 1903 – June 1986) was a German scientist who worked for the Ruhrstahl AG steel and armaments corporation. He was responsible for the construction of the Fritz X and the Ruhrstahl X-4 missiles (1943-1945), amo ...

* Herbert A. Wagner

Models

Surface-to-surface missiles

The V-1, which may be seen as the first cruise missile, was used operationally against

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and Antwerp. The V-2

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...

was used operationally against London, Antwerp, and other targets. The Rheinbote was fired against Antwerp. *

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

* Rheinbote * A4b

Surface-to-air missiles

Germany developed a number of surface-to-air missile systems, none of which was used operationally: *

Enzian The Enzian was a German WWII surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile that was the first to use a radio controlled guidance system. During the missile's development in the late stages of the war it was plagued by organisational problems and was ca ...

(

Gentian ''Gentiana'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family (Gentianaceae), the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With about 400 species it is considered a large genus. They are notable for their mostl ...

) * Rheintochter (Rhine Daughter) - (an air-to-air variant was also planned) *

Henschel Hs 117 The Henschel Hs 117 ''Schmetterling'' (German for ''Butterfly'') was a radio-guided German surface-to-air missile project developed during World War II. There was also an air-to-air version, the Hs 117H. The operators used a telescopic sight and ...

''Schmetterling'' (Butterfly) - radio-controlled (an air-to-air variant was also planned) * Wasserfall (Waterfall) *

Feuerlilie Feuerlilie (English: fire lily) was the code name of a German anti-aircraft missile, which was developed in 1940 and was shelved because of problems with the controller and the drive section at the end of January 1945 in favour of other proje ...

(Fire Lily)Feuerlilie (Fire Lily) - Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford (UK)

Air-to-air missiles

As with the surface-to-air missiles above, these were never used operationally: * Ruhrstahl X-4 (actively wire-guided; anti-tank variants of this were also designed, such as the X-7)Fitzsimons, Bernard, general editor. ''The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare'' (London: Phoebus Publishing Company, 1978), Volume 24, pp. 2602-2603, "X-4, Ruhrstahl".Fitzsimons, p. 2603, "X-7, Ruhrstahl".

Anti-ship missiles

Anti-ship missiles were used operationally against allied shipping in 1943, notably in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, guided by the ''Funkgerät'' FuG 203 ''Kehl'' series of

MCLOS Manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) is a method for guiding guided missiles. With an MCLOS missile, the operator must track the missile and the target simultaneously and guide the missile to the target. Typically the missile is steered with a ...

radio guidance systems aboard the deploying aircraft: *

Fritz X Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. ''Fritz X'' was the world's first precision guided weapon deployed in combat and the first to sink a ship in combat. ''Fritz X'' was a nickname us ...

armored, anti-ship gravity PGM * Henschel Hs 293 air-to-ship, rocket-boosted gliding guided bomb

References

{{reflist guided weapons Peenemünde Army Research Center and Airfield Guided weapons