Original Item. Only One Available. This is a great piece of WWII military developmental history, a metal tail-piece from a German V2 rocket, singed and contorted through its detonation, and recovered near Antwerp, Belgium. The piece has a label that reads Piece of German V-2 rocket body found near Antwerp. The piece measures roughly 3 ¾" x 6”.

After the failed "Battle of Britain" waged by Germany against Great Britain, the Allies were able to successfully launch devastating bombing raids against German cities. This led to the development of German "V-weapons", known in original German as Vergeltungswaffen ("retaliatory weapons" or "reprisal weapons"). These were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly terror bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities.

The first of these was the V-1 flying bomb, also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, which was a very early "cruise missile" design. The official RLM aircraft designation of Fi 103 was used for this weapon, however it did not have a very long range. Due to this, attacks had to be launched from very close to the target, so most V-1 launch sites were along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The launches started on 13 June 1944, one week after the successful D-Day landings.

Developed concurrently was the much more advanced V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2 or "Retribution Weapon 2"), with the technical name Aggregat 4 (A4). Developed by a team under Wernher von Braun, this was the world's first long-range guided
ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, had a much farther theoretical range, as well as a much better guidance system. A series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, and a further 12,000 forced laborers and prison camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.

Unlike the V-1, the V-2 rockets traveled at supersonic speed, arrived without warning, and there was no effective defense against them. It was truly a terrifying weapon, which brought sudden destruction from the skies.

The V2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line (edge of space) with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

This is an extremely scarce piece of one of the most instrumental pieces of rocket history, the development of which would eventually assist NASA in reaching the moon. Comes ready for further research and display.