Hacker News Reader

Comment by RachelF | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that the V-2 project cost $2 billion. This is around the same as the Manhattan project, and 1 billion less than the B-29 programme.

The V-2 was ludicrously expensive, especially compared to the V-1 which the RAF estimated cost around 120 pounds (~$500) each.

The V-2 project probably hastened Germany's defeat by consuming high tech components like turbines and electronics that could have been better used in aircraft.

View on HN

It might just be a widely held misunderstanding that the V2's purpose was only meant as a ballistic missile. But if I remember correctly it was also, and probably initially mostly, meant as a psychological and political weapon, the objective being to convince British population of the necessity to reach a separate agreement with Germany, so they could end the war on that front before moving against the Soviet Union. Therefore the best weapon had to be frightening but not necessarily very efficient from a deaths per invested dollars measurement.

The response from the British state is also to be understood as a political move: they responded with the large bombimg raids over German cities (using plain old death-toll effective bombers), thus signifying that there would be no separate peace agreement with the UK.

According to this narrative, it sounds like the German war plan was naive to believe other great powers would agree to let Germany conquer Russia, more than naive regarding the efficiency of the V2 as a weapon.

Anyway, just a reminder that ultimately it's all about politics not technology.

A good source I can remember about the V2 story during the war, from the UK point of view, was this book:

Most secret war, by R.V. Jones

There's a BBC TV series that R.V. Jones helped make. Here's the episode on the V-2 - well worth watching https://youtu.be/fkCW4g8It_A

Having similar budgets, the German rocket program consumed a lot of slave labour. No concern for the conditions of the labour, either their salaries of course - replaceable human machines with service length 1-2 years. Add the worth of the eqivalent labour on top of the total cost of the German program.

The cost vs the Manhattan project as a drain on German resources is one of the major thesis points in "The Rocket and the Reich."

If the V-2 had been used to attack staging areas for the D-Day invasion, etc., it might have been effective. But randomly blowing up a building here and there accomplished nothing for the war effort.

The Allies' bombing attacks on German homes had similarly useless effects. See "Fire and Fury" by Hansen.

For a fascinating book on the development of the V-2, see "V-2" by Dornberger.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com