WW2 PEENEMUNDE ROCKET BASE - ( Identyfication Badge )

The Peenemünde Army Research Center (German:Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde,‡ HVP) was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (Heereswaffenamt). It is widely regarded as the birthplace of modern rocketry and spaceflight.

On April 2, 1936, the Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany) paid 750,000 reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the whole Northern peninsula of the Baltic island of Usedom.The site had been suggested by Wernher von Braun's mother as 'just the place for you and your friends'.By the middle of 1938, the Army facility had been separated from the Luftwaffe facility and was nearly complete, with personnel moved from Kummersdorf.The Army Research Center (Peenemünde Ost) consisted of Werk Ost andWerk Süd, while Werk West (Peenemünde West) was the LuftwaffeTest Site (Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe),one of the four test and research facilities of the Luftwaffe, with its headquarters facility at Erprobungsstelle Rechlin.

Guided missile and rocket development at Peenemünde.

Several German guided missiles and rockets of World War II were developed by the HVP, including the V-2 rocket (A-4) (see test launches), and the Wasserfall (35 Peenemünde trial firings),Schmetterling, Rheintochter, Taifun, and Enzian missiles. The HVP also performed preliminary design work on very-long-range missiles for use against the United States. That project was sometimes called the "V - 3", and its existence is well documented. The Peenemünde establishment also developed other techniques, such as the first closed-circuit television system in the world, installed atTest Stand VII to track the launching rockets.

                             HVP organization.

Wernher von Braun was the HVP technical director (Dr Walter Thiel was deputy director) and there were nine major departments:

1. Technical Design Office (Walter J H "Papa" Riedel)
2. Aeroballistics and Mathematics Laboratory (Dr Hermann Steuding)
3. Wind Tunnel (Dr Rudolph Hermann)
4. Materials Laboratory (Dr Mäder)
5. Flight, Guidance, and Telemetering Devices (German: BSM) (Dr Ernst Steinhoff)
6. Development and Fabrication Laboratory (Arthur Rudolph)
7. Test Laboratory (Klaus Riedel)
8. Future Projects Office (Ludwig Roth)
9. Purchasing Office (Mr Genthe)

The Measurements Group (Gerhard Reisig) was part of the BSM,and additional departments included the Production Planning Directorate (Detmar Stahlknecht), the Personnel Office (Richard Sundermeyer), and the Drawings Change Service.