The last V2 launched at London landed at Court Road, Orpington on the 27th March 1945. There was one casualty, a housewife in her kitchen, Ivy Millichamp. She was also the last civillian killed by enemy action in England during WW2.

I did my student teaching in 1992 under a teacher who was an Army engineer and he was involved in the 1947 V-2 launch, and he told me the story first-hand (and I had even read the story in a book beforehand). He told me that the gyroscopes were mounted in the nose cone of the V-2 just prior to fueling and launch, and unfortunately they were bilaterally symmetric, and they concluded that this one must have been installed backwards. He told me that about a dozen Army engineers piled into Jeeps and high-tailed it across the nighttime desert landscape praying they hadn't hit anyone. By the time they got to the crash site, some local entrepreneurs had already begun dissecting the rocket for souvenirs.

I'm from Las Cruces, NM. My grandparents used to talk about bombing Juarez all the time. Thanks for connecting their anecdotes to history.

As an Alamogordo native, I lived on a street that had two "paperclip" scientists as residents. Because of my aviation enthusiasm, I was introduced to Dr. Ernst Steinhoff to ground-crew his sailplane (a beautiful SHK). Dr. Steinhoff was the range safety officer on the Juarez Hermes launch. He realized that the V-2 would fall into El Paso if he fired the destruct charge, so he coolly held off doing so and the vehicle impacted into that Juarez graveyard. I also witnessed several of the Athena reentries from my back yard - spectacular!

Tom Targer ex-Air Force I was assigned to ABRES (Pronounced A ( rhymes with hay ) Beeze. I remembered this well. We designed and conducted tests of scaled reentry vehicles on the Athena that were the basis for full-scale entry testing at Vandenberg AFB, CA. The target area was the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The lagoon lined with sensors and surrounded by Radars and Telemetry to track and obtain CEP (circular error of probability) results. Tracking was also optical from the Hawaiin Islands and via special aircraft with ballistic cameras near the target. Many schemes were evaluated to make the Rentry Vehicle hard (if not impossible) for the Soviets to track and destroy.

Black Mesa is always a problem, isn't it?

The 'Black Mesa' test range? >I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Gordon. >Uh...it's probably not a problem...probably...but I'm showing a small discrepancy in...well, no, it's well within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining sequence. >Shutting down. Attempting shut down. It's not...it's-it's not...it's not shutting down...it's not... Pick up the can citizen.

So is that like throwing a ball into the neighbor's yard, "Opps, can I have that back please?" lol

"The news noted that the United States was quick to apologize for bombing our southern neighbor with a Nazi terror weapon." LOL!!!

Warning signs in the area read "Falling missile" zone...lol

I knew about Werner Von Braun but did not know about the 300 train cars of V2 parts.

The area of East London I was born and raised in was regularly visited by the Luftwaffe. The largest area of devestation was from a V2. Apart from the immediate destruction, many other buildings had to be demolished as a consequence. My Mother always said as we went out to play as kids "Stay off those bombsites!" We went straight onto the bombsites.... Thanks THG.

Well, I hope the rest of you enjoyed that. That brought me memories of childhood. My dad served 20 years in the Army,, including 3 years in Germany. He was stationed at Hart Kaserne. They would hold an open house and put out safe weapons. my 2 brothers and I had a blast holding the bazookas, 45s, machine guns.at the end of open house they would hold the drill with the firing team on a Persing missile. Dad and mom still have pictures of the event. Thank you, History Guy.

When working at WSMR in the 2000s, we were told that the expression about somethin going south came from these early V-2 failures. I didn't realize there were so many of them. What in sanity!

> The rocket exploded on top of a rocky knoll Slight miscalculation, they were aiming for the grassy one

They renamed the Pershing missile the "Corrigan" missle.

The apology description at the 5 minute mark is wonderful. Scores of years later government explanations still include an element of not-entirely-our-fault. Kudos to your copywriter.

As a former Pershing Missile soldier and having been stationed at White Sands in the late 1970's I really enjoyed this episode. There was a film made there of a compilation of missile misfires and other spectacular project failures that was hilarious to watch, though probably not quite so funny at the time they happened. We had no misfires (of the Pershing) while I was there but the "Mexican bombardment" was frequently discussed. WSMR is a unique place in the military, more DOD civilians there than actual troops.

Thank you History Guy! I never knew my state fired a missile that hit mexico, I'll be! You never fail to entertain and inform! Bravo!

My grandpa has early stage dementia, but he is always repeating this story about how when he first joined the Army he helped move a loaded convey of Pershing missiles through Germany in the 50’s. He said when the truck broke down everything went on lockdown as they repaired the truck and it was a sight to see with this massive protection detail. So happy I got to hear you talk about the army moving perishings through Germany!

"it is not dangerous to humans or animals if not ingested or handled..." so in other words....it is safe if you aren't near it. SMH

My dad was a technician on a Pershing II unit with the US Army in West Germany. The stories he's told me are absolutely nuts. I don't even know if you could do an episode on them since so much of what they did is still classified and much of the public information is either incomplete or deliberate disinformation even though the program ended decades ago. Many young men gave their lives in service of that highly specialized and sensitive mission and they can't be properly recognized due to the secrecy and the fact that we were never "technically" at war. One day I hope their fascinating story can be told in great detail. Their sacrifice deserves to be remembered

"Our Germans are better than their Germans."

This is a much better listen than actual class! And just in time for my first class

Hitting Mexico with a V2 rocket the only thing that could be said is D'OH!!!!!!

“Oops... that went South”

I used to hate the subject of history in high school. Hated it. It was just words in a book to me. Thank you so much for the amazing body of work you've accomplished. Been watching several of your videos every day for many months. I love the way you cover events in history with such intimate detail. It's work like this that makes me LOVE history now. Thank you! ❤️

"Hello Air Force bomb damage assessment service, how may I help you?" "I would like to report some bomb damage please" Thank you but we are already aware of the nuclear bomb we dropped in South Carolina" "Uh... no, this is about the ballistic missile you just shot into Mexico" "Okay this is the plane dropped department, please hold the line while I transfer your call"

I remember reading that one of the German engineers had joked that "We have infiltered the US and are now firing missiles at Mexico." :)

Always a great way to start the day... coffee and THG

Back in the 90’s, I worked with an old timer at Universal Studios. He lived in London when the V rockets were hitting them. He later moved to LA and became a press master with the LA Times. After the presses were fully automated, he was bought out and he retired. He was also a soccer team mate with Rod Stewart. I wish I would’ve stayed in contact with him. He must be long gone by now.

USA: "Err, Mexico. I lost one of my missiles again. Can I go check?" Mexico: "Ugh, fine."

8:44 imagine just having a casual stroll and seeing this thing come out of the trees

"Missiles that have wandered over the border" a bit like sheep in search of fresh grass.

So now you know, at long last, Black Mesa really was an actual US Army missile test base.

"Over succeeded" only an officer in the Air Force could say something so ridiculous

From your brief mention of the V-1 (the first cruise missile?)... My mother was born & raised in London, and worked there throughout the war. She told me many times that the "doodlebugs" (as the Londoners called them) actually were not too bad, considering. You could see and hear them coming, and as long as you could hear them they were no threat. Just find shelter when the noise stops. And there were far fewer of them than there were German bombers earlier in the war. The V-2 (the first ballistic missile) were anther story. The first anyone knew of them was when a whole city block suddenly went BOOM and vanished.

Your channel has restoked my love for history. I'm actually contemplating finally using my GI Bill and applying for a History program again.

I've learned more from the history guy, than I ever learned in actual history class

Dear History Guy. Hello, I enjoy your videos and wanted to offer a suggestion for an episode. In April 1906 San Francisco had it's great earthquake, followed by a much worse series of fires. The US Navy sent the torpedo boat Perry from the Marie Inland base to asses the situation. What the crew found was a city in flames, and they realized that if the docks, and the rail station, burned down there would be no way for supplies to be brought in, and no way for refuges to leave the city. They then converted the ships engines to pump water, and spent the next three days battling the fires and saved the water front. This is a lesser know history of the city, but the Perry's crew resourcefulness and hard work prevented a bad situation from becoming much worse, and for this they deserve recognition. A good book about this is "San Francisco is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires" by Dennis Smith. This should give you all the information you need. Thank You.. Tom Harriman. The City.

@The History Guy can you please do an episode about the loss of the USS Scorpion? It was one of the biggest mysteries of the Cold War, and the mechanism of its loss was positively identified several years ago as a catastrophic event in the battery well. It is also a human story, though, with the families of the crew literally left waiting at a pier for the ship that would never arrive. It truly is a tale of history that deserves your special touch.

I just hope some Mexican official pulled out a map to point out, "This is Mexico, this is NEW Mexico..."...

Fascinating as always and I'm hard pressed to find more compressed data on my screen. Like Nova amounts in less time.

The Pershing 1a Missile of the 1960's was a point and shoot... I know someone very well that states that they had an oops... They fired the missile and it went much further than it maximum range that landed in Mexico. Once they were fired, they had no control of the missile.

I knew a gentleman who worked at Convair corp. during the early air to air missile development days. They had a very large one get loose and impact in Mexico. Fortunately no one was hurt, but lots of embarrassment and diplomacy required.

History Guy, I’d like you to do a video for your viewers on the March 1st, 1910 Wellington, Washington avalanche that swept down the mountain in the high Cascades and removed the town Wellington and two Great Northern Railway trains killing 96 people. And as you say “It is history that needs to be remembered...”

I'm from El Paso and went to college in Las Cruces. I swear I saw antiaircraft fire from behind the Organ Mountains (in the direction of WSMR) one night...and as a private pilot, I know that the airspace over White Sands (restricted area R-5107) is permanently closed to civil aircraft.

My Dad was at Ft Bliss from the late 40's till he retired in 65. Then, he worked for contractors in and around white sands for several more years. One night, while living in Alamogordo NM, he took me and my sister out to the backyard to await a flyover of an Athena missile launched from Green River. It was around 1967 or 68.

White sands is so close to El Paso that in the late 90's we once saw a missile test in the horizon from my dad's living room in East El Paso.

The military has been known to go into museums to get spare helicopter parts. So for them to cobble up random parts for a missile... I’m not even shocked.

V2 was the first rocket to break the Karman Line. (Reaching outer space)

I'm from El Paso. There are enough great stories from that area to single handedly keep THG busy a couple years. From missiles to outlaws and trains to Indians, the list for such an isolated area is unbelievable, yet factual. Thankfully THG has covered quite a few. Now if he was actually there to show such history in person how rich it would be. I'd suggest he start at the Ft. Bliss Calvary Museum.

There were cross-border mishaps that went un-reported. I worked on missiles at an aerospace company that did testing at White Sands. There were stories from some of the guys who had driven down into Mexico and recovered small re-entry vehicles that were small enough to fit in the trunk of a rental car. This was done by company people and the U.S. military and Mexico were none the wiser. I've poked around the abandoned Green River site. It has always amazed me that we fired missiles over U.S. soil risking the lives of citizens.

Gerald Wooley, one of the scientist that work on this project told me they put a punch card in backward and that is what sent in south instead of north. :)

when another missile exploded in Mexico the us government: ah shit, here we go again

Excellent, as always, informative and interesting information that’s hard to find. Thank you. 🙏🏼

This puts me in mind of an incident my father, a career Air Force Pilot, told me about. After he returned home from WWII, he was assigned to what was then Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso, Texas. One of his assignments was to take an official photographer up in an A-26 Invader to get moving pictures of an early US V-2 rocket launch from White Sands, New Mexico. The plan was to get detailed cinema from a nearby but safe proximity to the intended launch path. You can tell where this is going... The V-2 launched and headed their way and evasive action was taken to increase separation. My Dad didn't think it was all that "hairy", but the official photographer definitely though otherwise. No mention was made as to where the V-2 eventually impacted. Just another incident in the 31 year career of an Air Force Pilot. I can't help but wonder what happened to that film, and if there's ground film of an A-26 scooting out of the way of a wayward V-2.

Love the new glasses, HG. Old ones always looked crooked.

Those damn german gyroscopes! They'll get you every time...

Thanks for making this video

As someone that spent time on WSMR and living in Las Cruces as a kid it's always fun to have people talk about the odd bits of stuff we would find out in the desert.

Good gravy, I love the history guy! Thank you for these awesome, informational & informative videos!

The international military version of "Hey my ball went in your yard (again), mind if I go get it?"

I graduated in Alamogordo, N Mexico in 1976. My father worked at White Sands Missile Range for years. (He worked as a computer engineer, for GE on a secret DOD defense team developing and testing missile technology and guidance systems.) If they didnt tell you, and they don't tell you, you'd never know what goes on there. If not for the missile range, Holliman AF Base, and Ft. Bliss the area would be in a pitiful state of poverty. You could drive 100 miles in any direction from Alamogordo and find almost nothing. The area is a desert wasteland.

I love this channel. Always interesting and informative. Could you do one on the 1981 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse and it’s effects on engineering since then?

Anybody remember the old TV show “You Were There”? Well, I was stationed at WSMR at the time of the 1970 incident as a young Lieutenant waiting for my time to go to Vietnam. The base had a SLJ called the “Standby Duty Officer.” When it was your time in the barrel in those pre-cell phone days, you were required to stay on the Post and either be in your quarters, at your workstation, at the commissary, or the officer’s club. The duty ran from noon Friday to noon the following Friday. At noon on the Friday of my turn I reported the the Command Sergeant Major of National Range Operations who handed me a loose leaf folder with instructions, phone numbers, etc. The CSM said these exact words: “ Don’t worry Lieutenant. Nothing ever happens.” At five am the next morning I was awakened from my slumbers in the BOQ by our Lieutenant Colonel “Buzz” K. Who asked me if I were on duty that week. When I replied, Yes, he ordered me to go to the HQ where I played the role of telephone boy and general errand boy for the rest of the weekend. The way I heard it the Athena which was a four stage missile used the first two stages for the boost phase. Then the missile would reorient itself and fire the last two stages with the missile pointing down towards the Range simulating an incoming ICBM from Russia. In this case the third stage fired prematurely and caused all the tracking radars to flip over as the device flew overhead. The radioactive material in this shot was baked into the skin of the reentry stage. Inside the dummy warhead were sensors that by measuring the radioactivity levels during reentry could calculate the rate of erosion of the skin. To emphasize just how far out in the boonies WSMR is; this where they exiled Command Sergeant Major of the Army Woolridge to get him out of the limelight, but that is another story.

Great tidbits of seldom taught history, very interesting always.

Excellent information, thanks!

excellent episode

I love the marketing of the Hermes. *Hermes Rockets: The First multi-stage rockets* - Two Stages! - Trusted V2 Technology - Innovative ramjet engine* - Air foils for controlled flight _*ramjet not included_

Imagine being a west German soldier arriving to the US for training and being told "Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa testing range." *Crowbar intensifies*

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Very interesting. Thanks!!!

Nice video History Guy

Never has a "Nazi terror weapon" been funnier

My dad had a garage in Huntsville back then. He said the first time he had ever seen a Mercedes was driven by Ms, Von Braun. She wanted her oil changed with castor oil. They laughed her out of the shop. Wherner came back and explained it was Castrol oil. He ordered it by the case and it sat in the back of the shop just for her car.

They have a cool memorial site in Green River, Utah to celebrate their involvement.

Really enjoyed this episode being a former Pershing Missile Electronic Repairer. Please do more episodes on the subject of the Cold War, far too many are ignorant of the subject of the Cold War era.

Another great video, I really appreciate all the hard work you put in to these videos. They're great. From one educator to another, I know how much is involved in making dry subject matter in to something a little more palatable. I appreciate it, keep them coming please. I had two ideas I thought I'd throw at you just because some times I'm out of creativity juice and random ideas from just about any place can be a lifesaver. You and I prob both remember this but I'm sure a lot of viewers don't: TVs used to go off the air every night at about midnight, if I remember correctly. I can't remember the order or if the anthem was played when they came back on the air but I remember they'd show an American flag and play the national anthem and then it'd go to a screen with the station identifier, yep...no more TV for the day...unless you had cable...once that was around. How or who decided that that was going to be the status quo for TV stations at the end of the day? And who changed it and when? Americans for better or for worse, mostly for worse I think, are connected to their TV at the hip...or at least we were. I've heard one of the inventors felt it could bring enlightenment and advancement for humans all over the planet...The same thing early users of the internet thought...Sadly, neither invention has been so collectively beneficial to our species...Thanks again, take care.

These elements of our history are so interesting. Thank you HG!

I really think there's a whole video to be made on just your intro. Project Backfire, Toftoy's incursion into Penemunde & Mittelwerks and extraction of all the materiel there, the stories of British engineers and German rocket scientists getting sloshed the night before a test launch from "spirit testing" the railroad car full of 95% ethanol used for the V2 tests... the immediate period prior to and just after the war's conclusion was an absolute wild time and woefully underreported. Solid video as always. Been to both LC-33 and Green River, and am a huge early-rocketry history buff. Always appreciate it when the lesser-known portions of it get brought to everyone's attention.

thanks

My dad worked for Lockheed on these programs. They would launch from the Green River launch facility near Moab Utah, and the missiles would land at White Sands. Later they would launch from Vandenburg AFB and land in Kwajalein Atoll in the south pacific.

It was actually a guided- missile attack on the last living Chupacabra.

my dad always said he saw the last v2 launch when he was at white sands nm

I live and grew up 30 miles east of Shiprock and the Navajo rez, I have never heard about the missile crash. Definitely some new local history.

I was at Fort Bliss in 1979 when a Hercules Surface to Air missile launched from McGregor Range went south instead of north and was self destructed and impacted along side warehouses on Rail Road Drive. Ooops.

Thanks

I really enjoy all of your videos, they're fascinating and such a joy to listen to while I work. I have a suggestion for a future video, though it's kind of vague. Could you talk about the history of some sea shanties?

How about a story on the B25 that crash landed in the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh that was "never recovered". Around here it is known as The Mystery on the Mon.

My dad worked Fort Bliss and White Sands with the Hawk I and II, and Nike Apache and Hercules. I remember in the school playground, seeing missile exhaust trails going up into the sky!!

Lived at WSMR shot missiles and rockets abound. Not to mention lasers and experimental cannons. Mexico dose get some of our experiments but with tts systems much less. Good video

Great video as always! May I recommend a topic for a future video, the British attack on Mers-El-Kabir.

Wow, good story, thank you

You rock!!!

_"I KNEW I should have made that left turn at Albuquerque!"_ -- B. BUNNY 😊😊😊😊

Strange I knew nothing about. Thanks for the quick history lesson.

you sir...rock it.

The “military testing mistakes” is an interesting topic indeed. Too bad the most interesting and scary mistakes are classified.

One of the best episodes that I've seen in some time. 👍 History Guy! I especially liked the line ”US had fired a Nazi terror weapon at Mexico” Had to be quite the boo-boo at the time. Then we did it again, how many times?