The sophisticated technology from the V2s was later harnessed by the US and Soviet Union to pioneer space travel

Unlike the predecessor the V1, you could not see - or hear - a V2 coming as it travelled faster than the speed of sound

The rockets used astonishingly advanced technology to shoot 50 miles into air, before arcing in a 120-mile trajectory

Around 1,500 'vengeance weapons' were fired at London and the south east, ultimately leaving aro und 7,250dead

First striking Britain in September 1944, V2 - V for 'vengeance weapon - was Hitler's last throw of the dice


They were the terrifying rockets that weren't unveiled until the final months of the Second World War, yet still killed thousands.

Around 1,500 V2 rockets - the V stood for Vergeltungswaffe, or Vengeance Weapon - were fired at London and the south east of England, in what was seen as Hitler's last throw of the dice.

As this interactive map shows, London bore the brunt of the V2 strikes, which began 70 years ago this week with an attack on Chiswick, in the west of the capital, and ended a year later, leaving more than 7,000 Britons dead.

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View V2 rockets on London and surrounding counties in a larger map

Precursor of the space race: The V2 rocket, or Vengeance weapon, was designed by the Germans to retaliate for devastating Allied bombing strikes on German cities

The rocket you couldn't see coming: Faster than the speed of sound, the V2 appeared to come out of nowhere,and you only heard the noise after it landed

Deadly missile: The first V2 strike on Britain came on 8 September 1944 and hit Chiswick, west London, killing three people and injuring 17

Begun five years ago, the map is crowd-sourced, and includes photographs, eye-witness accounts and details about individual V2 rocket attacks on London and its surrounds supplied by individuals.

Each strike site can be seen in more detail by zooming in and clicking on the yellow site markers. A work in progress, the map is still believed to be short of many strike sites, some of which can still be seen using the Sat[ellite] tab in the top right hand corner.

Unlike its predecessor the V1, this was a rocket you couldn't see coming; a space age piece of technology that laid the path for the post-war space programmes of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Designed in Germany to attack Allied cities in retaliation for increased Allied bombing strikes against German cities, the V2s were also Hitler's answer to his country's disappointment that the V1s (or doodlebugs) didn't, as billed, knock Britain out of the war.

Launched from mobile units, the 46ft (14m) tall rockets were fuelled by liquid ethanol and oxygen and weighed almost 14 tons, and were the most advanced weapon used in the war until the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The missile was launched vertically and could travel at more than 3,500mph to hit targets more than 200 miles away, making it the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile.

A V2 rocket launch site in Germany - the V2s were launched vertically, going straight up 50 miles into the air, before flying in a trajectory of 120 miles

Desperate: The launch of the V2s against Allied targets was seen as Hitler's last throw of the dice

When it landed, it left a crater 60ft wide and 16ft deep, and threw up around 3,000 tonnes of rubble into the air.

Such was its speed, the noise of the rocket rushing through the air came after it landed.

Notable V2 strikes on British soil included the first one, which hit Chiswick, west London, on 8 September 1944, killing three and injuring 17, and an attack on a Woolworths store in New Cross, south east London, in November that year which left 168 dead - England's worst death toll.

In total, the V2 attacks resulted in the deaths of around 7,250 British military personnel and civilians.

Meanwhile more than 9,000 civilians and soldiers were killed in total in V2 attacks on the Allies.

That excludes the estimated 12,000 labourers and concentration camp prisoners killed while making the missiles.

But despite the hype, and just like the V1, the V2 did not quite live up to its propaganda.

Despite its sophisticated and pioneering guidance system, the V2 often missed its target.

This situation was made worse when Britain leaked the misinformation that most V2s aimed at London were overshooting the capital by between ten and 20 miles.

As a result, Germany modified the rockets' guidance, and most subsequent rockets landed short of the city, often in underpopulated areas of Kent.

And the rocket was extraordinarily expensive to produce, using vast amounts of fuel alcohol when Germany was desperately short of it.

At a point when the German army desperately needed cheap and effective weapons that could be manufactured en masse, production of the V2s required huge investment for relatively little return.

One statistic shows that the average death toll per V2 dropped on Britain was just two people. Compared to the hundreds of Allied bombers deployed in one air raid, which could leave thousands or tens of thousands dead, the V2 did not come up trumps.

Devastation: The worst V2 attack on Britain struck a Woolworths store in New Cross, south east London, one afternoon in November 1944, leaving 168 people dead

V2 TECHNOLOGY: HOW IT WORKED Designed by German engineer Werner Von Braun, the V2 had four key points that marked the V2 out: large liquid fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance, and rudders in jet control. The automatic guidance system was perhaps the most important: this meant that once the rocket was in the air, with its destination programmed into the analogue computer, its gyroscopes could track its positioning, using the rudders to shift its course if needed. Even today, rocket launchers still have similar engines and use gyroscopic guidance, and most are still rocket-fuelled. The technology that went into the V2 was so sophisticated, that once the war was over, American and Soviet engineers picked the left over rockets to bits to understand how they worked. With the help of Von Braun, who surrendered to the Allies and later became a hero of the space age, the technology was harnessed to develop rockets that would go into space. Advertisement

Germany's solution to the expense was to get concentration camp prisoners to manufacture them.

Buried deep underground in a factory near the Buchenwald concentration camp, the prisoners lived in filthy conditions.

Those who weren't executed for attempted sabotage - there were reports of prisoners hanged from cranes above the workers - died from lack of food, sleep and daylight.

There was one positive legacy of the V2 rockets, though, and that was their contribution to the space race.

Given the V2's ability to power 50 miles up into the air before arcing in a trajectory of 120 miles, it was effectively the world's first space rocket.

Thus as soon as the war ended, the US and the Soviet Union began a race to capture as many V2s as they could.

America shipped 300 railcar-loads of V2s and their parts across the Atlantic, in what was known as Operation Papercclip, and used the skill of Germany rocket engineers - many of whom had surrendered to the Allies in a bid to avoid being shot dead by the Nazis to avoid their capture - to develop further rockets.

They fired them in tests and studied their range and how to better it.

Meanwhile, the Soviets used engineers to completely recreate a V2 rocket, called the R-1, before moving on to develop more powerful versions, the R-2 and the R-5.

In October 1946, the first photograph was taken from space using a US-fired V2 rocket.

It was the first outward sign that the Allies had moved on from the war and were harnessing the technology of massacre to create more sophisticated rockets which would, ultimately, reach the moon.