12. A Weapon That Was Simultaneously a Brilliant Feat of Technology, and a Waste of Resources
The German V2 rocket, or “Vengeance Weapon 2”, was the world’s first ballistic missile. It carried a ton of explosives to the edge of space, then descended at unstoppable supersonic speeds to detonate on its target. It was a brilliant, advanced, and revolutionary feat of technology. It was also one of history’s most wastefully expensive weapons. From its first operational launch against enemy targets in September, 1944, to Germany’s surrender nine months later, roughly 3000 V2s were fired. They did not all reach their targets, but even if they had, at one ton of explosives per warhead, that would have been 3000 tons of explosives dropped on enemy cities over nine months. During the same period, the RAF routinely dropped more than 3000 tons of explosives on German cities in single nighttime bombing raids. American bombers also frequently exceeded that 3000 ton total in single bombing raids during the daytime.
The Allied explosive delivery tools were reusable and thus far more economical. Most of the Allied bombers returned to base, reloaded, and returned the next day or night to again drop more than 3000 tons of explosives on German cities, and repeated the process dozens of times. Moreover, during its nine months of firing, the 3000 tons of explosives dropped by the V2 killed 2754 people. Most were not soldiers, but civilians whose deaths, while tragic, did not impede the Allied war effort by much. By contrast, it is estimated that over 20,000 workers, mostly slave laborers toiling in horrific conditions, died while manufacturing the V2. That gave the V2 the tragic distinction of being perhaps the only weapons system in history whose production cost more lives than did its actual use. Thus, when contrasting the cost with the results, the V2 literally produced little bang for the buck.
