German influence on Soviet rocketry
[1] The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 to a vertex of 174.6 km on 20 June 1944.
[3] A race commenced between the Allies, particularly United States and Soviets, to acquire the technology behind the V-2 and similar weapons developed by Nazi Germany.
[4] At the end of WWII the Soviet Union had been devastated by Nazi Germany, with 27 million people killed, 1,700 cities destroyed and agriculture production reduced to famine proportions.
Design work included regenerative cooling, hypergolic propellant ignition, and swirling and bi-propellant mixing fuel injectors.
During the early 1930s Soviet rocket technology was comparable to Germany's,[13] but Joseph Stalin's Great Purge severely damaged its progress, with Korolev, Glushko and many other leading engineers imprisoned in the Gulag.
[19] On 13 May 1946 USSR Council of Ministers Decree No 1017-419 'Questions on Reactive Armaments' was signed by Stalin, which established the future strategy and direction for Soviet rocketry.
Therefore, the most capable German rocket scientists and engineers were identified, and on 22 October 1946 302 of them having knowledge in rocketry, thereof 198 from the Zentralwerke (a total of 495 persons including family members), were deported to the Soviet Union as part of Operation Osoaviakhim.
[29] While located in the Soviet Union the German specialists received fairly high wages and good conditions, which were mainly based on their qualifications.
13 German engineers participated in the tests, among them Helmut Gröttrup, Johannes Hoch, Kurt Magnus, Fritz Viebach, Hans Vilter, Waldemar Wolff.
[43] Due to political and security concerns, German specialists were not allowed direct knowledge or access to any Soviet missile design.
On April 9, 1949, Ustinov arrived in Gorodomlya on a visit with a new urgent task to design a rocket capable of carrying a payload of 3,000 kg over a distance of 3,000 kilometers.
[52] In October 1949 Korolev and Ustinov visited Gorodomlya for reviewing the progress of work and understanding German knowledge as much as possible to push the development of mid-range R-3 and R-5 Pobeda missiles.
[53] By December 1949, the two projects had been significantly improved: a single-stage ballistic missile (G-4/R-14) and a glider equipped with a rocket booster and a jet engine (G-5/R-15).
At the same time, the German designers paid attention to radical simplification of the overall system and consistent weight savings in order to achieve the required reliability and range.
[57] By August 1950 the Soviet government had decided to send the Germans working for NII-88 home, which occurred in three waves in December 1951, June 1952 (with the majority) and the last group of twenty, including Gröttrup, left in November 1953.
By the end of 1950 a small number of Germans (among them Johannes Hoch) were transferred to Moscow and worked on activities for guidance control of surface-to-air missiles.
In particular Olaf Przybilski has pointed out similarities between later Soviet rockets and the studies carried out by German specialists,[62] however these claims lack convincing evidence.
In 1945 and 1946 the use of German expertise was invaluable in reducing the time needed to master the intricacies of the V-2, establishing production of the R-1 rocket and enabling a base for further developments.
