In World War I, the Germans had developed long-range artillery and bombarded Paris from the German lines; because of this, the Treaty of Versailles forbade future German development of heavy artillery. The treaty, however, said nothing about rockets. During World War II, German rocketeers under the technical developed "V" weapons. The "V" was short for "Vergeltungswaffen", roughly translated "vengenace weapons".
In 1931, the German military established a rocket research facility at Kummersdorf Weapons Range, near Berlin. The first civilian employee at this facility was Wernher von Braun. In 1937 the German rocket facility was moved to Peenemunde on the Baltic Coast. Starting with about 80 researchers in 1936, the facility comprised nearly 5000 personnel by late 1942.
As early as 1939, British intelligence was aware of secret weapon trials on the north German coast near Peenemunde. The tests focused on long-range weapons but their precise locations were not known.
The V-1 was a cruise missile that employed a gasoline-powered pulse-jet engine that could produce a thrust of about 1,100 pounds. V-1 test flights began in 1941 over the Peenemunde range. The V-1 was originally called the Fieseler Fi-103. The V-1 bore no resemblance to the V-2, which was under development at Peenemunde at the same time.
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