First German V-2s Become Operational and Are Launched Against Paris and London

Two months before the Nazis came to power in 1933, physics student Wernher von Braun left the Raketenflugplatz Berlin (Rocketport Berlin), the world’s largest, most active rocket group, to work on rocket weapons for the German army. Von Braun’s establishment made a breakthrough to large-scale rocket engineering. It created the world’s first operational ballistic missile: the V-2.

The world's first operational ballistic missile: the V-2