Major General Dornberg asked everyone to take cover in a cement bunker similar to the one they had just had, and then gave the order to start the firing procedure, and the professional sergeant flicked a switch, and a puff of compressed air sent octane-containing gasoline from the fuel tank to the impulse jet engine located above the tail of the launch frame, and then the spark plug began to power up and ignite, and the gasoline was ignited. The engine roared loudly, spewing dazzling fire from the tail and began to fly forward.

It was clear to everyone that the initial speed of the rocket was much faster than that of the airplane, and somewhat inferior to the A-4 rocket. Dornberg is a good explainer and knows what people are concerned about: "There are no control surfaces on the wings, and control is achieved by the rudder and elevator on the horizontal tail, which is both practical and inexpensive for a rocket that does not need to maneuver." The autopilot controls the rocket to fly in a predetermined course, the range counting device calculates the flight distance of the rocket and opens the baffle when it reaches the target, the system adjusts and locks the rudder surface on the horizontal tail to slow down the rocket and dive towards the target, and then detonate the warhead. ”

"Is the system reliable?"

Dornberg hesitated for a moment before answering Degenkobe's question: "It should be said in two that the fuze part is very reliable. We have an electrical fuse in the warhead, a spare mechanically activated fuse, and a delay fuse, if the first two fail to explode the rocket, the last one can ensure that the rocket will self-destruct after a while, we have experimented many times, and the rocket after launch has almost no duds, but ......"

He was just halfway through his sentence when he suddenly heard the iconic "buzzing" sound of the rocket coming and going, and when he looked up, his face changed drastically, and he was so frightened that he didn't know what to say. Speer was wondering why the other party's good demeanor just now suddenly got stuck, but before he could ask, he heard someone next to him shouting hysterically: "It's not good, the rocket was blown off the direction by the air current, dangerous!" All of them ...... lying down."

Speer glanced at the air out of the corner of his eye, and found that the rocket that was whistling towards the intended target just now actually turned its head and flew towards the observation trench. He only felt cold in his hands and feet, and before he could react, the quick-eyed Gerhard Degenkobe crushed him into the ditch with a tiger pounce, and Speer, who was caught off guard, raised his head with difficulty, spit out the dirt gnawed into his mouth, and was about to curse, when he found the same Führer's face almost distorted to the point of deformation, and on his back was Adjutant Dahlges. At this time, everyone only heard the rocket "whoosh" overhead, flew straight behind, and about 15 seconds later, it exploded violently in the forest not far away, the sound was deafening, and the cement layer in the trench fell down.

Everyone got up in embarrassment, patting the dust on their bodies, and at the same time glad that they had escaped, and the sound of complaints and curses was endless. Hoffman didn't care about scolding the base, and was the first to walk towards the explosion point, Adjutant Dahlges followed closely, and the others could only follow when they saw this, and Major General Dornberg, who had a blank mind, actually forgot to stop it for a while, but still went by the group of big men on their own.

Looking at the huge crater on the ground and the destroyed trees around it, everyone gasped, and Speer sneered: "The power is really not bad, Mr. Dornberg, if this rocket fell and exploded in the observation trench just now, it would be enough to blow up the Führer and us to pieces, right?" ”

"I ...... I ......" Dornberg was about to cry, he knew that the flight attitude of this rocket was not very stable after launch - this is why the base has not reported the completion of the development for a long time, in order to ensure the success of the test, the most complete technology has been selected in advance, and the system has been debugged and inspected many times in advance, but he did not expect such a thing to happen under the nose of the Führer. It was not uncommon for the experiment to fail, but a small probability event like this one was almost inexplicable, as if he saw the doors of the SS cells and concentration camps beckoning to him, and he did not know which traitorous group he would fall into when he entered, and in short, his life was over.

His eyes were dilated, his whole body spasmed as if he had been electrocuted, and he couldn't answer half a sentence, and the situation of the other personnel in the base was not much better than him, and they were all crying and sad, and they didn't dare to come out.

There was a terrible silence at the scene, and von Braun may have seen too much of this failed experiment, and he was the first to recover from the fact that he had already had enough immunity. He looked at the people around him who seemed to be holding their necks and couldn't speak, sighed and prepared to step forward to make a round: he knew that there were many problems with this "cheap" rocket project, and he originally advised Dornberg not to be in a hurry to demonstrate, but the major general who was eager to show himself in front of the Führer obviously didn't listen, and now it has caused such a big and low-level accident, if he usually doesn't hesitate to suppress the matter and laugh it off. But what day is it? If he does not stand up and speak, I am afraid that the personnel of the rocket project development team will be finished.

Hoffman is also thinking calmly, although the V1 is the world's first successful **, but the limitations are too obvious: first, the speed is too slow, not only easy to be killed by fast fighters, but also too low altitude is easy to be killed by anti-aircraft guns; Second, the accuracy is poor, there is no reliable navigation system, and the fuzzy positioning is completely guided by inertia, and the circular probability error is as high as 20 kilometers, which is an incredible error. The slow speed is understandable, after all, the speed of the Tomahawk** in later generations is only Mach 0.72, but without reliable navigation, the V1 is at most a large uncontrolled rocket that can listen to the explosion. He did not want to produce and equip in large quantities as in history, and had been looking for a way that could be properly expressed without dampening the enthusiasm of scientific researchers, and today's mistake may be a logical excuse -- it can be developed, but it should not be produced in large quantities!

After thinking clearly about the cause and effect, he opened his mouth: "Major General Dornberg, your level of being a spy is too poor, and the timing of your selection is also very poor, I have to send you to the SS for good training." If you really want to kill me, you should have triggered the fuse directly when I was looking at the rocket just now - the three very reliable guys you mentioned. ”

"It's over, it's really over......" Dornberg didn't understand anything, only heard the word "spy", trembled all over, and only muttered to himself.

Braun frowned at first, but at last he slowly unfolded - it seemed that the Führer had no intention of pursuing further, but was only telling a joke, but the joke was so cold that it made people chill all over. He whispered a few words in Dornberg's ear, and it was easy to calm the other party.

Hoffman remembered Dr. Messerschmidt's Me-163 project, and said, "There's an immature idea, since this rocket is more difficult to control, why not transform it into a layman?" Replacing machine guidance with manual might be more accurate, and I saw a project at Messerschmitt that was cut down, close to what you were studying. ”

Speer nodded, he also remembered the interesting rocket interceptor project.

"Carrying ...... Manned. Dornberg had not yet recovered from the shock just now, and his mind could not keep up with Hoffmann's train of thought at all, and after half a day, he stammered, "Of course manned...... Of course, the accuracy can be controlled, and the ...... Can...... We can't recruit qualified volunteers, and we ...... And...... This is not the same as an airplane, and the people will not be able to ...... after the successful explosion Isn't it ......?"

"Of course, we can't do this in the Third Reich, but some of them are good friends...... Hoffman grimaced at everyone, and gestured with his hands to look like a circle of legs, "These Oriental friends are very willing to go to the Americans and work hard, and say that they can achieve life as splendid as cherry blossoms...... I don't know what kind of religion this is, what a hell! But as an ally, I appreciate their generosity to death, as long as they are willing to trouble the Americans. A manned rocket, not to mention a warship, is good to spell out a tank. ”

"It depends on which of the two is cheaper." Speer said unceremoniously, "I don't know how much this rocket is like?"

"Cheaper than tanks, cheaper than tanks......" Dornberg finally came to life, and hurriedly said, "less than 10,000 marks, if the bomb is mass-produced and the wings are made of wood chips, the cost can be further reduced to less than 6,000 marks - not including the cost of development." ”

"What about manned?"

"Add another 1,000 marks at most."

"7000 marks?" Everyone was shocked, this price was far lower than they imagined, not to mention the tank, even the price of the cheapest armored car at the moment is much lower, at most the price of a 75mm anti-tank gun, Speer laughed, "15 rockets are worth a No. 4 tank, but I don't think a tank can withstand the attack of 15 manned rockets." ”

"Well, that's called a saturation attack." Hoffman laughed, "Guys, it's kind of exciting to imagine hundreds or thousands of manned rockets attacking U.S. warships and tanks......