Stephen Hewitt

In April 1945 American forces seized the German V-2 engine test stands at the Lehesten slate quarry in Thuringia and restarted static firings of the captured motors on the existing benches. They measured thrust output, combustion stability, and overall reliability under controlled conditions. The tests also let ordnance teams document the hardware and procedures before the site passed into Soviet hands later that summer. From the Mittelwerk plant the United States shipped out components sufficient for about 100 complete rockets, later assembling and launching 67 of them at White Sands. Britain received the remaining parts after the American haul and assembled eight rockets for its own tests, while Soviet forces took what was left in their zone and assembled roughly 30 for launches at Kapustin Yar.