Contrails in the 1940s "Die Deutsche Wochenschau" Newsreel

[Mick West]

Die Deutsche Wochenschau is a German newsreel that ran from 1940 to the end of WWII. There's quite a lot of it online, and I suspect there might be a few interesting contrails in it.


That video contains what looks like a rocket contrail at around 9:30 onwards. Maybe a V2?


Edit, yup.


"Nearly 2" is possibly Google's translation of (something) Zwei.

 

[Miss VocalCord]

"Nearly 2" is possibly Google's translation of (something) Zwei.

Although my German isn't either that good I think it simply says "V 2" , the pronunciation of 'v' is something like "fau" , don't know why google translated it to 'nearly'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_v_in_German

(I think it is slightly earlier around 8:50 )

Nice catch!

 

[Mick West]

Interesting the V2's fuel had a lot of water in it , and would have created even more from burning the ethanol (C2H6O).

The A-4 [V2] used a 75% ethanol/water mixture for fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) for oxidizer.

The combustion burner reached a temperature of 2500–2700 °C (4500 – 4900 °F). The alcohol-water fuel was pumped along the double wall of the main combustion burner. This regenerative cooling heated the fuel and cooled the combustion chamber. The fuel was then pumped into the main burner chamber through 1,224 nozzles, which assured the correct mixture of alcohol and oxygen at all times. Small holes also permitted some alcohol to escape directly into the combustion chamber, forming a cooled boundary layer that further protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the throat where the chamber was narrowest. The boundary layer alcohol ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse exhaust plume. By contrast, later, post-V-2 engine designs not employing this alcohol boundary layer cooling show a translucent plume with shock diamonds.

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Running on very strong vodka, basically.

 

[Sausalito]

Ah, lovely. Speaking of the V2, anyone here read/enjoy Gravity's Rainbow? Delightful stew of paranoia and hijinx. Some of the topics covered on this forum remind me of the muddled goings-on in Pynchon's chef d'oeuvre.

 

[FreiZeitGeist]

Die Deutsche Wochenschau is a German newsreel that ran from 1940 to the end of WWII. There's quite a lot of it online, and I suspect there might be a few interesting contrails in it.

Well, you won´t find much about great allied fleets over Germany in this newsreel, they showed allied aircrafts only if they where shooted down. An examlpe:

That video contains what looks like a rocket contrail at around 9:30 onwards. Maybe a V2?

I´ve made a transcript of this part

Wir bringen die ersten Aufnahmen von V-2 auf ihren Flug nach England. Sie wurden aus Gründen der Geheimhaltung aus größerer Entfernung gemacht und geben nur einen schwachen Begriff vom wirklichen Größenverhältnis der V-2. In rasender Geschwindigkeit steigt der blanke Stahlleib in die Stratosphäre (pathetic Music from Wagner) Die Zeichen die V-2 in den Himmel schreibt sind dem Auge noch sichtbar, wenn das Fern-(Video ends here)

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Modified Google translation:

We get the first shots of V-2 on their flight to England. They were made from a distance for reasons of confidentiality and give only a faint idea of the real size ratio of the V-2. At breakneck speed, the bare steel body rises into the stratosphere (pathetic Music from Wagner) The signs wich are written into the sky by the V-2 are still visible with the eye when the distance(break)

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[JFDee]

Just for completeness' sake ...

The untruncated video is here:
http://archive.org/details/1945-01-18-Die-Deutsche-Wochenschau-Nr.749

The last bits of the comment in German:

Die Zeichen, die V-2 in den Himmel schreibt, sind dem Auge noch sichtbar, wenn das Ferngeschoss sein Ziel erreicht hat.

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Translation:

The signs that V-2 is writing into the sky are still visible even when the long-distance projectile has reached its target.

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A rocket is clearly not a projectile. It seems that the comment writer has preferred sound over accuracy in his choice of wording. "Rakete" was possibly not warlike enough ...

The overall flight time of a V2 aimed at London is given by the Internet sources below (in German) as ranging between 5 and 6 minutes.

http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/wk2/kriegsverlauf/wunderwaffen/
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregat_4