V2 hits Moscow!

Would it be possible for a V2 to hit moscow, and destroy red square, or something amongst those lines, if moscow got turned in to city ruins, what would be the result? Would anything of changed?
 
A V-2 does have anything near the range needed to reach Moscow, and it would take far more than the Nazis ever managed to build to leave Moscow in ruins.
 
It would make a big hole in Red Square and blow out the windows around it

In theory a mobile launcher could have worked on the Eastern front, but the problem is that at the period when they would have been in range, they didn't exist, and by the time they existed the Germans had been driven so far back they couldn't reach

I don't know how to get around that bit!

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
IIRC Moscow was a central transportation hub, and thus very important for Soviet logistics. If the Nazis were able to hit it with V2s consistently, it might cause some problems for the Red Army, though I doubt it would change the outcome.

It might have a large impact on Stalin and his paranoia, though, but I'm not sure how exactly he might react, or what would come of it.

- Kelenas
 

CalBear

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The V-2 had a max range of around 400 kilometers and carried a 2,000 pound warhead.

By the time the V-2 was operational the Germans had been pushed back into Poland.

Even if, by some miracle, the Luftwaffe manged to transport a missile into range and managed to hit Red Square (itself far from a sure bet given the CEP of the missile) with a single 2,000 pound bomb the effect would be insignificant.
 
It's one of the great ironies of WW2 that the Nazi's most advanced weapons system was also their most pointless one. As Calbear says the V-2 didn't have the range, accuracy or payload to be a decisive weapon, the attacks on London achieved little of military consequence. They would have been far better putting most of the V-2's development budget into more jet fighters for the Luftwaffe to counter the Allied bombing offensive.
 
It's one of the great ironies of WW2 that the Nazi's most advanced weapons system was also their most pointless one. As Calbear says the V-2 didn't have the range, accuracy or payload to be a decisive weapon, the attacks on London achieved little of military consequence. They would have been far better putting most of the V-2's development budget into more jet fighters for the Luftwaffe to counter the Allied bombing offensive.


agreed .. seconded.. exactly.. vunder veopons were PR boosters..

V2's were basically scuds.. one can look at Iraq for the effectiveness of such items. The only way they would have been effective is if they were loaded with chemical weapons.. and in that case germany gets beaten down even harder..

research is all fine and dandy .. but if it doesnt produce REAL EFFECTIVE weaponry then they are useless.. more planes.. more tanks.. more bombs.. would have helped.. however i will state for the record that Germany was gonna loose WW2 .. only possible way for victory would have been for the development of the Atomic bomb by Germany on a scale that could have been used.. IE 4-6 a month or so.. There is just no way for them to win that is realistic.

my god .. a V2 hit Moscow! what happened? a pigeon died! lets kill vile evil German swine for killing comrade pigeon!
 
The V-2 had a max range of around 400 kilometers and carried a 2,000 pound warhead.

By the time the V-2 was operational the Germans had been pushed back into Poland.

Even if, by some miracle, the Luftwaffe manged to transport a missile into range and managed to hit Red Square (itself far from a sure bet given the CEP of the missile) with a single 2,000 pound bomb the effect would be insignificant.

It might affect the parade though...:(
 
It's one of the great ironies of WW2 that the Nazi's most advanced weapons system was also their most pointless one. As Calbear says the V-2 didn't have the range, accuracy or payload to be a decisive weapon, the attacks on London achieved little of military consequence. They would have been far better putting most of the V-2's development budget into more jet fighters for the Luftwaffe to counter the Allied bombing offensive.

Until first the development of nuclear weapons (where the CEP hardly matters, at least for "soft" targets) or second the development of good inertial navigation systems (as we have today), rockets are indeed totally pointless in the strategic role. Even chemical and biological weapons don't really make the strategic rocket useful, since building effective delivery systems is quite difficult. Rockets are okay in the tactical role (like the Calliope or the Katayusha), but even there gun artillery is a strong contender until later.
 
no effect... the LW dropped bombs on Moscow in 1941, which besides killing a few civilians had the distinction of blowing out all the windows at the NKVD HQ and rocking Lenin's tomb with a near miss that made his left ear fall off:p
 
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