History of Military Rockets

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            It is believed that in the 11^th century that the Chinese were the first to use rockets in their military. They would strap rockets to their arrows to increase the range. The Chinese had used the “fire arrows” to drive back the Mongols several times. Finally, the rocket was introduced to the European world in about the 13^th century. During the Renaissance, every army had a rocket corps. However, the rocket was not always popular and has always had its difficulties. Sometimes it would return into popularity, but never for long.  

            During the War of 1812, an Englishman named William Congreve worked to help improve the range of the rocket. He later had improved the range of his rocket by more than 3,000 yards. The English used “Congreve Rockets” in the bombardment of Fort McHenry. In addition, an American named William Hale did very much to improve the range of the rocket. He also worked on the accuracy of the rocket by spin stabilization.  

                       During the First World War, rockets were fired at hydrogen-gas filled balloons, which were used as observation posts of the battlefield. However, many of the pilots refused to fire the rockets because they had outer cloth coverings and were very flammable. Successes in firing rockets at their targets were rare.  

            During the Second World War, Nazi Germany had produced many small, prototype rockets, the most famous of them the Vengeance Weapon #2 (V-2). This was the first long-range ballistic missile. The German scientist Wernher von Braun is credited with the design of the V-2. Between 1937 and 1941, von Braun’s group of engineers and scientists had launched 70 A3 and A5 rockets for testing purposes that would later launch the V-2 at London, England. However, the V-2 came into the war too late to affect the outcome of the war. As World War II ended, von Braun led his engineers and scientists into allied lines to resist being put to death by the Nazis to prevent their capture by the allies. After WWII, von Braun had traveled to White Sands, New Mexico, von Braun had shared with the United States the rocket designs of Germany and now started to help the United States in building more advanced military rockets.