We had another packed day of sight seeing in France today, and the first place we visited was 'The Coupole' - a German Rocket launching site from World War 2. Putting politics, etc, aside, it was an exceedingly interesting place to visit.
I found the site to be beyond fascinating. Its consists of a bomb-proof bunker, with a huge concrete domed structure (on the right in the pic above) covering a huge complex of tunnels inside the hill you can see. It was then turned into a visitor centre in the 1990s, which is the buildings you can see on the left.
The site was used to launch V1 "doodlebug" and V2/A4 rockets against England. Above is a V1 test rocket. Can you imagine being the test pilot in a test rocket bomb ?! Brave is probably a mild word for that !
The pics are not doing this justice. When you see that concrete dome sticking out the side of the hill for the first time, its quite impressive. And below it are a huge complex of tunnels. And it was all built within 10 months.
It was designed to be bomb proof (and did its job), in order to protect the rockets from the Bombers of the RAF (the Royal Air Force of the UK). It was designed to hold 500 rockets (!) - which were manufactured elsewhere.
The bombs were transported there by train, and then launched against England, and London in particular.
Above is a section of the launching track for he V1 rockets. The rocket engine only started to work at a certain speed (like 350mph or something) and the track was used to get them to that speed, so that their own motor could then kick in and take over for flight. No other country had any technology like this at the time in the world, and it really was the start of rocket age, which we are all familiar with today.
You enter the main museum through the original tunnel entrance you can see in the pic above. The dome sits 3 floors higher up in the hill side (and these are tall floors !).
The main tunnel is huge and long, with lots of storage rooms of to each side - all of which are pretty large, and now hold various information displays about the site and world war 1 and 2.
The pic above shows one of the rooms with some of the original equipment that was used during the construction of the site.
The tour takes you through the tunnels in the lower floor, and then into a lift which takes you to the top of the dome. When you step out of the lift you are greeted with the sight above, and its quite amazing. This is right underneath the dome. The tailfin you can see to the right is from one of the larger V2/A4 rockets - quite incredible.
Thats most of the V2/A4 above - I could not get it all in shot. It was quite incredible to see - an amazing piece of technology considering the timescale, and the first true rocket, in respect of todays rocket technology.
The domed area is deceptively large and housed loads of displays about the war and of course the rockets.
The displays also dealt with the horror and realities of world war 2, which were pretty horrendous, however, I think it is necessary to speak out about this aloud, as its important not to forget, and hopefully learn from our mistakes.
Above is one of the rocket engines from a V2/A4.
There was also a lot of information about modern space technology, and particularly France's involvement in space, noting that all modern space technology is essentially derived from the German rocket programme.
There was even a replica of a US Apollo lunar lander in the car park ! If space is your thing, then this was a pretty awesome museum and site to visit.
It was an amazing site to visit, and it was quite incredible to imagine who and what have been inside this complex of tunnels. The British closed the tunnels of after they captured it so that it could not be used again to direct rockets on England. It remained sealed of until the 1990s, when it was then opened up as a visitor centre.
I have to say that I found the entire site fascinating. It was a complete experience to see inside such a facility, and I think turning it into a museum that tells the whole story was the correct thing to do. It also had a planetarium and a nice cafe (which sold beer - who said rockets and beer dont mix).
It really was an awesome place to visit, and a place I wont forget about in a long time.
