Editing Test Stand VII (section)

==Allied reconnaissance and bombing==
On 15 May 1942 after photographing German destroyers berthed at the port of [[Kiel#History|Kiel]], [[Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire]] pilot Flight Lieutenant D. W. Stevenson photographed 'heavy construction work' near the Peenemünde aerodrome. Later in the month [[Constance Babington Smith]] decided ''the scale was too small ... then something unusual caught my eye ... some extraordinary circular embankments ... I then dismissed the whole thing from my mind.''<ref name=Irving/><ref name=Ordway>{{cite book |last=Ordway |first=Frederick I III |author2=Sharpe, Mitchell R |title=The Rocket Team |series=Apogee Books Space Series 36 |year=1979 |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell |location=New York |pages=98,114,295 }}</ref> Then a year later on 22 April 1943, Bill White and Ron Prescott in RAF [[de Havilland Mosquito]] DZ473 were sent from [[RAF Leuchars|Leuchars]] to photograph damage from Allied bombing at the [[History of Szczecin#In the Third Reich (1933-1945)|Stettin]] railyards: "On leaving Stettin, we left our cameras running all down the north coast of Germany, and when the film was developed, it was found to contain pictures of Peenemünde." The [[RAF Medmenham|Medmenham]] interpreters studied the elliptical earthworks (originally photographed in May 1942) and noticed an "object" {{convert|25|ft|m}} long projecting from what was thought to be a service building, although it had mysteriously disappeared on the next frame.<ref name=Bowman>{{cite book |last=Bowman |first=Martin W. |year=1999 |title=Mosquito Photo-Reconnaissance Units of World War 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gx85T-eYPdQC&pg=PA19 |publisher=Osprey Publishing, Limited |isbn=978-1-85532-891-4 |access-date=6 October 2008 |page=16 }}</ref>

On 22 April 1943 a large cloud of steam was photographed near the embankments, which was later identified as coming from a rocket engine being test fired.<ref name=Jones/>{{Rp|433}} [[Duncan Sandys]]' first photographic reconnaissance report on Peenemünde was circulated on 29 April 1943, which identified that the lack of power-station activity (Germany had installed electrostatic dust and smoke removers on the power station near [[Stavenhagen#Subdivisions|Kölpin]]) indicates that "''The circular and elliptical constructions are probably for the testing of explosives and projectiles. ... In view of the above, it is clear that a heavy long-range rocket is not an immediate threat.''" Then on 14 May, an "''unusually high level of activity''" was visible at "the Ellipse" on photos from two sorties on 14 May, which was the date the Reich Director of Manpower (Gauleiter [[Fritz Sauckel]]) was a distinguished visitor at a launch.<ref name=Irving/>
The first solid evidence of the existence of a rocket came with a sortie (N/853) on 12 June, when a [[Supermarine Spitfire operational history|Spitfire]] flown by Sqn Ldr Gordon Hughes photographed Peenemünde: one photograph included an object on a railway truck. [[Reginald Victor Jones]] identified the object on 18 June as "''a whitish cylinder about 35 feet long and 5 or so feet in diameter with a bluntish nose and fins at the other end...I had found the rocket.''"<ref name="Jones">
{{cite book |last=Jones |first=R.V |author-link=Reginald Victor Jones |title=Most Secret War:British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945 |publisher=Coronet Books (Hodder and Stoughton) |year=1979 |location=London UK |pages=433–435}}<br />

: {{note|2|Note 2}}: On 13 June, Dr Jones sent a note to Sandys and "''two or three days later an addendum was '''added the report by from''' Sandys' interpreter, saying that '''an object''' was visible on the photograph without any mention that anyone but himself had found it. This experience certainly confirmed my impression that my help was being avoided.''"{{Rp|435}}</ref>{{Rp|434}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cabell |first=Craig |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Operation_Big_Ben/pXNfDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Reginald+Victor+Jones+v2+rocket&pg=PT45&printsec=frontcover |title=Operation Big Ben: The Anti-V2 Spitfire Missions |date=2017-03-17 |publisher=Fonthill Media |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Longmate |first=Norman |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hitler_s_Rockets/KJUjBbIhSLIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22cylinder+about+35+feet+long+and+5+or+so+feet+in+diameter%22&pg=PA70&printsec=frontcover |title=Hitler's Rockets: The Story of the V-2s |date=2009-07-23 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing Inc. |isbn=978-1-60239-705-7 |language=en}}</ref>
After [[Operation Hydra (1943)|Operation Hydra]] bombed other areas of [[Peenemünde]] in 1943, the P-7 blockhouse roof was reinforced, and in a [[Bombing of Peenemünde in World War II#1944 Bombings|1944 raid]], the blockhouse occupants suffered one injury when a periscope fell.<ref name=Huzel/>{{Rp|105,115}} (Hermann Weidner's Test Stand 8 was lost in the 1944 July and August raids).<ref name=Ordway/>{{Rp|98}}

The last V-2 launch at Peenemünde was in February 1945, and on 5 May 1945, the [[2nd Belorussian Front]] under General [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]] captured the port of [[Świnoujście|Swinemünde]] and the [[Usedom]] island. Russian infantry under Major Anatole Vavilov stormed Peenemünde and found it "75 per cent wreckage" (the research buildings and test stands had been demolished.)<ref name=Ley>

{{cite book |last=Ley |first=Willy |author-link=Willy Ley |title=Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel |url=https://archive.org/details/rocketsmissiless0000leyw |url-access=registration |orig-date=1944 |year=1951 |edition=revised edition 1958 |publisher=The Viking Press |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/rocketsmissiless0000leyw/page/243 243] }}</ref> A former adjutant at Peenemünde, Oberstleutnant Richard Rumschöttel, and his wife were killed during the attack,<ref name=Ordway/> and Vavilov had orders to destroy the facility.<ref name=Ley/>
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|image1=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gx85T-eYPdQC&pg=PA19&sig=U121jgQ9ZHqXpIbCc0tMUhygrUE Bombing damage]
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