Test Stand VII

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Test Stand VII

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Test Stand VII, Military launch pad ruins in Peenemünde, Germany

Test Stand VII is a rocket launch facility in Peenemünde on the German Baltic coast with preserved concrete structures from the 1940s. The remains include a wide trench, a flame chamber, and a sand wall that extend over several hundred meters along the shoreline.

The facility was built in 1938 as part of the Army Research Center and served for testing rocket motors. On October 3, 1942, the first successful V-2 rocket launched from here, marking a turning point in rocket technology.

The site holds significance as a place where rocket development shaped modern technology and changed how people understood space travel. Walking through it today, visitors can sense how intensive engineering work transformed this Baltic location into a center of innovation.

Access to the remains is via an old concrete road leading to the site. Visitors should be cautious when walking on the deteriorating structures since the ground is marshy and some parts may be unstable.

The facility features a specialized flame deflection system made of molybdenum-steel pipes designed to withstand extreme temperatures during rocket testing. This technical detail shows just how sophisticated early testing installations had to be.

Location: Peenemünde

Inception: 1938

Part of: Peenemünde Army Research Center

GPS coordinates: 54.16833,13.80083

Latest update: December 7, 2025 20:48

Photos
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Photo author: No. 540 Squadron RAF Flight Sergeant E. P. H. Peek in a de Havilland Mosquito PR4[7] returned to Leuchars airfield on June 23, 1943 with Peenemünde photos showing a pair of low-loader vehicles[8] holding a pair of rockets.[2][7] Chronology The first RAF photo on April 22, 1943 of a 1 1/2 mm "object" -- A-4 model 21 within Test Stand VII -- was not initially identified as a rocket.[2] After reviewing Peek's June 23 photo, Flight Lieutenant Andre' J. A. Kenny changed the designation of the 1 1/2 -mm-long-specks from 'objects' to 'torpedoes'.[2] Then more than a year after the initial rocket photos (even after Operation Hydra had bombed Peenemünde on August 17/18, 1943 based on other intelligence), a May 5, 1944 photo of Blizna by the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) at a new base at San Severo Italy showed a rocket on a narrow-gauge railway line,[2] but the Crossbow committee put the photographs aside.[6] Finally, after the report of the Bug river wreckage, Reginald Victor Jones methodically examined the photographs of Blizna through the night of June 2/3, 1944 and found a faint white line image of the rocket on a loop of the narrow-gauge railway.[6] Kenny subsequently called back earlier Peenemünde photographs and identified several finned 'objects': on railway trucks, outside tall upright buildings, and on the traverser carriage serving the ellipse; as well as evidence of a heavy and violent explosion with blast damages to buildings at the 'launching pad'.[2]
Photo license: Public domain
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« Test Stand VII - Military launch pad ruins in Peenemünde, Germany » is provided by Around Us (aroundus.com). Images and texts are derived from Wikimedia project under a Creative Commons license. You are allowed to copy, distribute, and modify copies of this page, under the conditions set by the license, as long as this note is clearly visible.

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