V-2 missile launch site, Blizna

V-2 missile launch site military base Blizna

Park Historyczny Blizna
Blizna V-2 Missile War Museum
Established	2011
Location	Blizna 68, 39–104 Ocieka, Ropczyce-Sędziszów, Poland
Coordinates	50°11′0″N 21°36′0″E / 50.18333°N 21.60000°E / 50.18333; 21.60000
Type	War museum
Owner	Gmina Ostrów
Website	Park Historyczny Blizna

The V-2 missile launch site, Blizna was the site of a World War II German V-2 missile firing range. Today there is a small museum located in the Park Historyczny Blizna (Historical Park) in Blizna, Poland. After the RAF strategic bombing of the V-2 rocket launch site in Peenemünde, Germany, in August 1943, some of the test and launch facilities were relocated to Blizna in November 1943. The first of 139 V-2 launches was carried out from the Blizna launch site on 5 November 1943.

After the air raid on Peenemünde on 17 August 1943, German strategic command decided to divide the work on the V-2 rocket among three independently operating centres. Assembly plants were transferred to underground factories that had been built in a massive hollow cave complex in the Harz mountains in Germany. The research, development, and design (codenamed "Project Cement") were handled by secret offices in Ebensee, near the banks of Lake Traunsee in Austria. The main rocket testing, training, and launch site was transferred to Blizna in southeast Poland, outside of the range of Allied bombers. An SS military base near Blizna was set up on 5 November 1943, from which 139 A4 (also known as V-2) rockets were launched for experimental purposes and for training. The site was operational until early July 1944. Test launches also continued at Peenemünde until 21 February 1945.

Before construction began in Blizna, there was nothing there but uncleared forest. The Nazis used slave labour from the nearby SS Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager concentration camp in Pustków to build new infrastructure, starting with concrete roads, then a narrow-gauge railway line linking to the station at Kochanówka village. They built barracks, bunkers, buildings and all the specialised equipment needed for the operation and firing of rockets. In addition, efforts were made to disguise the site as much as possible. They did this by building an artificial village; cottages and barns were made of plywood, lines were hung with clothes and bed-sheets, and imitation people and animals were created using gypsum plaster.