Secret HIDDEN Missile Base 😱 Operation Hydra

War history in 10 seconds: On the night of 17–18 August 1943, RAF Bomber Command launched Operation Hydra against the secret German weapons research centre at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast.

Hundreds of RAF bombers crossed into Germany under darkness to strike the laboratories, workshops and residential areas connected to the development of the V-2 ballistic missile. Pathfinder aircraft marked the target while waves of Lancaster, Halifax and Stirling bombers attacked through searchlights, anti-aircraft fire and German night-fighter resistance.

The raid damaged important buildings, disrupted testing and forced parts of the German rocket program to relocate. However, the attack also caused heavy civilian casualties, including foreign forced labourers being held near the facility.

Operation Hydra became one of the most important intelligence-led air raids of World War II. It revealed how seriously the Allies viewed Germany’s secret rocket program and formed part of the wider campaign to disrupt the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 missile threat.

A hidden research base. A new kind of weapon. One night that changed the race for the world’s first ballistic missile.

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