Vee IV.

This is coolbert:

Conclusion.

Again from a comment to the blog by Steiner that cost of the entire "Vee" program NOT greater than the American Manhattan [atomic bomb] project:

"First of all, the wartime Reichsmark was not a convertible currency, it was for internal accounting only and worthless outside of Germany, therefore cost comparisons between national currencies using nominal expenditure are meaningless. When the Reich needed to buy raw materials, for example, from neutral countries, the payment was in gold and only gold."

That the German "Vee" program cost greater than $2 billion U.S. dollars [1945] as stated in the wiki highly questionable. Even far too excessive. Such calculations and assertions hardly unique, even von Braun way too optimistic in his calculation, the cost of one V-2 even in the mass assembly stage way too low!

* "Dr. von Braun’s comparison was unduly optimistic. Actual costs in mass productionof the flying bomb [V-1] and rocket [V-2] were closer to 1,500 Reichsmarks (£125) and 75,000 Reichsmarks (£6,300) apiece respectively."

From the Mare's Nest by David Irving.

"A Brief Summary of Evidence on Comparative Costs of Rockets and Flying Bombs"

All figures here in English pounds!

"There is an unbridgeable gap between the various estimates for the production costs of the two main German secret weapons, but one detail emerges in the clearest possible fashion: for attacking large targets at medium range, the unsophisticated flying bomb was unrivalled for simplicity,economy and efficiency. By 18th March 1945 'Central Works Ltd.,' the Nordhausen rocket factory, had invoiced the German War Office for 5,789 A4 (V-2) rockets produced up to that date, at an average price of about £6,320 each in 1945 money. To this would have to be added the cost of the warhead, raw materials, fuels and control equipment, which the British Ministry of Aircraft Production put at £350; and the rocket’s share in the cost of Peenemünde, built since 1936 at a cost variously estimated between £24,000,000 and £40,000,000. No A4 rocket could thus have cost much less than £12,000 by the time it was delivered to the launching troops . . . The Royal Aircraft Establishment put the flying bomb’s cost, on the other hand, at £115 if built in a British factory, which compares well with the average price paid to the Volkswagen firm for V-1 production at Fallersleben, about £125."

1945 British Pound Sterling = 3,014 US Dollar
1945 GBP = 3,014 USD

That cost merely alone for the mass production assembly style 6,000 V-2 about $100 million U.S. dollars as of 1945.

The total calculation for the "Vee" program including all manufactured V-1 AND the Peenemunde development, research and experimental launch site. Still, far less than costs of the Manhattan Project!

The Reichsmark as Steiner has said not convertible BUT that cost of the V-2 for instance calculated by the British Air Ministry, THEIR scientists and engineers estimating that to build such a missile in terms of English pounds requiring in terms of labor and material equal to such an amount. Roughly correct I might assume.

coolbert.