How to Fire a V-2 Missile
I am grateful to someone named John, who posted interesting news to sci.space.history. Good old archive.org has dredged up a scan of A4 Fibel, the A-4 (V-2) missile operating manual, decorated with cartoons and poems to keep the German Army rocketeers entertained.
The A-4 is better known as the V-2. Over 3000 were fired during World War II, delivering a 1-ton warhead to targets over 300 kilometers away from the launch site. It represented a huge advance in rocket technology; postwar long range missiles and space rockets evolved from the A-4's design.
The manual is a curious artifact. Drawings of the A-4 and its launch equipment are mingled with cartoons featuring German soldiers and their sexy girlfriends. The unsubtle metaphor is that you should treat the missile with the care and attention you would give your favorite woman.
I imagine this is a common theme in military manuals. Though I am not familiar with much of the literature, it put me in mind of my first encounter with DA Pam 750-30, The M16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventive Maintenance , which was illustrated by the great comics artist Will Eisner. (Eisner's drawings were MUCH better; though it must be conceded that the 1969 US Army also used better-quality reproduction than the 1944 Wehrmacht.)
The back cover features a poem exhorting the A-4 crewman to "Hold Your Tongue!" and keep quiet about the information he has learned. Interestingly, it also contains an apology, reminding the reader that, although it has been presented with jokes and cartoons, this is a serious subject.
Halt Deinen Mund!
Hast Du die Fibel mit Verstand gelesen
und bist dabei recht aufmerksam gewesen,
so denke stets daran, mein lieber Leser,
der hier gebot'ne Stoff ist ein gefährlich böser!
Ein einzig Wort in froher Tafelrunde
und aus ist's mit der Ruh' seit dieser Stunde!
Dich flieht der Schlaf, und rub'los denkst Du nachts im Bette
wenn ich Kamel doch nur geschwiegen hütte!
Siehst Du, so ist die Sache nicht etwa gedacht,
deswegen haben wir die Fibel nicht gemacht,
wir wollten nur die Schwierigkeiten mildern
durch amüsanten Text mit vielen Bildern;
doch diese leichte Form, das musst Du stets beachten,
gibt Dir kein Recht, das Ganze witzig zu betrachten!
Vor allem dient der Inhalt ernsten Zwecken
und ist vor Freund und Feind gleich peinlich zu verstecken.
Kein Wort darüber, wenn Dich auch der Hafer sticht,
Dich schnappt man dann sofort, sobald der andre spricht!
Drum präg' Dir ein, ganz fest, zu jeder Stund'
Wer Dich auch immer fragt:
Halt Deinen Mund!!
(Here's Google's crude machine translation of the poem.)
I suppose there must be scholarship somewhere that considers the military training manual as literature. This was, at the time, by far the most complicated rocket ever built, and hundreds or thousands of soldiers were trained in transporting, preparing, fueling, and firing it. That's a tall order for the author of the manual.
The A-4 is better known as the V-2. Over 3000 were fired during World War II, delivering a 1-ton warhead to targets over 300 kilometers away from the launch site. It represented a huge advance in rocket technology; postwar long range missiles and space rockets evolved from the A-4's design.
The manual is a curious artifact. Drawings of the A-4 and its launch equipment are mingled with cartoons featuring German soldiers and their sexy girlfriends. The unsubtle metaphor is that you should treat the missile with the care and attention you would give your favorite woman.
I imagine this is a common theme in military manuals. Though I am not familiar with much of the literature, it put me in mind of my first encounter with DA Pam 750-30, The M16A1 Rifle: Operation and Preventive Maintenance , which was illustrated by the great comics artist Will Eisner. (Eisner's drawings were MUCH better; though it must be conceded that the 1969 US Army also used better-quality reproduction than the 1944 Wehrmacht.)
The back cover features a poem exhorting the A-4 crewman to "Hold Your Tongue!" and keep quiet about the information he has learned. Interestingly, it also contains an apology, reminding the reader that, although it has been presented with jokes and cartoons, this is a serious subject.
Halt Deinen Mund!
Hast Du die Fibel mit Verstand gelesen
und bist dabei recht aufmerksam gewesen,
so denke stets daran, mein lieber Leser,
der hier gebot'ne Stoff ist ein gefährlich böser!
Ein einzig Wort in froher Tafelrunde
und aus ist's mit der Ruh' seit dieser Stunde!
Dich flieht der Schlaf, und rub'los denkst Du nachts im Bette
wenn ich Kamel doch nur geschwiegen hütte!
Siehst Du, so ist die Sache nicht etwa gedacht,
deswegen haben wir die Fibel nicht gemacht,
wir wollten nur die Schwierigkeiten mildern
durch amüsanten Text mit vielen Bildern;
doch diese leichte Form, das musst Du stets beachten,
gibt Dir kein Recht, das Ganze witzig zu betrachten!
Vor allem dient der Inhalt ernsten Zwecken
und ist vor Freund und Feind gleich peinlich zu verstecken.
Kein Wort darüber, wenn Dich auch der Hafer sticht,
Dich schnappt man dann sofort, sobald der andre spricht!
Drum präg' Dir ein, ganz fest, zu jeder Stund'
Wer Dich auch immer fragt:
Halt Deinen Mund!!
(Here's Google's crude machine translation of the poem.)
I suppose there must be scholarship somewhere that considers the military training manual as literature. This was, at the time, by far the most complicated rocket ever built, and hundreds or thousands of soldiers were trained in transporting, preparing, fueling, and firing it. That's a tall order for the author of the manual.