ALMOST MISSED IT!

[Matthew P Wiener]

This is too bizarre.

We have:

>RE:  Brian Stonehill's message about a fiftieth anniversary of the day
>the first V-2 rocket launched by Germany fell on England.  It was, the
>histories (and GR, p. 26) remind us, precisely at 6:43 p.m. British
>double Summer time, September 8, 1944, that the first V-2 impacted
>at 13 Stavely Road, Chiswick.			[Steven Weisenburger]

and

>>[regarding V. in morse code is ..._ ._._._ while A is ._]

>Of course `A4' could also be read as `AAAA' thence `A.', a suitable
>follow-up to `V.' (the Angel and the up and down parabolic A dominate
>`Gravity's Rainbow' just as much as the Virgin and the down and up
>yoyoing V dominate `V.')			[Andrew Dinn]
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We all recall that it was *not* a V-2 that was launched that September
morning, but an A.4.  The developmental ballistic rockets were the A.x
series, A for "Aggregat".  And to be extra pedantic--can't hurt--the
first A.4 successfully launched by Germany was back on 3 October 1942,
landing somewhere in the Baltic.

Even ignoring testing, London was not the first target.  That September
morning, two A.4's were first launched against Paris.  One failed, one
struck.  Later, two A.4's were launched against London.  Afterwards,
Goebbels renamed the A.4 the Vergeltungswaffe 2 or V-2.  And for the
sake of completeness, the Feiseler Fi-103 cruise missile or "doodlebug"
was renamed the V-1 that day.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)