ALMOST MISSED IT!

[Andrew Dinn]

Matthew P Wiener writes:

> 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]
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.

Now that is an interesting potential anachronism because the first
mention of A4 in `Gravity's Rainbow' occurs right before the banana
breakfast scene after Pirate comes down from the roof and Bloat asks
him if he has seen the `V2". Pirate immediately corrects him with
`A4'. From then onwards the missile is never referred to as a V2 as
far as I have been able to ascertain (hence my comment that it is a
not V which domainates). When did Goebbels renamed the A4 `V2'? What
was the date of the opening scene?

I suspect Pynchon wanted to get that correction in as soon as
possible, and not just to establish nomenclature.


Andrew Dinn
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there is no map / and a compass / wouldn't help at all