V-weapons in the context of "Cruise missile"

The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 2'), with the development name Aggregat-4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings of German cities. The V2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line (edge of space) with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun were noticed by the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A4, which went to war as the V2. Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 V2s were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while a further 12,000 laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons.

The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 1') was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and Maikäfer (maybug).

The V-1 was the first of the Vergeltungswaffen (V-weapons) deployed for the terror bombing of London. It was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center in 1942 by the Luftwaffe, and during initial development was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". Due to its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts or by modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft.

50°51′15″N 1°45′30″E / 50.85417°N 1.75833°E / 50.85417; 1.75833

The V-3 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 3, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 3') was a German World War II large-caliber gun working on the multi-charge principle whereby secondary propellant charges are fired to add velocity to a projectile. Two full-size guns were built in the underground Fortress of Mimoyecques in northern France and permanently aimed at London, but they were rendered unusable by Allied bombing raids before completion. Two smaller guns were used to bombard Luxembourg from December 1944 to February 1945.

Wunderwaffe (German pronunciation: [ˈvʊndɐˌvafə]) is a German word that literally translates to "wonder-weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by Nazi Germany's propaganda ministry to some revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which either never reached the combat theater, or if they did, were too late or in numbers insufficient to have a significant military effect. The V-weapons, which were developed earlier and saw considerable deployment, especially against London and Antwerp, trace back to the same pool of armament concepts. In the German language, the term Wunderwaffe now generally refers to a universal solution which solves all problems related to a particular issue, mostly used ironically for its illusionary nature.

As the war situation worsened for Germany from 1942, claims about the development of revolutionary new weapons which could turn the tide became an increasingly prominent part of the propaganda directed at Germans by their government. In reality, the advanced weapons under development generally required lengthy periods of design work and testing, and there was no realistic prospect of the German military being able to field them before the end of the war. When some advanced designs, such as the Panther tank and Type XXI submarine, were rushed into production, their performance proved disappointing to the German military and leadership due to inadequate pre-production testing or poorly planned construction processes. Historian Michael J. Neufeld has noted that "the net result of all these weapons, deployed or otherwise, was that the Reich wasted a lot of money and technical expertise (and killed a lot of forced and slave laborers) in developing and producing exotic devices that yielded little or no tactical and strategic advantage".