Operation Backfire

The ballistic missile age dawned in September 1944, when Germany began its V-2 campaign against Great Britain and Western Europe. As the war in Europe drew to a close, and during its immediate aftermath, the Allied powers scrambled to acquire highly valued German technology. This included examples of the V-2 rockets themselves. While the United States was foremost in this, General Eisenhower permitted Britain to gather enough parts to assemble eight rockets.

Under the codename Operation Backfire, the British launched three of these rockets near Cuxhaven, which was within the British occupation zone in Germany. The tests, undertaken by experienced German staff, were well ahead of the Americans at their much-vaunted Army Launch Area No.1 at the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. These tests, and the work around them, also ensured that, in a little over twelve months, Britain had gone from being a victim of long-range guided missiles, to a wielder of this impressive new military technology.

This marked the start of Britain's programme to develop guided missiles. Operation Backfire reveals how swiftly the Cold War arms race emerged from the ashes of the previous conflict, how technology and international relations were intimately entwined, and how Great Britain was an active and enthusiastic participant in the very earliest days of the missile age.

As Operation Backfire also shows that the USSR was not Britain's only foreign adversary in its drive to build up a missile capacity after the Second World War, especially in the first year or so after that conflict. Instead, it found itself entangled in a fierce rivalry with its closest wartime ally, the US. Both countries sought to make use of German expertise to build up a domestic missile arsenal but the greater resources and newly minted superpower status of the US allowed them to essentially steamroll over their transatlantic allies.