V for Vergeltungswaffe

Two weeks prior, the German air force (Luftwaffe) had lost its air superiority when they launched a substantial air attack on Allied air bases in the south of the Netherlands. However, on New Year's Day, a special SS unit had fired a newly developed weapon, the V2 rocket, on Antwerp from Hessum (municipality of Dalfsen). More recently, two to three rockets a day had been coming down in Antwerp; the German forces were using them to try to stop the supply of Allied goods and men. This supersonic weapon was unstoppable for the Allies, so it had to be fought by other means. 

The vulnerability of the Vergeltungswaffe 2 rocket (V2) was logistical in nature: the 14 metre rockets were made in an underground factory at a concentration camp near Nordhausen (Thüringen), Germany, by thousands of forced labourers. They were then sent via rail to various locations in the Netherlands. 

In the western Netherlands, several missiles had been launched from the woods in The Hague, bound for London. Transports had also arrived in the eastern Netherlands, at Nijverdal railway station. Some V2s, launched from the woods near the Hellendoorn Sanatorium, managed to hit the Allied port of Antwerp. The German rocket unit then moved to Hessum, where they stayed until the end of December, as the risk of discovery had become too great. 

Since 1 January, 9 tonnes (!) of fuel per rocket had been delivered by road. The V2 arrived on a low-loader from another direction, the other side of the village of Hessum. Located in a hidden spot in the woods near Archem House, the Werver-Batterie 500 technical service first made sure the V2 could find its target, then carefully applied the missile's warhead - which contained all the explosives. 

On Sunday 14 January, after the eight Hawker Typhoons had set off from Eindhoven airbase, they fired a salvo (simultaneous discharge of artillery or other guns) on the barracks of Camp Erika near Ommen, and then strafed (fired from low flying aircraft) the bridge between Archem and Hessum. Côté was the only one hit by German anti-aircraft fire, and while the rest flew on, he made a successful belly landing on the snowy field next to the Langsweg. 

Côté was able to take shelter in a nearby haystack, and the Resistance from Dalfsen helped him to get further south. Like other pilots, he tried to cross the Rhine into liberated territory, but failed. Shortly afterwards, on 30 March he experienced his liberation in Zelhem, together with the survivors of a Lancaster aircraft that crashed in Dalfsen at the end of September.

Text Hugo van den Ende 
Research Stefan Hendriks