Operation Hydra

 

Operation Hydra 1943: The Night That Crippled Germany’s V-2 Rocket Program August 17, 1943. One mission changed the course of WW2. Most people know about D-Day and Stalingrad. Few know about Operation Hydra. Yet this one night of bombing may have saved thousands of lives in London. **What Was Operation Hydra?** Operation Hydra was a massive RAF bombing raid on Peenemünde, a secret German research base on the Baltic coast. Peenemünde was where Nazi Germany developed the V-1 "buzz bomb" and V-2 rocket. The V-2 was the world’s first long-range ballistic missile. If launched on schedule, it would have hit London months earlier and in far greater numbers. **The Raid** 596 RAF Lancaster and Halifax bombers took off under cover of darkness. Their target wasn’t a city. It was a lab. The plan was risky: bomb the