The Peenemünde Army Research Center (, HVP) was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (Heereswaffenamt). Several German guided missiles and rockets of World War II were developed by the HVP, including the V-2 rocket. The works were attacked by the British in Operation Crossbow from August 1943, before falling to the Soviets in May 1945. History On April 2, 1936, the aviation ministry paid 750,000 reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the whole Northern peninsula of the Baltic island of Usedom. By the middle of 1938, the Army facility had been separated from the Luftwaffe facility and was nearly complete, with personnel moved from Kummersdorf. The Army Research Center (Peenemünde Ost) consisted of Werk Ost and Werk Süd, while Werk West (Peenemünde West) was the Luftwaffe Test Site (), one of the four test and research facilities of the Luftwaffe, with its headquarters facility at Erprobungsstelle Rechlin. HVP organization Wernher von Braun was the HVP technical director (Dr. Walter Thiel was deputy director) and there were nine major departments: Technical Design Office (Walter J H "Papa" Riedel) Aeroballistics and Mathematics Laboratory (Dr. Hermann Steuding) Wind Tunnel (Dr. Rudolph Hermann) Materials Laboratory (Dr. Mäder) Flight, Guidance, and Telemetering Devices (German: BSM) (Dr. Ernst Steinhoff) Development and Fabrication Laboratory (Arthur Rudolph) Test Laboratory (Klaus Riedel) Future Projects Office (Ludwig Roth) Purchasing Office (Mr. Genthe) The Measurements Group (Gerhard Reisig) was part of the BSM, and additional departments included the Production Planning Directorate (Detmar Stahlknecht), the Personnel Office (Richard Sundermeyer), and the Drawings Change Service. Guided missile and rocket development Several German guided missiles and rockets of World War II were developed by the HVP, including the V-2 rocket (A-4) (see test launches), and the Wasserfall (35 Peenemünde trial firings), Schmetterling, Rheintochter, Taifun, and Enzian missiles. The HVP also performed preliminary design work on very-long-range missiles for use against the United States. That project was sometimes called "V-3" and its existence is well documented. The Peenemünde establishment also developed other technologies such as the first closed-circuit television system in the world, installed at Test Stand VII to track the launching rockets. According to Walter Dornberger, "Rockets worked under water." In the summer of 1942, led by Ernst Steinhoff, Pennemünde worked on sea launches, either from launching racks on the deck of a submerged submarine, or from towed floats. Dornberger summarized the launches