Raxwerke

Raxwerke or Rax-Werke was a facility of the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik at Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria. During World War II, the company also produced lamps for Panzer tanks and anti-aircraft guns.[1] Two Raxwerke plants employed several thousand forced laborers from the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp[2][3] (on 20 June 1943 Mauthausen delivered ~500 prisoners to the Rax-Werke).[4]:189

For a list of Allied attacks on the area, see Wiener Neustadt World War II bombings.
"Serbenhalle" (i.e. Serbian hall)

Operations

Part of the Eastern Works (V-2 facilities in the Vienna-Freidrichshafen area),[5] the 30 meter-high Serbs hall at the Raxwerke was selected for V-2 manufacturing.[6]

A few V-2 center sections had been assembled by the Raxwerke when, on 2 November 1943, the US Fifteenth Air Force targeted the nearby Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (WNF) plant in Operation Crossbow and hit the Raxwerke.[7] Rax test equipment was subsequently moved to the site of the Redl-Zipf brewery in central Austria (code name Schlier) where V-2 test stands were built.[4]

Werner Dahm was sent from Peenemünde Army Research Center in Germany to the Raxwerke for the construction of an engine test stand for the Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile (construction was never completed).[8]

See also

References
  1. Wiener Neustadt - Lokomotivfabrik und Raxwerk (in German), archived from the original on 2008-04-13
  2. Macintyre, Ben (2012). Double Cross: The True Story of The D-Day Spies. A&C Black. p. 244. ISBN 9781408821404.
  3. Besser, Bruno Philipp (January 2004). "Austria's History in Space" (PDF). ffg.at.
  4. Neufeld, Michael J (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. p. 207.
  5. Irving, David (1964). The Mare's Nest. London: William Kimber and Co. pp. 136, 144.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-04-13. Retrieved 2008-06-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R (1979). The Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series 36. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. pp. 74, 171.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2003-10-17. Retrieved 2008-10-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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