Bert and the V2

          I can't remember when this was but I just found the pictures and figured i'd use my blog. I originally started writing this stuff as a kind of diary for showing pictures that don't really fit anywhere else. This set rest very firmly in that camp.

   An old friend of mine, portrait photographer Chris Floyd, was working on a personal project. He'd been photographing the impact sites of the German V2 rocket. His grandparents had been killed by one of the last to be launched. They were real point and hope weapons, designed to demoralise as much as destroy. They were loaded with just the right amount of fuel to get them from their launch site to somewhere over london. They were then pointed in the right direction and launched. That is pretty much it. Once they ran out of fuel they would fall from the sky and destroy whatever they fell upon.

    Having photographed the impact impact sites the next logical step was to find out where they originated. After some detective work Chris managed to find a guy called Bert who was an expert on all things V2. It turned out that our particular weapon was launched from Den Haag in the Hook of Holland. This is a pleasant over night sail from Harwich and Chris had ask that I come along. I love a personal project so didn't hesitate. We were accompanied by documentary film maker Ian Denyer and Floyds long suffering assistant Andras Bartok.

Hook of Holland

     

       The photograph above is the port of the Hook of Holland. It is also the launch site of a German V2 rocket. According to Bert it was launched from just about the red train barrier. The train line wouldn't have been there at the time but the port certainly was. It was about 6am when I took this photograoph and absolutely freezing. This was the first of what would be four launch sites we were to encounter.

   Above is the large format film camera used for the photographs. Fitting in every way for a job which was about the past. The next image shows the camera in action. What would be one of the final photographs is clearly visible on it's screen. It is a park near Den Haag.

   The images don't look like much but I guess that's the point. There really is nothing there now to give you any clue about the dramatic events. Hard to imagine from this that a group of German soldiers were once here launching their weapons against London. 

    This is our first meeting with Bert. I thought he seemed quite sinister but it turned out he was just Dutch. At one point I dropped a few of the metal screws that secure the top of the tripod. " Aah! You are losing your ammunition" he said in a kind of Germanic twang. I liked him from this moment on.

   Ian Denyer and Chris Floyd. Like a true film camera guy Ian never, ever put his camera down. He'd disappear and then be spotted in some bushes, filming the locals. Quite disconcerting if he'd have ever been busted. He also had a habit of leaving little microphones lying around to pick up any secret conversations. Fortunately he was great and there was no need to worry that we'd been slagging him off on tape. I had a go of his kit and you could hear every breath from about a hundred metres. A cautionary lesson for the next time I find myself with a filmmaker. 
   This particular spot was a small park right in the centre of town where another rocket was launched.

   This was a kind of obvious shot that someone was bound to take. It's a funny photo which covers up a serious part of the day. This crossing led to the open ground where the actual rocket which killed Chis's Grandparents had been launched. We had finished shooting by now and we're on our way back to the port so spirits were high after a successful trip. I'm sure Chris had a few things on his mind but if he did he didn't say....

Chris, Andras, Me and Ian........