<Tr> <Th> Total </Th> <Th> 5200 </Th> </Tr> <P> Following Operation Crossbow bombing, initial plans for launching from the massive underground Watten and Wizernes bunkers or from fixed pads such as near the Château du Molay were dropped in favour of mobile launching . Eight main storage dumps were planned and four had been completed by July 1944 (the one at Mery - sur - Oise was begun in August 1943 and completed by February 1944). The missile could be launched practically anywhere, roads running through forests being a particular favourite . The system was so mobile and small that only one Meillerwagen was ever caught in action by Allied aircraft, during the Operation Bodenplatte attack on 1 January 1945 near Lochem by a USAAF 4th Fighter Group aircraft, although Raymond Baxter described flying over a site during a launch and his wingman firing at the missile without hitting it . </P> <P> It was estimated that a sustained rate of 350 V - 2s could be launched per week, with 100 per day at maximum effort, given sufficient supply of the rockets . </P> <P> After Hitler's 29 August 1944 declaration to begin V - 2 attacks as soon as possible, the offensive began on 8 September 1944 with a single launch at Paris, which caused modest damage near Porte d'Italie . Two more launches by the 485th followed, including one from The Hague against London on the same day at 6: 43 p.m.--the first landed at Staveley Road, Chiswick, killing 63 - year - old Mrs. Ada Harrison, 3 - year - old Rosemary Clarke, and Sapper Bernard Browning on leave from the Royal Engineers, and one that hit Epping with no casualties . Upon hearing the double - crack of the supersonic rocket (London's first ever), Duncan Sandys and Reginald Victor Jones looked up from different parts of the city and exclaimed "That was a rocket!", and a short while after the double - crack, the sky was filled with the sound of a heavy body rushing through the air . </P>

Where do some rockets get their oxygen from