A walk with history in the background - "Blizna Historic Park"

Today I would like to tell you about the place called "Blizna"

In the village of Blizna there is a Historical Park - V2 rocket museum.

To start with - history of events related to this place.

Blizna is a village located in the triangle between Dębica, Rzeszów and Mielec, in the Podkarpackie province. This village lies in the middle of the forest, far from the neighboring towns. And this location was of strategic importance during the Second World War.

From the beginning of the war, the Germans worked on weapons that could murder people on a massive scale. One of these weapons were powerful rockets with explosives.
I think everyone has heard the names V1 and V2.

The Germans had their rocket testing ground on the island of Usedom in Germany. In August 1943, the Allies bombed this training ground, so the command of the armed forces of the Third Reich decided to move the training ground out of reach of Allied air force.

The choice fell on the village of Blizna, due to the secluded location of this place.

The village was displaced. In a short time a new concrete road was laid, electricity was drawn, new buildings were erected, and Blizna with the neighboring willages was connected by a narrow-gauge railway. Shelters, warehouses and rocket launchers were built, which were well camouflaged. Imitations of rural buildings made of plywood were also put up to confuse Allied espionage planes.

From August 1943 to August 1944, V1 bombs and V2 rockets were tested at the training ground in Blizna. They were to outweigh the victory in favor of Germany. The first attempts were unsuccessful, but in total about 200 V2 rockets were fired and Germany achieved their goal. In September 1944, the first V2 rockets fell on London.
The rocket fire lasted until March 1945. Hundreds of V2 rockets were launched towards London - weapons that reached speeds of up to 5,000 km /h.

Finally, it is worth adding that - despite great precautions on the part of the German army - the Polish resistance managed to intercept one of the V2 missile. The Poles dismantled it into small parts and delivered it to Great Britain so that the Allies could examine Hitler's modern weapon.

In the Blizna historical park there is a model of the V2 rocket on a 1 to 1 scale.

The size of this rocket makes a huge impression on everyone. This is the main attraction and focal point of the historical park.

There are also other interesting exhibits.

We can see a model of the V1 flying bomb.

Nearby there is an inactive AN-2 multi-purpose aircraft, whose interior can be freely entered - but the queue was so long that I gave up. Earlier I was in Blizna about 5 years ago, so someday I will post pictures from that visit, incl. from inside AN–2.

Walking around the park, we can see many interesting exhibits, such as disarmed aerial bombs, or elements of the Soviet missile launcher "Katyusha", which were found at the Blizna test place. You can see that the Germans were looking for technological solutions wherever they could.

There are also several buildings in the park, inside of which we can find an exhibition with many small exhibits from the Second World War.

I strongly encourage you to visit this place.

my post on sprtshub.io

Disclosure: Posts on TravelFeed may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure.