We were fresh from wandering the Peenemunde Museum, minds filled with thoughts of buzz bombs and the first practical rockets. One of our party had fallen victim to what I swear is weaponized poison ivy, but was feeling better by this point. I had a second target in mind now. One not quite as public.
We parked the car and walked in. Almost immediately we became concerned that this would be short-lived. Large iron gates, and coils of razor wire did nothing to make one feel welcome upon arrival, and we considered that we might have to take a miss on this. That's when I noticed a path...
As new "revenge" weapons were being designed, built and tested just a short distance north, it became apparent that manpower would be needed. Not just here and now, but as these new and amazing devices were deployed to forward bases. People would need to learn how they work and be able to train others to use them. This was the idea behind Versuchscommando Nord.
They gathered personnel up from across the military who had any applicable knowledge or skills that would be an asset to the project. These people would be brought here to participate in the construction, and then to back out into the ranks to train others.
We could hear sounds from the far corner of the property that suggested that other people might be present. I had no idea who they might be, so I felt it prudent to be as quiet as we could as we began looking through some of the decaying and collapsing outer buildings.
We were being so quiet, in fact, that to our great mutual surprise, we rounded a large bush in front of one of the H-shaped barracks buildings to come almost face to face with an equally shocked deer. As she was boxed in, we decided it was prudent to back up and give her an avenue of escape, which she hastily accepted. Stealth ability, level up.
Over the course of its existence, these barracks would be occupied first by the Wehrmacht soldiers supporting Peenemunde, then by the Soviet army, later by the East German army, and finally, for a brief period, by the Bundeswehr before finally shutting down sometime in the 1990's.
For our own part, we didn't get to see everything that was here, as the voices continued nearby as we explored, and we decided that it was time to move on with our day. But this presented another small piece of the historic puzzle we were piecing together.
