Commonly known as a V-1 rocket, the missile was discovered by members of the Pasjonaci Historii Polonia Minor (History Enthusiasts of Lesser Poland) group following research into the desert’s WWII history.
After Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, German forces established a training ground for troops and equipment in the Lower Silesian desert.
It also became a weapons testing ground and in 1944 intelligence reports from Poland’s underground recorded it had been used as a test site for five-ton missiles. These, it turned out, were V-1 rockets also known as a ‘wunderwaffe’ (wonder weapon).
After digging into the history, one of the group’s members came across old film footage of the tests and began searching the area and its periphery for any traces of the weapon.
The group’s president Tomasz Kajdan told the Zwiadowca Historii (History Scout) website: “Our colleague Mateusz, with his insight and inquisitiveness, as befits a true enthusiast, delved into the topic.
“One day this resulted in an unusual find. Following the trail of V1 rockets, while walking in the area surrounding the desert, he came across a large object.
“After deeper analysis, it turned out to be the wreck of a rocket engine from the Wunderwaffe.”
Gaining the correct legal permissions to continue the search, the group soon came across more sensational discoveries when metal detectors began giving off “huge signals”.
Kajdan said: “At the beginning we had no idea what we were dealing with. We saw a huge pile of crushed metal.
“More and more elements were being uncovered and it turned out that we had the wreck of the entire V1 rocket, which was test dropped into the desert from an altitude of 2,000 m, most likely around March 1944.
“After a while, we had no doubts at all - each of us realized it. We found the wreck of an unarmed training "wunderwaffe"!
“Only then did it hit me and I realized the scale of the discovery.”
It is now thought that the local conservation and protector of monuments office will examine the find and decide upon its future.
