In response to the bombing raids that destroyed German cities, Hitler deployed two new weapons against English cities from 1944 to retaliate for this Allied “Air Terror”.

From June 1944 this retaliation was started with the V1 but in the end both the V1's and V2's would mostly end up serving a different purpose. With its port as a determining factor for the Western front in W.W.2, from October 1944, Antwerp would be the target of most shots fired.

However, the heaviest cost was paid by the forced laborers who made these weapons in appalling conditions, their approximately 20,000 deaths are more than people who died in impacts.

At the beginning of September, German firing positions in France systematically fell into Allied hands and there was no need to fear V'1s in England until March 1945. Although V2's soon followed, most of the latter were also fired at Antwerp.

Deemed absolutely vital for success by Eisenhower and equally deadly by Hitler, the port of Antwerp would be the focus of many large battles. The bloody "Battle for the Scheldt" to open it up and the "Battle of the Bulge" to stop Hitler taking it back are prime examples of this. This "Ardennes offensive" at the end of 1944 also aimed for the crucial Allied supply port, sacrificing the last German reserves in the West. About 5 weeks after its liberation a new threat came to Antwerp, the V2 and later also the V1 which had to destroy the port that would allow the Allies to deliver their superior numbers in troops and material at Germany's front door.