View source for Raxwerke

{{For|a list of [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] attacks on the area|Wiener Neustadt World War II bombings}}
[[File:WrNeustadt Serbenhalle.JPG|thumb|"Serbenhalle" (i.e. Serbian hall)]]
'''Raxwerke''' or '''Rax-Werke''' was a facility of the [[Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik]] at [[Wiener Neustadt]] in [[Lower Austria]]. During World War II, the company also produced lamps for [[Panzer]] tanks and [[anti-aircraft guns]].<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.geheimprojekte.at/t_raxwerk.html |title=Wiener Neustadt - Lokomotivfabrik und Raxwerk |language=de  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413184138/http://geheimprojekte.at/t_raxwerk.html |archive-date=2008-04-13 }}</ref>  Two Raxwerke plants employed several thousand [[forced labor]]ers from the [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Double Cross: The True Story of The D-Day Spies|last=Macintyre|first=Ben|publisher=A&C Black|year=2012|isbn=9781408821404|page=244}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ffg.at/sites/default/files/downloads/page/austriashistoryinspace1.pdf|title=Austria's History in Space|last=Besser|first=Bruno Philipp|date=January 2004|website=ffg.at}}</ref> (on 20 June 1943 Mauthausen delivered ~500 prisoners to the Rax-Werke).<ref name=Neufeld/>{{Rp|189}}
==Operations==
Part of the Eastern Works (V-2 facilities in the Vienna-Freidrichshafen area),<ref name=Irving>{{cite book |last=Irving |first=David |author-link=David Irving |title=The Mare's Nest |year=1964 |publisher=William Kimber and Co |location=London |pages=136, 144}}</ref> the 30 meter-high Serbs hall at the Raxwerke was selected for [[V-2]] manufacturing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geheimprojekte.at/t_raxwerk.html |title=Geheimprojekte.at - Wr.Neustadt |access-date=2008-06-05  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413184138/http://geheimprojekte.at/t_raxwerk.html |archive-date=2008-04-13 }}</ref>
A few V-2 center sections had been assembled by the Raxwerke when, on 2 November 1943, the US [[Fifteenth Air Force]] targeted the nearby [[List of military aircraft of Germany by manufacturer#WNF, Wiener Neustadter Flugzeugwerk|Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (WNF)]] plant in [[Operation Crossbow]] and hit the Raxwerke.<ref name=Ordway>{{cite book |last=Ordway |first= Frederick I III|author2=Sharpe, Mitchell R |title=The Rocket Team|series= Apogee Books Space Series 36|year= 1979|publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell|location=New York|pages=74,171}}</ref> Rax test equipment was subsequently moved to the site of the [[Redl-Zipf]] brewery in central Austria ([[code name]] [[Schlier]]) where V-2 test stands were built.<ref name=Neufeld>{{cite book |last=Neufeld|first=Michael J|title=The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780029228951|url-access=registration|year=1995|publisher=The Free Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780029228951/page/207 207]|isbn=9780029228951}}</ref>{{Specify|What test equipment, there is no information in this wikiarticle about test facilities.|date=May 2008}}
[[Werner Dahm]] was sent from [[Peenemünde Army Research Center]] in Germany to the Raxwerke for the construction of an engine test stand for the ''[[Wasserfall]]'' anti-aircraft missile (construction was never completed).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/peenintro.html |title=Peenemünde Interviews |access-date=2008-10-23  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031017021631/http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/peenintro.html |archive-date=2003-10-17 }}{{Verify source|Perhaps the interviewee was mistaken, for there wasn't apparently other rocket testing in the area-- non-Peenemünde rocket test facilities were at Prüffeld-Anlage Raderach (Friedrichshafen) and later Lehesten & Schlier (Redl-Zipf)|date=May 2009}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[V-2 rocket facilities of World War II]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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[[Category:German V-2 rocket facilities]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Lower Austria]]
[[Category:Operation Crossbow]]
[[Category:Economy of Lower Austria]]
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