V2 celebration to go ahead

Berlin (Reuter) - Germany said yesterday that it would go ahead with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Hitler's V2 rocket - but as a 'first step into space', not a glorification of a Nazi weapon.

Newspapers and politicians in Britain say the 'callous' event on 3 October is a serious threat to already strained Anglo-German relations. 'I know of no plans to abandon the ceremony,' said a Bonn government official. The V2, Hitler's 'wonder weapon', was supposed to win the Second World War. It killed thousands of British civilians, while 20,000 concentration camp inmates died making it.