Gaasterland became the launch site of the German V-2 rocket in the last months of 1944. The rockets were fired from the Rijsterbos at southern England and Antwerp.
Even before the Second World War, Germany experimented with rockets. The Air Force made the cheaper V1 which was fired from a fixed launcher. It was a flying bomb and an unreliable weapon; about 25% refused. The V2 was developed by the German army, a missile with a range of 450 kilometers. A few days after the Normandy landings in June 1944, the Germans began launching V-2s at London. The first launch took place on September 8, 1944 from The Hague
At the end of September 1944, the Germans decided to transfer one of their two V-2 launch batteries from Walcheren to Gaasterland. The Rijsterbos with its old trees would provide ideal cover for Battery 444. Between September 25 and October 20, more than 75 rockets were fired. The first 39 were fired towards southern England and the rest towards Antwerp. Three launches failed, one of the projectiles crashed into the forest, destroying the peace stamp. In 1945 the temple was rebuilt again.
In the trees on either side of the entrance, about 4 meters high, a wooden block can be seen, from which the camouflage nets were hung.
