"Big Ben" was the World War II code name for the British project to reconstruct and evaluate captured German missiles such as the V-2 rocket.[1] On 31 July 1944, after the UK agreed to exchange Supermarine Spitfires for the wreckage of a V-2 in Sweden during World War II, experts at Farnborough began an attempt to reconstruct the missile.[2]
In late July, 1944, Operation Most III the Polish resistance movement (Armia Krajowa) succeeded in capturing an intact V2 rocket near the Pustkow Testing Centre. It had been launched for a test flight, failed but did not explode and then retrieved still intact from the Bug River, and transferred secretly to London.[3]