A historian of early computing understood why. Inside the rocket's nose cone was a sliver of primitive, hand-soldered circuitry—a **crystal radio receiver**, tuned to a single, defunct longwave frequency.
When launched, the spring's vibration generated enough micro-current to power the circuit for a split second. If near an AM radio, that frequency would briefly broadcast a looped, two-second message: a child's voice, faint and clear, reciting numbers in German.
It was a final, desperate act of defiance. A forced laborer at the Peenemünde factory had hidden this tiny "voice in the rocket," hoping a launched toy might one day, somewhere, whisper the secret coordinates of the underground assembly plant into the air.
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