 Between May and September 1946, France's Centre for the Study of Self-Propelled Missiles (CEPA) recruited around thirty German engineers who had previously worked on the rocket programmes of Nazi Germany at the Peenemünde Army Research Center.Like its counterparts in the United Kingdom, United States and Soviet Union, CEPA aimed to obtain and further develop the rocket technology devised by Germany during the Second World War.The engineers were settled in Vernon, halfway between Paris and Rouen.