Austrian HYDRA Weapons Facility

The Austrian HYDRA Weapons Facility was one of HYDRA's main weapons production sites during World War II. Along with HYDRA weapons and vehicles, the factory produced parts for the Valkyrie. The factory was destroyed when Captain America infiltrated the facility.

History
Located in Austria, halfway between and  in a wooded area, the facility resembled a massive fortress. A barbed wire fence surrounded the perimeter with at least one guard tower at the front gate. Armed guards patrolled the grounds and the factory.

The factory was placed under the control of HYDRA. The facility would go on to house a Prisoner of War camp. This provided HYDRA with a supply of slave labors to work on the assemble lines.

HYDRA Operations
After HYDRA leader Johann Schmidt broke HYDRA away from from the Third Reich, the factory became one of HYDRA's main bases of operations. After HYDRA scientist Arnim Zola successfully managed to harness the power of the Tesseract, its energy was used to power many of HYDRA weapons such as the HYDRA Cannon and rifles. Schmidt eventually placed Zola and the Tesseract at the factory. Numerous technicians assisted Zola in over seeing production.

By November, 1943, the facility was producing numerous components for the Valkyrie. To show the progress of the project, Arnim Zola took Schmidt on a tour of the production floor. Zola was pleased that they where ahead of schedule considering the large size of many of the parts. Schmidt was not all that impressed and order Zola to increase the output. When Zola informed him that the request was not possible given the condition of the prisoners, Schmidt casually replied for Zola to use what remaining strength they had left and that there were always new workers were easy to come by. The statement distributed the scientist and he left the work floor in an troubled mood not bothering with a technician who needed to speak with him.

Liberation of Allied Prisoners of War
Due to its location and defense, the base was believed to be impregnable. That was until Captain America successfully infiltrated the facility. Rogers had come to free his friend Bucky Barnes and the other the prisoners HYDRA had captured. Locating and freeing the soldiers, Rogers went off look for other prisoners while the others made their escape.

During the resulting fighting between the freed prisoners and HYDRA forces, Johann Schmidt observed Captain America and his fighting abilities on the security monitors. Realizing there was no way to win, Schmidt activate the base's self-destruct sequence to the shock of Dr. Arnim Zola. As Zola rushed to gather and save important documents from his office, Schmidt calmly retrieved the Tesseract. Rogers eventually found Barnes in Zola's lab and freed him just before the self-destruct went off. As the two tried to find a way out, they came across Schmidt and Zola. Schmidt confronted the Captain and the two exchanged blows. Zola pulled a nearby leaver causing the walkway the two were standing on to separate.

Before making their getaway, Schmidt revealed his true face to Rogers, the result of have taking Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum though it not perfected and the reason he was called the Red Skull. Both the Red Skull and Zola manged to escape, Zola in the Red Skull's Coupe and the Red Skull in a Focke-Wulf Triebflügel.

As the explosions continued, Rogers and Barnes made their way up the factory to a beam they needed to cross to get to safety. Barnes managed to get across before the beam broke. Without the beam, Rogers was left with no other option then to jump across in order to make it to safety. Despite the danger, Rogers successfully made the jump across the void through the erupting flames. One they had escaped the burning factory, Rogers and Barnes met up with the freed soldiers and they made their way to Colonel Chester Phillips' camp.

Aftermath
The factory was completely destroyed and it was not rebuilt. Even with the loss of the facility, the Red Skull and Arnim Zola where able to continue with production at the other HYDRA facilities located throughout Europe. However, Captain America had seen a map in Zola's office which depicted the location of the other HYDRA facilities and reported them to Colonel Chester Phillips for the next two years, Captain America and his new team, the Howling Commandos attacked and destroyed the remaining HYDRA facilities and greatly slowed HYDRA's progress with each attack.