V-1 Flying Bombs

Almost 30,000 V-1s were manufactured. Approximately 10,000 were fired at England up to March 29, 1945. Of these, about 7,000 were "hits" in the sense that they landed somewhere in England. A little more than half of those (3,876) landed in the Greater London area.

An almost equal number were shot down or intercepted by barrage balloons. When the V-1 raids began, the only effective direct defense was interception by a handful of very high performance fighter aircraft, in particular the Hawker Tempest. The British were able redirect V-1's aimed at London to less populated areas east of the city by sending false impact reports via the German espionage network in Britain, which was actually controlled by the British.

In the London area, roughly 5,500 people died as a result of V-1 attacks, with some 16,000 more people injured.

Does any one out there have any stories relating to the above?

 

Best book on the subject: Phillip Johnson's "V1/V2, the Nazi Vengeance on London." It includes a complete explanation of how the V1 worked. Very annoying and destructive weapon.

 

The Royal Aircraft Establishment calculated the cost of a V1 if manufactured in Britain as £115.Volkswagen invoiced the German Government an average of £125 for each V1 supplied which was not much different to RAE assumptions.

A Lancaster, its bomb load, fuel and crew training cost the equivalent of 300 V1s including warhead and fuel.The Lancaster was built to a specification of 40 flying hours.A V1 could deliver a ton of HE up to 200 miles or so but was largely inaccurate.On the other hand,the Lancaster was able to deliver 10 times the greater payload at a greater range and a far superior accuracy.

The V1 had the advantage that at a critical time for the German aircraft industry,V1 manufacture did not place any demand on aluminium supplies or aero engine capacity.

In addition to the Tempest,the Meteor was particularly effective against the V1.Radar controlled AA also played an important role in the "turkey shoot".

Hitler always stressed that Russia and its ideology was Germany's real enemy.But surprisingly the V1 and V2 were never deployed on the Eastern Front.The weapons have to be considered as civilian terror weapons.

 

It is always tempting to think of the V weapons as being used exlusively against the London area, but they were also used against other targets. Antwerp in particular comes to mind.

My husband, then a very small boy living in London, remembers being taken to shelter in the cellar because of a pending V2 and he then heard the explosion. Considering that these were ballistic missiles which could not be detected and predicted in flight, does anyone know if an early warning system was established on the continent to send notification of observed launches? I assume that on a clear day you would be able to see a V2 launch from a long way off.

 

More V-weapons were hurled at Antwerp than London, and they were also tossed at Liege. When the V-1 sites in the Pas de Calais were taken, the Germans had a surplus of V-1s, so they rigged them up to be launched from He 111 bomber, which were also outdated. That brought the V-1s back to London. When the Americans grabbed the Remagen Bridge, the Germans hurled V-2s at it, and they missed widely. But the vibrations of bombing made the bridge collapse into the Rhine of its own accord.

 

My family are all from the East End of London.

My Grandad was an ARP warden. (He worked in a foundry all day and walked the streets all night).
Grandad had loads of stories about dealing with incendiaries, bombing raids etc, none of which particularly scared the bloke.
However, when he spoke about the 'doodlebug' you could see it still bothered him. His closest shave of the war was when standing on a bridge watching a V1 approach. Sure enough, there came the dreaded silence as the motor cut out and he watched as "the bloody thing" come straight for him. In the event, it hit the ground a couple of streets away and destroyed a bus full of people.

Most Londoners will tell you that the sound of an approaching V1 was the most awful thing. You were alright as long as it kept going; it was when it cut out that you felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

 

My Mum was a true Cockney, born in the sound of the Bow Bells. She was from Southwick. I know her family had one house destroyed in the war. She always said it was a buzz bomb, but that could be similar to how to a US GI every tank was a Tiger and every AT gun an 88. I know both Mum and Dad, an American GI used to talk of how frightening is was to hear the motor cut out on the buzz bombs. For some reason it just seemed scarier to be under that kind of attack than to be in a bombing raid.

 

My family said the same thing about the V-1s...they were terrifying because of that moment when the motor cut out and anybody could be under it. Apparently that was a design failure. The V-1s were supposed to go into a power dive on their target. But the gyros that controlled the jet were supposed to start the dive after a certain number of revs. However, when they did that, all the fuel sloshed forward instead of through the engine, and it cut out. So instead of doing a power dive on the target, it just fell on the target. Terrifying. The V-2 announced itself with a huge blast, followed by the sound of it whizzing through the air. The V-2 was supersonic, so it landed before you heard it. Since it went off first, if you were not hit by the V-2, the sound that followed was less nerve-wracking. If you hadn't been hit, you knew the "whoosh" was not the next V-2 to land. The V-weapons had limited impact on Britain's war effort, but a terrible one on British morale in 1944 and 1945. The British were emotionally and physically exhausted by the strain of war, and to have all this destruction and bombing just when victory was in sight was more than many Britons could bear. Especially as there was no defense against the V-2, and only a precarious one against V-1.

 

One of the major coup of the Polish Home Army Intelligence Service (Intelligence Bureau of GHQ Home Army ) was the acquiring of information regarding the V1 and V2 rockets. Home Army Intelligence supplied information about the activities in Peenemünde which was crucial in the British decision to mount a bombing operation in August 1943. The following year Polish Intelligence supplied the allies with complete instructions, analysis and full rocket parts of the V2 which enabled them to prepare an adequate defence.

 

. Third British Infantries task now, was to protect the eastern flank and advance where possible. Off we went, heading for Overloon and Venraij towards a battle that caused the highest casualties that "Monties Ironsides" had suffered in a seven day period. While there, at night, we had the galling experience of watching the V2 rockets being fired at Britain, looking towards the Enemy lines they would appear in the distance and I was always surprised to see how shallow the trajectory seemed to be.
Sapper

 

Originally posted by sapper@May 21 2005, 09:49 AM
. Third British Infantries task now, was to protect the eastern flank and advance where possible. Off we went, heading for Overloon and Venraij towards a battle that caused the highest casualties that "Monties Ironsides" had suffered in a seven day period. While there, at night, we had the galling experience of watching the V2 rockets being fired at Britain, looking towards the Enemy lines they would appear in the distance and I was always surprised to see how shallow the trajectory seemed to be.
Sapper
[post=34653]Quoted post[/post]

You may have indirectly answered my post of 21 January, at least in part. Does anybody have more information on this?

 

Originally posted by Kiwiwriter@Jan 19 2005, 04:07 PM
Best book on the subject: Phillip Johnson's "V1/V2, the Nazi Vengeance on London." It includes a complete explanation of how the V1 worked. Very annoying and destructive weapon.
[post=30758]Quoted post[/post]


-I founded new web-TRY **SPAM PATROL** - german ww2 newsreels - action,tanks,bombers -free download :ph34r: B)

 

I've read somewhere that many Hawker Tempest pilots would use the wingtip of their plane to send V1s to the ground by destabilizing them. Anyone heard about that? It must have been a very delicate manoeuvre, especially at such a high speed.

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On Christmas Eve 1944, a formation of specially configured HE-111 Heinkel bombers flying over the North Sea launched a number of V1 Flying Bombs (Doodle Bugs) aimed at Manchester. Most missed the city -- impacting in sparsely populated outlying regions -- but one hit a row of terrace houses in nearby Oldham killing 37 people, including some evacuees from London, and seriously wounding many others. The blast damaged hundreds of nearby homes.

 

Many hundreds of troops from both sides watched this little circus act.

The Doodle Bug.
On its way back.

I know it's silly what we remember, some things that really are of no consequence at all, but for some reason we recall everything about that incident, in this case, because it was so bizarre.

We were on high ground to the North of the City of Caen, That battle scarred area I have always looked on as the ‘Killing Ground’ This was the high ground to in front of Caen, here we could look out over the channel, the site was incredible, I must admit to just standing looking at the thousands of ships of every description, spread as far as the eye could see, it looked as though it would be possible to walk back to England from ship to ship.

I still have a clear picture of that view. What we saw next was a bit of pure theatre, a Buzz bomb, Doodle bug! came throbbing overhead, heading straight for England Half the battle field stopped what they were doing (both German and Allies) to watch this bit of entertainment, no one fired at it, and as it approached the coast a spitfire dived on it at high speed and tipped its wing, loud cheers from the thousands of watchers, it then chugged steadily away, back where it came from, on it's return trip, all of our anti aircraft guns started firing at it. Now, why for heavens sake? Bizarre!
sapper

 

Originally posted by Werigh@Sep 17 2005, 09:09 PM
I've read somewhere that many Hawker Tempest pilots would use the wingtip of their plane to send V1s to the ground by destabilizing them. Anyone heard about that? It must have been a very delicate manoeuvre, especially at such a high speed.

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[post=39142]Quoted post[/post]

That is so. Tempests and Spitfires would flip them, which would throw off the V-1's gyroscope, and send it hurtling into the ground. Spitfires could just catch the V-1s, Tempests more easily. However, the danger was that the Spitfire or Tempest might damage its wing, or the V-1 might flip onto the Spitfire and explode.

 

I thought the reason they tipped them over with their wingtips was in order to avoid being damaged by the explosion if their shells set off the V1's warhead.
If attacking a bomber you had to take this risk, but no point taking risks unnecessarily, and also as the V1 was so small you had to open fire from a closer range to have a chance of hitting it.

Adrian

 

I understand that the plane did not touch the Buzz bomb wing at all, but set up enough turbulance with another wing in close proximity that the wing dipped and Turned the bomb around, any plane touching another wing would be doomed, for they are very fragile.
Sapper

 

Originally posted by sapper@Sep 20 2005, 05:15 PM
I understand that the plane did not touch the Buzz bomb wing at all, but set up enough turbulance with another wing in close proximity that the wing dipped and Turned the bomb around, any plane touching another wing would be doomed, for they are very fragile.
Sapper
[post=39267]Quoted post[/post]

That is quite right

 

Originally posted by sapper@Sep 18 2005, 05:57 PM
Many hundreds of troops from both sides watched this little circus act.

The Doodle Bug.
On its way back.


I still have a clear picture of that view. What we saw next was a bit of pure theatre, a Buzz bomb, Doodle bug! came throbbing overhead, heading straight for England Half the battle field stopped what they were doing (both German and Allies) to watch this bit of entertainment, no one fired at it, and as it approached the coast a spitfire dived on it at high speed and tipped its wing, loud cheers from the thousands of watchers, it then chugged steadily away, back where it came from, on it's return trip, all of our anti aircraft guns started firing at it. Now, why for heavens sake? Bizarre!
sapper
[post=39166]Quoted post[/post]
Nice photo of a Spitfire wing-tipping