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#Post#: 14046--------------------------------------------------
Plane of the Week: the V-1 Flying Bomb
By: vonofterdingen Date: November 16, 2020, 3:54 pm
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This week the Plane of the Week is not a plane, per se.
Nonetheless it played such an important role in aviation history
that I felt certain that it belongs in this forum thread. The
V-1 flying bomb, or Vengeance Weapon, or buzz bomb, or doodle
bug was one of mankind’s attempts at a weapon of terror. Its
technology also opened the door to today’s rocket guided bombs
and cruise missiles. The V-1 was far ahead of its time in both
good and bad ways. Early successes soon met with ever-increasing
RAF counter-measures and by mid to late 1944 the V-1 was more of
a desperation weapon than instrument of vengeance.
From Wikipedia:
The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance
Weapon 1")—also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or
doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern (cherry) or Maikäfer
(maybug), as well as by its official RLM aircraft designation of
Fi 103—was an early cruise missile and the only production
aircraft to use a pulsejet for power.
The V-1 was the first of the so-called "Vengeance weapons"
series (V-weapons or Vergeltungswaffen) deployed for the terror
bombing of London. It was developed at Peenemünde Army Research
Center in 1939 by the Nazi German Luftwaffe at the beginning of
the Second World War, and during initial development was known
by the codename "Cherry Stone". Because of its limited range,
the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired
from launch facilities along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and
Dutch coasts. The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against
London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) the
successful Allied landings in France. At peak, more than one
hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in
total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October
1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by
Allied forces. After this, the Germans directed V-1s at the port
of Antwerp and at other targets in Belgium, launching a further
2,448 V-1s. The attacks stopped only a month before the war in
Europe ended, when the last launch site in the Low Countries was
overrun on 29 March 1945.
As part of operations against the V-1, the British operated
an arrangement of air defences, including anti-aircraft guns,
barrage balloons, and fighter aircraft, to intercept the bombs
before they reached their targets, while the launch sites and
underground storage depots became targets for Allied attacks
including strategic bombing.
In 1944, a number of tests of this weapon were conducted in
Tornio, Finland. According to multiple soldiers, a small
"plane"-like bomb with wings fell off a German plane. Another
V-1 was launched which flew over the Finnish soldiers' lines.
The second bomb suddenly stopped its engine and fell steeply
down, exploding and leaving a crater around 20 to 30 metres
wide. The V-1 flying bomb was referred by Finnish soldiers as a
"Flying Torpedo" due to its resemblance to one from afar.
In 1935, Paul Schmidt and Professor Georg Hans Madelung
submitted a design to the Luftwaffe for a flying bomb. It was an
innovative design that used a jet engine, a pulse-jet engine,
while previous work dating back to 1915 by Sperry Gyroscope,
relied on propellers. While employed by the Argus Motoren
company, Fritz Gosslau developed a remote-controlled target
drone, the FZG 43 (Flakzielgerat-43). In October 1939, Argus
proposed Fernfeuer, a remote-controlled aircraft carrying a
payload of one ton, that could return to base after releasing
its bomb. Argus worked in co-operation with C. Lorenz AG and
Arado Flugzeugwerke to develop the project. However, once again,
the Luftwaffe declined to award a development contract. In 1940,
Schmidt and Argus began cooperating, integrating Schmidt's
shutter system with Argus' atomized fuel injection. Tests began
in January 1941, and the first flight made on 30 April 1941 with
a Gotha Go 145. On 27 February 1942, Gosslau and Robert Lusser
sketched out the design of an aircraft with the pulse-jet above
the tail, the basis for the future V-1.
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Lusser produced a preliminary design in April 1942, P35
Efurt, which used gyroscopes. When submitted to the Luftwaffe on
5 June 1942, the specifications included a range of 186 miles, a
speed of 435 mph, and capable of delivering a half ton warhead.
Project Fieseler Fi 103 was approved on 19 June, and assigned
code name Kirschkern and cover name Flakzielgerat 76 (FZG-76).
Flight tests were conducted at the Luftwaffe's Erprobungsstelle
coastal test centre at Karlshagen, Peenemünde-West.
Milch awarded Argus the contract for the engine, Fieseler the
airframe, and Askania the guidance system. By 30 August,
Fieseler had completed the first fuselage, and the first flight
of the Fi 103 V7 took place on 10 December 1942, when it was
airdropped by a Fw 200. Then on Christmas Eve, the V-1 flew
1,000 yards, for about a minute, after a ground launch. On 26
May 1943, Germany decided to put both the V-1 and the V-2 into
production. In July 1943, the V-1 flew 245 kilometres and
impacted within a kilometre of its target.
Mass production of the FZG-76 did not start until the spring
of 1944, and FR 155(W) was not equipped until late May 1944.
Operation Eisbär, the missile attacks on London, commenced on 12
June. However, the four launch battalions could only operate
from the Pas-de-Calais area, amounting to only 72 launchers.
They had been supplied with missiles, Walter catapults, fuel,
and other associated equipment since D-Day. None of the 9
missiles launched on the 12th reached England, while only 4 did
so on the 13th. The next attempt to start the attack occurred on
the night of 15/16 June, when 144 reached England, of which 73
struck London, while 53 struck Portsmouth and Southampton.
Damage was widespread and Eisenhower ordered attacks on the V-1
sites as a priority. Operation Cobra forced the retreat from the
French launch sites in August, with the last battalion leaving
on 29 August. Operation Donnerschlag would begin from Germany on
21 October 1944.
The first complete V-1 airframe was delivered on 30 August
1942, and after the first complete As.109-014 was delivered in
September, the first glide test flight was on 28 October 1942 at
Peenemünde, from under a Focke-Wulf Fw 200. The first powered
trial was on 10 December, launched from beneath an He 111.
The LXV Armeekorps z.b.V. ("15th Army Corps for special
deployment2) formed during the last days of November 1943 in
France commanded by General der Artillerie z.V. Erich Heinemann
was responsible for the operational use of V-1.
The conventional launch sites could theoretically launch
about 15 V-1s per day, but this rate was difficult to achieve on
a consistent basis; the maximum rate achieved was 18. Overall,
only about 25% of the V-1s hit their targets, the majority being
lost because of a combination of defensive measures, mechanical
unreliability or guidance errors. With the capture or
destruction of the launch facilities used to attack England, the
V-1s were employed in attacks against strategic points in
Belgium, primarily the port of Antwerp.
Launches against Britain were met by a variety of
countermeasures, including barrage balloons and aircraft such as
the Hawker Tempest and newly-introduced jet Gloster Meteor.
These measures were so successful that by August 1944 about 80%
of V-1s were being destroyed (Although the Meteors were fast
enough to catch the V-1s, they suffered from frequent cannon
failures, and accounted for only 13.) In all, about 1,000 V-1s
were destroyed by aircraft.
The intended operational altitude was originally set at 2,750
m (9,000 ft). However, repeated failures of a barometric
fuel-pressure regulator led to it being changed in May 1944,
halving the operational height, thereby bringing V-1s into range
of the 40mm Bofors light anti-aircraft guns commonly used by
Allied AA units.
A German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 H-22. This version could
carry FZG 76 (V1) flying bombs, but only a few aircraft were
produced in 1944. Some were used by bomb wing KG 3.
The trial versions of the V-1 were air-launched. Most
operational V-1s were launched from static sites on land, but
from July 1944 to January 1945, the Luftwaffe launched
approximately 1,176 from modified Heinkel He 111 H-22s of the
Luftwaffe's Kampfgeschwader 3 (3rd Bomber Wing, the so-called
"Blitz Wing") flying over the North Sea. Apart from the obvious
motive of permitting the bombardment campaign to continue after
static ground sites on the French coast were lost, air launching
gave the Luftwaffe the opportunity to outflank the increasingly
effective ground and air defences put up by the British against
the missile. To minimise the associated risks (primarily radar
detection), the aircrews developed a tactic called "lo-hi-lo":
the He 111s would, upon leaving their airbases and crossing the
coast, descend to an exceptionally low altitude. When the launch
point was neared, the bombers would swiftly ascend, fire their
V-1s, and then rapidly descend again to the previous "wave-top"
level for the return flight. Research after the war estimated a
40% failure rate of air-launched V-1s, and the He 111s used in
this role were vulnerable to night-fighter attack, as the launch
lit up the area around the aircraft for several seconds. The
combat potential of air-launched V-1s dwindled during 1944 at
about the same rate as that of the ground-launched missiles, as
the British gradually took the measure of the weapon and
developed increasingly effective defence tactics.
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In game…
This is one that we can’t fly in game, of course, but it
still provides some fun and playable historical scenarios. Take
off in the fastest plane you can think of (Meteor, Tempest,
Mustang, etc) and try your luck. Don’t open fire too close or
the explosion will take you out as well as the V-1. I have heard
that the tactic of tipping, used in real life, will also work in
game. The idea is that you fly a parallel course, try to get
your wing tip directly under the V-1 wingtip, and gently climb
so that you touch the V-1. Ostensibly this will upset the V-1
gyro and it will plummet to earth. When I have tried this, I
could never seem to get the gently part right, and would damage
my own wing.
Feel like trying the V-1 in a mission of your own? Check out
the great how-to from the Knowledge Base over at M4T:
HTML https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&op=show&kid=368
#Post#: 14055--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the V-1 Flying Bomb
By: JG51_Ruski Date: November 17, 2020, 5:31 am
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Good post von !! I think I used to chase doodlebugs in CFS 1Then
CFS 2 came out and I left it..Still have it installed but it is
asking for the CD,,Have to do some digging later..Thanks for the
post always a good read M8
#Post#: 14057--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the V-1 Flying Bomb
By: ben_wh Date: November 17, 2020, 9:45 am
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von,
Another great article - of a very interesting choice.
In-game: I did attempt to 'tip' the V-1 over using a fast plane
(Tempest, late mark Spitfire, Mustang) but it is not an easy
task. To shoot it down you'll need to put as much distance
between you and the flying bomb as feasible.
A lot of coverage on the V-1 has been about its technology and
the effort to intercept. I find the human angle appealing and
so would recommend:
'Doodlebug Summer' on Amazon Prime if you have this service:
HTML https://www.amazon.com/Doodlebug-Summer/dp/B07DQ3BR39
Or a shorter documentary on Youtube:
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaU4TUGbFM0
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#Post#: 14060--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the V-1 Flying Bomb
By: DHumphrey Date: November 17, 2020, 11:41 am
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Nice article Von ... great job and informative !!! :)
#Post#: 14070--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: the V-1 Flying Bomb
By: cafs Date: November 18, 2020, 4:34 am
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Great PoW, Von. This weapon cause a lot of trouble for the RAF,
with dozens of fighter squadrons left behind to deal agaisnt it,
even a good chunk of the Bomber Command operational sorties to
eliminate the launching sites. This overstressed USAF's 8th and
9th AF and RAF's 2nd Tactical AF with their tactical support for
the allied armies in Normandy and, later, over Northwestern
Europe.
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