V-1 flying bomb

The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1,)—also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern (cherrystone) or Maikäfer (maybug)—was an early pulsejet-powered cruise missile, the very first production aircraft of any type to use a pulsejet for power.

The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". The first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series designed for terror bombing of London, the V-1 was fired from launch facilities along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on 13 June 1944), one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landings in Europe. At its 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 V-1s were directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped when the last launch site was overrun on 29 March 1945.

V-1 flying bomb facilities

In order to carry out the planned V-1 "flying bomb" attacks on the United Kingdom, Germany built a number of military installations including launching sites and depots. Some of the installations were huge concrete fortifications.

The Allies became aware of the sites at an early stage and carried out numerous bombing raids to destroy them before they came into use.

Production

The unpiloted aircraft was assembled at the KdF-StadtVolkswagenwerke (described as "the largest pressed-steel works in Germany") near Fallersleben, at Cham/Bruns Werke, and at the Mittelwerk. underground factory in central Germany. Production plants to modify several hundred standard V-1s to Reichenberg R-III manned aircraft were in the woods of Dannenburg and at Pulverhof, with air-launch trials at Lärz and Rechlin. Flight testing was performed by the Luftwaffe at Peenemünde West and, after the August 1943 Operation Hydra bombing, at Brüsterort. Launch crew training was at Zempin, and the headquarters for the operational unit, FR 155(W), was originally based at Saleux, near Amiens, but was subsequently moved c. December 1943 to a chateau near Creil ("FlakGruppeCreil"), with the unit's telephone relay station at Doullens.

Flying bomb

A flying bomb is a manned or unmanned aerial vehicle or aircraft carrying a large explosive warhead, a precursor to contemporary cruise missiles. In contrast to a bomber aircraft, which is intended to release bombs and then return to its base for re-use, a flying bomb crashes into its target and is therefore itself destroyed in its attack.

The term flying bomb is most frequently associated with two specific Second World War weapons, the German V-1 and the Japanese Ohka. The former was unpiloted, as the first known cruise missile ever deployed in anger; the latter carried a pilot on a kamikaze mission.

Historic exemplars

The first attempt to build a flying bomb (alternatively called an "aerial torpedo" in the Navy) was undertaken by Elmer Sperry for the US Navy in 1916, called the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, and was based on a Curtiss N-9 seaplane. This led to a mission-specific Curtiss design, the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb, which was almost completely unsuccessful. The US Army also tried to develop a flying bomb in World War I, the Kettering Bug, but the war ended before the program could mature. The functioning but unsuccessful German Mistel flying bomb was essentially an enormous shaped charge mounted on an obsolete aircraft that was guided by a fighter sitting on top. The fighter first took a course towards the target, then released the Mistel which would continue to its target. The best known example of a flying bomb is the German V-1, many of which targeted London in 1944 during World War II.

V1

V1, V01 or V-1 can refer to version one (for anything) (e.g., see version control)

V1, V01 or V-1 may also refer to:

In aircraft

Vessels

In anatomy

Other uses