The V1 Flying Bomb.

The Germans called it “Vergeltungswaffe” which means retaliationweapon, is was soon shortened to V1The V1 was easy to build and did not use up too many scarce resources,like aluminium and aviationfuel. It did not need a pilot, theGermans being very short of allthree.The V1 factory at Peeumundeon the Baltic was damaged bythe RAF. This Caused theproduction of the V1 to bedelayed by six months (untilJune 1944) and by this time theAmericans had liberatedNormandy.The V1 flying bomb was asmall pilotless aircraft,powered by a pulse-jet engine. Due to shortages of aluminium,a good majority of the craft was made fromsteel, and later the wings were even madefrom wood. The V1 was not manufactured to aircrafttolerances so the performance variedconsiderably between craft.The engine would be started and then thecraft was catapulted up to flying speedfrom the ramp, as would a fighter on anaircraft carrier.

A pre-set compass guided the craft and a crude automatic pilot kept it on course. The range, a maximum of 250 kms was decided by a device that counted the revolutions of a smallpropeller fixed in the nose, when the set number of revolutions was reached the fuel was cutoff and the flying bomb stalled, and an impact fuse exploded the 850 kg warhead.Early in the trials the bomb could not be made to fly in a straight line, and so a craft was builtwith rudimentary controls and a woman test pilot volunteered to fly the bomb to see whatwas going wrong. The fault lay in the compass guidance system and was soon rectified.The V1 was designed to bomb England without the loss of aircraft, as at this time the RAFhad mastery of the skies and German losses were high. The Germans also thought the V1 would be an instrument of terror and the first bombs werelaunched against London on June 13th 1944. Of the 10,000 launched some 7,500 crossed thechannel and 3,957 were shot down before reaching their targets, 2,419 reached London, 30dropped on Southampton and Portsmouth, one even reached Manchester. Over 6,000 people lost their lives due to the V1 and over 18,000 were injured.Over 12,000 were launched against targets in Europe, mainly against the city of Antwerp.

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V1 Flying Bomb

While the history of the cruise missile was marked by failures and falsestarts until modern times, one early attempt to build and operate such a weapon becamenotorious: the German V1 flying bomb, developed during World War II. The Germans had performed experiments with auto piloted aircraft in the 1930s, butproposals made to the German military in 1939 and 1941 to develop operational flyingbombs were turned down.

In June 1942, however, intensified Royal Air Force (RAF) bomb raids on German cities andrising losses of Luftwaffe bombers over England, in attempts to retaliate, persuaded theLuftwaffe to consider new options.Work on the V-2 long-range rocket was encountering difficulties, and the V-2 was an Armyproject in any case.

The Luftwaffe investigated and approved the development of a small, cheap flying bomb,with a range of about 250 kilometres (155 miles) and an 800 kilogram (1,764 pound)warhead, that could target a city-sized area, evading interception by flying in at high speedand low altitude. The project was given the cover designation of “Flak Ziel Geraet” (FZG), or anti aircraft target apparatus’’.

Propulsion for the new flying bomb was provided by the “pulse jet”, which had beeninvented by Paul Schmidt in the early 1930s, and had been under development by the ArmyWeapons Office since 1937. The pulse jet was little more than a “stovepipe”, with its solemoving part consisting of a shutter assembly inside the air intake. The simplicity and low cost of this engine was a major factor in the Luftwaffe’s decision topursue flying bomb development.

Air entering into the pulse jet was mixed with fuel and the mixture ignited by spark plugs.The combustion of the mixture slammed the intake shutters closed, and produced a burst ofthrust, out of the exhaust. The shutters then opened again in the airflow. The production engine would perform this cycle about 42 times a second. This pulsed operation caused the engine to emit a loud low buzzing sound that wouldpresently become familiar over theEnglish countryside.However, a pulse jet requires acompressed airflow to start and operate,and had no means of generating such aflow itself. Any aircraft propelled by suchan engine has to be externally acceleratedto at least 300 KPH (190 MPH) before itcan actually fly on its own.

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V1 Flying Bomb cont.2

Despite this limitation, the pulse jet had major advantages. It was simple, cheap, and powerful, with a thrust of 270 kilograms (600 pounds).Furthermore, it could use low-grade gasoline as a fuel, rather than precious high octaneaviation fuel. The pulse jet was also limited by the fact that throttling it was difficult at best,and that the shutters tended to wear out quickly, but neither of these issues were important inan expendable weapon.Three companies collaborated in building the flying bomb. Fiesler built the airframe; Argus,which employed Paul Schmidt, built the pulse jet engine; and Askania built the guidancesystem. A glide test was performed from a Focke-WulfFW-200 in early December 1942,followed by a powered flight on Christmas Eve.The initial powered flight only went a kilometre, and the early prototypes showed adistressing tendency to crash. To resolve these problems, a piloted flying bomb wasdeveloped, in which the warhead was replaced by a cockpit in which a test pilot could fly themachine while lying prone.Test flights were performed with the tiny and daring female test pilot Hanna Reitsch at thecontrols, and helped resolve the defects in the machine.

On 26 May 1943, top Nazi officials visited the test facility at Peenemunde, on the Baltic, toevaluate progress on the flying bomb. They concluded that the weapon should be put intofull-scale production, and work was accelerated on completing development, establishing anoperational unit to fire the weapons, and constructing launch sites. There were to be ahundred launch sites in the Pas de Calais area in France, capable of launching a thousandflying bombs a day. London was only about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the launch sites.

The flying bomb was refined into a production prototype version, code named “Kirshkern”(Cherrystone), that was much superior to the initial prototypes. In production, the weaponwas officially designated the Fiesler Fi-103 or FZG-76, but was more informally referred toas the V1, for Vergeltungswaffe Einz, or Vengeance Weapon 1.

RAF photo-reconnaissance aircraft had been observing the strange goings-on at Peenemundesince the middle of May 1942, and though Allied intelligence wasn’t sure about what wasgoing on, the Germans were clearly up to no good. The RAF launched a heavy attack onPeenemunde in the late summer of 1943,though it did not greatly slow down Germandevelopment efforts. Shortly thereafter, theUnited States Army Air Force bombed thelaunching sites in the Pas de Calais and almostcompletely destroyed them.

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V1 Flying Bomb cont.3

On 28 November 1943, an RAF photo-reconnaissance aircraft tookpictures of Peenemunde, and a sharp-eyed photographic analyst, Flight Officer BabingtonSmith, spotted a prototype flying bomb on a launch ramp at Peenemunde. British intelligencebegan to see what the Germans were up to. British intelligence estimates indicated that theGermanswould be able to start launching these new weapons against England in a matter of weeks,and attacks on new launch sites under construction were stepped up.However, by this time the flying bomb was in production, and the new launch sites weremore easily concealed. Several flying bombs were launched towards Sweden to determinetheir range and other performance characteristics, and on 13 June 1944, the first V1 s werelaunched towards London.Only about ten missiles were fired that day, and they were only fired because thecommandant in charge of the launch sites had been ordered to. He was not quite ready tobegin full scale launch operations at that time, so he simply did as he was ordered, thenreturned to finishing his preparations.

The flying bomb blitz began in earnest on 15 June, with 244 fired at London and 50 fired atSouthampton. 144 crossed the English coast, 73 managed to reach London with some shotdown and most of the rest landing south of the Thames, and a few hit Southampton. One went wildly astray and ended up in Norfolk.

The V1 itself was an odd and ingenious aircraft, designed to be cheaply produced in largequantities. It had a wingspan of 5.4 meters (17 feet 8 inches), a length of 8.3 meters (27 feet 4 inches), and weight of 2,160 kilograms (4,760 pounds), including an 850 kilogram(1,870 pound) Amatol warhead. Early production was largely made of metal, though woodenwings were quickly introduced.The weapon was directed to its target by a simple guidance system, based on a gyroscopesystem driven by compressed air to keep the missile stable, a magnetic compass to controlbearing, and barometric altimeter to control altitude.

Maximum speed was around 645 KPH (400 MPH). It was typically set to fly at an altitude ofabout 600 meters (2,000 feet), using thebarometric altimeter as a reference. Aspinner on the nose armed the warhead afterabout 100 kilometres (60 miles) of flight,and determined when the weapon would fallto earth. However, a few documents statethat rather than using a nose spinner thisfunction was performed by a simple clock.Illustrations are ambiguous on this issue, andit is very possible that different productionruns used different systems.

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V1 Flying Bomb cont.4

The little aircraft’s wings had no control surfaces. The VI was directedby the rudder and elevators of its tail assembly. This was a crude means of control, but sincethere was no possibility of manoeuvring anyway, it was adequate as well as cheap.

When the guidance system determined that it was at the target point, it locked the controlsurfaces, and popped out spoilers under the horizontal tail plane to put the bomb into a steepdive. Usually, though not always, this would stall the engine. The abrupt cessation of the loudbuzz inspired terror, since it meant there would be a terrific explosion a few moments later.

The V1’s warhead used three fuses, including an electrical fuse, a backup mechanical fuse,and a time-delay fuse to ensure that the weapon destroyed itself if the other fuses failed towork. The fusing system was very reliable, and very few V1s failed to explode.

Early V1 production items had a fuel capacity of 640 litters (169 US gallons), providing amaximum range of 260 kilometres (163 miles). Flight time from launch to impact was usually about 22 minutes.Accuracy was very poor, with impacts scattered all over south-eastern England.

The VI was prepared for launch by filling up its fuel tank, installing a battery, and chargingup the compressed air tanks for the gyroscopes. It was then trollied to a demagnetised area tocheck the missile’s magnetic compass and set up the guidance system in accordance with theplanned target co-ordinates.

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V1 Flying Bomb cont.5

The V1 was launched off a 48 meter (157 foot) long ramp using a steam catapult system. The ramp contained a piston that looked something like a dumbbell, and the flying bomb saton a simple trolley that was linked to the piston. The piston was held in place with a shear pin.A cart containing a rocket engine and tanks of hydrogen peroxide (HO), known as “T-Stoff’,and granules of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) catalyst, known as “Z-Stoff’, were connected to the base of the ramp. On mixing the two, the catalyst decomposed thehydrogen peroxide, generating a large quantity of steam that produced thrust. When the thrust built up to a certain level, it broke the piston’s shear pin and the trolleyrapidly moved up the ramp.

The VI left the ramp at a speed of about 400 KPH (250 MPH), while the piston shot out intothe surrounding terrain and the trolley fell off the weapon. After a firing, the launch ramp hadto be swept off by personnel clad in protective clothing, as the fuel deposits were corrosive.

The V1 could be fitted with a poison gas warhead, which would have made it a trulyfearsome weapon, considering the highly lethal nerve gases that the Germans possessed.However, fear of retribution in kind kept Hitler from performing poison gas attacks, asGerman gas warfare experts wrongly believed that the Allies had nerve gases as well.

Some of the V1s were fitted with a radio transmitter and a trailing antenna wire to allowmonitoring their flight. In some cases, the bombs were “shadowed” by fast aircraft like theMesserschmidt 410 to observe their flight. A few were also fitted with a cage toaccommodate 23 one kilogram incendiary bombs or a paper carton full of propagandaleaflets, with the contents to be scattered by the force of the blast.

The VI was manufactured at various sites in the Reich, most prominently the notorious andbrutal underground slave labour complex known as “Miftelwerk” at Nordhausen in the HarzMountains. An estimated total of about 24,000 V1 s were built in 1944, and as many as

10,000 were built in 1945, thoughquantities mentioned tend to vary fromsource to source.

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Launching A Flying Bomb

Months of practice made the pre-launch procedure a set routine for thecrews. First, the flying bomb's fuel tank was checked, to make certainthat it had been topped off. Following this, the wooden wings were attached-these had beenfolded over the fuselage to make storing and moving the aircraft easier. After assembly, theplane was aligned precisely with its firing ramp-which was pointed directly at London-and itsgyrocompass was set at zero to ensure it flew the straight course on which it had been aimed.

The flying bomb, now ready for launching, was moved onto its firing ramp. After it wasloaded onto its catapult, a lug on the underside of the fuselage was attached to the catapult'sfiring piston. When the piston was released, it accelerated the V-1 off the launch rails in thesame way that a jet plane is catapulted off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. With thestubby-winged flying bomb poised for takeoff, the launching crew took cover inside the"control bunker," a heavily armoured trailer that housed the catapult's firing controls, orlumped into a nearby slit trench. The firing officer gave an order, a technician pulled a lever,and the flying bomb's pulse-jet engine came to life with a throbbing, ear-numbing roar.

This simple jet engine was the flying bomb's most unique feature. Housed outside thefuselage, above the tail, the jet is usually described as looking like either a stovepipe or agiant blow torch. At the front end of the engine housing was a set of intake flaps thatresembled a Venetian blind. These flaps opened at the beginning of the engine's cycle,allowing air to be drawn into the combustion chamber, where it was mixed with 80-octanefuel. In the second stage of the combustion cycle, the flaps closed and the fuel-oxygenmixture was ignited. With a tremendous flash, a burst of hot exhaust shot out from the rear ofthe engine to provide forward thrust. Immediately following the exhaust stage, the intakeflaps opened again, allowing air into the combustion chamber and repeating the cycle.

This simple jet engine could complete up to 500 combustion cycles every minute, giving theflying bomb a maximum speed of about 400 mph. The engine's pulsing combustion processalso gave the flying bomb its distinctive duv-duv-duv sound in flight, a sound that Londonerswould soon come to recognise.

After listening for a moment to ensurethat the engine was firing properly, thefiring officer gave the order to launch. Asecond lever was pulled, releasing thecatapult's piston. The flying bomblurched forward, shot along the length ofsteel rail, and lumped uncertainly intothe night sky. During the next half-hour,between ab out 3:30 and 4 a.m., ninemore of the bombs bolted from theircatapults. The launching crews watchedas the small aircraft left their ramps,brilliant flashes of fire trailing from theirexhausts.

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The V Weapons In La Manche

On the Cotentin Peninsula there were over forty sites where the V1 &V2 could be launched against targets in the south of England. Another twenty-five had been planned, but D-day brought an end toconstruction.The ports of Plymouth, Bristol, Exeter, Gloucester and Cardiff were the prime targets.The Flying Bombs would have arrived by train at Valognes (Yvetot Bocage) usually three toa wagon and thirty-three wagons to the train.

Valognes (Yvetot Bocage) The rockets arrived in kit form and would have been assembled here, including the fitting ofthe warheads and filling the missile with fuel, and would then have been dispatched to theforty ramp sitesThe site covered a large area, over 1km in each direction.The site was chosen because of its proximity to the rail network and because it was just to theSouth east of all the launching sites it was to serve.The site at Valognes was bombed by the RAF on the 16th of February 1944 and over 200bombs fell on the site. A report to German High Command stated that the site had beenrepaired in twenty-one days.There is very little to see at the site today, only two of the brick built buildings exists and therest of the area is now a small industrial estate.There is another site nearby at Bricquebec that had the same function and would have fedcompleted missiles to the launching sites on the West and north.They would then have been forwarded to the three types of launch site.

1) The Giant Bunker. Only one bunker of this type exists, at Brecourt, nearCherbourg. This is a fascinating site that was originally a Naval oilstorage depot, built before the war by the French.The site is enormous and had eight huge undergroundstorage tanks each holding over 1 million litres of fuel.Connected by tunnels over ten metres in diameter, allwere inter linked and went very deep into the cliff.The French Navy intended that fuel was to be pumpedfrom tankers in the port, stored here and then fed bygravity to their ships when needed.The site was seen by the Germans as an excellent readybuilt installation for their V2 rockets, but after frequentvisits by the RAF to the V1 installations they convertedthe site here to a V1 launch and also the undergroundtunnels to a factory where the V1’s could be assembled.The whole site is massive with the ramp much wider thanwas needed, but was necessary to support the intendedroof.Also it is the only site to be enclosed at the rear, necessitating a deflector plate to enable theexhaust gasses and steam from the catapult to escape.

The V Weapons In La Manche cont 2

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After the war the site passed back to the French Navy who used it for itsoriginal purpose.Unfortunately, it is not possible to visit the site as it is still owned by themilitary.

2) The Heavy InstallationsEight installations of this type were builton the peninsula. Some are in bettercondition than others. Many have beendamaged by bombing or ground fightingduring the liberation.The eight sites differ greatly in layout, buteach site operated in the same manner.The operation of the site can best bedescribed with the aid if a site plan, theone used is La Boissais.The V1’s would arrive by lorry and wouldbe lifted on to wooden trolleys with nonmetallic cast wheels, and then storedminus wings in the Reception Garage marked A on the plan. When the V1 was required tobe made ready for launching it would be taken to the building C, this was a workshop withdoors at both ends were the V1 would have its air tanks pressurised, this fuelled thegyroscope. The fuse would be inserted and the V1 would then be stored in one of the SkiGarages marked E on the plan. The interior of these garages had raised walkways on eachside to prevent the V1 from hitting the side wall.About ten V1’s in a state of readiness could be stored in each of the three garages.When the time for launching the V1 came, it would be wheeled out and the wings fitted.The V1 would then be taken to the Anti Magneticroom marked J on the plan. The building contained nometal and was usually made of local brick rendered incement.It was here that the compass was set. The angle anddirection of the ramp was fixed, but a small variationin the flight trajectory could be made here. The grooves in the floor fitted the trolley wheels andthe arc set in concrete would have been marked indegrees.The bomb would also be armed here. The V1,prepared for flight, would then be wheeled to the launch area and lifted onto the Ramp. Thesame principle used to launch aircraft from a carrier at sea was employed here. A piston towhich the V1 was attached, catapulted the V1 to flying speed. At sea steam from the ship'sboilers was used, here the system was the same. The propellant used was hydrogen peroxide,a very volatile fuel and over one hundred litres was used on each launch, this when mixedwith potassium permanganate. The mixing of these two chemicals in the launch ramp resulted in high pressure steam thatlaunched the missile. These chemicals arrived in a small cart and was connected to the ramp launch system.

The V Weapons In La Manche cont. 3

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The launch of the V1 was overseen from a small Blockhouse at the baseof the ramp.After every launch the ramp had to be cleaned by personnel wearingprotective clothing as the chemical was very corrosive.The ramp was constructed of metal and the large concrete structureswere only deflectors and did not support the ramp.It was envisaged that a V1 could be launched every thirtyminutes.

The hydrogen peroxide would have been stored in thesmall building marked I.Other buildings on the site have been identified as B,possibly a pumping station.D Small quantities of fuel would have been stored here tofill the tanks of the V1. H would have housed the compressor used to charge theair tanks of the V1.G was a shelter for the technicians on site.F This building housed the main fuel store for the base.There was also a large water reservoir on the road to the north ofthe site, which would have been used for fire fighting. All theroads on the site are constructed in concrete and all the siteswould have been built under the Todt Organisation, using slaveand enforced labour. The Todt Organisation had been responsiblefor building the German Motorways before the war.

The Light SitesBecause of the bombing of the heavy sites, the Germansfelt the need to construct less visible places to launch theirV1’s, and over thirty were either completed or in progressby D-day.Each site had a bunker, these bunkers were an adaptationof the standard installation used to house guns defendingthe coast. These bunkers served as a workshop and forstorage of the chemicals needed for the launch.The same wooded trolleys used at the main sites wouldalso have been used here.There was also an anti magnetic platform, exactly the sameas in the bigger installations where the compass could be set, and the wings fitted. Theseplatforms have the same grooves for the trolley wheels and the direction of the grooveswould have been exactly the same as the firing ramp.Although the platform was in the open, it would have been covered by camouflage nets toprotect it from being seen by reconnaissance aircraft.The ramp was set in concrete blocks and was constructed in metal. In some cases a shorterramp was used and these needed solid fuel rockets to be fitted to the V1, which fell awayafter launch.

The V Weapons In La Manche cont. 4There is one question of the lighter sites that I can find no explanation for, and that is why.

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At all the sites visited, the anti magnetic platform is further away fromthe workshop than the ramp. This would mean that the V1 would have tobe transported past the ramp to have its compass set and the fuse armedand then taken back to the launch ramp, passing the garage en route.On the bigger sites the route of the V1 followed a logical path, but hereon the lighter sites, although only a few V1’s would have been on site atany one time, the Germans seem to have created more work than was necessary.

The V2 RocketAlthough the site at Brecourt was originallyintended as a V2 preparation and launchsite, there were two other sites connectedwith the rocket in the area.The first was at Sottevast near Bricquebecand was still being constructed at the timeof liberation. The site had also beenbombed several times by the allies usingTall Boy bombs and dropping over 5,000tons of explosive on the area.The site is on a vast scale and a largelaunch site built in concrete is over 200metres long.The rockets would have been stored inunderground chambers, the site even had its ownunderground railway, but the reclamation work torestore this area to farm usage after the war hasobliterated all traces, except for the two giantconcrete ramps.This site was only half finished at the liberation andmuch of the works have been filled in to return theland to farm usage.

The other site is at Couville near Martinvast, thechateau here was used as the headquarters by theAbteilungen Regiment who were in charge of therockets.The site was only in the very early stages ofconstruction by D-day and it is not really possible todetermine its intended usage. It could have beenanother V2 site, but some sources suggest that itmight have been an installation for the V3. The V3was a large gun, which in theory could have sent ashell to the south of England.There was an installation near Calais, buried deep in the ground. As the shell travelled up thebarrel further charges were set off to increase its muzzle velocity. The idea never workedwell and many gun barrels split open during the trials.This was the type of gun that Sadam Hussian tried to obtain for Iraq during the Gulf War.

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V1 Flying Bomb Site At La Boissais

The rocket launch and maintenance site at La Boissais is the mostcomplete that I have found in Normandy. There are visible signs of the visits from the RAF, but mostof the site is intact.The site would have been constructed in 1943/44 inanticipation of the imminent arrival of the V1 Flying Bomb. They were built at Peeumunde on the Baltic sea. Production of the V1 and V2 was delayed due to thebombing raids carried out by the RAFThis and all the other sites were ready to receive their V1Flying Bombs, but because of the Normandy landings andthe arrival of American troops in the area the V1’s neverarrived. They were launched for the first time from the Pas deCalais, on the same day that American troops liberated thearea.The large half submerged building was the reception garagefor the bombs, after they had been made ready they wouldhave been stored in one of the three underground garages. The concrete roads on the site are original, and would haveenabled a speedy transfer to the launch area.The building near the ramp was constructed using nometal, and it was here that the magnetic compass was set.This and the ramp were both set on the same angle for thetrajectory of the V1 (344o.10)towards Bristol.The blockhouse, near the house,and away from the main site wouldhave housed the propellants for thelaunch ramp. These had to be keptseparate and were volatile whenmixed.The other buildings would havehoused the launch crew and servedas workshops. The V1 was to have beenassembled at Bricquebec andwould have been transported hereby road, minus the wings and fuel.The RAF visited this and othersites in the area many times and for that reason the Germans started building smaller lessvisible launch ramps. There are signs of bomb and tank damage on many of the buildings, including the rear of theantimagnetic building.The sites had to be situated close to the sea because the V1 had a flight range of only 250 kms. This is the reason why sites were constructed in this part of Normandy to be able tohit the towns and cites in the south west of England Portsmouth, Plymouth, Exeter andBristol being the selected targets.

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V1 Site At La Glacerie

We normally visit this site in conjunction with the siteLa Boissais that is close by.Between the two one can get a better idea of the operationof a V1 site.The buildings are mostly made from local brick and onlythe bunker is made from concrete.The ramp shows signs of bomb damage, but the rest of thesite remains in good condition.This is one of the few sites that has not been taken overcompletely for farm usage, although it always seems thatthe anti magnetic building makes a very fine cow shed.The three garages still exist, but always seem to be flooded.This begs the question, how did the Germans keep thesebuildings free from flooding?There are not as many buildings here and their usage wouldhave been as follows.The reception garage is on the extreme right as you enterthe site.The building straight ahead with an entrance at each endwould have been used to prepare the V1 for launch. It wouldhave then be stored in the three Ski Garages that are to theleft and behind the trees.The larger of the three buildings to your right would havebeen used to store fuel. The other building would havehoused the air compressor, needed for the gyroscopes in theV1.The other building was a bunker to give protection to theworkers in case of attack.The V1’s launched from here could have been aimed ateither Dorchester, Cardiff or Bristol.An unusual feature of some of the V1 sites is that they couldhave only been targeted at the area sea, off Lands End inCornwall. Shipping may have been the target, but given theaccuracy of the V1, the chances of damaging any shipswould have been slight.

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Besneville

The V1 launching site here, is the secondmost southerly in on the CotentinPeninsula.

The ramps were built so that the bombwas launched at a constant target. The one here was set to bomb Exeter,although no bomb was ever launchedfrom here.

The launch sites had to be as close to thecoast as possible, because of the limitedrange of 250 kms, although one reachedManchester, when launched fromspecially adapted Heinkel He-111bombers.

The blockhouse nearby would have beenused to store the catapult fuel, used tolaunch the flying bomb. It was not unlikethe system used to launch planes from thedecks of aircraft carriers at sea.The compressed air tanks in the bombwould have also been charged here, abattery fitted, and the warhead primed.

On the flat concrete raft can be seen thetraces of the non magnetic table, on whichthe compass was set. The trolley carryingthe V1 would be placed in the groves, thecompass set, and then wheeled to the ramp.No traces of the launching ramp have yetbeen found, and it is possible that it was notbuilt by the time of the liberation.

If this site is visited in conjunction with thesite at Saussemensil, a complete picture ofthe smaller launch sites can be appreciated.

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Brecourt

This is possibly the most intriguing site in Normandy, that poses more questions than it provides answers.Set into a cliff overlooking the bay of Cherbourg,it was built by the French Navy, in the years preceding theSecond World War to be a storage depot for the fuel needed tomaintain the fleet based in Cherbourg. The fuel was pumped from tankers moored in the outerharbour to the huge underground storage tanks. The fuel was kept heated by using live steam, this enabled it toflow down to the port by gravity. On the site nearby there were five tanks on the surface.At Brecourt there were eight tanks linked by undergroundtunnels. By 1941 when France, the Germans only used six of the tanksThe tanks are huge, made from concrete with steel liners theymeasure 240 ft long, 50 feet wide and 50 ft deep.

During the occupation by the Germans, Cherbourg was onlya base for fast motor patrol vessels and the storage tankswere not used to their full potential and were drained offuel.One of the tanks on the other site was destroyed during anAllied Bombing raid.

The Germans took an interest in the site in 1941 andequipped four of the storage tanks with floors on threelevels to make underground workshops and living quarters.This was initially intended for a V2 preparation and launcharea.Early in 1944 the site was converted for the assembly,preparation and launching of V1's early in 1944.The site was not completed by the time of the liberation, butthe amount of works completed is impressive.The launch area was then built alongside two of the servicetunnels, at the extreme north of the site. A poor copy of the German plans indicates a further rampwas planned to the east of the area. Evidence of the startingof this work can be seen in the tunnel, although no work on the ramp seems to have takenplace.A German document talks of four ramps being planned. Two lateral tunnels were built by theGermans, but it is not clear whether these were intended for V1 or V2 systems.

Brecourt is the only site that would have been used for both the V systems

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Brecourt cont. 2

The Germans had in Brecourt an almost ready made site for their VWeapons, there was a railway connection, and there was also a 24 inchnarrow gauge railway, which they extended to cover mostof the tunnels.The railway tracks are still in place.

The V1 facility was not completed, but enough of thestructure is in place to give an idea of the finishedbuilding.

A better understanding of the site can be gained from thesketch of the launch area, below.

.

From photographs taken in 1945 and 1946, and from inspection, it is clear thatthere is an additional storey (H) missing from the main building. There are the remains of vertical, steel reinforcement bars, evident in the earlier photographs,and there are two large rectangular openings, obviously intended for stairwells.This additional storey was most likely intended for equipment associated with thelaunch.

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Brecourt cont. 3

A description of the facility is as follows. The V1 would emerge fromtheworkshops and service area at (A), where it would be given an initial pre-launch check. There would have been a concrete roof at this level which would have extended right alongthe launch ramp. Some of the concrete beams are in place.At position, (B), the flying bomb would have its compass set. The exhaust gasses from the launch of a V1 would be very hot and toxic as the V1 wascatapulted into the sky using a similar system found on aircraft carriers. The propellant washydrogen peroxide, a very corrosive chemical. The ramp and launch area would have to bewashed down after every launch. It is possible that the Germans would have used the steamfacility at Brecourt , this would have made a launch in a confined space much simpler, andjust left steam and V1 exhaust gasses to be channelled through the vents..The gasses would be channelled through (C) and (D) although (D)is not completed, this design was used by all the major rocketlaunching powers after the war.(F), This is the personnel access to tunnel number two. The launchwould have been started from the small room in the corner of thesite, out of the way from the direct blast of the launch (E).One essential piece of equipment that is missing is some means ofsealing off the building opposite (C), to ensure that the exhaustgases were channelled along the vent tunnel.The slots at (G) were probably intended for a flexible steel curtain;the long slot on the opposite side would have been able toaccommodate a device like a steel roller shutter which came rightacross in front of the launching pad. Access to the V1 launch building is still possible and undergroundthere is extensive space, which is now flooded. There was certainly ample scope for the preparation andstorage of radioactive material, both in the original tunnelsand the later German additions.The blast walls (K) would have been covered with a blastproof roof, this explains the thickness of the walls.The VI would be launched between the blast walls, with theramp structure attached to the slots at (L).

Apparently a second V2/V1 launch facility was planned. This would have beenconnected by a tunnel toreservoir 1, but it wasnever started.The site never becameoperational and it is unfortunate that virtually the onlyhardware remaining is a 2 in-thick steel door, adjacent tothe launch area.

Brecourt cont. 4

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The V1 Facility

1) Part of the large deflector for exhaust gasses

2) Roof section, with concrete beams, not fixed in place at the time of liberation.

3) Heavily armoured concrete beams to protect the firing room

4) Chambre de tir (firing chamber)5) The connection with gallery No 1 on

plan below

6) The V1 launch ramp, set into the walls and inclined at 6 degrees

Brecourt 5 cont.

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The question remains, why did the Germans put so many resourcesbehind the V2 rocket that could only deliver the same explosive as amedium bomber?

The answer may lie in the fact that the Germans wouldhave had the capability in 1946 to launch the V9/V10rockets against all of England and even as far as America.These rockets may not have carried conventionalexplosives, as the Germans by then would have hadaccess to nuclear waste material.

Some sources state that at Brecourt and at Sottevast smallnuclear reactors would have been installed to produceradioactive isotopes on site.

The Germans also had access to quantities of nerve gas,mainly Tabun and Sarin, both of which cause immediatedeath by absorption through the skin, and to which therewas no known antidote.Both of these would have been a far more deadly use forthe later variants on the V2.

Because of the speed of the V2 the rocket hit the groundand usually buried itself thirty feet underground. This restricted the V2 to delivering conventional payloadsuntil a solution could be found which allowed the rocketto be detonated above the ground.

There are plans that have been published that show a variant of the V2 which had smallerfuel tanks, moved forward. The payload section was further back, in the middle section.The possible reason for this was that the V2 warhead exploded on impact. and in 1944 nosolution to inventing a close proximity fuse had been found.Had a close proximity fuse been available it would have enabled the rocket to be detonatedabove the ground, and made the use of nerve gas or nuclear waste a possible payload for theV2.

This would have reduced the range of the rocket to around 150 miles, but if a conventionalwarhead was not fitted, but a nuclear waste or a biological warhead fitted the payload weightwould not have been as heavy. This would have enabled the rocket to reach its normal target range of around 250 miles, andwith the solid booster rocket, the eastern coast of America could be reached.This could possibly have been ready by spring 1946.

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Brecourt cont.

This message was sent by members of the “Crossbow” team who visitedall the V1 and V2 sites as soon as they were liberated.Over forty railway wagons were loaded with material taken from this and other sites in thearea and sent back to America.Almost all of the early American rocket technology was derived from the V2, and the cruisemissile owes its ancestry directly to the V1.The Russians and British also launched captured V2’s in the race for the mastery of space.Most of the film footage seen of V2 launches is taken from launches by German personnelafter the war supervised by British army engineers.

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La Fournellerie

Near the village of Hardinvast, to the south ofCherbourg there is a V1 site , possibly the last of the“ski” to be partly constructed.

At the end of 1943 when the Gestapo took controlof both the V1 and V2 programs, they decided thatthese larger sites were a liability as they were beingvisited by both British and American bombers.The site is also built with local brick in place of themore common concrete.

All the Ski garages are in an unfinished state, thereis no evidence of the roofs ever being completed,although all the concrete service roads would seemto be in place, almost 800 meters of them.The anti magnetic building has been transformedinto a house and the ramp is hidden in a small copse.

The road on the site is constructed in concrete, as isnormal, but one interesting find is a footprint,possibly from a Todt workman who was conscriptedto work on the site.

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Bricquebec

The site here at Bricquebec was the last installation to be built to handlethe V1 flying bomb in the area.By early 1944 two major factors had influenced thehandling and launching of the V1. Firstly, the Allies had discovered and bombed most of theearly launch sites. These sites were called “Ski Sites” by the Allies becausethe main storage buildings (of which each site had three)looked like skis placed on their sides when viewed fromthe air.Secondly the Gestapo had by then taken control of the“Vengeance Weapons” and had realised that these weaponsneeded to be more mobile if they were to have any chanceof success.This site, like its sister site at Valognes, was composed ofmany buildings made from red concrete blocks, faced withplaster dispersed over a large area.Also, like the site at Valognes, it was situated next to arailway line enabling large numbers of V1’s to be broughtin at once.The train bringing the V1 flying bombs would have hadthirty three wagons, each containing three almost completedmissiles, the wings being carried alongside the missile.The final assembly was intended to be carried out on boththese places and the completed weapon sent on to thelaunching ramps. At the V1 depot at Bricquebec you can still see the roadinfrastructure built by the Germans, and although most ofthe site has reverted to farm usage, a scrap yard and rubbishcollection site still occupies two areas that the Germansconcreted over to form large reception areas.It is thought that these two areas could have also been usedto launch the V2.The most interesting building remaining is the little T-Stoff storage bunker just inside the site. Although stripped of its fittings you can still see the tworeception areas where the trolley would be filled. Aroundthirty gallons would have been needed for each launch.HTP or T-Stoff, in reality Hydrogen Peroxide, was a nasty chemical and needed carefulhandling. At the rear of this small building you can see the control gear needed to fill the twosmall carts and as a safety measure the connection would have been made from outside. After the liberation, the depot continued to play an important role, handling Americansupplies brought in by both road and rail. The rail connection has long gone, if itb was everlaid no trace can be found. The track bed was lifted a few years ago, and the old railway routeforms part of a cycle pathway. At the station in Bricquebec there is a large concrete platform,could this have been the place where the V1’s were transferred from rail to road.

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Valognes

Valognes was known before the war as the Versailles of Normandy,because of the many fine buildings in the town.A few survived the bombardment of the secondworld war, but the town was devastated, althoughthe old street plan exists today.When Hitler was told that the allies had captured thetown of Montebourg, he drew a line on the map thathe called “the Hitler line”, that was just to the southof Valognes. This line was on no account to be breached, andshould be defended to the last drop of blood.The Americans by passed the town, much as theN13 main road now does. General Von Schliebenhad his headquarters in the beautiful Hotel deBeaumont, until threatened by the Americanadvance, when he withdrew to Cherbourg.The town was badly damaged in the battle and wastaken with very little resistance on June 19th.The church and the centre of the town weredestroyed, but the ruins of the church wereincorporated into the new church.The Americans had to take all the small roads to the left and right and the Germans, althoughnot crack troops, defended well but gradually gave ground. They had no heavy artillery but only mortars and anti tank guns.It was here that Americans started fighting in the“ Bocage” the name given to the small lanesand high hedges, that made it so difficult to attack, and so easy for the Germans to defend.Valognes also featured heavily in the German plans for the “Vengeance Weapons”Because of its excellent railway connections it was to be used as a distribution base for theV1 flying bomb.In late 1943 the Gestapo had gained control of both the V1 and V2 programmes and after thebombing by the Allies of all the larger“Ski Sites” designed to launch the V1against targets in the south west ofEngland. The Germans had built smallerlaunch sites around Valognes andBricquebec, most of which can still betraced.The V1’s would be distributed fromboth these towns.The first V1 site in the area was atTamerville just to the north west of thetown at Chateau Beaumont.

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Valognes cont. 2

The work did not precede very far after the Gestapo took charge of theproject. According to German reports the ground had been cleared and arailway line laid from the main line to the site. The site wasphotographed by the RAF in January 1944. It is thought that the site was to be a similar construction to the one further advanced next tothe main line near Cherbourg at Couville. This Couville site was bombed several times by the Allies dropping over 500 tons of bombs,enough to discourage the Germans from any further construction. Further work did continue, but designed as a ruse to encourage the Allies to bomb a site thatwas of no use to the Germans.The second and later site at Valognes can still betraced to the west of the town alongside the railwayline to Cherbourg.This site is unique in the Cotentin and one of justeight in France.The railway siding built to handle the V1’s is stillhere and today still is still used for hazardouscargos from Germany. By a strange quirk of fate nuclear waste destined forCap la Hague the pre-processing plant to the northis unloaded onto road transport in the same sidingsbuilt by the Germans nearly sixty years ago.The Germans wanted a site that would not be seen by reconnaissance aircraft. Here and at the later site at Bricquebec they built their V1 distribution site over a very largearea, hoping that the many buildings would not be seen from the air and identified for theirreal purpose. They built eight them from red concrete blocks faced with concrete, not fortified at all. Some were around thirty five meters in length and would have been used to prepare the V1for launch, before they were delivered to the second generation smaller launch site. There was also a smaller building thought to be an administration block.The site would have been able to service and store just over 100 V1’s, it is known that trainsof V1’s normally transported ninety nine at a time, and that one train per day could have beenexpected.One of the more bizarre features are the German marker posts alongside the concrete roadson which a lamp would have been placed to help nighttime operations.Although there is know no evidence of the building anAmerican report written just after Valognes wasliberated mentions finding quantities of HTP orT-Stoff the German name given to HydrogenPeroxide. This was used in the launch of the V1 andwas used to generate steam used in the ramp catapult.At the time of the liberation around thirty of the newlighter sites had been prepared for the launching ofV’s and some of the original Ski sites could also havebeen used.

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Flottemanville Hague (La Malbreche)

This site is a real enigma, in the respected book on the V1sites in le Manche, written by Régis Grenneville he statesthat this site was used for the assembly of V1s, fromwhere they would be delivered to the lighter V1 sites.He also suggests that the building of the same type that isfound at Bricqubec and Valognes with a large entrance atboth ends through which the V1 could be pushed.The main problem with that hypothesis is that there are nodoors to the garage only the steps down at the end nearestthe road.The building at Flottemanville Hague uses the sameconstruction techniques at those later V1 installationsbuilt in 1944 and that it was connected with the V1 iscertain.Inside the building are a number of smaller office typerooms running off a central corridor and also a largeroom running the length of the building.Could this building have been the headquarters for the IVABT 1st Batterie who were know to have their controlpost in this area. They were responsible for the V1 sites tothe west of Cherbourg. Their launching site includedBrecourt, four of the Ski Sites Flottemanville Hague,Nouainville, Hardingvast both the east and west sites.Added to this they also crewed the light sites atNouainville, Tonneville, Sainte Croix Hague, Branvilleand Vauville.Alongside the building is the usual concrete road, still ingood condition and a concrete gully to drain water awayfrom the site.

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Foret de L’Hermitage

A real mystery site, not mentioned in any books or American Regimentalhistories. This transport site would appear to have built around 1943 from the styleof the later V1 sites. Because of its situation is usage is most likely linked to the V1, although handily placed forthe coastal batteries a little to the north. Another possibility could be that the site was linkedto the proposed mobile V2 launches. The two railhead reception sites are also near by, at Valognes and Bricquebec, which wouldhave received the V1 flying bombs.The garages, built in single, twin, and triple blocks are about the same dimensions as thegarages on the light launch sites.Some of the garages have inspection pits, again pointing to it being a service depot.There is a bunker a little further up the road in the direction of Valognes, which could havebeen used as command centre for the facility.The garages and the bunker show signs of large scale bombing or shelling and also smallercaliber fire.The most important find in a single garage on the site is a painted sign in English which says

“For the use of mechanics and authorized personnel only”This must mean that the Americans, because of the “Z” in the spelling.Once they had liberated the area they used the site for vehicle servicing and repair.

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Mesnil au Val

The Germans called the site L’Orion after the nearby farm.The site here was aligned towards Bristol, although this Bristol would have been at the limitof a V! Launched from here.The V1 site here is possibly one of the best preserved in Normandy, the downside is thatalmost all the buildings have been converted to agricultural use. Even the ramp, one of the shorter types, now forms two walls of a pheasant enclosure. The rest of the buildings with the exception ofthe Ski Garages are used to support the dairyherd that is kept on the farm.Once you enter the site the three Ski Garages areon the left, most are is very good condition andthere is little sign of bomb damage.To the north of the ramp there are numerouscraters caused by Allied bombs that fell a fewmeters off their intended target.

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Tonneville

The Germans called the site Le Manoirandnumbered it 144 in their numbering system.It is possibly the best preserved light site inNormandy. The three main elements can all be easily found.The garage is at the end of the small road leading tothe manoir.The ramp is very strangely constructed in the heartof the farm yard, and the fixing points for the rampcan still be seen in the concrete base. Possibly this was to help with the camouflage of thesite. There is also a drain in the centre of the concretebase, which would have polluted the nearby streamis a V1 had ever been launched from this site.The anti magnetic platform is a little further alongthe road, in the garden of a nearby house.

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V2 Guided Ballistic Rocket

The V2 rocket was the world’s first ballistic missile. It was originallydesignated A4, as it was the fourth in a line of rocket developments,however, Joseph Goebbel’s propaganda ministry renamed it Vergeltungswaffe 2 (RetaliationWeapon 2). It was naturally shortened to V2 The major character in the development of the Germanballistic missile program was engineer Werner von Braun, who became the Head of theGerman Rocket Development Centre in Peenemunde. As an engineering student he was a member of the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society forSpace Travel) and was always interested in furthering the cause of rockets as a means ofspace travel. At the request of the Reichswehr Ordnance Department, he began work onrockets in 1932 upon graduation from the Berlin institute of Technology. The fledgling Reichswehr’s interest in rocketry was to legally get around the restrictions onthe number and size of artillery pieces laid out in the Treaty of Versailles following WW I.Rockets were not included as artillery pieces.Unlike the VI developed by the Luftwaffe. which flew low, and slow enough to beintercepted by fast aircraft, the V2 was a true, guided, ballisticmissile, rising intothe stratosphere before plunging down to the target. The only warning of an approaching V2 was the double boom as itbroke the sound barrier shortly before impact.There was no defence against the V2, so the English went after thelaunching sites. They did this very effectively in the Pas de Calais so that onlymobile V2s could be launched. None of these systems were eversuccessfully attacked.However, due to the large bomber raid on the Peenemunde test site,the V2 program was set back a few crucial months. They were notready in time for the Allied landings in Normandy, where they couldhave played considerable havoc with logistical systems. Instead the Germans rained V2s ontoAntwerp once the Allies captured it, as it was used as the major European port for Alliedsupplies. The German rocket troops were trained to erect 3 missiles at a time., fuel, align, and launchthem in a matter of 2 hours.About 1000 of these missiles were fired at the cities of London and Norwich, while about2000 more were fired at targets on the European continent, primarily Antwerp. Another 500or so were used in test and training launches. A total of about 10,000 were built and shippedfrom a central German assembly facility located in the Hartz Mountains, in the area known asthe Miftelwerke. Many missiles were still in the pipeline to thefront, or had been rejected by the troops becauseof problems and damage when the war ended.The V2 ultimately failed as a weapon due to itsgreat expense, relatively small warhead andinaccuracy. Had the Germans developed anuclear warhead for it, then it would have been avery different matter.

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V2 Guided Ballistic Rocket cont.2

A version of the V2 named V4 was intended to be launched againstAmerica from submarines, and these plans for these rockets were well advanced,submersible containers having been tested.The design of the A9 and A10 made this design obsolete.These three stage rockets would have been capable of attacking the USA,. from sites inNormandy.After the war the Allied Forces showed great interest in learning more about this new weaponand its military applications. The US War Department decided at the end of the World War 11 to bring a number of German scientists and engineers to the USA, forinterrogation, as well as to have them demonstrate the use and operation of these newsystems.About 500 German rocket specialists were used in “Operation Paper-clip” for this purpose,including Wernher von Braun. Many of them became naturalised Americans and contributedgreatly to all of the American rocket programs, both military and scientific.

Technical DetailsThe V2 was an unmanned, guided, ballistic missile. It was guided by an advanced gyroscopicsystem that sent signals to aerodynamic steering tabs on the fins. It was generally inaccuratedue to errors in aligning the rocket with it’s target, premature shutoff of the motor andinconsistencies in electric current in the guidance system. It was propelled by an alcohol(a mixture of 75% ethyl alcohol and water), and liquid oxygen fuel. The two liquids weredelivered to the thrust chamber by two rotary pumps, driven by a steam turbine. The steamturbine operated at 5,000 rpm on two auxiliary fuels, namely hydroperoxide (100 %) andcalcium permanganate. This system generated about 55,000 lbs (27,000 to 30,000Newton) of thrust. The motor typically burned for 60 seconds, pushing the rocket to around4,400 ft/second. It rose to an altitude of 52 miles and had a range of 200 - 225 miles. The V2 carried a high explosive warhead weighing 2,000 lbs (1 ton) that was capable offlattening a large building.It was first fired operationallyon Sept. 7, 1944 againstLondon, primarily as apropaganda exercise.

It’s real claim to fame was asthe progenitor of the rocketrace that developed during theCold War, and ultimately putmen on the moon and probesthat have left our solar system.

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V2 The Preparations

The massive German works projects that dotted the coast of northernFrance from 1942-44 are usually associated with the colossal AtlanticWall, "Fortress Europa", for the most part. Visitors have travelled toFrance, Belgium and Holland for many years to view these impressive fortifications built invain by Nazi Germany. What many people never knew, was that many of the most extravagant construction projectsundertaken by Germany, were part of Hitler's campaign of "vengeance". On December 22, 1942, General Dornberger along with the Minister Albert Speer, weresummoned to attend an important meeting at the Ministry of War in Berlin. Hitler gave thema directive to build a hardened "blockhaus" in northern France where V2 rockets could attackEngland. There would be several V2 projects in northern France, along with the V1 and V3projects that were also underway. The preparation for the V2 launching bunkers began in late1942. In the month of December and January, officers, engineers and scientists fromOberstleutnant Thom & Peenmünde scoured the countryside of northern France searching forappropriate sites. The scientists in Peenmünde were in favour of the bunkers as a place where the V2 could bein a controlled environment and very precise checks could be made to each rocket beforefiring. They had already been planning for this type of deployment, having plans and modelsalready constructed. All of the components were accounted for including, barracks to housethe 250-300 personel, antiaircraft batteries, storage of dangerous materials and a way oftransporting the missiles through a prepping stage, all the way to the moment of launching.But, General Dornberger and other military officers thought that the only practical way todeploy the missile would be as a highly mobile system. This theory would eventually beproved very true. Throughout 1943-44 work commenced on these mammoth projects. Using 40,000 forcedlabourers, the Germans began their program of secret-weapons sites in northern France.Six-thousand of these labourers were brought to the Pas-de-Calais area, near Eperlecques, tobegin the excavation of the giant Watten "blockhaus". The Watten construction waseventually bombed to the point that another location was found near St. Omer in a largequarry at Wizernes. This site too would come under heavy Allied bombing. Another V2 sitewas located on the Cherbourg peninsula near the town of Sottevast, about 8 miles south ofCherbourg. None of these sites would ever launch a single V2 rocket toward England. The enormousscale of these works drew the attention of the Allied Air Command, especially the RAF. TheNormandy invasion, the later than expected development of the V2, and the constantbombing - all contributed to this outcome. The rockets would indeed become a mobileweapon that was impossible to counter after its deployment in Holland and Germany late inthe war. But these massive structures, for the most part, remain today as they were then. It is veryinteresting to visit these sites today. They remain as constant reminders of the strugglebetween bombs and armour. You can imagine very well the harsh, cruel treatment of thelabourers, but still marvel at the structures themselves. You can see what might havehappened, if the brave Allied airmen had not undertaken this challenge of crushing Hitler'sV2 and V1 bunkers in France.

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V2 Deployment

It was in November of 1938 that Gruppe IV (Division IV) was set up atWa.Prüf.11 (Abteilung 11 der Amtsgruppe für Entwicklung andPrüfwesen des Heereswaffenamtes = Division 11 of the Army Ordinance Department) forimmediate mass production of the A4 rocket after the completion of its development.Beginning in January 1939, this organisation, headed by Walter Dornberger, was responsiblefor the development of rockets for the German army. Several designs had already been testedand with the success of the recent A5 launches (an A4 test-bed rocket), the Peenemündescientists were starting the actual work on what would become the V2 rocket. Their effortswould finally culminate in late 1943, when the A4/V2 was being successfully fired on aregular basis. General Walter Dornberger had been working toward the mass production of A4 rockets,finally securing production authority for Peenemünde. But, on August 17, 1943, an RAF raidon Peenemünde caused the high command to reconsider the site because of its vulnerabilityto Allied air attack. The SS took A4 production away from Dornberger and moved it to amassive network of underground tunnels near Nordhausen. This facility was called theMittelwerk and it was controlled directly by the SS. There existed a debate as to whether theA4 should be a mobile weapon. The rocket scientists favoured fixed launching complexes sothat all of the prepping and last minute adjustments could be done to the rocket. The militaryexperts realised that a fixed site would always be an easy target for Allied bombersAt Calais and Cherbourg in France, Hitler ordered in autumn of 1942, the construction of V2rocket bases, where he planned to launch wave after wave of attacks on the cities of SouthernEngland. These sites, Watten, Sottevast& Wizernes, consisted of giant concrete bunkers. Atthese locations, the Germans intended to launch hundreds rockets per week and also producethe liquid oxygen needed for rocket fuel. During late 1943 and early 1944, Allied aircraftdropped tons of bombs on each of these sites. The massive concrete structures were neveroperational, but became an integral part of the V2 history. After the Fi 103 Flying Bombs (V1) launching sites in France had been overrun by advancingAllied Armies, Hitler gave the order to open "Operation Penguin," the attack on Londonusing the A4/V2 rocket as a mobile weapon (to begin on Sept. 15, 1944). The Allies wereslowed in their advance by overextending their supply lines and the Netherlands remainedunder German control. SS General Hans Kammler, now in charge of all rocket troops, gaveGeneral Walter Dornberger instructions to have all available rocket batteries ready foroperations in Holland by no later than Sept. 05. After losing his bid to gain control ofproduction, assembly and deployment of the A4 rocket, Dornberger had been charged withoversee and training of the first German rocket troop crews. Now, the V2 onslaught wouldbegin from the international city of The Hague and many remote, forested areas in Holland.The Peenemünde engineers created a mobile erector and trailer called the Meillerwagen,which was produced in Munich by theMeiller Corporation. This device wouldbecome a key component in thesuccessful deployment of the missilethroughout the Netherlands andGermany. +

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Sottevast V2 Facility

Construction started slightly earlier than at Couville and it is muchcloser to completion. This is because it was realised that with Allied bombing going onit was impossible to complete two sites, and hence only the moreadvanced of the two was continued. Sottevast also had the advantage of having existing railwaysidings and a nearby quarry.Construction started in early 1943. There had been littlebombing and an air-raid siren had been placed on the top of aconcrete shelter. Approaching from the south-east, the main building is like agiant ‘L’ laid on its side; the legs are 600 ft and 190 ft long,enclosing a concrete parking area of 263 ft x 127 ft. There is no access above ground; the rockets came from thesidings at Sottevast via the site narrow gauge railway andentered the main building via a vertical shaft at the end of theshorter leg. The entrance shaft is 40 ft x 37 ft, now roofed overwith concrete beams, and makes an opening on the other sideof the leg. The short leg varies in height from 14 ft on the inside of the ‘L’to 20 ft on the outside and is 16 ft wide.Inside the 21 ft-wide entrance of the shaft, the concrete on bothsides disappears into the ground, and according to a localfarmer the shaft was originally ‘30—40 m’ deep.On the inside of the opening, pointing back down the leg, aretwo rectangular slots, 32 in x 21 in, 5 ft 6 in apart and extendingapproximately 30 ft into the leg. These slots must have been intended for part of the lifting gearfor either a door (remains of which are hidden under the soil)and/or the rockets as they were lowered into the bunker.Other constructional details of the short leg are steel reinforcingbars which protrude above the rocket entrance shaft, indicatingthat an extension or cover was meant to be added over theentrance, and on the opposite side there are eight vertical Vshaped recesses 18 in wide and 24 in deep, arranged at regularintervals, 5 ft 8 in apart. These also disappear into the soil. The recesses were probably intended for beams which wouldhave supported a lightweight structure attached to this outerwall, providing a weatherproof cover over this opening.The long section of the leg is 600 ft x 29 ft. Its height aboveground varies from 4 ft to 6 ft, and the last 196 ft of the legslightly slope downwards (100). Its purpose is unknown.

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Sottevast Cont. 2

However, at Couville, too, there is a slight slope to the last 100 ftof the two walls. The concrete for this longer leg also disappears into theground but it appears that the roof, supported by the ground,was constructed first and that the supporting walls were to beadded later, and there is a 6 ft-wide recess on one side wherethis wall would be added. On the roof of this section areseveral scrap pieces of the site’s narrow gauge railway.On the inside of the ‘L’ is a large irregular concrete parkingarea, which overall measures 263 ft x 91 ft. Just outside the area enclosed by the ‘L’ is another smallerstructure, parallel to the short leg. This concrete building, which is partially buried, is 100 ft x31.3 ft and its height varies from 3.5 ft to 6.9 ft above theground.The entrance, 30 ft wide, is at the south end and it is nowblocked with soil. On the roof are more pieces of the sitenarrow gauge railway. This building appears to have been the site garage andlocomotive shed.Sottevast, like Couville, was intended to provide a secure storage and servicing facility forthe modified V2 and its larger developments. The rockets would have arrived by rail from Germany and been unloaded at the Sottevastsidings. These sidings still exist and are unusually large for a village of this size. A milkprocessing plant has since been built on the edge and this has obscured the original unloadingarea.Using the narrow gauge railway, the rockets would have been moved horizontally to thebunker entrance where they would have been lowered vertically into the shaft. Themachinery for doing this is now missing. Judging by the widths of both legs, all rocketmovements would have been carried out vertically, as normal, and underground there mayhave been enough space for only one line of rockets. However, it is likely that the underground area was wider than the roof.There is a plain concrete pad, 60 ft x 40 ft and 100 ft beyond the north end of the ‘L’.

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Sottevast Cont. 3

The absence of any foundation bolts or other means of attachmentindicates that it was not intended for AA guns or a building. Most likely it was intended as a launching pad, despite the lack ofcable troughs, as it is situated so that the launch direction is awayfrom the site buildings and parking areas. A possible means of reaching this pad would have been by ramp, through the openingopposite the entrance shaft, as shown on fig. 11. It is alsopossible that launches were intended to be carried out fromthe entrance shaft itself, in which case the rocket would havebeen raised to near ground level by a lift. This would explain the purpose of the opening on theopposite side of the leg, where the notional ramp is shown,as this opening would act as an exhaust path for the rocketexhaust. (The American Titan I ICBM of 1959 was silobased but raised to the surface immediately before launch,when all the pre-flight checks had been carried out, so thismode of operation would not be that unusual.)There is no way of determining the actual storage capacity atSottevast, other than the fact that the combined legs give atotal length of 750 ft. This would provide a vertical storagecapacity of around 65 V2s, but if the area under ground iswider than the roofs, then this could provide considerablymore space. Although Couville is much less complete than Sottevast, thetwo sites would have been able to provide a considerable storage and servicing facility for themodified V2s and their developments.

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The Launching Of A V2

The Germans were very secretive about their Vengeance weapons andvery little filmed evidence was ever shot and even less remains.After the Allies liberated Holland, many V2’s fell into American and British hands.The Americans shipped nearly 200 completed rockets back to the US.The British had less than ten, and some of these were launched from Holland by Germanpersonnel, wearing their correct uniforms. It was called “Operation Backfire” and most of thefilm footage you see of a V2 launch comes from this episode.The Russians also captured a few rockets and by 1947 had built their own copy

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The Launching Of A V2 cont. 2

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The Launching Of A V2 cont. 3

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The Launching Of A V2 cont 4

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The Launching Of A V2 cont 5

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The Launching Of A V2 cont 6

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The “America Rocket”

This project is still surrounded in secrecy. The German rocket engineersdid not want the Americans to know the full picture of their technology before they escapedto America as Germany fell.By the beginning of 1944 both the V1 and V2 programmes had fallen under the auspices ofthe Gestapo who, after Allied attacks on Peeumunde, had moved the test and research site toPoland, well out of reach of the Allied bombers.Von Braun had stated that no A10 rocket had been made or fired, it was just a project. What is known is an A9, in effect a winged bersion of the V2, thus with more range, wasdevoloped and launched.The V10 rocket was initially to have a larger version of the V2 rocket, almost the same motorthat was used in the US Saturn rocket.It was also planned to use a multiple rocket system to launch the V10, and this was mostcertainly still on the drawing board by the time the Russians overran the test site. All they found in the way of personnel was lower grade scientists some of whom were ofJewish backgrounds.It is rumoured that one V10 was successfully launched, but what is certain is that the secretsof the V10 project formed the basis of rocketry for most of the western countries after thewar.Had the V10 come to fruition during the war, it would have given the Germans a vehicle withwhich to attack the eastern seaboard of America. The one ton explosive warhead would not have been worthwhile, but a more likely warheadwould have been a nerve gas such as Sarin, of which the Germans had large stocks or even adirty nuclear bomb. The Germans would have been able to produce such a bomb by early 1946, and all that heldthe project up was a close proximity fuse.Interestingly the first concept of a multi stage rocket envisaged having the second stageinside the first. Although a true multistage rocket had been developed in the V4 “RhineMessenger”

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Hochdruckpumpe (“HDP”) or V3

There is only one V3 site on France, it is near the little village ofMimoyecques.Mimoyecques is between Calais and Bologne-sur-Mer, near the main road E402.

In the beginning of 1942, the German Rochling factorydeveloped a multi chambered long range gun, with the codename “Hochdruckpumpe” (“HDP”). At the end of 1943, a working scale model wasdemonstrated to Hitler. Hitler ordered that 50 of these gunsshould be built. Furthermore he wanted a large gun site in de Pas de Calaisin France, in order to shell London (England). The building started at the end of 1943.

The “Hochdruckpumpe” gun was built at the German testsite at Misery, Poland.By igniting the charges in the chambers sequential, the 15 cm (8 ins) shell was given a speed of 1100 meter/second. The Germans calculated that maximum shooting distancewould be 160 km. Enough for shelling London.

On July 16th, 1944, Allied bombers bombed the installationwith Tallboy bombs. One of the bombs went through the barrel shaft andpenetrated the complex and exploded on the bottom floor. The bomb exploded and caused a flood of the bottom floor,drowning most of the workers. They thought they were safe in the lowest part of thecomplex.After this bombardment the Germans gave up the complex,the project was abandoned.After the war, British forces blew up the entrances to thecomplex.

In the early eighties, one of the entrances was dug openagain. A part of the huge complex is currently a very interestingmuseum. On the complex are several monument built for the victimswho died during the bombardment. One of the monuments is dedicated to Joseph Kennedy, abrother of the later president of the United States, John. F. Kennedy.Joseph Kennedy and his crew died during a bombing raid onthe Mimoyecques complex.

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High Pressure Pump

This was the cover name for a German long-range gun intended to befired across the English Channel into the Greater London area. It was also known as Busy Lizzie’ and The Millipede’, both expressionsarising from its configuration. It was designed as a multiple chambered gun of 15 cm caliberwith a barrel 150 meters long; there was a conventional breech and a chamber at the rear end,and several auxiliary chambers arranged at 450 to the barrel at intervals of about 40 meters.The theory was that a fin-stabilized shell would be loaded into the breech. together with apropelling charge and additional propelling charges would be loaded into the side chambers.The first charge would fire and start the projectile up the bore; as it passed the first auxiliarychamber, the charge therein would be fired, producing additional gas to boost the velocity ofthe shell; this would be repeated as the shell passed all the chambers. With all these additional boosts, the shell would leave the muzzle at extremely high velocity something in the order of 5000 ft sec was forecast and would thus be projected into thestratosphere, where the lessened air resistance would permit the projectile to reach a range ofabout 175 miles.The idea was not new; it was first proposed by two Americans in the 1880s, Lyman andHaskell, and a gun built to their specification was fired. It proved unsuccessful, since thepropelling gases from the first charge passed around the shell and ignited the auxiliarycharges before the shell had reached them, giving an effect opposite to that desired. The idea reappeared at intervals, without having any better success, but the German proposalwas put up by Engineer Conders of the Rochling Stahiwerke AG in 1941. By May 1943 he had built a 20 mm prototype which appeared to work well and he hadmanaged to get the ear of Hitler, who approved of the project and authorized Conders toproceed on his own, without the knowledge of the Army Weapons Office (who would haveundoubtedly killed the idea on the spot). Full-caliber experimental guns were built and tried, all of which burst or underwent otherdisasters, while hundreds of workmen were set to work installing a fifty barrel weapon in ahillside near Calais. Eventually the Weapons Office had to be called in to provide someexpertise, and they managed to get the weapon working, after a fashion. However, by this time the Allied advance from Normandy had overrun the installation atCalais and the project was no longer viable. Hitler had hoped to make it his ‘V-3’ VengeanceWeapon, but only two shortened versions of the gun were built. These were hurriedly deployed during the Ardennes battle in December 1944 and fired oneor two shots without recorded result, after which they were blown up and abandoned.Fragments of the experimental gun are said to be still in existence on the Baltic coast.

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Rheinbôte (Rhine Messenger)

The Rheinbôte was the first multi stage rocket. It was developed by the Luftwaffe as a replacement for the V1 flying bombs, should thedevelopment of the V1 falter. It was given the V4 name by Hitler who was obsessed by the idea of new high tech weapons.It was always the poor relation, never being given the financial resources of its moreglamorous stable mates the V1, and V2.The rocket used four stages and was unguided and had a range of just over 200 kms.At the launch, the rocket weighed 1715 Kg and carried a 44 kg warhead.Because it was unguided the launch had to be very accurate, and this caused many problems. Firstly the rocket was very slim and was over 11 meters high. It was prone to bend slightly and really needed a specially designed launcher, although it hasbeen suggested that the V1 launch ramp could have been easily modified to take theRheinbôte, had there been a problem with the V1.Around 200 were launched at Antwerp in 1944, from converted V2 launch wagons(Meillerwagen).These launchers were intended to launch a V2 vertically and were not ideal for launching theV4 at an angle of 450. This did not help the accuracy of an already inaccurate weapon. None of the rockets launched did and great damage and were looked upon by the Allies asjust a nuisance weapon.After the war, the four Allies in the European theatre developed the V4 for their own use.

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German Secret Weapons

There is no question that the Germans produced a number of scientificbreakthroughs in their quest for war technologyduring World War II. The V-1 buzz bombs, a forrunner of today's cruise missiles, and the V-2 rocketsthat terrorised London are two of the most famousexamples, along with the Messerschmitt 262, theworld's first operational jet fighter.A respectful British historian Barre Pitt noted, "TheNazi war machine swung into action utilising asmuch as it could of the most up-to-date scientificknowledge available, and as the war developed thelist of further achievements grew to staggeringproportions. From guns firing "shells of air todetailed discussions of flying saucers, from beams of sound that were fatal to a man at 50yards to guns that fired around corners and others that could 'see in the dark “the list is awe-inspiring in its variety.”While some German technology was less developed than imagined at the time, some technologies were dangerously near to completion stage which could have reversed the war'soutcome. Secret German weapons nearing completion in 1945 included the Messerschmitt163 Komet and the vertically launched Natter rocket fighters, the jet-powered flying wingHorten Ho-IX and the delta-winged Lippisch DM 1. Another secret weapon that mightaccount for some of the "foo-fighter" reports was an anti radar, unmanned device called theFuerball or Fire Ball. Piloted by remote control, the Fire Ball was designed to interfere withthe ignition systems and radar operation of Allied bombers. According to author RenatoVesco, the Fuerball was "a highly original flying machine." It was circular and armoured, resembling a tortoise shell, and was powered by a special turbojet engine, whose principles ofoperation, generated a great halo of luminous flames, Radio controlled at the moment oftakeoff, it then automatically followed enemy aircraft, attracted by their exhaust flames, andapproached close enough without collision to wreck theirradar gear.Vesco claimed that the basic principles of the Fuerball werelater applied to asymmetrical circular aircraft" known as theKugelblitz, or Ball Lightning, automatic fighter. He said thisinnovative craft was destroyed after a "single lucky wartimemission" by retreating SS (Schutzstuffel) or Defence Forcetroops and later kept secret from the Americans andRussians by the British military, who captured plans for thecraft.British author W. A. Harbinson wrote two novels based onthe idea that the Nazis developed a flying saucer andsecreted them away after the war in a hidden base inAntarctica. He claimed that he got his ideas after discoveringpost war German articles concerning a former Luftwaffeengineer, Flugkapitan Rudolph Schriever.

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German Secret Weapons cont.2

According to articles gleaned from Der Spiegel, Bild am Sonntag,Luftfabert International, and other German publications. Harbinsonlearned that Schriever claimed to have designed a"flying top" prototype in 1941, which was test-flown inJune 1942. In 1944, Schriever said he constructed alarger jet version of his circular craft with the help ofscientists Klaus Habermohl, Otto Miethe, and an Italian,Dr. Giuseppe Belluzzo. Drawings of this saucer werepublished in the 1959 British book German Secretweapons of the second world War by Maj. RudolphLusar.Lusar described the saucer as a ring of separate diskscarrying adjustable jets rotating around a fixed cockpit.The entire craft had a height of 105 feet and could flyvertically or horizontally, depending on the positioning of the jets.Schriever claimed that his "flying disc" had been ready for testing in early 1944 according tothe novelist Harbinson. But with the advance of the allies into Germany, the test had beencancelled, the machine destroyed, and Schriever's designs either mislaid or stolen. However.Schriever's story is disputed by an alleged eyewitness Georg Klein, who claimed that he hadactually seen the test flight of the Schriever disc on February 14, 1945.Schriever is reported to have died in the late 1950s, and according to a 1975 issue ofLuftfahrt International, notes and sketches concerning a large flying saucer were found in hiseffects. The periodical also stated that Schriever maintained until his death that his originalsaucer concept must have been operational prior to the war's end. This possibility isacknowledged by British author Brian Ford.Another candidate for an inventor of a German UFO was the Austrian inventor ViktorSchauberger, who reportedly was kidnapped by the Nazis and was forced to design a numberof "flying discs" in 1940 using a flameless and smokeless form of electromagnetic propulsioncalled "diamagnetism." Schauberger also reportedly worked for the US government for ashort time after the war before dying of natural causes. Shortly before his death, he wasquoted as saying, "They took everything from me. Everything." No one knew for certain whohe meant, the Nazis or the Allies.While any number of books have strongly suggested that The Nazi hierarchy was involved inoccult practices, there is no question that the Germans were experimenting with a widevariety of innovative aircraft and propulsion systems toward the end of the war. There is littledoubt that they at least contemplated building a flying saucer. There are tantalising bits ofevidence that Nazi Germany indeed added a flying disc to its inventory of secret weapons.However, there is no indication of whatbecame of it.The solution to this puzzle might be found bystudying the man in charge of Germany'shigh-tech weapons programs, SSObergruppenfuhrer Dr. Hans Kammler.

German Secret Weapons cont. 3

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In mid-1943, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler sent a letter to Germany'sminister for armaments and munitions, Albert Speer. Reichfuhrer, dohereby take charge of the manufacture of the A-4 instrument." The A-4 was later designated by Hitler as the V-2--V for Vengeanceweapon, the V-1 buzz bomb being the first. The V-2 was Germany'smost secret high-tech weapons system. Himmler thenplaced Kammler in overall command of the rocketprogram. According to Speer, Kammler worked his way intoall phases of the V-2 program until Hitler finally puthim in charge of all air armaments, including anypossible secret saucer project. He becamecommissioner general for all important weapons justweeks before the end of the war. As the war drew toa close, Himmler's SS gradually assumed totalcontrol over Germany's weaponry production andresearch.Working closely with Kammler on the V-2 project were Werner von Braun, who after the war headed America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and his superior, Lufftwaffe Maj. Gen. Walter Dornberger, who later became vice-president of Bell Aircraft Company and of Bell Aerosystems Company in the United States.Alarmed by the progress on the V-2 rockets, Britain's Bomber command sent 597 bomberson the night of August 16-17, 1943, to raid Peenemunde, Germany's top-secret rocket facilitybuilt on an island at the mouth of the Oder River near the border of Germany and Poland.Because so much of Peenemunde was underground or well camouflaged, much was leftundamaged. After the raid, it was quickly realised by the Germans that some of the facilityneeded to be dispersed throughout Germany. Theoretical development moved toGarmisch-Partenkirchen, development went to Nordhausen and Bleicherode, and the mainwind-tunnel and ancillary equipment went down to Kochel, some twenty miles south ofMunich. It can be noted that a certain portion of top-secret Nazi weaponry was moved to an area near Blizna, Poland. As Kammler, von Braun, Dornberger, and company workedfeverishly to perfect the V2s and other secret weapons, Himmler was working on separatinghis SS from normal party and state control. In the spring of 1944 Hitler approved Himmler's proposal to build an SS-owned industrial concern in order to make the SS permanentlyindependent of the state budget. In moves that were to be emulated in later years by theCentral Intelligence Agency, SS leaders created a number of business fronts and other organisations, many using concentration-camp labour, with an eyetoward producing revenue to support SS activities. SS officersneither required nor desired any connection with Germany'shigh-profile leaders. Their purpose was to continue Nazi goals longafter the defeat of Germany.

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Arado Ar 196

A total of 593 of these German two-seat float planes were built, with 960hp BMW 132K engines, maximum armament of two 20 mm guns andtwo machine guns, and two 110 lb. Bombs. Some flew from warships; most were used to attack submarines andsmall ships, and to harass Allied aircraft over the English ChannelThe Arado Ar 234 was a German jet reconnaissance-bomber, in service from 1944 . Though possibly the British turbojets based on Whittle’s concept were more reliable, theGerman jet effort in World War II started much earlier and was far more diverse. In October 1940, before anyone in Britain had even thought of ordering a jet of any kind forcombat duty, engineers at the Arado Flugzeugwerke had been asked to prepare studies for ajet reconnaissance aircraft. Such aircraft need the greatest possible speed and altitude, so that they can escapeinterception, and the Ar 234 took shape in 1941 as the first aircraft ever designed to fly fasterand higher than any opponents, over enemy territory, on the power of jet engines. It was a single-seater, with the pilot in a pressurised cockpit forming the entire nose. The wing was mounted above the slim fuselage and carried the two jets in under slungnacelles. To accommodate the large amount of fuel needed, almost the whole fuselage wasoccupied by tankage. The main problem was that there was nowhere to put the retracted landing gear, andeventually the bold decision was taken to take off from a large trolley and land on smallretractable skids under the fuselage and engines.After extensive ground testing the first prototype flew on 15 June 1943. It was soon evident that a normal landing gear had to be provided, and the first Ar 234B, theninth prototype, flew in March 1944 with tricycle landing gear retracting into a slightlyenlarged fuselage. By September 1944 a special Sonderkommando unit had been formed tooperate the Ar 234B-l in the reconnaissance role. Powered by I 980lb thrust Junkers Jumo 004B turbojets, this aircraft could fly at nearly 470mph at around 30,000ft and thus was immune to interception. The B l was used in fairnumbers (about 60) over Britain and northern Italy, where no Luftwaffe aircraft had daredtake photographs for months. But most of the 210 Ar 234B series that entered service were234B—2 Blitz bombers, carrying a bomb load of up to 30861b slung externally and alsofitted with two 20 mm MG 151 cannon firing directly to the rear, aimed against fighters by apilot periscope. Many sorties were flown with 22051bbombs against the vital Remagenbridge across the Rhine in March1945, and at many other Alliedcentres. The Ar 234B was easy to fly, but itneeded a long takeoff run and in anycase was handicapped by theLuftwaffe’s desperate shortage ofpilots and fuel.Another Ar234P series was underdevelopment at the end of the war.

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Fritz-X

The Fritz-X was a German air-to-ground guided glide bomb, and wasalso known as FX-l 400 or SD-1400. It could be controlled during its drop by anobserver in the parent aircraft passing commandsvia a radio link. It was basically a 1400kgarmor-piercing bomb to which small wings and atail unit containing the guidance mechanism hadbeen added. Signals received by the radio receiverin the bomb caused spoilers on the tail surfaces tobe raised into air stream, thus modifying thebomb’s trajectory. Development began in 1939 and final trials weredone in Italy in early 1942. Its most notable success was the sinking of the Italian battleshipRoma on 9 September 1943, which was achieved by hits with three Fritz-X bombs.

Electric Gun

The prospect of launching a projectile by magnetic force has attracted inventors ever sincethe solenoid was invented, but it has rarely been attended with success. During World War IIthere were two projects put forward in Germany to use electric propulsion. The first was by an engineer named Muck, consultant to the Siemens company, whoproposed a solenoid-type gun to be mounted in a hillside near the Lille coalfields in Francethis location was necessary since the gun would require 50,000 tons of anthracite a month togenerate the necessary electric power. This weapon would then be used to bombard London from a range of 155 miles with 4501bshells. In 1943 this idea was put forward to Reichsminister Speer, but after examination by anumber of technical experts it was turned down as being impractical. In 1944 another idea was put forward by Engineer Hansler of the Gesellschaft für Geratbaufor a 4 cm gun based on the linear motor principle. This promised a rate of fire of 6000 rounds a minute from a multiple-barreled installation, avelocity of over 6000 ft/sec and a shell containing 500 kg of explosive.The Luftwaffe accepted the idea for use as an anti aircraft gun and preliminary calculationsindicated that the power required, 3900 kilowatts per gun, would be easily achieved byconventional generators. Work began on a prototype gun in February 1945 but the work was not completed before thewar ended. The project was closely examined by the Allies in postwar years, but it was eventuallyascertained that each gun would have required the services of a power station sufficient tosupply a major city. The idea has never been revived, and no plans or photographs survive.

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Eazian

The Enzian was a German guided missiledeveloped by Messerschmitt AG in 1943 - 44. It was first designed as a ground-to-air missile,but later proposals envisaged using it as a groundto ground or even antitank weapon. Of exceptional power. it carried 1000lbs of highexplosive and a proximity fuze. It was powered by four solid-fuel boost rocketsfor takeoff and a liquid-fuel sustained motor forflight. Guidance was by radio link, an operator relyingon optical or radar tracking to get the missile intothe target area, after which an infrared homing head or radar homing head would take overand guide the missile to its target. About 60 rockets of various degrees of development, were built and 38 were flown, 16 withradio guidance. but the project never reached the production or service stage.

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Föhn

This German multiple antiaircraft rocket launcher fired a 73 mm highexplosive rocket. The launcher was a simple framework of racks whichheld 35 rockets; it was transported on a trailer and inan emergency could be fired from it. The rocket wasspin-stabilized and carried a warhead of 280g of highexplosive with an impact fuze in the nose and aself-destruction device in the base which ensured thatthe rocket would explode in the air and not fall back tothe ground unexploded. Very little information on range or effect has ever beenfound and it seems that relatively few were everdeployed. At the closing stage of the war it wasproposed to use the Föhn rockets in the air-to-air rolein the ‘Natter’ interceptor.

Natter

This German piloted, rocket-propelled inter-ceptor aircraft for the defense of vulnerablepoints against heavy bomber formations wasbasically a single-seat monoplane with a Walterrocket motor and armed with a battery of 73mm Fohn rockets in the nose or, alternatively, abattery of single-shot 30 mm guns. It was to belaunched vertically from a guide-rail, climbingat 425 mph, with a flight duration of about fourminutes, after which the pilot would glide backclose to his base and parachute out, leaving theaircraft to crash-land. Work began in August 1944, and after glidetests showed the aircraft’s stability to be good, a manned flight was ordered by the SS inFebruary 1945. Against the designer’s advice, this took place and the pilot was thrown out ofthe aircraft and killed. A total of 30 Natter aircraft were built, of which four survived to becaptured by the Allies in 1945. It never achieved service status.

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Messerschmitt Me 262

This German jet fighter and fighter-bomber was in service from1944—45. Though the British Meteor beat it into service as the world’s first fullyoperational turbojet aircraft, the Me 262 was begun far earlier in 1938,and was built during World War II in far greater numbers. The first prototype had a piston engine in the nose and tail-down landing gear. and flew inApril 1941. The third prototype made the first flight on jet power only. in July 1942.Development was slow because the Nazi leaders thought they would not need such anadvanced aircraft, and it was not until Hitler himself watched an Me 262 display inNovember 1943 that he allowed production to go ahead. Amazingly, he refused to consider itas a fighter, saying “That is just what we need for our Blitz bomber!’ Messerschmitt had togo on with the Me 262A la Schwa/be (Swallow) in secret. This was a superb machine, with excellent flying qualities and the devastating armament offour 30 mm cannon. The only type officially allowed was the Me 262A—2a Sturmvogel, with pylons under thefuselage for two 1,1000 bombs. Hitler’s interference merely delayed the fighter by about fourmonths. One or two were secretly used by Luftwaffe test pilots in combat missions in July 1944, butthe first Development Unit did not form until September (EKE 262), and the first operationalfighter unit (Commando Nowotny) formed at the end of the month. The 262 was powered by two 19801b thrust Jumo 004 turbojets, and could reach 540 mph.Casualties were high, mainly because of engine failures and complete lack of special training.There were many versions by the end of 1944, including two-seat bombers andradar-equipped night fighters, reconnaissance versions. trainers and bomber-destroyers withR4/M rockets or the enormous 50 mm MK 114 gun. More radical armament included the Jagdfaust, with twelve mortars firing heavy projectilesdiagonally up at Allied bomber formations. Total production by VE-Day amounted to 1433, with hundreds more damaged in the factoriesby bombing, but only a few had pilots or fuel. This was lucky for the Allies because the 262 was perhaps the most formidable fighter of thewar. In one month in 1945, one unit (JV 44) with an average of only six serviceable aircraftdestroyed 45 of the Allies’ latest warplanes. Nevertheless too few were built to have any effect.

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Rheintochter

This German ground-to-air guided missile was developed by theRheinmetall-Borsig company from 1942 onwards.Firing tests began in August 1943 and by the 5th January 1945 some 82 had been fired ofwhich only four had failed. The propulsion involved a solid-fuel motor, with a solid-fuel boost unit used for initiallaunch. It was guided by radio command, the missile being optically tracked by means offlares attached to the fins. The warhead contained 3301b of high explosive and was detonated by a ‘Kranich’ acousticproximity faze. Rheintochter was originally designed for an altitude of 8000 meters, but when the design wascompleted the Luftwaffe turned it down, having decided that more altitude was necessary.The propulsion unit was therefore redesigned to use solid or liquid fuels, the boost motorsslung alongside, and the missile was to be launched from a permanent emplacement in a pit.This was Rheintochter 3, and work began on it in May 1944. By January 1945 six had been built and fired, but the control system had not been perfected.Development was stopped on 6 February 1945, it being considered that it was unlikely to becompleted in time to have any effect on the course of the war.

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Goliath

This was one of the more bizarre German inventions of the second worldwar, these strange little machines came in two sizes.Originally conceived as a safe means of a safe demolition forthe engineer battalions, it was later used as a defence or evenan attack vehicle.The little tank filled with explosives, was remotely controlledby an operative out of sight with a crude control box linked bya control wire to the Goliath. It could be controlled at a range of nearly 1.5 miles, the cablebeing rolled out from the back of the machine.There were two variants. The smaller was battery powered, and the larger of the twoused a Zundap motor cycle engine.Forty of these little machines deployed at Utah, were of bothtypes. They even had a special regiment the Deutsche FernlenkTruppe to operate them. To save of motor transport they were equipped with a trolleyon which they were pushed to their starting position.The forty machines deployed here all failed to start in time to have any effect on the D-daylandings.There are photo’s showing GI’s playing with them on the days after D-day.Over 7,500 of these toy tanks were produced without having any noticeable effect on the war.

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Schmetterling

This German anti-aircraft missile was developed in 1941 by ProfessorWagner and was refused by the Luftwaffe on the grounds that it was adefensive weapon. Wagner received no official backing until 1943. Then the Henschel company was given adevelopment contract with production to begin inFebruary 1945. Due to bomb damage interruptingthe work, the development was incomplete whenthe war ended; of 59 experimental launchings, 34had failed for various reasons. Schmetterling was a bomb-shaped missile with fins,with two take off booster rockets attached to theoutside. The boost rockets were solid-fuel types. while theinternal sustainer motor was a liquid-fuel rocketfueled by a by a ground controller. It had an effective range of about 10 miles with aceiling of 35,000 feet. The warhead carried 55lb of high explosive and was fitted with a “Fox” proximity fuze.

X-series Missiles

These were German wire-guided missiles. The first to be developed was the X4, an air-to-airmissile, work on which began in June 1943. It was a finned missile with a wingspan of 6ft 6in, drivenby a BI-fuel liquid rocket at 550mph. Bobbins of wirewere carried in the wing tips, which unwound as it flew,and guidance signals were sent down the wire to function spoiler tabs on the wing surfaceswhich caused it to alter direction. The warhead carried 44lb of explosive and a “Kranich” acoustic proximity fuze. Prototypeswere flown successfully in September 1944 but the wire link from aircraft to missile wasconsidered too restricting, and work then began on two alternative versions, one using the‘Pudel’ acoustic homing system in which the missile would find its own way to the noise ofthe targets engines, and one using a radio link system of guidance. Neither of these hadpassed the development stage when the war ended. As an offshoot of the X4 program. it wasdecided to develop a wire-guided ground-to-ground missile for antitank use; this becameknown as the X7. It was gyro-stabilized and wire-guided in the same manner as the X4 butcarried a hollow charge warhead fitted with an impact fuze. It was propelled by a two-stagesolid propellant rocket motor, weighed 22lb, had a range of 1000 meters and could penetrateover 200 mm of armour. The X-series were developed by the Ruhrstahl AG company ofDüsseldorf, but none was ever brought to sufficient perfection to begin production before thewar ended. Nevertheless, the company deserve recognition for being the originators of thewire-guided antitank missile which is today in the armories of every nation, and, except forrelatively small refinements, is made to the same specifications as the X7.

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