V-weapons

V-weapons was the British name for the so-called Vergel tunsgwaffen (retaliation weapons) developed by the Germans as a means of exacting retribution for the destructive Allied bombing raids on Germany cities.

The V-1 flying bomb was a small pilotless (but see KG 200) aircraft powered by a pulse-jet engine (see Figure 1). Due to shortages of aluminium alloys, wherever possible parts of the weapon were manufactured from steel pressings. The missile could be catapulted to flying speed from an inclined ramp on the ground, or air-launched. It made its first flight launched from a ground ramp at the test establishment at Peenemünde on the Baltic, where Wernher von Braun was the technical director, in December 1942. In 1943 the weapon was ordered into mass production and responsibility for its operational deployment was assigned to the anti-aircraft arm of the Luftwaffe.

The first flying bombs were launched against London before dawn on 13 June 1944. Between then and the end of June, 2,452 were launched against England. About one-third of these crashed or were shot down, by fighters or anti-aircraft fire, before they reached the coast and one-third crashed or were shot down over southern England outside the target area. The remaining third, about 800 missiles, crashed on Greater London. The most serious single incident was on 18 June, when one landed on the Guard's Chapel at Wellington Barracks while a service was in progress and killed 121 people including 63 soldiers.

The majority of the flying bombs fired at England came from ground launchers, but a small proportion were launched from Heinkel 111s of 3rd Group of Kampfgeschwader 3 against London, Southampton, and Gloucester. Between a third and half of the air-launched bombs failed to function correctly and crashed soon after release, and the accuracy of the rest was far lower than those fired from ground launchers. Throughout these operations the German aircraft suffered continual harassment from RAF night fighters. In the autumn of 1944 the V-1 air-launching force was expanded to a full Geschwader, Kampfgeschwader 53, with about a hundred aircraft. But fuel shortages imposed severe restrictions on the pace of these operations and brought them to a halt in mid-January 1945. From October 1944, Belgian cities came under attack from V-1s. The main target was Antwerp, the chief supply port for Allied forces in Europe, which suffered considerable damage. In March 1945 the bombardment of London was resumed, using an extended-range version of the V-1 fired from launchers in the Netherlands. The new attack opened on 3 March 1945 and closed at the end of the month, after 275 missiles had been fired.

Altogether, just over 10,000 flying bombs were launched against England. Of those 7,488 crossed the British coast and 3,957 were shot down before reaching their targets. Of the 3,531 which eluded the defences, 2,419 reached London, about 30 reached Southampton and Portsmouth, and one hit Manchester. These bombs caused 6,184 deaths and 17,981 cases of injury.

The V-2 bombardment rocket (see Figure 2) was developed in parallel with the V-1, for the German Army. The rocket motor ran on alcohol and liquid oxygen, with a secondary power system using hydrogen peroxide and calcium permanganate to drive the fuel pumps. Guidance was preset, with an integrating accelerometer to measure when the missile had reached the requisite speed to reach the target. At that point the fuel to the rocket was cut off and the missile coasted along its ballistic trajectory to the target.

The V-2 made its first successful firing in October 1942, but it was a complicated and expensive weapon to develop and produce, and large-scale production did not begin until May 1944 at the huge underground factory at Nordhausen in the Harz mountains, with forced labour being employed in its construction (see Dora).

The first V-2 to reach England was launched from a site near The Hague in the Netherlands, some 310 km. (194 mi.) from its target. It crashed on Chiswick, in south-west London, on the afternoon of 8 September 1944, killing three people and injuring seventeen. It was launched from a small square of flat concrete that was easy to conceal, and all equipment for firing the weapon was easily transportable, so there was little for attacking aircraft to hit even if the sites could be found.

The port of Antwerp also came under attack from these missiles, more than 900 being fired at it during the final three months of 1944. Between 8 September 1944 and 27 March 1945, a total of 1,054 rockets fell on England (an average of about 5 per day); of that total 517 rockets (an average of fewer than 3 per day) hit London. Just over 2,700 Londoners were killed in the attack.

The V-3 long-range gun, code-named by the Germans Hochdruck pumpe (high-pressure pump) or Fleisigges Leichen (begonia), was a long-range smooth-bore gun, designed to fire fin-stabilized shells. Several designs of shell were considered for use with the gun, of which the largest was 3 m. (9 ft. 10 in.) long with a diameter of 11 cm. (4.3 in.), weighing 127 kg. (280 lb.) of which 10 kg. (22 lb.) was the high explosive warhead. The shells were held in the centre of the barrel by sabots arranged around their circumference, which fell away after the missile left the barrel. The gun was of unusual design, with a series of explosive charges placed in side chambers extending obliquely from the barrel along its length, rather like the ribs on a fish-bone. These charges were fired electrically in sequence as the missile came past each, to accelerate the shell by a series of propulsive ‘kicks’ until it reached the muzzle with a speed of about 1,500 m. (4,900 ft.) per second.

In the autumn of 1943, even before the weapon had demonstrated the required capability, work began to excavate two firing sites for it at Mimoyecques near Calais in northern France, 152 km. (95 mi.) from London. Together, the two sites would be capable of raining shells non London at a rate of about ten a minute. Each firing site was to have 25 barrels, each barrel 150 m. (492 ft.) long and with a bore of 15 cm. (5.9 in.). Inclined at an angle of 45 degree to the horizontal, each barrel was housed underground inside an oblique concrete-lined shaft.

Following an air attack on the workings in November 1943 one of the firing sites was abandoned. Development work on the weapon continued throughout the first half of 1944, but by July the longest range achieved was only 93 km. (58 mi.) and even at that inadequate distance the gun barrels demonstrated a disconcerting propensity to split open during firing. Also during that month RAF bombers attacked the surviving site at Mimoyecques using Tallboy bombs, causing serious damage to the underground installations. Little had been done to repair the damage when, in the following months, Allied troops overran the area.

Work on the novel gun continued, however. In December 1944 two simplified installations went into action, each with a single 60 m. (197 ft.) barrel and using reduced charges to give a range of about 65 km. (40 mi.). The guns bombarded the port of Antwerp and American troop positions in Luxemburg, but appear to have had little military effect. After a short time they were blown up by retreating German forces to prevent them from falling into Allied hands.

Alfred Price

Bibliography

Gunston, B. , Rockets and Missiles (London, 1979).
Irving, D. , The Mare's Nest (London, 1964).
Young, R. A. , The Flying Bomb (Shepperton, 1978).