The V-1 flying bomb (German:Vergeltungswaffe 1,)—also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern (cherrystone) or Maikäfer (maybug)—was an early pulsejet-powered cruise missile, the very first production aircraft of any type to use a pulsejet for power.
The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center by the Nazi GermanLuftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". The first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series designed for terror bombing of London, the V-1 was fired from launch facilities along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on 13 June 1944), one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landings in Europe. At its peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the V-1s were directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped when the last launch site was overrun on 29 March 1945.
A flying bomb is a manned or unmanned aerial vehicle or aircraft carrying a large explosive warhead, a precursor to contemporary cruise missiles. In contrast to a bomber aircraft, which is intended to release bombs and then return to its base for re-use, a flying bomb crashes into its target and is therefore itself destroyed in its attack.
The term flying bomb is most frequently associated with two specific Second World War weapons, the German V-1 and the JapaneseOhka. The former was unpiloted, as the first known cruise missile ever deployed in anger; the latter carried a pilot on a kamikaze mission.
Historic exemplars
The first attempt to build a flying bomb (alternatively called an "aerial torpedo" in the Navy) was undertaken by Elmer Sperry for the US Navy in 1916, called the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, and was based on a Curtiss N-9 seaplane. This led to a mission-specific Curtiss design, the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb, which was almost completely unsuccessful. The US Army also tried to develop a flying bomb in World War I, the Kettering Bug, but the war ended before the program could mature. The functioning but unsuccessful German Mistel flying bomb was essentially an enormous shaped charge mounted on an obsolete aircraft that was guided by a fighter sitting on top. The fighter first took a course towards the target, then released the Mistel which would continue to its target. The best known example of a flying bomb is the GermanV-1, many of which targeted London in 1944 during World War II.
With its distinctive, pulsating, motorbike-like sound, the V1 flying bomb - or "buzz bomb" - was one the most fear-inducing weapons of World War II... terrorised by the noise of the bomb approaching.
(MENAFN - The Conversation) During the second world war, German forces dropped 28,000 bombs and almost 3,000 V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets on London. Nearly 30,000 people were killed. The damage ... .
On this day in 1944 and exactly one week after the allied landings at Normandy, Nazi Germany launched its first V1 flying bombs (like an early cruise missile and similar to glide bombs used by Russia...
In the UK, V1 flying bombs continued to fall on London... In the UK, the British government announced that 756 people had died and 2,697 were badly injured since the V-1 flying bomb assault started ... Nineteen V-1 bombs were shot down by the RAF.
He would go on to become a young Spitfire pilot, provide air cover for troops during the D-Day landings and received a Mention in Despatches for the feat of shooting down a V1 flying bomb.Sponsored ... .
