The German V1 or Buzz bomb

[Franek]

I looked this thread over pretty good ans see no menrtion of the V1 rocket Bomb.
My experience with it was in the Ardennes prior to December the 16th. I was billeted in a place called Bucholtz station. It was just over the front line that the Germans launched them in my sector. As they were launched they were still gaining altitude. We ciould hear them coming. We called them Buzz bombs due to the noise that they made.. Due to the havoc they raised falling on Liege,Brussels, Antwerp and England. As they were launched,we were ordered to fire at them with anything that we had. Including M1's. The spectacular show was after dark.
Watching the pulsating flame coming from the jet engine,and the tracer from our 50cal machine guns,was a sight to behold. There were quite a few hit. They exploded in the sky.

[PsyWar.Org]

The common name at the time in Britain for them was "Doodle-bug", funnny enough the Germans themselves nicknamed them "Dödel".

Apart from shooting them down, a novel way of bringing them down over England was for a fighter plane to fly alongside them and using their wing tip to gently lift the wing of a V1. The V1 would then flip and crash. Obviously this was done over the open fields of Kent before they reached London.

There was also a very interesting deception campagin run by the Double-X committee, using captured and turned German agents, to send back false data to Germany about where the V1's were crashing. Basically they told Germany most were crashing in North East London, so that the Germans would compensate by reducing their range.

[Franek]

http://

[Owen]

One of the most famous buildings to be destroyed, in my opinion, was the Guards Chapel.
Flying Bombs and Rockets : The Guards Chapel

[Bodston]

Originally Posted by Franek

I looked this thread over pretty good ans see no menrtion of the V1 rocket Bomb.

Did you try the 'SEARCH' function on the toolbar. I just did and found 79 threads.

[deadb_tch]

Doodlebug Summer (Flying Bombs and Rockets : Doodlbug Summer), quote:

During research I came across one incident completely by chance which painfully illustrates the human suffering.
On the evening of the 18th July 1944 a Doodlebug dived through the open doors of ElmersEnd bus garage in Beckenham. It exploded among the buses killing 17 people. One of these was a 17 year old called Sydney Steer. It is not recorded if he was a London Transport staff member but as many of the casualties were, it seems likely.
His family must have been devastated at the loss of a young life but on the 2nd August a further tragedy was to happen. His father Herbert Steer was at a restaurant at Clockhouse in Beckenham which was hit by a V1 at 13.02 when it was packed with diners. 44 were to die including Herbert Steer. It was one of the worst tragedies in South London . It is hard to imagine the effect that this double loss must have had on his wife for the rest of her life.
This is an awful illustration of the futility and tragedy of the V weapon attacks

[Gotthard Heinrici]

And records of the V-weapons being used in the East or was it a purely "Western" phenomena?

[deadb_tch]

Originally Posted by Gotthard Heinrici

And records of the V-weapons being used in the East or was it a purely "Western" phenomena?

AFAIK, its pure Western ..

[von Poop]

The KGW-1 'Loon' illustrated above is an American produced variant intended specifically for Naval use.
The US made 'JB2' copy (or the Loon variant, can't remember) of the V1 was, if I recall sent to Japan onboard a Carrier for launch from there with the war ending before it could be used, so in that respect the Technology headed to another 'East'.

Fine sites:
V1 - Flying Bombs and Rockets : V1 Flying Bomb
V2 - http://www.v2rocket.com/

Good stuff on US models - Remote Piloted Aerial Vehicles : The 'Aerial Target' and 'Aerial Torpedo' in the USA

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Funny, its only since the inception of this thread made me realise that it was a purely "western" weapon. You would have thought that they would have tried to fire V-1's at the oncoming Russian armies, given their desperation towards the end.