History of Europe

1944:V1 bomb attack on London

by Dirk Hempel, NDR.deIn London, the V 1 bombs destroy numerous houses.

In the early morning of June 13, 1944, people in the south of England are woken up by the roar of engines. An elongated flying object with a fiery tail flies in the sky at dusk. Suddenly the noise stops, then the flying bomb slides to the ground and explodes. Equipped with 830 kilograms of explosives, it hits a crater six meters in diameter, causing havoc a hundred meters away. A total of four flying bombs detonate this Tuesday morning. In London, six people die, dozens are injured, numerous houses are damaged, a railway bridge is destroyed.

Cruise missiles for "Final Victory"

The V1 is the first bomb that can fly over long distances.

German anti-aircraft soldiers launched the bombs on the French Channel coast:They were "Fieseler Fi 103", the first cruise missile in the history of the war - tested for months in Peenemünde on the island of Usedom before they were used. Better known as V1, "Vergeltungswaffe 1", as it was soon called in Nazi propaganda:"retaliation" against the British civilian population for the Allied air raids on German cities. The first of those so-called wonder weapons that Hitler and Goebbels had been announcing for a long time and with which they wanted to turn the tide and achieve "final victory" in the fifth year of the war.

Peenemünde test site

The V1 is being tested in Peenemünde. The Allies photograph the launch pad from the air.

Since the early 1930s, work has been carried out in Germany on gliding, torpedo and flying bombs which, in contrast to falling bombs, can cover distances and can more or less be guided to the target. In addition to Henschel in Berlin and Blohm + Voss in Hamburg, the Fieseler works in Kassel are also working on such projects. In June 1942, the Reich Air Ministry commissioned them to develop the "Fi 103" cruise missile to the point where it was ready for series production. Just six months later it was launched for the first time at the Peenemünde-West Air Force testing site on Usedom - by a catapult with a 48 meter long and six meter high launch ramp, named after its designer, the Kiel submarine engineer Hellmuth Walter, Walter Slingshot.

A counter triggers the descent

The V1 has a fuselage length of 7.20 meters, a wingspan of over five meters and weighs 2.1 tons. Powered by a deflagration jet engine, it reaches a top speed of around 640 kilometers per hour. The range is about 240 kilometers. When the preset distance is reached, a counter cuts off the fuel supply and tilts the elevator, then the bomb begins to descend. The target accuracy is only twelve kilometers. In a metropolis as big as London, the bombs still wreak havoc.

British newspapers report "pilotless aircraft" attacks

After the impact of the first four V1s on June 13, 1944, the British government was so unsettled that it initially banned press reports about the flying bombs in order to avoid panic among the population. Only days later do the newspapers report attacks by "pilotless aircraft" on Great Britain. The Germans have already launched the actual massed attack with flying bombs, which is expected to last several weeks. On the first day, 73 V1s hit the Greater British Capital area, which the British soon call "doodlebug" or "buzz bomb" because of the noise they make.

A Londoner whose house was destroyed in the attacks said of the V1:"When I saw it coming it was flying about 300 to 400 kilometers an hour at a good 600 meters. It wasn't half the length of a Spitfire fighter plane, it didn't have one Propeller and no tail, gradually losing altitude Meter-long bolts of lightning came out the rear of the fuselage They were reddish-yellow, spewing out at five-second intervals Just as she was over my head, her engine died and the bolts disappeared flew in a semi-circle, then began to descend and smashed through the roof of a neighboring house. A few seconds later everything blew up."

Up to 100 V1 hit every day

A member of the Civil Defense Command describes the same attack in mid-June 1944:"First a deep roar was heard, followed by a glaring flash, and the air raid warden jumped up. The missile had hit the intersection. The way there led through a nightmare of smoke and dust. The street was littered with leaves, glass and debris. Injured and uninjured came tumbling out, confused and stunned in the dim twilight. The intersection was devastated. Four large houses were destroyed to the ground, dozens of others damaged, most still intact People who needed help."

Within a week, hundreds of people die in London, and houses, roads and railways are destroyed. A second "Blitz" - after months of bombing raids by the German Air Force in 1940/41 - has begun. At the end of June, 70 to 100 V1 bombs are still falling in London every day. Fear and terror spread among the population.

Belgium is also under fire

By March 1945, the Germans fired around 10,500 cruise missiles at targets in England, and after the retreat from France in September 1944 also from Holland and Germany. Hundreds of V1s are dropped in the air by Heinkel bombers. Most are aimed at London, but also at Manchester, Southampton and Gloucester. At the end of the war, Belgium was targeted by cruise missiles:a total of 11,892 V1 bombs were aimed at the Allied supply ports of Antwerp, Brussels and Liège.

  • 1
  • 2
  • Part 1:The first cruise missiles in the history of war
  • Part 2:After the bombs comes rocket fire with V2