V-1 flying bomb

The V-1 flying bomb was an early <a href="/facts/Cruise_missile/Frego9PF">cruise missile</a>. Its official <a href="/facts/Reich_Aviation_Ministry/06Khssnl">Reich Aviation Ministry</a> (RLM) name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (<a href="/facts/Hellhound/NddwyeQ3">hellhound</a>). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and Maikäfer (<a href="/facts/Maybug/T70mdTI4">maybug</a>).
The V-1 was the first of the Vergeltungswaffen (<a href="/facts/V-weapons/d8EUAGuo">V-weapons</a>) deployed for the <a href="/facts/Terror_bombing/0M2CccYY">terror bombing</a> of London. It was developed at <a href="/facts/Peenem%25C3%25BCnde_Army_Research_Center/XxHJnu5p">Peenemünde Army Research Center</a> in 1939 by the <a href="/facts/Luftwaffe/k7PAsBlo">Luftwaffe</a> at the beginning of the <a href="/facts/Second_World_War/2efV5L1U">Second World War</a>, and during initial development was known by the <a href="/facts/Codename/MRq0mo4b">codename</a> "Cherry Stone". Due to its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from <a href="/facts/V-1_flying_bomb_facilities/sSQNHIcc">launch sites</a> along the French (<a href="/facts/Pas-de-Calais/YJfkmpMe">Pas-de-Calais</a>) and Dutch coasts or by modified <a href="/facts/Heinkel_He_111/b3Gpp9rc">Heinkel He 111</a> aircraft.
The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) <a href="/facts/Operation_Overlord/fcx7BD00">Operation Overlord</a>, the Allied landings in France. At times 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 <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_II/YzCdtjDY">Allied</a> forces. After this, the Germans directed V-1s at the port of <a href="/facts/Antwerp/v3Rwa1Mu">Antwerp</a> and at other targets in Belgium, launching another 2,448 V-1s. The attacks stopped only a month before the war in Europe ended, when the last launch site in the <a href="/facts/Low_Countries/umPWQ5hV">Low Countries</a> was overrun on 29 March 1945.
As part of <a href="/facts/Operation_Crossbow/3tNyAmfK">Operation Crossbow</a>, operations against the V-1, the British <a href="/facts/Air_defence/fHtGQpLy">air defences</a> consisted of <a href="/facts/Anti-aircraft_gun/fHtGQpLy">anti-aircraft guns</a>, <a href="/facts/Barrage_balloon/fPnxBT7c">barrage balloons</a> and fighter aircraft, to intercept the bombs before they reached their targets, while the launch sites and underground storage depots became targets for Allied attacks including <a href="/facts/Strategic_bombing/0M2CccYY">strategic bombing</a>.
In 1944 a number of tests of this weapon were apparently conducted in <a href="/facts/Tornio/bT5AdG5u">Tornio, Finland</a>. On one occasion, several Finnish soldiers saw a German plane launch what they described as a bomb shaped like a small, winged aircraft. The flight and impact of another prototype was seen by Finnish frontline soldiers; they noted that its engine stopped suddenly, causing the V-1 to descend sharply, and explode on impact, leaving a crater 20–30 metres (66–98 ft) wide. These V-1s became known to Finnish soldiers as "<a href="/facts/Glide_bomb/8kHYdVGQ">flying torpedoes</a>".

V-1 flying bomb open-in-new

V-1 flying bomb