Operation Aphrodite

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Aphrodite bomber takes off (1944).

Operation Aphrodite was the English code name of an Allied military operation during World War II , in which radio-controlled bombers were used against German military objects.

The aim was to use the unmanned aircraft loaded with large amounts of explosives against submarine bunkers and positions for missile weapons, which, due to the massive armor , could hardly be effectively damaged by conventional means. This also included the caverns of Unit 4 , known by Nazi propaganda as the “ V 2 retaliatory weapon ”, and the underground bunker of Mimoyecques in occupied France with the “V 3” cannon .

The name of Operation Aphrodite is derived from Greek mythology of the goddess of love .

story

In the last years of the war (1943–1945) the German “V weapons” posed a serious threat that the Allies had to counter. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) developed a plan to destroy their assembly and launch sites. For this purpose, the Allies ruled out "kamikaze" missions , as they were increasingly carried out by Japanese air forces towards the end of the war. As an alternative, they worked out a solution in which old bombers of the type Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress ("Flying Fortress") or Consolidated B-24 Liberator ("Liberator") were equipped with a radio remote control and a television system and were directed to targets.

The planes were stripped of everything superfluous, such as machine guns, ammunition, seats, bomb depots and armor plates, which reduced the weight of the empty planes from around 16 t to 10 t. They were then loaded with the appropriate amount of explosives. Of the used UK produced Torpex explosives , the greater by about half explosive than TNT has. From Flying Fortresses flying were bombs .

The remote-controlled start of the heavy machinery turned out to be particularly difficult. The solution was therefore to have a pilot and a flight engineer on board carry out the take-off, who, after the aircraft had reached altitude, handed over control to the ground, set the explosives and then parachuted off board jumped.

A total of 14 missions were flown. The remote control was carried out by a pilot in an escort aircraft or from the ground. None of the Aphrodite aircraft reached their destination, several got out of control and crashed or were shot down by German anti-aircraft guns .

During Operation Aphrodite, Joseph P. Kennedy (1915–1944), eldest brother of future President of the United States John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), served as one of the volunteer pilots on board. The aim of his mission on August 12, 1944 was to destroy the V3 bunker in Mimoyecques. After take-off, he leveled the plane and checked the systems. Before he and his comrade could then jump over Manston Airfield in Kent as planned , there was a premature explosion over Suffolk , in which both were killed.

The Aphrodite program was discontinued on January 27, 1945 on the orders of General Carl A. Spaatz (1891–1974). In retrospect, it must be assessed as a military failure, as it failed to achieve any of its goals, caused high costs and its own pilots were killed.

See also

Web links

Commons : Operation Aphrodite  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Caleb Larson: Operation Aphrodite - How the WWII Allies Created Radio-Controlled Flying Bombs. The National Interest of May 2, 2021.
  2. ↑ Mimoyecques, memorials , accessed on August 10, 2021st
  3. ↑ BQ-7 (English), accessed on July 27, 2021.