Fieseler Fi 103

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The Fieseler Fi 103 was the first cruise missile used by the military . It was named as one of the " miracle weapons " in Nazi propaganda of the Second World War, also V1 ( retribution weapon  1). The development of the Gerhard-Fieseler-Werke in Kassel had the cover name FZG 76 for Flakzielgerät 76 and was ready for use in spring 1944. From June 1944 to March 1945 approx. 12,000 Fi 103s were used by the Wehrmacht, mainly against targets in England ( London ) and Belgium ( Port of Antwerp ).

The "aircraft-shaped remote projectile" developed on behalf of the Reich Aviation Ministry from mid-1942 was loaded with almost a ton of explosives and was therefore colloquially known as the "wing bomb".

Cruise missile V1 before takeoff
V1 at the National Air and Space Museum
V1 replica on launch pad ( Imperial War Museum Duxford , England)
Left the engine, right a V1 partially cut open

Designations

V1 was a propaganda designation coined by Joseph Goebbels , Fieseler Fi 103 the military designation based on the type list of the Reich Aviation Ministry . Initially officially called Hellhound , on June 17, 1944, at the suggestion of Hans Schwarz van Berk , an agreement was reached on the name V-weapon . The V1, which started mainly in the direction of Brussels , Antwerp and Liège, from ramps in the Eifel, was described by the local population as an Eifel fright because of the many early crashes .

In the German press on August 12, 1944, the "almost two months ago" first use of a "new weapon" with the designation "V 1" was reported, which was dubbed the "flying bomb", "wing bomb" and "organizing comet" has been.

In Great Britain, the responsible state secretary informed the parliament and the public and called the new weapon both “pilotless aircraft” and “missile” (projectile, missile). The slang term for the V1 was doodlebug or buzz bomb because of the characteristic crackling noise of the drive .

technology

development

V1 in the Museum Peenemünde
Start ramp of the V1 in the Museum Peenemünde

The idea of ​​a "flying bomb" powered by a detonation jet engine was presented to the Reich Ministry of Aviation as early as 1934 by Georg Madelung and Paul Schmidt . Although the proposals were rejected at the time, based on this idea, Fritz Gosslau from Argus Motoren Gesellschaft in Berlin developed a remote-controlled unmanned missile for the RLM under the code name "Fernfeuer", which was initially supposed to be powered by a piston engine. From 1940 the work of Schmidt and Gosslau was coordinated at Argus. At the beginning of 1942 Robert Lusser was won over by the Fieseler company for the project, who designed the Fi 103 missile. On June 19, 1942, the RLM commissioned the companies involved to develop the project for series production. Together with Argus, who supplied the Pulso thrust tube Argus As 014 for the drive, Lusser brought the project to series production. The first test of a Fi 103 took place on December 24, 1942 on the island of Usedom in the test site of the Air Force Peenemünde-West on three specially built launch ramps. Further ramps for testing were located at Zempin on Usedom.

The missile was for that time a rather complex device: in spherical containers of compressed air for the operation of was gyro for automatic course correction, the operation of the side and elevator and to promote fuel entrained; To determine the distance covered, a small propeller at the top (“air log”) drove a counter which, when a preset distance was reached, triggered the crash by tilting the elevator. An impact fuse then detonated the 850 kilogram charge in the warhead . No radio or radar-based control was used in the standard V1.

The engine was an As 014 type deflagration jet engine known as a "Schmidt tube" , which worked according to the principle of the intermittent pulso thrust tube invented by Paul Schmidt. It was much simpler and therefore significantly cheaper than the turbojet engines that were already available at the time . The shorter life and the poorer efficiency were acceptable for a cruise missile.

The Fi 103 was launched from a launch pad, which after its designer, the Kiel entrepreneur Hellmuth Walter , Walter-spinner was called. It had a length of 48 meters and a height of up to 6 meters. On July 9, 1944, Fi 103s were launched for the first time by twin-engined He 111H-22s . These hung between the hull and the right engine and were released at a height of 500 m above the North Sea. The III. Group of Kampfgeschwader 3 carried out this procedure from the Dutch bases in Venlo and Gilze-Rijen . Later on, Kampfgeschwader 53 also flew these missions regularly from bases in northern Germany. On January 5th, 1945 it flew the last V1 mission on London.

Route guidance

An integrated destination search did not yet exist. Various methods were used for remote control:

Cherry stone method
A simple MW transmitter " FuG 23 " with a towed antenna with a frequency range of 340 to 500 kHz was carried on board for route guidance . This was followed during the flight by German Adcock bearing stations ( external bearing ). The point of impact then turned out to be the location of the last bearing. The first V1 of a start series was therefore started rather imprecisely and only the following ones were directed more precisely with the aid of the bearing signals received. This steering method had the code name "cherry stone", based on the cherry stone spitting . Range changes were set on the odometer, a small propeller on the bow, lateral deviations by setting on the gyro compass.
Fi-103 procedure
At the suggestion of C. Lorenz AG from 1943, the V1 should be located in flight by cross bearing and then steered to the target with remote control commands on the FuPeil A70h "Elektrola" radio measuring devices .
DFS process
with different pulse sequences for direct remote control.
Ewald / sour cherry method (direction finding method "Ewald II", radio system "sour cherry II")
In order to counteract disruptive measures, the remote control impulses were sent several times in succession. The “Mosel” impulse remote control system was used on board the Fi 103. The impulses coming from the receiver were recorded on an endless magnetic tape. The control command was only passed on to the rudders when the same impulse was applied to three reading heads at the same time. The hoped-for accuracy was ± 2 kilometers at a combat distance of 400 kilometers.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew -
length 7.742 m
span 5.30 m
Takeoff mass 2160 kg
drive Pulse jet engine Argus As 014
with 3.28 kN maximum thrust
Marching speed 576 km / h at an altitude of 760 m
Service ceiling 3000 m
Range 257-286 km
Hit accuracy within 12 km
Armament
  • 847.11-kg warhead from Amatol
  • A few with additional armament:
    • 23 × 1 kg cluster bombs
    • Propaganda leaflets

Further development to the cruise missile

US copy "Loon" of the V-1 on the White Sands Missile Range

In the United States , Republic Aviation and Ford developed a copy under the designation JB-2 as early as 1944. The test flights were carried out at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in October 1944, production began in 1945. It amounted to a total of 1000 units, but they were never used. Their use was planned for the invasion of Japan . The French Arsenal ARS 5501 Bernadette was also based on the V1. It was used, among other things, by the Royal Navy from 1953 as a target display drone .

Soviet developments

In the Soviet Union , too, experiments were carried out with a weapon that could be launched from airplanes as well as from stationary and mobile ramps. It was developed by Vladimir Nikolayevich Tschelomei and referred to as "10ch", in Russian 10Х - the tenth modification of a secret weapon. The starting point for this replica of the Fi 103 was an incomplete copy that had already been given to the Soviet Union by the British allies in October 1944. In the further course of the war there were also parts of individual assemblies and launch ramps that had been captured during the advance of the Red Army in the production plants in Katowice and Speck near Altdamm . The production facilities in Nordhausen that remained after the Americans had withdrawn were later transferred to the Soviet Union. As drive as D-3 marked copy of the Argus served Ace 014. Although the Soviet developers had successfully developed before the war rocket engines and also tested in missiles in the war effort but these were only in the form of reactive projectiles such as the rocket launcher Katyusha passes . On the basis of the "10ch", Tschelomei also developed the "14ch" equipped with wooden wings and a more powerful D-5 engine, which had its first flight in 1947, as well as the "Cobalt" on-board radar for remote-controlled target approach and two D-14 engines. 16ch ”(first flight in 1948), which, like the“ 10ch ”, were not included in the armament of the armed forces due to insufficient hit accuracy. In 1954 the program was finally ended.

production

Underground production of the "V1" in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp

The production costs were around 3500 Reichsmarks each , and around 280 hours of work were required to build. The production of the individual parts took place at more than 50 manufacturers. Among other things, from the beginning of March 1944 the “V1” was built in series in a “secret department” in the basement of Hall I of the Volkswagen factory near Fallersleben . From 1940 to 1945 around 20,000 people were forced to work there to manufacture various armaments , including prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates . In the summer of 1944, the "V1" series construction began in the underground tunnels of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp near Nordhausen in Thuringia . Around 20,000 concentration camp prisoners died in connection with the production and assembly of the various weapons in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. The only engineer of the "V1" production who was ever brought to court was the Demag managing director and general director of Mittelwerk GmbH Georg Rickhey . Accused in the “ Nordhausen main trial ” in 1947 , he was acquitted, although the co-accused prisoner functionary Josef Kilian testified that Rickhey was present in Mittelbau-Dora during a mass strangulation of 30 inmates on March 21, 1945.

Other production sites were also planned and under construction, such as the Thil subcamp near Tiercelet and the Rebstock subcamp near Dernau .

Defense measures

Photo of the blocking balloons over London 1939–1945, Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial, large in the picture

The V1 was combated by flak , interceptors and blocking balloons . In addition, attempts were made to sabotage the use of the weapon by agents and to bomb production facilities and launch pads.

Flak

The flight altitude of the V1 was between 600 and 900 meters. Due to the initially exclusive launch from stationary launch ramps, the approach corridors could hardly be changed and quickly became known. Numerous flak batteries were therefore stationed on the V1 approach routes, which fired barrages when a wing bomb was located . This measure was most successful because the V1 was easy to locate due to its glowing exhaust jet and the characteristic engine noise and the missile made no evasive movements. Later on, anti-aircraft bullets with distance fuses were used successfully , a new development from the United States called “Variable Time Fuze” for camouflage purposes. Thanks to constant improvements, the anti-aircraft gun achieved a firing rate of over 70 percent towards the end of the V1 missions.

Interceptor

A Spitfire lifts the wing of a V1 by touching it

The V1 had a flight speed of 630 km / h. This made it as fast as the fighter planes of the time. These could only attack from the cant in order to have enough excess speed for an attack. Initially, only a few British Hawker Tempest were fast enough. In addition to the direct launch, which was life-threatening for the pilot because of the possible explosion of the large warhead, some pilots developed another method to bring the V1 to crash: By flying close, slightly higher and laterally offset in front, the air vortex behind an aircraft wing tip, can be used to turn the V1, which had no ailerons, about its longitudinal axis so far that its flight position became unstable, the gyro control failed and the V1 crashed.

During the night the V1 were attacked by mosquitos ; due to the location of their base RAF Ford , about 3 kilometers southwest of Arundel (West Sussex) , the No. 96 Squadron RAF took a brunt and shot 180 of the "doodlebugs".

Barrier balloons

Barrier balloons were stationed along the approach lanes, as the V1's low approach altitude favored this. Especially against the blocking balloons there was the kit 1, "Kuto" with knife strips on the wing noses. Ultimately, however, only about 6 percent of the destroyed V1 were due to their account.

Agents

As a German aerial reconnaissance over England was not possible due to the air superiority of the British in order to control the situation of the impacts, one relied on reports from agents. However, almost all of them were quickly exposed by their radio communications and either worked with the British under threat of the death penalty or did so all the time like Eddie Chapman anyway . They submitted fake impact points. The reports from their own radio direction finding were less believed.

Bombing of production and launch facilities

By autumn 1943 at the latest, the Allies were informed about plans for the V1 and site plans for production facilities. The Austrian resistance group around Chaplain Heinrich Maier succeeded in getting documents to the British secret service SOE and the American OSS . The allied bombers were able to make precise air strikes with the sketches of the production facilities. These contributions were found to be 92 percent correct in later analyzes by the OSS and were thus an effective contribution to Allied warfare. With Operation Crossbow , the Allies tried to eliminate research and development, manufacture, transport and launch sites of the weapons by air strikes.

Manned version

Fieseler Fi 103 (V1), V1 with pilot's seat , location Swiss Military Museum Full
US soldiers with a captured V4

The version Fieseler Fi 103 Reichenberg , also referred to as "V4", was manned. Although 175 copies had been built, the project was abandoned in 1944.

There has been a serious effort to use the V4 as a kamikaze weapon. To this end, the military operation Self-sacrifice was launched. The self-sacrificing pilots were subordinated to Kampfgeschwader 200 . However, after the intervention of the squadron commander Werner Baumbach, this organization was no longer used by Hitler .

commitment

On June 13, 1944, the first V1 hit the railroad bridge on Grove Road in London. An attached plaque reminds of the bomb hit.
A Fieseler Fi 103 hits London on June 15, 1944

The use of the weapon in the war began in the early morning hours of June 13, 1944. The first ten missiles were aimed at the British capital from the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France . Only four of them reached Great Britain: one Fi 103 each hit Gravesend , Cuckfield , Bethnal Green in London and Sevenoaks , the others were lost at sea.

On June 17, the German press reported indirectly about the first use of the weapon by quoting two reports from Reuters : "[I] rgendwo in southern England" a secret weapon had been sighted that was a "driverless aircraft", "Which is provided with an explosive charge, has a short, slender body with box-like devices on the tail". It is “something sinister when the driverless German aircraft approaches and shoots through the air like a rocket. The planes have a very specific rhythmic tone that could be described as a faint pulsation. At night they show a clear yellow glow at the back [,] and in the light of the headlights you can see how a thick plume of smoke oozes out of them. "

The scope of the V1 flying bomb offensive against England is presented in figures as follows:

  • launched from the ground: 8892
    • of which successful: 7488
  • Launched from the air: 1600 from He-111 H-22, with 77 own losses
  • Target London: 2,419 hit and detonated

At Bruchhausen and Rheinbreitbach , in the Asberg position area, you can still see the remains of three launch ramps, as well as at Ruppichteroth , Drabenderhöhe , Lohmar-Heide , on Peenemünde and at Zempin on the island of Usedom .

effect

At no point in time could the V1 weaken the war economy in England. However, the Allied leadership feared a weakening of the war morale by the V1, so that the defense was given great importance.

As early as 1943, in response to the Allied air raids on German cities, the Nazi propaganda had announced the bombing of England with "weapons of retaliation" in order to maintain the morale of the German population and the fighting spirit of the soldiers. By constantly invoking the effectiveness of the new “miracle weapons”, the Nazi regime propagated the belief that the Wehrmacht, with new, superior weapon systems, would be able to turn things around in the course of the war. However, the short-term euphoric mood of the population soon turned into skepticism in the summer of 1944 because the V-weapons did not bring the hoped-for success.

Despite this, Adolf Hitler promised in his last radio speech on January 30, 1945 against the background of the already looming defeat an increased use of so-called "miracle weapons", which also included the V2 , still the final victory .

At the peak of the attack on England in July and August 1944, the terrorist weapons were launched in groups of up to ten missiles at the same time. The effect on the morale of the London population was devastating. Every day up to 14,000 residents left the city by train; a total of up to two million people fled this summer.

Victim

Corpses of concentration camp workers on the floor of a barrack of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in 1945

Many people were killed during the production, some of which had to be carried out by concentration camp prisoners under inhumane conditions. According to representations by the Mittelbau-Dora Memorial and Memorial, more people died during the manufacture of the weapon than during its use. In addition, the inmates forced to manufacture the weapon tried many times to sabotage the wing rocket, which also led to failures. For this, prisoners were often murdered and harassed indiscriminately, which in turn slowed production.

6,184 civilians died and 17,981 were seriously injured when the Fi 103 was deployed against London. 10,145 people were wounded or killed in Antwerp and the surrounding area; there were also another 4,614 victims, most of them in Liege.

When the target range was reached, the counter driven by the front propeller brought the height control to full deflection and thus initiated the crash of the missile. The engine often failed and after the extremely loud engine noise ceased to exist, there were around 15 seconds before impact. Many Londoners were able to save themselves by immediately seeking refuge in these moments. The blast from the explosion sometimes spread over several 100 meters. In the case of the impact on Lewisham Market on July 28, 1944, the effect of the explosion was as much as 600 meters in all directions.

See also

literature

  • Theodor Benecke, Karl-Heinz Hedwig, Joachim Hermann: Missiles and guided missiles. The history of the development of German guided missiles from the beginning of this century until today. Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1987, ISBN 3-7637-5284-6 .
  • Franz Josef Burghardt : Spies of Retribution. The German defense in northern France and the secret service securing of the launching areas for V weapons in World War II. A socio-biographical study . Schönau 2018. ISBN 978-3-947009-02-2 .
  • Heinz Dieter Hölsken: The V weapons. Development - Propaganda - War use. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-421-06197-1 .
  • Benjamin King, Timothy Kutta: Impact: The History Of Germany's V-weapons In World War II. Da Capo Press, 2003, ISBN 0-306-81292-4 .
  • Aviation History, Volume 2: Fieseler Fi 103 "Reichenberg" - The history of the manned V1.
  • Wolfgang Gückelhorn, Detlev Paul: V1 - "Eifelschreck" kills, crashes and impacts of the flying bomb from the Eifel and the right bank of the Rhine 1944/45. Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2004, ISBN 3-933608-94-5 .
  • Fritz Trenkle : The German radio control process until 1945. AEG-Telefunken-Aktiengesellschaft - business area high frequency technology, Ulm 1982, ISBN 3-87087-133-4 ; 2nd edition Dr. Alfred Hüthig Verlag, Heidelberg 1987, ISBN 3-7785-1465-2 ).
  • Fritz Trenkle: The German radio navigation and radio guidance procedures until 1945. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-87943-615-0 .
  • Equipment manual for the Fieseler Fi 103
  • Steven J Zaloga: GERMAN V-WEAPON SITES 1943–45 (68 pages online PDF) ( Memento from May 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : V-1  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Georg Reuth (Ed.): Joseph Goebbels. Diaries 1924–1945. Paperback edition, based on the extended bound special edition of the diaries, 5 vols., Munich / Zurich: Piper Verlag 1999. - Entry from June 22, 1944, vol. 5, p. 2069, note 132. Available online at https: // archive .org / details / JosephGoebbelsTagebucher (as of August 8, 2020).
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Gückelhorn, Detlev Paul: V1 - "Eifelschreck". (see below literature)
  3. ↑ The secret of a secret weapon. In:  Das kleine Volksblatt , August 12, 1944, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dkv
  4. ↑ Hansard
  5. ^ Förderverein Peenemünde (March 16, 2006): Walter Schleuder arrived
  6. ↑ Horst Boog , Gerhard Krebs , Detlef Vogel: The German Reich and the Second World War , Volume 7 , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-421-05507-6 , p. 392.
  7. ^ Stefan Büttner, Martin Kaule: Secret projects of the Air Force. Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-613-03899-8 , pp. 219-221.
  8. ↑ Wilfried Copenhagen: The V1 and their Soviet children. In: Waffen-Arsenal No. 24, Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1999, pp. 20-25
  9. ↑ kheichhorn.de: Fieseler V1
  10. ^ Rainer Eisfeld : Moonstruck. Wernher von Braun and the birth of space travel from the spirit of barbarism. Paperback, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86674-167-6 , pp. 141-142.
  11. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner: Auschwitz in the Harz.
  12. ^ Rainer Eisfeld: Moonstruck. Wernher von Braun and the birth of space travel from the spirit of barbarism. Paperback, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86674-167-6 , p. 164.
  13. ^ Andrew Thomas: Mosquito Aces of World War 2 , Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4728-0240-8 , page 35
  14. ↑ Fieseler Fi-103 device manual. Part 1, p. 44
  15. ^ RV Jones: Most Secret War. New York 1978.
  16. ^ A b Peter Pirker: Subversion of German Rule: The British War Secret Service SOE and Austria . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-990-1 , p. 253 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  17. ↑ Hansjakob Stehle: The spies from the rectory . In: The time . January 5, 1996 ( online at zeit.de (registration required) ).
  18. ↑ Der Spiegel No. 47/1965 of November 17, 1965, Company Armbrust , p. 101 , accessed on June 28, 2010
  19. ↑ a b c German Historical Museum: The "wonder weapons" V1 and V2. Retrieved June 28, 2010
  20. ↑ He saw the new weapon. In:  Das kleine Volksblatt , June 17, 1944, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dkv
  21. ↑ Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs, Detlef Vogel: Das Deutsche Reich and the Second World War, Volume 7 , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-421-05507-6 , p. 397.
  22. ↑ Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs, Detlef Vogel: Das Deutsche Reich and the Second World War, Volume 7 , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-421-05507-6 , p. 395.
  23. ↑ flyingbombsandrockets.com: Doodlebug Summer (Engl.)
  24. ↑ FZG 76 Equipment Manual - Part 2: Control
  25. ↑ flyingbombsandrockets.com: Lewisham Market