Fieseler Fi 103. V1

Operation and effectiveness


The first complete V-1 airframe was delivered 30 August 1942,^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} and after the first complete [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was delivered in September,^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]} the first glide test flight was 28 October 1942 at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], from under a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 .^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

The first powered trial was 10 December, launched from beneath an He-111.

A myth arose that early guidance and stabilisation problems were resolved by a daring test flight by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in a V-1 modified for manned operation.

The myth entered popular consciousness from Reitsch's fictional exploits in the film [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The conventional launch sites could theoretically launch about 15 V-1s per day, but this rate was difficult to achieve on a consistent basis; the maximum rate achieved was 18.

Overall, only about 25% of the V-1s hit their targets, the majority being lost because of a combination of defensive measures, mechanical unreliability, or guidance errors.

With the capture or destruction of the launch facilities used to attack England, the V-1s were employed in attacks against strategic points in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], primarily the port of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The intended operational altitude was originally set at 2,750 m (9,000 ft).

However, repeated failures of a barometric fuel-pressure regulator led to it being changed in May 1944, halving the operational height, thereby bringing V-1s into range of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] commonly used by Allied AA units.

The trial versions of the V-1 were air-launched. Most operational V-1s were launched from static sites on land, but from July 1944 to January 1945, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] launched approximately 1,176 from modified [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] H-22s of the Luftwaffe's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (3rd Bomber Wing, the so-called "Blitz Wing") flying over the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Apart from the obvious motive of permitting the bombardment campaign to continue after static ground sites on the French coast were lost, air-launching gave the Luftwaffe the opportunity to outflank the increasingly effective ground and air defences put up by the British against the missile.

To minimise the associated risks (primarily radar detection), the aircrews developed a tactic called "lo-hi-lo": the He
111s would, upon leaving their airbases and crossing the coast, descend to an exceptionally low altitude.

When the launch point was neared, the bombers would swiftly ascend, fire their V-1s, and then rapidly descend again to the previous 'wave-top' level for the return flight.

Research after the war estimated a 40% failure rate of air-launched V-1s, and the He-111s used in this role were extremely vulnerable to night fighter attack, as the launch lit up the area around the aircraft for several seconds.

Experimental and long-range variants

Late in the war, several air-launched piloted V-1s, known as [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], were built, but never used in combat.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] made some flights in the modified V-1 Fieseler Reichenberg when she was asked to find out why test pilots were unable to land it and had died as a result.

She discovered, after simulated landing attempts at high altitude where there was air space to recover, that the craft had an extremely high [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and the previous pilots with little high speed experience had attempted their approaches much too slowly.

Her recommendation of much higher landing speeds was then introduced in training new Reichenberg volunteer pilots.

The Reichenbergs were air-launched rather than fired from a catapult ramp as erroneously portrayed in Operation Crossbow.

There were plans, not put into practice, to use the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] jet bomber to launch V-1s either by towing them aloft or by launching them from a "piggy back" position (in the manner of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], but in reverse) atop the aircraft.

In the latter configuration, a pilot-operated hydraulic arrangement would lift the missile on its launch cradle some eight feet clear of the 234's dorsal fuselage.

This was necessary to avoid damaging the mother craft when the pulse jet ignited, as well as to ensure a 'clean' airflow for the Argus motor's intake.

A somewhat less ambitious project undertaken was the adaptation of the missile as a 'flying fuel tank' for the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] jet fighter.

The pulse-jet, internal systems and warhead of the missile were removed, leaving only the wings and basic fuselage, now containing a single large fuel tank.

A small cylindrical module, similar in shape to a finless dart, was placed atop the vertical stabilizer at the rear of the tank, acting as a centre of gravity balance and attachment point for a variety of equipment sets.

A rigid tow-bar with a pitch pivot at the forward end connected the flying tank to the Me 262.

The operational procedure for this unusual configuration saw the tank resting on a wheeled trolley for take-off.

The trolley was dropped once the combination was airborne, and explosive bolts separated the towbar from the fighter upon exhaustion of the tank's fuel supply.

A number of test flights were conducted in 1944 with this set-up, but inflight "porpoising" of the tank, with the instability transferred to the fighter, meant the system was too unreliable to be used.

An identical utilisation of the V-1 flying tank for the Ar 234 bomber was also investigated, with the same conclusions reached. Some of the "flying fuel tanks" used in trials utilised a cumbersome fixed and spatted undercarriage arrangement, which (along with being pointless) merely increased the drag and stability problems already inherent in the
design.

One variant of the basic Fi 103 design did see operational use.

The progressive loss of French launch sites as 1944 proceeded and the area of territory under German control shrank meant that soon the V-1 would lack the range to hit targets in England.

Air-launching was one alternative utilised, but the most obvious solution was to extend the missile's range.

Thus the F-1 version developed.

The weapon's fuel tank was increased in size, with a corresponding reduction in the capacity of the warhead.

Additionally, the nose-cones of the F-1 models were made of wood, affording a considerable weight saving.

With these modifications, the V-1 could be fired at London and nearby urban centres from prospective ground sites in the Netherlands.

Frantic efforts were made to construct sufficient F-1s so that a large-scale bombardment campaign could coincide with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], but numerous factors (bombing of the factories producing the missiles, shortages of steel and rail transport, the chaotic tactical situation Germany was facing at this point in the war etc.) delayed the delivery
of these long-range V-1s until February/March 1945.

Before the V-1 campaign ended for good at the end of the latter month, several hundred F-1s were launched at Britain from Dutch sites.

Almost 30,000 V-1s were made; by March 1944, they were produced in 350 hours (including 120 for the autopilot), at a cost of just 4% of a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which delivered a comparable payload.

Approximately 10,000 were fired at England; 2,419 reached London, killing about 6,184 people and injuring 17,981.

The greatest density of hits were received by Croydon, on the southeast fringe of London. [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Belgium was hit by 2,448 V-1s from October 1944 to March 1945.