V1 Flying Bombs

44-6-13 First V-1 'doodlebug' flying bomb - HiPo > .

V1 Flying Bombs - Flying Bomb Killing Grounds (1944) > .
Why the V1 Flying Bomb couldn't turn the tide of WW2 - IWM > .

On 13 June 1944 the first German attack on Britain using the V-1 flying bomb, otherwise known as the ‘doodlebug’, took place.

The V-1 was powered by the Argus As 014 pulsejet engine, the first mass-produced engine of its type. The noisy operation of the engine led to the bomb earning its nickname as a ‘buzz bomb’ or ‘doodlebug’.

The pulsejet engine was simple and cheap to build and, combined with a simple fuselage of welded steel sheets and wings made of plywood, the V-1 could be produced and operated at a fraction of the cost of other bombing methods.

The bomb was specifically designed for terror bombing civilians, since its launch and autopilot system was able to identify a general target area but not hit a specific point. The very first V-1 exploded near a railway bridge in Mile End, London, killing eight civilians.

Each launch site on the French and Dutch coasts could launch up to eighteen V-1s a day, but that figure was rarely met. Furthermore due to mechanical problems, guidance system failures, and an effective system of air defences, only an estimated 25% of all V-1s hit their intended target. Within just two months of the first launch more than half of all V-1s were being intercepted. However, the V-1 was still a highly effective weapon that caused significant damage to Britain and intimidated the civilian population.

The successful Allied advance after D-Day succeeded in disabling all the launch sites on the French coast by September. This removed the threat of further attacks on Allied civilians and contributed greatly to improved morale.

The V1 Flying Bomb, also known as a 'buzz bomb' or 'doodlebug', was one of the most fear-inducing terror weapons of the Second World War. In the face of relentless Allied bombing of German cities, Hitler created its 'revenge weapons' (Vergeltungswaffen) in an attempt to terrorise British civilians and undermine morale. Nazi propaganda hailed the V1 as a 'wonder weapon' (Wunderwaffe) that might turn the tide of the war.

 
But alongside the civilians killed and wounded by the V-1 are the forgotten victims of the vengeance weapons, the people who made them. Inside the Harz mountains in Germany, tens of thousands of slave labourers from Mittelbau-Dora and its many sub-camps lost their lives across the V weapons production process. The V-1 is not only a symbol of Nazi attempts to fight the Second World War in innovative ways but of their greatest crime - the Holocaust.

The connection between the V-1 as a weapon of war and as a part of the Holocaust is a key theme of IWM’s new Second World War and Holocaust Galleries opening at IWM London on the 20th of October 2021. The project will see IWM London become the first museum in the world to house dedicated Second World War and Holocaust Galleries under the same roof. Our V-1 flying bomb will be suspended between the two galleries, presenting a striking symbol of how the Holocaust and the Second World War are interconnected.