Five Brothers and a War

V-1 “Buzz Bomb”

The V-1 Buzz Bomb was also expensive, and certainly inaccurate, but was highly successful in striking fear in the victims of its random terror. While the weapon would not be deployed until mid-1944, it had been under development since 1936, with flight testing beginning at the end of 1942. V-1s were small unmanned drone airplanes that had warheads. They were steel and plywood constructed flying bombs, powered by gasoline fed pulse jets that fired 50 times per second. The resultant buzzing sound the engines made gave them their British name. In Germany, they were known by their codename, Kirschkern , or “Cherry Pit”. They were the direct predecessor of modern cruise missiles, which are still jet-powered guided flying bombs. The V-1 had a crude autopilot system that guided the bombs into the general target area. Typically, when the V-1 would reach its destination, a series of mechanical actions would then force the plane into a dive until impact. The first models deployed had a design flaw that would cut off fuel supply to the engines when the dive began, meaning that the bombs would impact more from the effects of gravity than of engine power. Londoners knew that when they heard the buzzing noise they were safe, but once the engines cut out, they had to run for cover. This design flaw was corrected in later models, meaning that the bombs would impact the ground at higher velocity. These weapons flew at low altitude, about 900m (3,000 feet), and at about 560 km/h (350 mph).

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Five Brothers and a War

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