Vergeltungswaffe
Encyclopedia
V-weapons also, known in the original German as Vergeltungswaffen , were a particular set of long range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II
, particularly terror bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They comprised the V-1 flying bomb
, the V-2 rocket
and the V-3 cannon
. All of these weapons were intended for use in a military campaign against Britain, though, in the event, only the V-1 and V-2 were so used - in a campaign conducted 1944-5. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe.
They were part of the range of the so-called Wunderwaffe
n ( or literally 'wonderweapons') of Nazi Germany
.
and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, Walther von Brauchitsch
. Following the relative failure of the Baedeker Raids on Britain in 1942, development of both flying bomb and rocket accelerated, with Britain designated as the target. On September 29, 1943, Albert Speer
publicly promised retribution against the mass bombing of German cities by a 'secret weapon.' Then the official 24 June 1944 Reich Propaganda Ministry announcement of the "Vergeltungswaffe 1
" guided missile
implied there would be another such weapon. After the first operational A-4 launch in September 1944, the rocket was renamed the Vergeltungswaffe 2 (although no one knows exactly who gave it this name). However, the V-2 operations manual distributed to firing batteries
continued to use the A-4 name for the rocket.
to Le Havre
. Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful and by June 1944 they were ready for action. Prompted by the Normandy Landings of June 6, in the early morning of June 13, 1944, the first V-1 flying bomb attack was carried out on London. Ten missiles were launched of which four reached England. The first of these landed near Swanscombe
, causing no casualties. At Bethnal Green
, however, a bridge was destroyed and six people killed and nine injured. After the 15th the attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day. With the first attack the British put their pre-planned Operation Diver
(after their codename "Diver" used for the V-1) into action
The buzzing sound of the V-1's pulse jet engine
was likened by some to "a motor cycle in bad running order". As it reached its target and dived, the sound of the propulsion unit spluttering and cutting out, followed by an eerie hush before impact, was quite terrifying, though the silence was also a warning to seek shelter (later V-1s were corrected to have the originally-intended power dive). At least one business in London advertised how quickly a patron could access a nearby shelter. Despite this, the cloudy and rainy conditions of June and July aided the effectiveness of the weapon and casualties were high. By late August a million and a half people had left London and the rate of work production was affected. By the late summer and autumn, however, increasingly effective countermeasures against the V-1 were taken and people started returning to London.
A total of 9,251 V-1s were fired at Britain, with the vast majority aimed at London; 2,515 reached the city, killing 6,184 civilians and injuring 17,981. Croydon
to the south, on the flight path of the V1s suffered severely taking 142 hits.
in Holland on 6 September 1944. The first was launched from here against London on 8 September 1944 and took an estimated 5 minutes to fly the 200 miles from the Hague to London where it landed at 6.43pm on 8 September on Chiswick
causing thirteen casualties. By October the offensive became sustained. A particularly devastating strike was on 25 November 1944 when a V-2 exploded at the Woolworth's
store in New Cross Road (marked by a plaque on the site now occupied by an Iceland supermarket) killing 168 people and seriously injuring 121. Intercepting the supersonic V-2 missiles in flight proved virtually impossible and other counter measures, such as bombing the launch sites, were fairly ineffectual. Sustained bombardment continued until March 1945. The very last missiles arrived on 27 March 1945, with one of them killing 134 people and injuring 49 when it hit a block of flats in Stepney
.
1,115 V-2s were fired at the United Kingdom. The vast majority of them were aimed at London, though about 40 targeted (and missed) Norwich
. They killed an estimated 2,754 people in London with another 6,523 injured. A further 2,917 service personnel were killed as a result of the V weapon campaign. Since the V-2 could not be heard (and was rarely seen) as it approached the target, its psychological effect "suffered in comparison to the V-1."
The V-weapon offensive ended in March 1945, with the last V-2 landing in Kent on March 27 and the last V-1 two days later. In terms of casualties their effects had been less than their inventors hoped or their victims feared, though the damage to property was extensive, with 20,000 houses a day being damaged at the height of the campaign, causing a massive housing crisis in south-east England in late 1944 and early 1945.
The existential horror of the V-2 attack on London is the theme of Thomas Pynchon
's novel Gravity's Rainbow
, also designed to fire on London, was never used for this purpose due to Allied attacks on the launch facilities, specially the fortress of Mimoyecques, and the offensive in northern Europe in 1944 overrunning the launch sites. Consequently its use was diverted, in the winter of 1944, to bombard Antwerp and Luxembourg
, with minimal results.
Strategic bombing during World War II
Strategic bombing during World War II is a term which refers to all aerial bombardment of a strategic nature between 1939 and 1945 involving any nations engaged in World War II...
, particularly terror bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They comprised the V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
, the V-2 rocket
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
and the V-3 cannon
V-3 cannon
The V-3 was a German World War II supergun working on the multi-charge principle whereby secondary propellant charges are fired to add velocity to a projectile....
. All of these weapons were intended for use in a military campaign against Britain, though, in the event, only the V-1 and V-2 were so used - in a campaign conducted 1944-5. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe.
They were part of the range of the so-called Wunderwaffe
Wunderwaffe
Wunderwaffe is German for "wonder-weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by the German propaganda ministry to a few revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained more or less feasible prototypes, or reached the combat theatre too late, and in too insignificant...
n ( or literally 'wonderweapons') of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
Development
As early as 28 June 1940, a terror bombing rationale had been advanced for the A4 (V-2 rocket) being developed at a meeting between Army Ordnance Chief Emil LeebEmil Leeb
Emil Leeb was a German general who served during World War II. His older brother was Fieldmarshall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb; W. Ritter was a “von Leeb”, he was not “noble born” but W. Ritter’s title of “von” derived from the patent of knighthood carried by the Bavarian order:...
and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, Walther von Brauchitsch
Walther von Brauchitsch
Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch was a German field marshal and the Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres in the early years of World War II.-Biography:...
. Following the relative failure of the Baedeker Raids on Britain in 1942, development of both flying bomb and rocket accelerated, with Britain designated as the target. On September 29, 1943, Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
publicly promised retribution against the mass bombing of German cities by a 'secret weapon.' Then the official 24 June 1944 Reich Propaganda Ministry announcement of the "Vergeltungswaffe 1
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
" guided missile
Guided Missile
Guided Missile is a London based independent record label set up by Paul Kearney in 1994.Guided Missile has always focused on 'the underground', preferring to put out a steady flow of releases and developing the numerous GM events around London and beyond....
implied there would be another such weapon. After the first operational A-4 launch in September 1944, the rocket was renamed the Vergeltungswaffe 2 (although no one knows exactly who gave it this name). However, the V-2 operations manual distributed to firing batteries
Meillerwagen
The Meillerwagen was a German World War II trailer used to transport a V-2 rocket from the 'transloading point' of the Technical Troop Area to the 'launching point', to erect the missile on the Brennstand , and to act as the service gantry for fuelling and launch preparation...
continued to use the A-4 name for the rocket.
The V-1
Beginning in October 1943, launch sites for the V-1 were constructed in Northern France, along the coast from CalaisCalais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
to Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
. Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful and by June 1944 they were ready for action. Prompted by the Normandy Landings of June 6, in the early morning of June 13, 1944, the first V-1 flying bomb attack was carried out on London. Ten missiles were launched of which four reached England. The first of these landed near Swanscombe
Swanscombe
Swanscombe is a small town, part of the Borough of Dartford on the north Kent coast in England. It is part of the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe.-Prehistory:...
, causing no casualties. At Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...
, however, a bridge was destroyed and six people killed and nine injured. After the 15th the attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day. With the first attack the British put their pre-planned Operation Diver
Operation Diver
Operation Diver was the British codename for their countermeasures against the V-1 flying bomb campaign launched by the German Luftwaffe in 1944 against London and other parts of Britain...
(after their codename "Diver" used for the V-1) into action
Pulse jet engine
A pulse jet engine is a type of jet engine in which combustion occurs in pulses. Pulsejet engines can be made with few or no moving parts, and are capable of running statically....
was likened by some to "a motor cycle in bad running order". As it reached its target and dived, the sound of the propulsion unit spluttering and cutting out, followed by an eerie hush before impact, was quite terrifying, though the silence was also a warning to seek shelter (later V-1s were corrected to have the originally-intended power dive). At least one business in London advertised how quickly a patron could access a nearby shelter. Despite this, the cloudy and rainy conditions of June and July aided the effectiveness of the weapon and casualties were high. By late August a million and a half people had left London and the rate of work production was affected. By the late summer and autumn, however, increasingly effective countermeasures against the V-1 were taken and people started returning to London.
A total of 9,251 V-1s were fired at Britain, with the vast majority aimed at London; 2,515 reached the city, killing 6,184 civilians and injuring 17,981. Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
to the south, on the flight path of the V1s suffered severely taking 142 hits.
The V-2
V-2 rocket launching sites were set up by the Germans around The HagueThe Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in Holland on 6 September 1944. The first was launched from here against London on 8 September 1944 and took an estimated 5 minutes to fly the 200 miles from the Hague to London where it landed at 6.43pm on 8 September on Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
causing thirteen casualties. By October the offensive became sustained. A particularly devastating strike was on 25 November 1944 when a V-2 exploded at the Woolworth's
Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...
store in New Cross Road (marked by a plaque on the site now occupied by an Iceland supermarket) killing 168 people and seriously injuring 121. Intercepting the supersonic V-2 missiles in flight proved virtually impossible and other counter measures, such as bombing the launch sites, were fairly ineffectual. Sustained bombardment continued until March 1945. The very last missiles arrived on 27 March 1945, with one of them killing 134 people and injuring 49 when it hit a block of flats in Stepney
Stepney
Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London's East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstan's church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road...
.
1,115 V-2s were fired at the United Kingdom. The vast majority of them were aimed at London, though about 40 targeted (and missed) Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
. They killed an estimated 2,754 people in London with another 6,523 injured. A further 2,917 service personnel were killed as a result of the V weapon campaign. Since the V-2 could not be heard (and was rarely seen) as it approached the target, its psychological effect "suffered in comparison to the V-1."
The V-weapon offensive ended in March 1945, with the last V-2 landing in Kent on March 27 and the last V-1 two days later. In terms of casualties their effects had been less than their inventors hoped or their victims feared, though the damage to property was extensive, with 20,000 houses a day being damaged at the height of the campaign, causing a massive housing crisis in south-east England in late 1944 and early 1945.
The existential horror of the V-2 attack on London is the theme of Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's novel Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest...
The V-3
The V-3 cannonV-3 cannon
The V-3 was a German World War II supergun working on the multi-charge principle whereby secondary propellant charges are fired to add velocity to a projectile....
, also designed to fire on London, was never used for this purpose due to Allied attacks on the launch facilities, specially the fortress of Mimoyecques, and the offensive in northern Europe in 1944 overrunning the launch sites. Consequently its use was diverted, in the winter of 1944, to bombard Antwerp and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, with minimal results.