Gaso.Line Gas48003M German V-1 Flying Buzz Bomb and Launching Ramp (1:50 Scale)
"Everlasting peace will come to the world when the last man has slain the last but one."
- German Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Known alternatively as the FZG 76 (Flakzielgerat: anti-aircraft aiming device 76) or Vergeltungswaffe Eins (Reprisal Weapon 1), or more simply as the V-1, the Fi 103 flying bomb had an airframe designed by Dipl-Ing Robert Liisser of Fieseler, and a Siemens guidance system. It could be launched from a 50m (152ft) inclined ramp by a Walter steamdriven catapult, or air-dropped from a carrier aircraft (usually an He Ill). The weapons were launched against Britain beginning on June 13th 1944, as well as targets in continental Europe. More than 30,000 were manufactured by Henschel, Mittelwerke and Volkswagen factories. An Askania gyroscope fed signals to the elevators and rudder to control attitude and direction, and the terminal dive was initiated when a preset distance had been flown.
This diorama includes the German V-1 flying 'Buzz Bomb' and its launching ramp. Sold Out!
Length of Ramp: Approximately 12 inches
Historical Account: "Operation Crossbow" - The British defence against the German long range weapons was Operation Crossbow. Anti-aircraft guns were redeployed in several movements: first in mid-June 1944 from positions on the North Downs to the south coast of England, then a cordon closing the Thames Estuary to attacks from the east. In September 1944, a new linear defence line was formed on the coast of East Anglia, and finally in December there was a further layout along the Lincolnshire-Yorkshire coast. The deployments were prompted by changes to the approach tracks of the V-1 as launch sites were overrun by the Allies' advance.
On the first night of sustained bombardment, the anti-aircraft crews around Croydon were jubilant - suddenly they were downing unprecedented numbers of German bombers; most of their targets burst into flames and fell when their engines cut out. There was great disappointment when the truth was announced. Anti-aircraft gunners soon found that such small fast-moving targets were, in fact, very difficult to hit.
The cruising altitude of the V-1, between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (600 to 900 m), was just above the effective range of light anti-aircraft guns, and just below the optimum engagement height of heavier guns. The altitude and speed were more than the rate of traverse of the standard British QF 3.7 inch mobile gun could cope with, and faster-traversing static gun emplacements had to be built at great cost. The development of centimetric gun-laying radars based on the cavity magnetron and of the proximity fuse helped defend against the V-1's high speed and small size. In 1944, Bell Labs started delivery of an anti-aircraft predictor fire-control system based around an analog computer, just in time for the Allied invasion of Europe.
Eventually some 2,000 barrage balloons were deployed, in the hope that V-1s would be destroyed when they struck the balloons' tethering cables. The leading edges of the V-1's wings were fitted with cable cutters, and fewer than 300 V-1s are known to have been brought down by barrage balloons.
Fighters were mobilized to intercept the V-1, but most fighter aircraft were too slow to catch a V-1 unless they had a height advantage, allowing them to gain speed by diving. Solid machine gun bullets had little effect on the V-1's sheet steel structure, and if an explosive cannon shell detonated the warhead, the explosion could destroy the attacking fighter. The first interception of a V-1, by F/L JG Musgrave of No. 605 Squadron RAF, took place on the night of 14/15 June 1944.