Its operation was complex and involved specialized transport and launching equipment. The V-2 was the first practical modern ballistic missile. After the war, the German rocket team and many captured missiles were brought to the United States, where V-2 technology helped to build the technological base for human spaceflight and advanced strategic missiles. In any case, the comparatively small power of V-2 attacks could not match the massive effect of Allied strategic bombing. Though the rocket was destructive, killing almost 3,000 people in England and probably even more in Belgium in the last year of the war, the German forced-labor system could not produce enough V-2s to affect the outcome of the war. The rocket was inaccurate, which made it a poor military weapon but an effective terror device. Designed by rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun, the V-2 was a breakthrough in missile technology but failed to prevent Germany's defeat in World War II. The German army developed the V-2, known also as the A4 missile, as an alternative to super-long-range artillery, which the Treaty of Versailles prohibited after World War I. The V-1 had a 2,100 pound high-explosive warhead, an operating speed of 375-400 mph, a range of 150 miles, and an operating altitude of 2,000-4,000 feet. In England, more than 6,000 people died in V-1 attacks, and another 18,000 were wounded. Combined defenses in England and on the continent destroyed a total of 6,176 Buzz Bombs, and an estimated 25 percent of V-1s launched crashed due to malfunction or manufacturing defects. The Allies dropped some 98,000 tons of bombs on V-1 launch and manufacturing sites. Allied countermeasures included bombing launch sites, antiaircraft fire, barrage balloons with wires to snag the missiles, and fighter interception. About half the missiles fell within eight miles of their targets. Germany produced more than 30,000 V-1s in 1944-1945, and an estimated 8,000+ actually reached England and Belgium between the first launch on June 12, 1944, and the last impact on March 30, 1945. Some V-1s were also launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers, but this effort was mostly unsuccessful. Each of the 64 original V-1 units consisted of 55 soldiers and could usually launch one missile in an hour. These specially chosen troops had good technical skills, and they trained at Peenemunde and other sites for months before setting up V-1 operations on the coasts of France and later Holland. The V-1's unique pulse-jet engine gave the Buzz Bomb its nickname: Louvers opening and shutting rapidly near the intake made a distinctive buzzing noise as the engine's "pulsating" thrust gave the V-1 a cruising speed of about 360 mph.Ī single Luftwaffe Flak (antiaircraft) regiment launched all Buzz Bombs in combat. When the course was complete, the 1-ton warhead armed automatically and the engine shut off. Magnetic compasses, a timer and a system of gyroscopes guided Buzz Bombs along a preset course and distance at an average altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Since the V-1's range was only around 150 miles, launch sites were set up on the French coast in order to bombard London. Launching accelerated the missile to about 250 mph, fast enough for the winged bomb's jet engine to operate. inclined ramp using a steam-powered catapult. Although never used in combat, the JB-2 provided valuable data for the design and construction of more advanced weapons. Just before the end of the war, an aircraft carrier en route to the Pacific took on a load of JB-2s for possible use in the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. The first JB-2 test flight in took place at Eglin Field, Fla., in October 1944. Army Air Forces cancelled further production when World War II ended. Production delivery began in January 1945, but the U.S. Republic and Ford built 1,000 JB-2s for the Army and Navy. ![]() built the engine, which was a copy of the V-1's 900-lb. built the airframe for the JB-2 from drawings prepared at Wright Field, using dimensions taken from the remains of several V-1s brought from Germany. The JB-2 was a U.S.-made copy of the famous German V-1 surface-to-surface, pilotless flying bomb first used against England in June 1944.
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