Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Nuclear subsidy

Gotta disagree about V-1s verses V-2s
Larry J — (archived)

A ballistic missile (V-2) is an order-of-magnitude more expensive than a cruise missile (V-1). If all the money poured into V-2s had been spent on manufacturing V-1s then there might have been a different outcome to World War 2 (the V-1s caused terrible suffering for the British).

While V-2s were much more expensive than V-1s, they were also unstoppable. V-1s were fairly fast, but several fighters* could catch them and either shoot them down or tip them over**. Within a few weeks of the V-1s becoming operational, proximity fuzed antiaircraft shells started dropping them like flies. The British moved antiaircraft batteries with proximity fuzes to the coastline and had very good success at downing the buzz bombs before they crossed over into dry land. Most of those that made it through were dropped by fighters. Nothing could stop a V-2.

There was another issue with both weapons - they were launched blindly. The V-1 simply flew a straight heading for a given number of revolutions on the nose spinner (a tiny propellor used to measure distance flown), then the engine shut down and the elevator pitched it over. The Germans depended on spies to help improve their aiming. However, the British had managed to capture all of the German spies*** and had them feeding false information regarding the impact points, so the bombs became less and less accurate over time.

*The Typhoon fighter was well suited for this, and the deHavilland Meteor (Britain's first operational jet fighter) was also used against V-1s.

**Sometimes, it was unhealthy to shoot at a flying bomb. When it exploded, it could take you out, too. Some daring pilot came up with the idea of flying alongside a buzz bomb and tipping it over with his wingtip. That caused the autopilot to dump and the bomb would crash. As crazy as it sounds, it worked and was done.

***The German spies were pretty inept and were quickly captured by the British. They were offered a simple option - cooperate in feeding false information or be hung. Not too surprisingly, virtually all of them decided to cooperate.

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