A high-tech flying and attacking weapon, which was used in the London bombing in 1994. What weapon is it?

Vergeltungswaffe 1 (revenge weapon 1 or V 1 for short), Axis' Fi 103, nicknamed "Cherry Core", is the first cruise missile used in human war.

1944 June 13 At 3: 50, near Hastings in northern France, the German 155 anti-aircraft artillery regiment was ready to launch the first "missile"-V1cruise missile. This Fissler Fi 103 cruise missile has been fueled, and all systems have been carefully inspected. It lay quietly on the wheeled launcher of the slide rail of the antiaircraft gun base, waiting for the final ignition launch. When everything was ready, the commander ordered everyone to hide in the cement bunker except the sergeant in charge of ignition. When everyone was safe and hidden, the commander gave the sergeant the order to start emission process.

After the ignition sergeant gently flipped the switch, a stream of compressed air sent gasoline containing octane from the missile's fuel tank to the pulse jet engine located above the missile's tail. Then the spark plug starts to be electrified and ignited, and the fuel is ignited. The engine made a loud roar and the tail shone brightly.

At the same time when the missile is ignited, under the launch guide rail, compressed air sends "T fuel" hydrogen peroxide and "Z fuel" potassium permanganate from their respective containers into the combustion chamber under the launch guide rail. When these two liquids meet, there will be a violent chemical reaction, which will produce a mixture of water vapor and oxygen at high temperature and high pressure.

It takes 7 seconds for the pulse engine of the missile to reach the maximum thrust from startup. At the same time, in the combustion chamber of the guide rail, the pressure of the mixture of water vapor and oxygen also rises rapidly. The front end of the combustion chamber is a traction piston, which is fixed by a steel pin with a diameter of about 0.6 cm. When the thrust of the missile engine and the thrust generated by the chemical reaction in the combustion chamber are large enough, the fixed pin can be cut off.

As soon as the fixed pin is cut, the traction piston pulls the missile forward at high speed on the slide rail. The missile accelerated on a 48-meter-long slide rail, and when it took off at the end of the slide rail, it just reached the minimum flight speed of 402 kilometers per hour. When the traction piston and the launch pulley are separated from the launch track and scattered on the ground beside the launch track, the V 1 missile makes a low roar, dragging the dazzling flame away from the launch base. In the first 3 minutes after launch, the Fi 103 missile kept a small climb angle, flew forward and gradually accumulated speed. Three minutes later, the compass began to control the missile. After considering the influence of the wind direction on the flight route, the warhead of the missile pointed to the preset target route and aimed at the famous building on the Thames in London-Tower Bridge.

About 6 minutes after launch, the missile reached the preset cruising altitude of 900 meters. Soon after, at 3: 57, it crossed the French coast near Eta Price and flew to England. (aviation history researchers are not sure that this missile launched in Hastings was the first missile launched that night. Because four of the 10 missiles launched that night crashed shortly or immediately after launch. But what is certain is that this missile launched in Hastings is the first one discovered by British air defense forces. )

4: 0 1, that is, four minutes after the missile left the French coast, the observers at the radar observation station in Swingate, Dover, found this new attack weapon, but no one knew it was a cruise missile at that time, just thought it was a fast plane, and then the British radar observers lost their target. The visual observation was four minutes later, when the crew of the Royal Navy torpedo boat reported that they saw "a bright horizontal flame" moving northwest from near boulogne.

At 4: 07, an observation team near Dym-church in Kent reported that a bright flying object was flying towards the northwest coast. At that time, the report of this observation team described an "unmanned plane", probably a "dive bomber". When this "dive bomber" flew over the British coast, its flight trajectory was continuously recorded by several British observation stations, and its flight speed was recorded between 402 and 434 kilometers per hour. Because the sound made by the pulse engine of the missile is very different from that of the propeller plane at that time, some observers vividly describe this low roar as "motorboat", "two-stroke motorcycle without silencer" and "T- Ford car when climbing a mountain".

When the missile flies relentlessly to London, its nose has a wind-driven impeller, which can drive a counter to calculate the flight distance. At 4: 20, the counter reaches the preset flight termination value. A pair of electronic contacts are closed, the detonator is detonated, and the elevator and rudder are locked in the neutral position. At the same time, the spoiler at the tail of the missile pops up downward, pushing the tail of the missile upward, making the missile enter a large angle dive state. The pulse engine died, and soon after, the missile crashed in a clearing near Dartford. Its 848 kg high-explosive warhead was detonated, creating a huge crater and igniting a large area around the crater. Fortunately, there were no casualties. The crater is 24 kilometers east of the missile target "Tower Bridge", which can be said to be a serious deviation from the target.

Within 1 hour after the launch of this missile, three other missiles also flew over the British coast. Two of them also crashed in an open field, causing no casualties. But the third bomb landed in BethnalGreen, 3.2 kilometers away from the target, killing 6 people and injuring 9 others. Of the 10 missiles launched in the early morning of June, 6 failed to launch because they crashed before reaching the British coast.

Since then, the "remote bombing" of London, which the British intelligence department had long expected, has officially begun. The British War Cabinet estimated early that this "long-range bombing" would bring great losses to Britain. Churchill's scientific adviser, Baron Cheval, even commented: "Because of a mouse (referring to the fast V 1 missile), the whole mountains and rivers in Britain are suffering."

● Early attack

On the afternoon of June 6, shortly after the Allied forces landed in Normandy. At that time, the high-ranking German commanders thought that the Normandy landing was only a containment action by the allied forces, trying to attract the Germans from the important occupied area of PasdeCalais. If the allied forces land in Degallaix, these Fi 103 missiles may be lost before launch. Due to the new situation of allied landing in Normandy, OberstMaxWachtel, commander of 155 anti-aircraft artillery regiment, received the order to launch missiles at London on the afternoon of 12.

Because the missile launch takes a long time to prepare, and the preparation time left for this task is very short, Vochtel and his staff have completed the preparation work well. In a very limited time, they installed the necessary equipment for launching at 55 of the 64 launch sites. Due to the serious damage caused by allied air strikes to the French railway network, when the launch deadline came, some missile launch sites could not work normally due to lack of materials. This antiaircraft artillery regiment has four missile squadrons, each of which is responsible for the 16 missile launcher. One squadron is short of diesel fuel for the generator and the other squadron is short of potassium permanganate for launching the combustion chamber, so neither squadron can participate in the first launch. Although the situation of the other two squadrons was slightly better, only four missiles flew to the British mainland.

After the first failure, Vochtel was allowed three days to prepare all missile launchers for launch. When the missile bombing started again on June 15, the bombing results obtained from German observation points made the senior German generals very satisfied. By midnight on June 6th, 65438, the 155 antiaircraft artillery regiment had launched 244 V 1 missiles. Among them, 45 pieces (accounting for 18% of the total number of launches) are considered as complete launch failures, because they all landed not far from the launcher. Only 153 (62% of the total number of launches) crossed the British coast or was observed by British observers.

After the first German missile attack on June 5438+03, more fighters and anti-aircraft guns were moved to the south of England to deal with this new threat. These fighters and anti-aircraft guns shot down 22 missiles, about 50 of which landed in the open area around London, but 73 missiles (accounting for 30% of the total number of launches) still landed in the center of London, causing huge property losses and casualties.

From the second bombing on June 5th to 16 days at the end of June, 155 antiaircraft artillery regiment * * * fired 2,442 V 1 missiles, with an average of 153 missiles per day. About one third crashed or was shot down before reaching the British coast, one third crashed or was shot down in southern England, and the other third crashed in central London.

Because the V 1 missile itself cannot identify the target, its most effective attack occurred on a military target in June. At that time, soldiers in Wellington Barracks were attending church, and a missile launched by 18 landed on the crowd attending church, causing 12 1 people to die, including 63 soldiers.

After the allied reconnaissance plane found the launch base of V 1 missile, it began to carry out continuous air strikes on it. Because Vochtel and his men carefully disguised the launch base, many fake targets were created, many allied bombs were dropped on the fake targets, and few launch sites were seriously damaged. Even if there is some damage, most transmitters can be put into launch with a little repair. From June 12 to July 10, two launch sites were completely destroyed, 22 launch sites suffered serious damage, 8 suffered moderate losses, and the other10 suffered only slight losses. 28 Germans were killed and 80 were injured.

The most effective result of allied air strikes was to block the railway and road transportation in Germany. After launching reserve missiles, the launching troops sometimes waste a few days waiting for the next batch of missiles to arrive. Due to the destruction of German railways and highways, the supply capacity of the missile supply department has been unable to keep up with the launch capacity of the missile launching unit.

Since the attack on June 13, the Germans have carried out uninterrupted missile attacks on Britain throughout July. The highest attack density was reached on August 2. During these 24 hours, the 155 antiaircraft artillery regiment fired 3 16 missiles from 38 launchers. About 107 missiles landed in central London. All missiles are aimed at the tower bridge on the Thames. On this day, a missile hit the famous building for the first time, causing some damage to the bridge deck.

Although the advanced aircraft V 1 missile caused great losses to Britain, it failed to reverse the fate of the German army. At this time, the days of the Germans in western France are numbered. In the third week of August, the Germans were defeated at the front and began to retreat in a hurry. On August 25th, the 25th cavalry company of the British army crossed the Seine River, and advanced rapidly to Pa Degallaix area, eventually destroying these missile launchers one by one.

1 At 4 o'clock in the morning of September, the last missile of 86 17 V 1 was launched from the north of France. This marks the end of the initial and most destructive attack phase of the V/KLOC-0 missile.

* Air-launched V 1 missile

Pade de Calais's ground-based missile launcher undertakes most of the tasks of attacking British missiles, but not all of them. On July 9th, the specially modified Henkel He111S bomber of the third KG squadron joined the missile attack team. He 1 1 1s bombers mainly carry out combat missions at night and in bad weather conditions from Gilte and Wenluo in the Netherlands and Beauvais in France.

Because the missile V 1 is large, it can only be hung on the bomber, so its 2.5 tons weight and extra flight resistance are a severe test for the performance of HE 1 1. He 1 1 1 flies at a cruising speed of 274 kilometers per hour during the missile launch, and keeps the altitude below 90 meters to avoid being detected by the British coastal radar. When flying near the launch point, He11began to turn to the launch direction and slowly climbed to the minimum safe launch height of 520 meters. When the heading and altitude meet the requirements, He11starts to fly level and accelerates to a speed of 320km/h, which is the minimum flight speed of the missile. After the 10 missile was separated from the plane, the pulse jet engine on the missile ignited, and the tail flame emitted by the engine was very bright and dazzling, clearly illuminating the airspace of several square kilometers in Fiona Fang. At this time, he11is the most vulnerable to be discovered and attacked. Therefore, after the bombing, the pilots of He11will not feel very relaxed, but it is precisely when they are most nervous. After the missile was separated from the bomber, it had to descend about 90 meters before being taken over by the autopilot, and then began to climb to the predetermined cruising altitude. At the same time, he11began to make a steep downward turn, and the crew tried to keep their plane as far away from the missile they had just launched as possible, because the tail flame of V 1 missile was very bright, and dragging it in the air was like firing a flare. Although the air launch was so dangerous, the disappointing V/KLOC-0 missile did not reward these bomber pilots with a high success rate. According to statistics, about one-third to half of the missiles crashed shortly after being launched in the air.

In the first week of July, August and September, the 3rd KG Squadron fired about 300 missiles at London, 90 missiles at Southampton and 20 missiles at Gloucester. The last attack of this stage took place on the dark morning of September 5, when nine bombers launched a volley of missiles at London. According to statistics, the hit accuracy of air-launched missiles is much lower than that of ground-launched missiles. The attacks on Southampton and Gloucester were a complete failure. None of the 1 10 missiles actually hit the target. None of the missiles landed in Southampton, and the craters were scattered in a wide area south of Southampton, so that British intelligence agencies thought it was an unsuccessful attack on Portsmouth.

Since the German army has been unable to use the airports in the Netherlands and France since the beginning of September, the 3rd KG squadron had to retreat and attack in Aalhorn, Varel (Varelbusch) and Zwischenahn in northern Germany.

The attack on September 16 is a good example of German air-launched missiles. The weather in the North Sea that day was very suitable for such an attack. There are thick clouds in the sky, the heights are about 2 10 meters and 370 meters, and it is raining in Mao Mao. 15 Black He11took off from the airport in northern Germany and flew to the launch site at the mouth of the Thames. Nine of them were successfully launched, and three were shot down by British ships and planes before reaching the British coast. Two others were shot down by fighter planes over Britain. Two of the remaining four landed in the suburbs of Essex. Only two of them arrived in downtown London, one in woolwich and the other in Bajin. The German bombers did not suffer any losses.

Because the V/KLOC-0 missile poses a great threat to Britain, the Royal Air Force spared no effort to intercept the bombers that launched the missile. Every night when the Germans are likely to attack, the Mosquito reconnaissance plane will fly over the German airport for reconnaissance, and the Mosquito will constantly patrol the places where German bombers may launch missiles at night.

1In the autumn of 944, the number of bombers capable of launching V/kloc-0 missiles in the air has increased to 90, but due to the shortage of fuel, the operational scope of these bombers has been limited to some extent.

After launching missile attacks on Gloucester and Southampton, German bombers only attacked a city outside London. However, this has greatly increased the scope of British air defense forces, making the layout of fighters and anti-aircraft guns more dispersed than before. As a result, the air defense capability of each specific location is weaker than before. On the dark morning of February 24, 65438, the German Air Force launched a large-scale air raid on Martha in Manchester. About 50 bombers fired missiles at the launching point over the North Sea, and 30 missiles crossed the coast between Skgnes and Bridlington. 1 1 missiles landed about 24 kilometers away from Manchester, and only 1 missiles landed in the urban area. The missile attack killed 37 people and seriously injured 67 others. A German bomber was shot down by a British night fighter. Although this kind of attack has a low hit rate, it has achieved a deterrent effect. Forcing the British to redeploy anti-aircraft artillery units, many anti-aircraft artillery units originally deployed in the south of England were transferred to the east coast of England, and the anti-aircraft artillery defense line was deployed to Yorkshire in the north.

1945, 65438+ 10, 10 On the same day, the 3KG squadron reported that they still had1kloc-0/he11bombers, of which 79 were capable of carrying out tasks. Four days later, due to the lack of aviation fuel, the air-launched missile unit stopped fighting. From the first mission to the last mission, this independent bomber formation lost 77 He11,of which 16 was shot down by night fighters, and most of the other planes crashed due to low-altitude flight in bad weather conditions at night.

● Resume ground-launched missile attacks.

1in March, 945, the Germans began to carry out air strikes on London with a new type of extended-range V 1 missile. This extended-range V/KLOC-0 missile has an increased fuel tank volume and a reduced warhead weight. Due to the increase of fuel, the maximum range of the missile has reached 320 kilometers, so it can fly directly over London from the launch base in the Netherlands. The missile attack at this stage started on March 3rd and ended at the end of March, and * * launched 275 missiles. Only 125, less than half of the total, was discovered by the British air defense department. At this time, British antiaircraft guns and fighter pilots had accumulated a lot of experience in dealing with V 1 missiles, so they also shot down 9 1 missiles. In the end, only 13 missiles landed in the center of London, which is less than one twentieth of the total number launched from the Dutch base.

Summary of V 1 Missile Attack Effect

The Germans fired about 10000 V 1 missiles at Britain. Most of them, about 85%, were launched from land. A * * * 7,488 missiles flew over the British coast or were discovered by the British, and 3,957 missiles were shot down before reaching the target. 35,365,438+0 escaped the British defense, 2,465,438+09 flew to London, about 30 arrived in Southampton and Portsmouth, and one hit Manchester. Therefore, only about a quarter of the ground-launched missiles fly to their target areas. For air-launched missiles, this ratio is about one tenth.

For the British side, the V/KLOC-0 missile caused great casualties. One missile killed 6 184 people, and every five missiles fired killed 3 people on average. The number of seriously injured people reached 1798 1.