V-1 Beginning in October 1943, launch sites for the V-1 were constructed in Northern France, along the coast from
Calais 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 6 June, in the early morning of 13 June 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 impacted near
Swanscombe, causing no casualties. At
Bethnal Green, however, a bridge was destroyed, six people killed and nine injured. The attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day. By October the offensive became sustained. A particularly devastating strike was on 25 November 1944, when a V-2 exploded at the
Woolworths store in New Cross Road, killing 168 people and seriously injuring 121. Intercepting the supersonic V-2 missiles in flight proved virtually impossible, and other countermeasures, such as bombing the launch sites, were fairly ineffectual. Sustained bombardment continued until March 1945. The final 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 was supersonic and 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 enemy-action incident of any kind on British soil occurred at 09:00 on 29 March 1945 when a V-1 struck a
Hertfordshire field. 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''. V-2s were launched against
Antwerp and
Liège in Belgium; the attack on Antwerp was to prevent use of the
Port of Antwerp which was essential for Allied logistics. In the six months following liberation in September 1944, Belgian towns were targeted by German V-weapons. A total of 2,342 V-weapons (mostly of the more advanced
V-2 type) fell in a radius around Antwerp alone. On 17 March 1945 eleven V-2 rockets were fired at the Ludendorf rail bridge across the Rhine at
Remagen on Hitler's orders (see
Battle of Remagen). This was the only time they were fired at a tactical target or at a target in Germany; the nearest hit to the target was away; and one hit Cologne, to the north. The General Staff were against their use as they were inaccurate and could kill German citizens and troops, but Hitler was desperate to destroy the Allied bridgehead across the Rhine. They were launched by Batterie SS Abt. 500 at
Hellendoorn in the Netherlands, about to the north.
V-3 The V-3 cannon, also designed to fire on London, was never used for this purpose due to Allied attacks on the launch facilities, especially 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
Luxembourg, with minimal result.
V-4 The term V-4 has been applied by later writers to a number of projects and systems but in no case is this supported by period German documentation. The name has also been applied to a solid fuel rocket named the
Rheinbote (Rhine Messenger). == See also ==