Operation Aphrodite

[2] The missions were not generally successful, and the intended targets in Europe were either overrun by the ground advance of Allied troops or disabled by conventional attacks by aircraft.

The plan called for B-17E/Fs that had been taken out of operational service (various nicknames existed, such as "robot", "baby", "drone" or "weary Willy"[3]) to be loaded to capacity with explosives, and flown by radio control into bomb-resistant fortifications such as German U-boat pens and V-weapon sites.

Doolittle approved the plan for Operation Aphrodite on 26 June and assigned the 3rd Bombardment Division with preparing and flying the drone aircraft, which was to be designated BQ-7.

[6] USSTAF officially ordered Project Aphrodite on 23 June, and the 8th Air Force was directed to conduct the "development and operational trials."

There was an experimental Azon unit at RAF Horsham St Faiths (458th Bombardment Group with Consolidated B-24 Liberators) that supplied control aircraft, crews, and technical expertise.

[8] At RAF Honington, B-17F and B-17G Flying Fortress bombers were stripped of all normal combat armament and all other non-essential gear (armor, turrets and guns, bomb racks, radio transceiver, seats, etc.

On missions, the drone and its two motherships were accompanied by a small fighter escort (eight P-47s) and supported by a Mosquito flying ahead reporting on the weather.

At Fersfield they were joined by the US Navy's Special Air Unit No.1 (with volunteers drawn from maritime patrol units at Dunkeswell) and a Wright Airfield detachment working with television-guided bombs (codenamed "Batty") The remote control system was insufficient for safe takeoff, so each drone was taken aloft by a volunteer crew of a pilot and a flight engineer to an altitude of 2,000 ft (600 m) before transfer of control to the CQ-4 operators.

[14] After the Anvil and Batty projects had left Fersfield, operations were transferred by the 3rd Division to the unit's parent base at RAF Knettishall, a few miles to the West and over the border in Suffolk, and missions from there began in December.

[14] The program effectively ceased on 27 January 1945 when General Spaatz, (C-in-C USSTAF) sent an urgent message to Doolittle: "Aphrodite babies must not be launched against the enemy until further orders".

[15][5] The USSTAF made representations to President Roosevelt about use of Aphrodite against the Ruhr and a presidential telegram to Churchill on 31 March received a cautious agreement in April.