V-weapons
As early as 28 June 1940, a strategic bombing rationale had been advanced for the A4 (V-2 rocket) being developed at a meeting between Army Ordnance Chief Emil Leeb and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, Walther von Brauchitsch.
[6] On 29 September 1943, Albert Speer publicly promised retribution against the mass bombing of German cities by a "secret weapon".
[7] Then the official 24 June 1944 Reich Propaganda Ministry announcement of the "Vergeltungswaffe 1" guided missile implied that there would be another such weapon.
[11] Allen Dulles, head of the American secret service OSS in Switzerland, was in contact with the Austrian resistance group around the priest Heinrich Maier from 1943 onwards.
Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful, and by June 1944 they were ready for action.
As it reached its target and dived, there would be a distinct sound of the propulsion unit spluttering and cutting out; the eerie hush before impact which followed was quite terrifying, according to observers.
[21] A total of 9,251 V-1s were fired at targets in Britain, with the vast majority aimed at London; 2,515 reached the city, killing 6,184 civilians and injuring 17,981.
[23] As the V-2 explosions came without warning, the government initially attempted to conceal their cause by blaming them on defective gas mains.
[25] Intercepting the supersonic V-2 missiles in flight proved virtually impossible, and other countermeasures, such as bombing the launch sites, were fairly ineffectual.
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.
[32] A post-war SHAEF report estimated V-Bombs had been responsible for killing 5,000 people and injuring a further 21,000, mostly in the cities of Antwerp and Liège.
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.
