Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II
The V-1 Campaign
The last major opponents of British home-based AAA were
the German V weapons, the V-1, a winged and pilotless bomb,
and the V-2 ballistic missile. The flying bomb, also known as
the buzz bomb, carried a two-ton warhead about 160 miles at
approximately 400 miles per hour (mph). Allied defenses consisted
of offensive bombing raids against V-1 targets (launching
sites, fabrication plants, and supply depots), fighter patrols,
balloon barrages, and AAA. Initially, the defenders assumed
that the pilotless bomb would fly at about 400 mph and at
7,500 feet. Later, they revised their assumptions to 350 mph
at 7,000 feet and, finally, to 330 mph at 6,000 feet. The British
completed a detailed plan on the defense of their homeland in
January 1944 (fig. 9). It established fighter patrol lines and an
artillery line of 400 heavy pieces and 346 light pieces immediately
south of London. But the demands of supporting the
D-day invasion and optimism resulting from the bombing of
the German launch sites led the British to revise the plan in
March. It called for a reduction in the number of guns defending
London to 192 heavy pieces and 246 light pieces, a
total reduction from 528 to 288 heavy pieces, and from 804 to
282 light pieces. Air Chief Marshal Roderic Hill, the defense
commander, pointed out that AAA would have difficulties if the
V-ls operated at 2,000 to 3,000 feet and not at the predicted
6,000 feet. 21 Events validated Hill’s warning.
After the Allied invasion of Europe on 6 June 1944, Adolph
Hitler pushed for the V-1 campaign as a means of relief for his
troops. The Germans began the bombardment on 12 June but
could fire only two small salvos; however, by 18 June, the Germans
launched the 500th V-1; by 21 June, the 1,000th; by 29
June, the 2,000th; and by 22 July, the 5,000th. These V-1 attacks
continued until September, when the Germans withdrew
from their French bases before the Allied ground advance. 22
The V-ls traveled fast for the day, crossing the English coast
at an average speed of 340 mph and accelerating to about 400
mph as they burned off fuel. Thus, the fighter pilots had but
six minutes to sight and down the buzz bombs before they
reached their targets. The V-ls were difficult to spot because of
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