Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

Left: A complete VI weighed some 2.032 tonnes (2 tons),
and it was customary to manhandle it into position at the
foot of the ramp on its launch cradle.
THE SELBSTOPFERMÄNNER BOMBER
Desperate times breed desperate men, and both
remaining arms of the Axis began to consider formalised
suicide tactics, perhaps from as early as late
1943. The most famous of these was the Japanese
Kamikaze (Divine Wind) campaign against ships of
the Royal and US Navies from the time of the Battle
of Leyte Gulf (23-26 October 1944), but Germany,
too, made preparations for the use of such tactics, the
most significant of those involving a manned version
of the Fi 103 flying bomb. This was actually the first
vehicle considered, but it was rejected in favour of a
glider version of the Me 328, while a unit equipped
with Fw 190s, known as 'Kommando Lange 1 , or the
'Staffel Leonidas', was formed to begin training for
missions which involved the pilot placing his aircraft
- carrying the maximum possible bombload - in a
steep dive aimed at the target before baling out and
taking to his parachute. Eventually, the Me 328 project
lost momentum, and it became clear that the
chances of penetrating anti-aircraft defences in a Fw
190 carrying a sufficient bombload to be effective
were extremely slim.
Attention returned to the use of the Fi 103. Designs
for four different versions were worked up by DPS,
and Henschel converted four standard VI missiles.
The operational codename for the project was
'Reichenberg', and the four versions of the aircraft
received 'R' prefixes, I through to IV. The Fi 103 R-I
was a single-seater with ballast in place of its warhead;
it had skids and landing flaps, but no motor: it
was constructed for the test programme. The R-II was
similar, but with a second cockpit in the nose section.
The R-III was designed for advanced training, and
was essentially the R-I equipped with an engine. The
R-IV was the operational model, with no landing aids
but with ailerons, and with the warhead reinstated.
There are suggestions that the warhead might have
been replaced with a cannon and the aircraft used as
an interceptor, too. About 175 are thought to have
been built in all.
The test pilots for the development programme
were Heinz Kensche and the ubiquitous Hanna
Reitsch, and they reported favourably on the aircraft's
performance in flight (though there were hair-raising
moments, apparently) but were not so enthusiastic
about landing it. One can imagine that landing was
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES
hardly a consideration as these aircraft were never
meant to be landed after use, except on training
flights. The intention was for the pilot to aim the aircraft
at its target and then bale out, but frankly, the
arrangements made for him (or her) to exit the aircraft
were somewhat cynical. The cockpit was located well
aft - aft of the trailing edge of the wings - and almost
underneath the motor's air intake, against which it
jammed before it had been opened through the 45
degrees necessary to jettison it. Even if the pilot succeeded
in freeing it, he would have had little chance
of levering himself out of the cockpit in a steep dive
at speeds in excess of 1000km/h (62()mph) without
being seriously injured, if not killed. Although thousands
volunteered for the Selbstopfermänner bomber
programme and 70 were accepted for training, they
were never asked to go into action, so in the final analysis,
it is not important. Japanese pilots who flew the
'Ohka' flying bombs in the latter stages of the
Kamikaze campaign were treated more honestly: they
were sealed into their aircraft and knew they had no
chance of getting out. The efficacy of the Japanese
Kamikaze campaign gives some indication of the sort
of results they were expected to achieve. Between 21
February and 15 August 1945,17 ships were sunk and
198 damaged for the loss of 930 aircraft, both flying
bombs and escorts.
THE'AGGREGAT'ROCKETS
In the aftermath of the defeat of 1918, Germany was
severely limited in terms of the weapons she could
possess. As we noted earlier, there was a large-scale
campaign to circumvent the restrictions imposed by
the Treaty of Versailles by establishing development
programmes abroad, but there were other avenues
open, too; for instance, as early as 1929, the
Heereswaffenamt began to look into rocketry as an
alternative to long-range artillery, and set up a trials
and proving ground about 32km (20 miles) south of
Berlin at Kummersdorf. Captain Walter Dornberger, a
professional soldier who had been sent by the Army
to the School of Technology at Charlottenberg, and
had earned an MA in ballistics there, was put in
charge of the project in 1930 under the HWA's head,
Karl Becker, himself very enthusiastic.
In 1927, a group of keen amateurs, centred on Hermann
Oberth, author of Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen
(The Rocket into Interplanetary Space), published
in 1923, formed the Society for Space Travel,
the Verein für Raumschiffahrt. They began to experiment
with rocket motors, and were funded initially by