V-1 Flying Bomb

The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1, Fieseler Fi 103 by the RLM's airframe number) — also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug — was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile.

The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde Airfield by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". The first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series designed for terror bombing of London, the V-1 was fired from "ski" launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landing in Europe. At its peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at southeast England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. This caused the remaining V-1s to be directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped when the last site was overrun on 29 March 1945. In total, the V-1 attacks caused 22,892 casualties (almost entirely civilians).

The British operated an arrangement of defences (including guns and fighter aircraft) to intercept the bombs before they reached their targets and as part of Operation Crossbow and the launch sites and underground V-1 storage depots were targets of strategic bombing.