V-1 Flying Bomb Facilities - V-1 Launching Sites

V-1 Launching Sites

V-1 launching sites in France were located in nine general areas - four of which had the ramps aligned toward London, and the remainder toward Brighton, Dover, Newhaven, Hastings, Southampton, Manchester, Portsmouth, Bristol, and Plymouth. The sites on the Cherbourg peninsula targeting Bristol and Plymouth were captured before being used, and eventually launching ramps were moved to Holland to target Antwerp (first launched on 3 March 1945 from Delft).

Initially the V-1 launching sites had storage buildings that were curved at the end like snow skis ("ski sites"). An October 28, 1943 intelligence report regarding construction at Bois Carré near Yvrench prompted No. 170 Squadron RAF reconnaissance sortie E/463 on November 3 which detected "ski-shaped buildings 240-270 feet long." By November 1943, 72 of the ski sites had been located by allied reconnaissance, and Operation Crossbow began bombing the original ski sites on December 5, 1943. Nazi Germany subsequently began constructing modified sites with limited structures that could be completed quickly, as necessary. This also allowed the modified sites to be quickly repaired after bombing. However, the work to complete a modified site before launching allowed the allied photographic interpreters to predict on June 11, 1944 that the V-1 attacks would begin within 48 hours, and the first attacks began on June 13.