By 1941, Nazi leaders were becoming concerned about the rising losses of German planes and pilots on air raids over British cities. They were determined to reduce their losses, so German scientists began secret work to develop long-range pilotless rocket bombs.
The first version of the pilotless rocket bomb, known as the V-1, carried a 1,880-pound (850-kilogram) warhead and was powered by a jet engine. It traveled at 350 miles per hour (560 kilometers per hour) and had a range of 150 miles (240 kilometers). Nearly 10,000 of these “doodlebugs’” were fired at Britain from northern France, killing over 6,000 people.
In September 1944, a V-2 rocket was fired at London. These missiles, built by the Nazis using slave labor, were powered by liquid fuel and provided the model for all future rockets. The V-2 had a 2,166-pound (980-kilogram) warhead and a speed of 2,480 miles per hour (4,000 kilometers per hour). Their mobile launchpads made it difficult for Allied bombers to detect and destroy them before they were in the air. Over 3,000 were launched at various Allied targets, killing over 7,000 civilians.
A German V-1 “doodlebug” flying bomb falls on a town in southern England in June 1944.
The Germans also developed the V-3, an underground cannon, capable of firing shells at London from giant bunkers in northern France. The V-3 would have been able to fire 300 shells an hour at a speed of one mile (1,500 meters) per second. But the project was abandoned when Allied troops captured it after D-day.
The German V-2 long-range missile was the forerunner of modern space rockets.