Crossbow was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched against Britain from 1944 to 1945 and used against continental European targets as well.[3]
Initial intelligence investigations in 1943 into the progress of German long range weapons were carried out under the code name Bodyline. On 15 November, a larger operation was set up under the name Crossbow.[14]Post-war, Crossbow operations became known as "Operation Crossbow" particularly following the 1965 film of the same name.
Crossbow included strategic operations against research and development of the weapons, their manufacture, transportation and attacks on their launch site, and fighter intercepts against missiles in flight.[2]:7 At one point, the British government, in near panic, demanded that upwards of 40% of bomber sorties be targeted against the launch sites.[citation needed]
The Crossbow attacks were not very successful, and every raid carried out against a V-1 or V-2 launch site was one fewer raid against other targets in the Third Reich. The diversion of Allied resources from other targets represented a major success for Hitler.[3][15]
In May 1943 Allied surveillance observed the construction of the first of eleven large sites in northern France for secret German weapons, including six for the V-2 rocket. In November it discovered the first of 96 "ski sites" for the V-1 flying bomb.
Officials debated the extent of the German weapons' danger; some viewed the sites as decoys to divert Allied bombers, while others feared chemical or biological warheads.[16] The Allies received detailed information about V-1, V-2 and Peenemünde research site from the Austrian resistance group around the priest Heinrich Maier. This also included the production sites such as the Raxwerke.[17][18][19] When reconnaissance and intelligence information regarding the V-2 became convincing, the War Cabinet Defence Committee (Operations) directed the campaign's first planned[b] raid (the Operation Hydra attack on Peenemünde in August 1943).[21]
The works in France were the German "Site System 1" which was to be 96 fixed launching sites with storage bunkers (the 'ski' shapes) and outdoor ramps. Site System 2 (a reserve) and System 3 were planned. There were also four larger Wasserwerk ("Waterworks") bunker sites: Siracourt, Lottinghen, Nardouet, and Brécourt.[22] Intended for use in January 1944 actual progress in construction, training and supply of V-1s was behind when inspected by German high command in October.[23] French reports and detailed aerial reconnaissance linked with reconnaissance of Peenemünde indicated possibility of 2,000 missiles per day against England. Over half the sites were completed by December but Allied intelligence had identified all 96 by end of January. The first bombing of sites was by USAAF Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers in early December with RAF Bomber Command starting night-time attacks shortly after but the greater inaccuracy of night bombing against small targets led the Joint Chiefs of Staff to use US heavy bombers in daylight. By the end of December 54 sites had been attacked and seven were destroyed. The bombing continued – by end of 9 March destroyed and 35 seriously damaged, by 24 May destroyed and 58 seriously damaged.[24]
Following Operation Hydra, a few Crossbow attacks were conducted on the "Heavy Crossbow"[25] bunkers of Watten (V-2) and Mimoyecques (actually V-3 rocket cannon) from August and November 1943 respectively.[26] "Crossbow Operations Against Ski Sites" began on 5 December with the "Noball" code name used for the targets (e.g., 'Noball 27' was the Ailly-le-Vieux-Clocher[sic] site,[27] "Noball No. 93" was in the Cherbourg area, "Noball No. 107" was at Grand Parc, and "Noball V1 site No.147" was at Ligescourt).
The US formed its own Crossbow Committee under General Stephen Henry (New Developments Division) on 29 December 1943, and the US subsequently developed bombing techniques for ski sites in February/March 1944 at the Air Corps Proving Ground.
United States Army Air Force video on Operation Crossbow
A mid-1944 plan for US Marine Corps aircraft to attack V-1 launch sites from aircraft carriers fell victim to inter-service rivalry – being opposed by the Army. V-2 facilities were also bombed in 1944, including smaller facilities such as V-2 storage depots and liquid oxygen plants, such as the Mery-sur-Oise V-2 storage depot[6] on 4 August 1944, and, by the Eighth Air Force, which bombed five cryogenic liquid oxygen plants in Belgium on 25 August 1944, but aborted the next days attack on plants "at La Louviere, Torte and Willebroeck, Belgium" due to cloud.
Priority
A World War II map shows the two areas where the Germans were setting up their secret "V" weapons to bombard England (right, center). These are the areas in which the Royal Air Force and 8th Air Force heavy bombers concentrated their bombs in order to knock out the weapons – part of the pre-invasion plan. This event was given the operational code name Crossbow during World War II.
At the request of the British War Cabinet, on 19 April 1944,[28]General Eisenhower directed Crossbow attacks to have absolute priority over all other air operations, including "wearing down German industry" and civilian morale[29] "for the time being", which he confirmed after the V-1 assault began on the night of 12/13 June 1944, saying to Arthur Tedder "with respect to Crossbow targets, these targets are to take first priority over everything except the urgent requirements of the Overlord [invasion of Normandy] battle; this priority to obtain until we can be certain that we have definitely gotten the upper hand of this particular business".[30]
The launches surprised the Allies, who had believed that the earlier attacks on the sites had eliminated the danger. The British, who had not expected German bombing of Britain to resume so late in the war, were especially upset. Some suggested using gas on the launch sites, or even executing German civilians as punishment.[16]
Carl Spaatz, commander of U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSTAF), responded on 28 June[31] to "complain that Crossbow was a 'diversion' from the main task of wearing down the Luftwaffe and bombing German industry" for the Combined Bomber Offensive, and to recommend instead that Crossbow be a secondary priority since "days of bad weather over Germany's industrial targets would still allow enough weight of attack for the rocket sites and the lesser tactical crises."[32] By 10 July, Tedder had published a list of Crossbow targets which assigned 30 to RAF Bomber Command, six to the tactical Allied Expeditionary Air Force, and 68 to Spaatz's USSTAF; after which Spaatz again complained,[3]:239 so Eisenhower allowed "spare" bombing of non-Crossbow targets: "Instructions for continuing to make Crossbow targets our first priority must stand, but ... when ... the entire strategic forces cannot be used against Crossbow, we should attack – (a) Aircraft industry, (b) Oil, (c) ball bearing(German): Kugellagerwerke, (d) Vehicular production" (Eisenhower, 18 July).[32]
Over a quarter of the Combined Bomber Offensive's tonnage of bombs were used against V-weapon sites in July and August; many of the attacks were ineffective, as they were against unused sites rather than the launchers themselves. Spaatz unsuccessfully proposed that attacks concentrate on the Calais electrical grid, and on gyrocompass factories in Germany and V-weapon storage depots in France. The gyrocompass attacks, along with targeting liquid oxygen tanks (which the Allies knew the V-2 needed), might have been very effective against the missiles.[16] On 25 August 1944, the Joint Crossbow Target Priorities Committee (established 21 July)[4] prepared the "Plan for Attack on the German Rocket Organization When Rocket Attacks Commence"–in addition to bombing of storage, liquid-oxygen, and launch sites; the plan included aerial reconnaissance operations.[33] Following the last V-1 launch from France on 1 September 1944, and since the expected V-2 attacks had not begun, Crossbow bombing was suspended on 3 September[34] and the campaign against German oil facilities became the highest priority.
Crossbow bombing resumed after the first V-2 attack and included a large 17 September raid on Dutch targets suspected as bases for Heinkel He 111s, which were air-launching V-1s.[33] Modified V-1s (865 total) were air-launched from 16 September 1944, to 14 January 1945.[36] The British had initially considered that an earlier 18–21 July 1944 effort of 50 air-launched V-1s had been ground-launched from the Low Countries, particularly near Ostend.:256 In addition to air-launched V-1s, launches were from ramps built in the province of South Holland, the Netherlands in 1945.
Allied reconnaissance detected two sites at Vlaardingen and Ypenburg, and along with a third at Delft, they launched 274 V-1s at London from 3–29 March. Only 125 reached the British defences, and only thirteen of those reached the target area. Three additional sites directed their fire on Antwerp. After using medium bombers against V-2 launch site in the Haagse Bos on 3 March, the RAF attacked the Holland V-1 sites with two squadrons. An RAF Fighter Command unit used Spitfires against Ypenburg on 20 and 23 March, while a RAF Second Tactical Air Force unit used Hawker Typhoons against Vlaardingen on 23 March. Counterattacks on Holland's V-1 and V-2 sites ended on 3 April, and all Crossbow countermeasures ended on 2 May with the end of World War II in Europe.[37]
A Spitfire tipping the wing of a V-1 to disrupt the missile's automatic pilot.
"Flabby" was the code name for medium weather-conditions when fighters were allowed to chase flying bombs over the gun-belt to the balloon line,[39] and during Operation Totter, the Royal Observer Corps fired "Snowflake" illuminating rocket flares from the ground to identify V-1 flying bombs to RAF fighters.[40] After the Robot Blitz[41] began on the night of 12/13 June 1944, the first RAF fighter interception of a V-1 was on 14/15 June. Moreover, anti-aircraft guns increased the rate of downed V-1s to 1 per 77 rounds fired after the introduction of proximity fuses.[42] Despite the defences, by 27 June, "over 100,000 houses had been damaged or destroyed by the V-1... and shattered sewage systems threatened serious epidemics unless fixed by winter."[32]
Of the 638 air-launched V-1s that had been observed, guns and fighters brought down 403; 66 fell in the London Civil Defence Region and 169 in other places, including Southampton on 7 July and one as far north as Manchester.[43]
The British intelligence services (Secret Intelligence Service and Air Ministry's Scientific Intelligence Office) were monitoring German rocket artillery research and information received by bugging high-ranking German prisoners-of-war increased focus on activities at Peenemunde. In response to discussions by the vice-chiefs of staff on the subject of German long range rocket developments, in April 1943 Duncan Sandys was given the responsibility of investigating how far Germany had progressed.[44] Under the codename Bodyline, investigations by SIS, the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, and the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit were able to confirm existence of rocketry activities at Peenemunde and Sandys reported his findings to the chiefs of staff that the Germans were developing rockets, were probably well-advanced and countermeasures should be studied[44]
The Bodyline Scientific Committee (19 members, including Duncan Sandys, Edward Victor Appleton, John Cockcroft, Robert Watson-Watt) was formed in September 1943 regarding the suspected V-2 rocket. After the 1944 crash of a test V-2 in Sweden, "transmitters to jam the guidance system of the rocket" were prepared.[45] A British sound-ranging system provided "trajectory [data] from which the general launching area could be determined", and the microphone(s) in East Kent reported the times of the first V-2 strikes on 8 September 1944: 18:40:52 and 18:41:08.[46]
In November 1943, the Bodyline committee handed over the tasks to the Air Ministry as the extent of the issue became clear.
On 21 March 1945, the Pile's plan for the "Engagement of Long Range Rockets with AA Gunfire" which called for anti-aircraft units to fire into a radar-predicted airspace to intercept the V-2 was ready, but the plan was not used due to the danger of shells falling on Greater London.[47]
Unlike the V-1, which had a speed similar to the fastest available fighter planes, the velocity and trajectory of a V-2 made aircraft interception an impossibility. Happenstance instances of Allied aircraft encountering launched V-2 rockets include: 29 October 1944, Lieutenants Donald A. Schultz and Charles M. Crane in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning attempted to photograph a launched V-2 above the trees near the River Rhine,[48] 1 January 1945, a 4th Fighter Group pilot aloft over the northern flightpath for attacking elements of five German fighter wings on Unternehmen Bodenplatte that day, observed a V-2 "act up for firing near Lochem ... the rocket was immediately tilted from 85 deg. to 30 deg",[49] and on 14 February 1945, a No. 602 Squadron RAF Spitfire Mk XVI pilot, Raymond Baxter's colleague "Cupid" Love, fired at a V-2 just after launch.[50][51]
After the last combat V-2 launch on 27 March 1945, the British discontinued their use of radar in the defence region to detect V-2 launches on 13 April.[1]
Diver – a secret British Defence Instruction specified the code name: "Enemy Flying Bombs will be referred to or known as 'Diver' aircraft or pilotless planes" to alert defences of an imminent attack (often called Operation Diver, particularly post-war, without citation).[53]
↑ The June 1943 Operation Bellicose was not targeted against German long-range weapons, but happened to be the first bombing of a German long-range weapon facility (the Zeppelin Werk). Likewise, an 22/23 October 1943, RAF city bombing wrecked homes of workers employed at the Gerhard Fieseler Werke, delaying both their transfer to the new V-1 plant at Rothwesten and, as a result, "the final trials of the [V-1] weapon's power unit, control-gear, diving mechanism, compass and air-log" until February:180 (a "three or four" month delay of V-1s). Also, a few V-2 centre sections had been assembled by the Raxwerke when a 2 November 1943, Fifteenth Air Force mission targeting the nearby Messerschmitt fighter aircraft plant hit the Raxwerke.[20]
Related Research Articles
The V-1 flying bomb was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) designation was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany as Kirschkern or Maikäfer (maybug).
The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of America's heavy bomber force: the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber aircraft.
La Coupole, also known as the Coupole d'Helfaut-Wizernes and originally codenamed Bauvorhaben 21 or Schotterwerk Nordwest, is a Second World War bunker complex in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Saint-Omer, and some 14.4 kilometers south-southeast from the less developed Blockhaus d'Éperlecques V-2 launch installation in the same area. It was built by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets directed against London and southern England and is the earliest known precursor to modern underground missile silos still in existence.
Tallboy or Bomb, Medium Capacity, 12,000 lb was an earthquake bomb developed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis and used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War.
V-weapons, known in original German as Vergeltungswaffen, were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly strategic bombing and aerial bombing of cities. They were the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile; the V-2, a liquid-fueled ballistic missile; and the V-3 cannon. Germany intended to use all of these weapons in a military campaign against Britain, though only the V-1 and V-2 were so used in a campaign conducted 1944–45. After the invasion of western Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly in France and Belgium. Strategic bombing with V-weapons killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians. The cities of London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets.
The Rocket U-boat was a series of military projects undertaken by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The projects, which were undertaken at Peenemünde Army Research Center, aimed to develop submarine-launched rockets, flying bombs and missiles. The Kriegsmarine did not use submarine-launched rockets or missiles from U-boats against targets at sea or ashore. These projects never reached combat readiness before the war ended.
Mittelwerk was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flying bombs, and other weapons.
The Blockhaus d'Éperlecques is a Second World War bunker, now part of a museum, near Saint-Omer in the northern Pas-de-Calais département of France, and only some 14.4 kilometers north-northwest from the more developed La Coupole V-2 launch facility, in the same general area.
Operation Diver was the British code name for the V-1 flying bomb campaign launched by the German Luftwaffe in 1944 against London and other parts of Britain. Diver was the code name for the V-1, against which the defence consisted of anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons and fighter aircraft.
The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) was an Allied offensive of strategic bombing during World War II in Europe. The primary portion of the CBO was directed against Luftwaffe targets which were the highest priority from June 1943 to 1 April 1944. The subsequent highest priority campaigns were against V-weapon installations and petroleum, oil, and lubrication (POL) plants. Additional CBO targets included railyards and other transportation targets, particularly prior to the invasion of Normandy and, along with army equipment, in the final stages of the war in Europe.
The Defence of the Reich is the name given to the strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany over German-occupied Europe and Germany during World War II against the Allied strategic bombing campaign. Its aim was to prevent the destruction of German civilians, military and civil industries by the Western Allies. The day and night air battles over Germany during the war involved thousands of aircraft, units and aerial engagements to counter the Allies bombing campaigns. The campaign was one of the longest in the history of aerial warfare and with the Battle of the Atlantic and the Allied naval blockade of Germany was the longest of the war. The Luftwaffe fighter force defended the airspace of German-occupied Europe against attack, first by RAF Bomber Command and then against the RAF and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the Combined Bomber Offensive.
To carry out the planned V-1 "flying bomb" attacks on the United Kingdom, Germany built a number of military installations including launching sites and depots. Some of the installations were huge concrete fortifications.
The Allied oil campaign of World War II was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the RAF and the USAAF against facilities supplying Nazi Germany with petroleum, oil, and lubrication (POL) products. It formed part of the immense Allied strategic bombing effort during the war. The targets in Germany and in Axis-controlled Europe included refineries, synthetic-fuel factories, storage depots and other POL-infrastructure.
The oil campaign chronology of World War II lists bombing missions and related events regarding the petroleum/oil/lubrication (POL) facilities that supplied Nazi Germany or those Germany tried to capture in Operation Edelweiss.
Project Danny was a World War II plan for United States Marine Corps F4U Corsair fighter aircraft to attack German V-1 flying bomb launch sites in northern France. Although the squadrons had been trained at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and were loading onto their escort carriers for the trip to the North Atlantic, opposition from General Marshall meant that the operation was canceled before departing for the European Theater.
Air warfare was a major component in all theaters of World War II and, together with anti-aircraft warfare, consumed a large fraction of the industrial output of the major powers. Germany and Japan depended on air forces that were closely integrated with land and naval forces; the Axis powers downplayed the advantage of fleets of strategic bombers and were late in appreciating the need to defend against Allied strategic bombing. By contrast, Britain and the United States took an approach that greatly emphasized strategic bombing and tactical control of the battlefield by air as well as adequate air defenses. Both Britain and the U.S. built substantially larger strategic forces of large, long-range bombers. Simultaneously, they built tactical air forces that could win air superiority over the battlefields, thereby giving vital assistance to ground troops. The U.S. Navy and Royal Navy also built a powerful naval-air component based on aircraft carriers, as did the Imperial Japanese Navy; these played the central role in the war at sea.
Military intelligence on the V-1 and V-2 weapons developed by the Germans for attacks on the United Kingdom during the Second World War was important to countering them. Intelligence came from a number of sources and the Anglo-American intelligence agencies used it to assess the threat of the German V-weapons.
No. 124 (Baroda) Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed to be a light bomber unit in World War I and reformed as a fighter unit in World War II.
Sottevast was a Second World War bunker complex for launching V2-weapons in Sottevast near Cherbourg, in Normandy, France. It was built, under the codename Reservelager West, by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets directed against southern England.
1 2 D'Olier, Franklin (30 September 1945), "The Secondary Campaigns", United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (European War), p.12, retrieved 23 March 2020– via Hyperwar Foundation
1 2 3 4 Mets, David R. (1997) [1988]. Master of Airpower: General Carl A. Spaatz (paperbacked.). Presidio Press. p.239. ISBN0-89141-317-0.
↑ Craven and Cate, p540 said the "campaign of the summer of 1944 must be regarded generally as having failed to achieve its objectives...In general, then, the large-scale CROSSBOW operations during the critical period were a failure" but "offered firm evidence that the Allies could respond too generously rather than too niggardly to whatever threats might arise."
Williams, Allan (2013). Operation Crossbow: The Untold Story of Photographic Intelligence and the Search For Hitler's V Weapons. Random House. ISBN978-1848093072
Zaloga, Steven J. (2018). Operation Crossbow 1944: Hunting Hitler's V-weapons. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN978-1-4728-2614-5.
Zaloga, Steven J. (2005). V-1 Flying Bomb 1942–1952. New Vanguard 106. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United Kingdom 
United States 
Canada 
Germany 
(Ludendorff Bridge)
