Similar to Operation Pointblank against the WWII German aircraft industry, Operation Crossbow specialized in offensive and defensive countermeasures against the Bodyline^[1] and 'Peenemünde 20',^[2] the British code names for the 40 ft x 7 ft object with blunt nose and three fins and the small winged aircraft that had been detected in reconnaissance photos. In December 1943, the code name ‘Bodyline’ was dropped, and ‘Crossbow’ was substituted:^[3] Operation Pointblank was the code name for the Combined Bomber Offensive of the USAAF and the RAF during World War II. It ordered Arthur Bomber Harris, head of the RAF and Carl Spaatz, head of the U.S. 8th Air Force, to bomb specific targets in support of the run... German test launch. ... The Vergeltungswaffe 1 Fi 103 / FZG-76 (V-1), known as the Flying bomb, Buzz bomb or Doodlebug, was the first modern guided missile used in wartime and the first cruise missile. ...

to designate Anglo-American operations against all phases of the German long-range weapons programme -- operations against German research, experimentation, manufacture, construction of launching sites, and the transportation and firing of finished missiles, and also against missiles in flight, once they had been fired.^[4]

A different project for reconstructing and evaluating captured V-2 rockets was Project Big Ben.^[5] The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Reprisal weapon 2) (V-2), also known as the A4 (Aggregat 4), was the first ballistic missile. ...

Bombing Operations

Operation Hydra bombed Peenemünde after midnight of August 17/18 1943 and was the opening of what was subsequently named "Crossbow".^[6] The Total Allied "Crossbow" offensive effort from August 1943 to March 1945 was 68,913 sorties and 122,133 bomb tonnage, including 19,584 sorties & 72,141 tons by RAF Bomber Command.^[7] As with the "Dambuster" missions, the US characterized Operation Crossbow bombing as a "Secondary Campaign"/"special enterprise" with the following effectiveness: Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... No. ...

The bombing of the launching sites being prepared for the V weapons delayed the use of V-l appreciably. The attacks on the V-weapon experimental station at Peenemunde, however, were not effective; V-l was already in production near Kassel and V-2 had also been moved to an underground plant. The breaking of the Mohne and the Eder dams, though the cost was small, also had limited effect.^[8] Kassel (until 1926 officially Cassel) is a city situated along the Fulda River in northern Hessen, Germany, one of the two sources of the Weser river . ... Mittelwerk was part of the WW2-era Mittelbau-Dora complex near Nordhausen, Germany. ... The Möhne Reservoir is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund. ... The Eder is a river in Germany (ca. ...

V-1 Defense

The following Wikipedia statistics are available regarding the number of V-1s downed by fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, and barrage balloons: This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... US Marine Corps barrage balloon, Parris Island, May 1942 A barrage balloon is a large balloon used as a defense against aircraft. ...

• Overall - 4,261 V-1s had been destroyed by fighters, anti-aircraft fire and barrage balloons.[1]
• Fighter - Tempests shot down 638 ... Mosquito (428), Spitfire XIV (303), and Mustang, (232). All other types combined added 158.[2]
• Artillery - Anti-aircraft guns destroyed 95% of the V-1 German cruise bombs.[3] 17% of all flying bombs entering the coastal 'gun belt' were destroyed by guns in their first week on the coast. This rose to 60% by 23 August and 74% in the last week of the month, when on one day 82% were shot down. The rate improved from one V-1 destroyed for every 2,500 shells fired initially, to one for every 100.[4]
• Balloon - About 100 V-1s are claimed to have been destroyed by balloons.[5]

Named Activities

Named activities of Operation Crossbow included the following:

• Diver - code word for "Enemy Flying Bombs" (often called Operation Diver without citation)^[9]
• Flying Bomb Counter Measures Committee (Duncan Sandys, chairman)^[10]
• No-ball - code name for launching areas, e.g., ‘No-ball 27’ for Ailly-le-Vieux-Clocher)^[11]
• Operation Aphrodite
• Operation Hydra (with associated Operation Whitebait)
• Operation Totter - The Royal Observer Corps fired ‘Snowflake’ illuminating rocket flares from the ground by to identify V-1 flying bombs to RAF fighters.^[12]

Operation Diver was the British codename for their countermeasures against the V-1 flying bomb campaign launched by the German Luftwaffe in 1944 against London and other parts of Britain. ... Duncan Edwin Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys1 (January 24, 1908-November 26, 1987) was a British politician and a minister in successive Conservative governments. ... Opération Aphrodite is a French science fiction novel written by Henri René Guieu, under the pseudonym Jimmy Guieu. ... The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was, until stood down in 1991, a part of the UK Ministry of Defence. ... The Vergeltungswaffe-1, V-1, also knows as Fieseler Fi 103/FZG-76, colloquially as the Flying bomb, Buzz bomb or Doodlebug, was the first guided missile used in war and the forerunner of todays cruise missile. ...

Notes

David Irving, 2003 David John Cawdell Irving (born March 24, 1938) is a British writer specializing in the military history of World War II. He is the author of 30 books, including The Destruction of Dresden (1963), Hitlers War (1977), Uprising (1981), Churchills War (1987), and Goebbels — Mastermind... RAF Medmenham is a Royal Air Force base near Medmenham, in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. ...

References / external links

• Gruen, Adam L. The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, Preemptive Defense, Allied Air Power Versus Hitler’s V-Weapons, 1943–1945 @ U.S. Air Force.net
• Crossbow @ Spartacus Schoolnet history project
• Operation Crossbow (the movie)