OT Olympics The game

[Adam Aglionby]

London air space simulated ;-)

[Martin]

Many of the V1s shot down by anti aircraft guns fell on houses killing the occupants.

[fred]

In article , Adam Aglionby writes

Terrorists foiled: 0 Civilians killed: 3080

Play while you can, this will be pulled in no time.

[Roberts]

I agree this is not often mentioned, as one who lived on the outskirts of Maidstone for the whole of the second world war. I speak from experience. Even with the films of aerial combat you never see a shot down plane crash into a house. Robbie >

[Tim Watts]

Fecking genius :)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Unlikely as they normally blew up when they got a proximity fused shell detonating nearby.

barrage balloons and fighters 'tipping' them were more likely to see them go bang on the ground.

[Clive George]

I did wonder about that. I also wondered about all the lead bits flying through the air - where did they go? (down, obviously, but they're never mentioned).

[The Natural Philosopher]

well shrapnel obviously did kill people: but no one was counting whose it was. Blame it on Jerry every time.

Largely planes were NOT engaged over London, but over more rural areas.

statistically the chances of a plane landing on a house are quite slim BUT of course AA gunnery probably did bring planes down over and into London, but at night, it might as well have been a german bomb anyway.

You dint tell people 'sorry, your mom got killed by a british/german aircraft landing on her head as a result of friednly/hostile fire bringing it down'

Also firing bullets into the air does mean you have no idea where one ends up. I'd imagine a 303 caliber M/G round is lethal at several miles

But by and large most stuff that blows up aloft comes down fairly slowly.

[Nightjar]

It didn't happen that often. If the pilot was alive, he would try to set down on open ground and even if the aircraft was simply falling from the sky, even in a densely populated area it would be more likely to hit open ground than a house. V1s were a different matter, as they carried a very large warhead and, unlike bombs still in a bomber, it would be armed when it hit.

In any case, the majority of enemy aircraft were shot down by fighters, who mostly operated over the Channel and open countryside.

Why do you think Air Raid Wardens, Home Guard and Police, who had to be outside when raids were on, wore steel helmets?

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

Only 3080? You're not trying hard enough.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

On 18/05/2012 14:15, The Natural Philosopher wrote: ...

Although their main job was not to shoot aircraft down, but to make accurate bombing difficult and to discourage bombers from entering the defended zone. A Ministry of Information booklet on air defence claimed that up to half the bomber force in any attack on London would turn back before entering the AA zone.

Colin Bignell

[Martin]

I found a book, in a binaries e-book group about V1s that is full of photos of V1s that were shot down, that fell on houses. They were shot down mainly by mainly by anti aircraft fire. Others were brought down by barrage balloons. I didn't know that the V1s were air launched from Heinkel bombers over the North Sea, after all the launching ramps had been destroyed.

The book is Air Launched Doodlebus, the forgotten campaign, by Peter J Smith published in 2006.

[Martin]

AA was specifically located in "boxes" along the east coast as far north as Bridlington to bring down V1s. They were very successful at it.

[Martin]

Unfortunately they didn't and it was most likely.

[Nightjar]

I was under the impression that the air launched versions were developed to allow them to attack targets out of range of the land based launchers.

Manned V1s were also built, although never used. The pilot was provided with an ejector seat, although it probably didn't improve the chances of survival that much.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

To protect themselves from falling buildings and/or pigeon shit?

[The Natural Philosopher]

What utter bollocks you do talk.

A Ministry of Information booklet on air defence claimed

Minstry of propaganda as it was later known...

[Nightjar]

That was a different and later campaign. Bombers raids on Britain were mainly in the first couple of years of the war, with casualties of

54,206 in 1940 and 42,722 in 1941, which dropped to 7,387 in 1942 and 5,822 in 1943. The V weapons increased them to 30,499 in 1944.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

At least one was flown IIRC by a female test pilot to help solve stability issues.

Ah Hannah Reitsch:

"Seventy of the V-1s equipped with cockpits for piloted flight were ordered, to be built by Fieseler and designated as the Fi-103 Reichenberg. This manned version of the V-1 proved easy to fly but glided like a brick and was tricky to land on its skid because of its very high landing speed and tendency to ground-loop.

One factor that caused problems with the V-1 as a cruise missile was related to vibrations imparted to the airframe by its power plant. The pulse-jet engine developed thrust through very closely placed machine gun-like explosions, thus the nickname 'buzz bomb.' In the course of test flights, Reitsch was able to identify this problem, and she may also have contributed to improving the V-1's accuracy.

In the Fi-103 test plane, the cockpit was directly in front of the engine intake. It was assumed that in the event of an emergency during test flights, the pilot would be able to open the canopy and bail out. In point of fact, it is more than likely that the exiting pilot could not survive if the engine was running. Two of the seven Fi-103 instructors were killed, and four were injured. Reitsch was the only one of the group to survive the test program without injury."

The pilot was provided

Indeed.

[Nightjar]

...

I rather doubt that any helmet is much use against a falling building, but steel helmets did the same job in WW2 as they were introduced for in WW1: to protect from shrapnel from air-burst shells, although in WW2 it was our shells, not the enemy's.

Colin Bignell