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Further Reading

German Missiles

The German effort on guided missiles and pilotless aircraft was aimed at three tactical problems: (1) the bombing of Allied ships, both naval and merchant vessels; (2) defense against Allied bombers and (3) long-range strategic bombing of England;. Some thought and effort had also been given to the problem of the long-range strategic bombing of America by unmanned missiles.

Development of high-angle and glide bombs to answer the first problem was started about the end of 1939 or the beginning of 1940 and resulted in the PC-1400-FX and Hs­293 missiles, first used in August an dOctober, 1943. Both missiles were direct-sight radio-controlled and became unusable as soon as air superiority was lost.

Development of guided missile defense against bombers began early in 1943. The missiles were all rocket-propelled and, in their final development, many were to be automatically controlled with homing devices and equipped with proximity fuses. Many of these missiles (X­4, Hs-298, Schmetterling, Rheintochter, Enzian, and Wasserfall) reached their fina ltesting and early production stage but with direct­sight radio control only.

The well-known V-1 and V-2 were used to meet the third problem, which arose after the failure of the attempt to bomb England by conventional aircraft because of the efficient British air defense. Although the fundamental scientific research and development work on these missiles had its root in projects initiated for other purposes early as 1935, the focusing of effort on the tactical problem of long-range bombing of England appears to have started in 1941.

Perhaps the most important result of the German effort in this field was to show that winged missiles were superior in performance to finned missiles. Thus, the next stage in the development of the V-2 rocket was to have been the addition of wing. The necessary wind-tumiel tests had beenmade in connection with the development of the winged ground­to air rocket Wasserfall and ballistic computations had shown that this change alone would increase the range of the V-2 rocket from about 250 to about 400 miles.

The German scientists believed, although some German engineers in industry disagreed, that the ultimate guided missile would be completely automatic in its operation. Although for quick development and for test purposes they favored the use of manual radio control, their long-range plans contemplated first automatic blind tracking of the missile and target, then the connection of the two tracking devices through a computer to the radio control channels, and finally the use of a homing device for the last part of the trajectory and a proximity fuse.

The principal German advantage in the field of guided missiles was the lead in time in the development of rockets, which were considered to have serious military applications as early as 1935. Much effort was put into this field and as a result the supporting industrial developments were ready as a foundation for missile designers. They could buy rocket motors and rocket fuels from commercial sources. The V-2 development was successful not so much because of striking scientific developments as because of an early start, military support, and a boldness of execution. Looking over the great variety of projects one finds that the V-2 rocket was the most outstanding technical achievement and that the Peenemünde group of scientists, working for the ground forces, was the most capable missile research group in Germany.