Operation Crossbow

For the 1965 film of the same name, see Operation Crossbow (film).

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] missiles, 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]

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]

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 Operation Chastise "Dambuster" missions, the US characterized Operation Crossbow bombing as a "Secondary Campaign"/"special enterprise" with the following effectiveness:

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]

Crossbow bombing included use of Tallboy bombs and Operation Aphrodite drones, particularly against the Éperlecques, La Coupole, Siracourt, and Mimoyecques "Heavy Crossbow" installations.^[9] The underground V-1 storage depots at Saint-Leu-d'Esserent, Nucourt and Rilly La Montange also were bombed.

On September 3, 1944, all CROSSBOW offensive countermeasures (e.g., bombing raids) were temporarily suspended.^[10]

V-1 Defense

On January 2, 1944, Roderic Hill submitted his plan to deploy 1332 guns to defend London, Bristol, and Solent against the the V-1 Offensive (the "Operations Room" was at Biggin Hill).^[11] Wikipedia statistics indicate the following number of V-1s were downed by Fighter Command, anti-aircraft guns, and barrage balloons:

• Overall - 4,261 V-1s had been destroyed by fighters, anti-aircraft fire and barrage balloons.[1]
• Fighter - Hawker Tempest shot down 638 ... de Havilland Mosquito (428), Spitfire XIV (303), and P-51 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 - 231 V-1s are officially claimed to have been destroyed by balloons.[5]

Statistics on modified V-1s air-launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers from September 16, 1944 to January 14, 1945 indicate 865^[12] were launched, with only 638 observed by the 'Diver' defenses. Guns and fighters downed 403, leaving 66 reaching the London Civil Defence Region, one reaching Manchester, and 168 falling elsewhere.^[13] The British had initially considered that an July 18-21, 1944 effort of 50 air-launched V-1s had been ground-launched from the Low Countries, particularly near Ostend.^[14]

V-2 Defense

A sound-ranging system provided "data on the rocket's trajectory 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 London: 18:40:52 and 18:41:08.^[15]

Happenstance instances of Allied fighters engaging launched V-2 rockets include a 602 Squadron Supermarine Spitfire firing a burst of gunfire as a V-2 reared out of the clouds^[16], an October 29, 1944 attempt by P-38 Lightning Lieutenants Donald A. Schultz and Charles M. Crane to photograph a launched V-2 above the trees near the Rhine River,^[17] and on January 1, 1945, a pilot of 4th US Fighter Group "observed a Big Ben act up for firing near LOCHEM … the rocket was immediately tilted from 85 deg. To 30 deg."^[18] However, only a single V-2 was shot down -- by a .50-inch machine gun in an American B-24 Liberator returning from a raid over Germany, which overflew a V-2 launch site in the Hague just when a missile lifted off.^[19]

On March 21, 1945, Frederick Alfred Pile's plan for "Engagement of Long Range Rockets with AA Gunfire" (gunfire into a radar-predicted airspace to intercept the V-2 rocket) was ready, but the plan was not used due to the danger of shells falling on Greater London.^[20]

Named Activities

Named activities of Operation Crossbow included the following:

• Bodyline Joint Staff Committee^[21]
• Bodyline Scientific Committee (19 members, including Sandys, Edward Victor Appleton, John Cockcroft, Robert Watson-Watt)^[22]
• Cabinet Defence Committee (Operations)
• Diver - a secret British Defense Instruction named the code word: "Enemy Flying Bombs will be referred to or known as 'Diver' aircraft or pilotless planes."^[23] (often called Operation Diver without citation)
• Flabby - Allied code name for medium weather conditions when fighters were allowed to chase flying bombs over the gun-belt to the balloon line.^[24]
• Flying Bomb Counter Measures Committee (Duncan Sandys, chairman)^[25]
• Fuel Panel of the Special Scientific Committee^[26]
• No-ball - code name for Crossbow bombing targets, e.g.,
  • 'No-ball 27', Ailly-le-Vieux-Clocher^[27]
  • 'Noball No. 50', Droinville^[28]
  • 'Noball No. 74', Bois de la Justice^[28]
  • 'Noball Target No. 78'^[28]
  • 'Noball No. 93', Cherbourg area^[28]
  • 'Noball No. 107', Grand Parc^[28]
  • 'no ball' V1 site No.147, Ligercourt – (602 Sqn)[6]
  • other No-ball targets include those attacked by the 447th[7] and 466th Bombardment Groups[8] were Bachimont, Belle Croix, Belloy-sur-Summe, Blangermont, Cachie D'Eque, Cocques, Coubronne, Domleger, Gorenflos, La Houssoye, LaGrande Vallee, Maisoncette, Mirnayesques (sic), Mont Louis, Nucourt, Oisemont, Pont A Verdin, Regnaville, Remaisnil, Sourtrecourt (sic), Siracourt, Sottevast, Villers L'Hopital, Wadicourt
• Operation Aphrodite
• Operation Hydra (with associated Operation Whitebait)
• Operation Totter - The Royal Observer Corps fired ‘Snowflake’ illuminating rocket flares from the ground to identify V-1 flying bombs to RAF fighters.^[29]
• Questionnaire … to establish the practicability … of the German Long-Range Rocket (by Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell)^[30]

References

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