Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Hello all,
Would anyone know of a good English language book that covers the air launched V-1 campaign with details of the operations & the various Kampfgeschwader's roles in it? I have the three The Blitz T&N volumes and while I have heard of Air-Launched Doodlebugs: Hitler's V 1 Missiles And III/KG 3 & 53 by Peter J.C. Smith judging by the reviews on both Amazon and in this section the title seems to be a bit misleading as it sounds like it covers the British counter-measures more than the German operations themselves. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Hi,

Do you mean "Air-launched doodlebugs - The forgotten campaign" by Peter J. C. Smith (ISBN 1-84415-401-7)? I have a copy and read it some time ago. Quoting from memory and by briefly leafing through the book, your impression is generally correct: The book shows in chronological order what happened regarding the air launched V-1 operations: How many V-1s were launched and by which units, where they crashed, damage done etc. This information is indeed mostly from the British side, but on the other hand that is quite thorough: You'll get eyewitness accounts (victims, RAF pilots), bomb plots, crash sites (Then and Now!), all the countermeasures taken with technical details, LW aircraft losses etc. You'll definitely get the idea at the end of the book that you know in general what has happened.

The only thing that might disappoint you after reading the book is that you will still not have a feeling of how it felt to be on the German (Luftwaffe) side of things. There are hardly any German eyewitness accounts (so far I only found BF Hans Hoehler, of KG53)..I don't know if this is because nobody of the participants on their side survived the war or that the author just didn't manage to make contact with them..Not much German photos either, but the ones that are in the book (from Hans Lachler) show the whole sequence from preparing the V-1 on the ground through how it is being installed on the He 111.

My personal opinion: With these caveats I would pick up a copy, certainly if you can find one below the asking price of 20 Pounds. (I have seen examples for 14 Pounds.)

Hope this helps,

Marcel

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Thank you Marcel. It isn't so much eye witness accounts from the German side that I seek, more details showing which Staffel/Gruppe took part on what raids on what dates, their targets etc especially anything relating to KG 53.
I have been able to find a copy of the Peter Smith book for £11 so it may be worth obtaining it to see what it contains.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Chaps - I think you're being a little bit harsh on the book.

It is the ONLY book to deal purely with the campaign.

It DOES have German details: it has German unit details, which raids these units participated in, even times of the raids.

The reason why there is very less German detail is because a) the campaign only lasted about 6 months of the whole war b) only 1 or 2 units were involved c) both units were part of Luftflotte 2, whose records were destroyed at the end of the war.

Nonetheless it is a very good and detailed book and if you're interested in the campaign, you will enjoy it.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Hi Bombphoon,

Never meant to be harsh. Just wanted to inform people that you do not get the 50/50 ratio regarding Luftwaffe vs. RAF data as some might have expected. And as I said above, the data itself is good.

Regards,

Marcel

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

I am afraid that I reviewed Peter J C Smith's book for an aviation magazine and I found it was not the complete picture but if you wanted a book which covered the British side well, this book is for you. I would agree with Marcel's analysis-I have contacted a number of surviving KG 3/KG 53 crews from this period and have quite a number of photos but none show the V1 in situ

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Thanks for the replies guys. As it appears to be the only book that deals exclusively with the campaign and provides some mission details for the Luftwaffe aspect I think I will take a chance on it.
Reason I asked is that I have a Wehrpass to an air gunner who served in 4./KG 53 and on the campaign pages of the WP it states that he flew on 10 sorties against the UK during this period.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

I have all the NVM for KG 3 and KG 53 for this period so if you have any specifics, PM me

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

A typo there: it was Luftflotte 3 and translations of some of their daily ops reports (including the opening of the air-launch campaign in July 1944) are in the the National Archives.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Thanks Nick.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Having never used them before am I right in thinking the NVM just contains the details for those who were killed? If so this particular crewmember survived the war but thank you for the offer.

Thank you Nick with regards to the heads-up about the archives.

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Hi Hucks

Have you not seen my DIVER DIVER DIVER? Grub Street. Check Amazon for details.

Cheers
Brian

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

Dear known and (some) unknown friends,

Being a simple Dutch historian, researching the history of Venlo airfield in WW-2 for more than 25 years now, I bought this book of Peter Smith mainly with the intention of getting into a sort of 'reverse engineering': where German records are lost and can no longer describe the amount of sorties with V-1's against the UK, we could try to get an impression of it by studying what was approaching or crashed in the UK.

Yes, somehow Peter Smith had to focus mainly on the British perspective and that was most helpful for me to get an idea what III./KG 3 has done while they stayed at Venlo and Gilze-Rijen between the end of June 1944 and 5th September 1944.
I cannot give a value to the reliability of all information in this book, the most puzzling (and IMHO opinion doubtful) reference found was that of the alleged posting of III./KG 3 in France before this unit came to Gilze-Rijen and Venlo. To do what? We know that the III./KG 3 arrived in Venlo - coming from Hesepe - on 27th June 1944 and they made the first attacks with V-1's on the 7th July 1944, simply because the compass adjusting sheds were not completed before the 7th July.

As I said: a most welcome book describing the British perspective and I had not expected much more. Therefore: who expects a sort of unit history of III./KG 3 (and or I./KG 53) must wait for Chris Goss and Brian Bines joining forces haha!

Nick: intruiging to hear that (some? many?) operations of III./KG 3 show up in the National Archives! Knowing of your marvelous job with ULTRA, can you point us in the right direction: is it in the HW5 files or Air Intelligence files or both?

All the best from Venlo

Marcel Hogenhuis
marcelhogenhuis[at]gmail.com

Re: Air Launched V-1 Campaign Book Request
 

It's not something I've looked hard to find but I've seen relevant material in HW5, quite a lot of it in fact. This is the one I got around to transcribing:

CX/MSS.T324/107

No. 190 signed IA, Ops on evening of 29/9 and addressed to Battle Unit Hallensleben (IA, Ops) IC:-

Report on results night operation of 28–29/9:

1) Target: London.
2) Areas of release: Squares 4325 and 4364.
3) Times of release: 0400 to 0432 hours.
4) A/c employed: 9
5) Releases: 9, including
(A) Released at target: 6.
(B) Failures: 1 (not on full boost).
(C) Emergency releases: none.
(D) Not observed: 2 crews missing.
6) Defence: none.
7) Losses: 2 crews. 2 a/c (including 1 Staffelkapitän’s crew).
8) Special events:
(A) At 0419 hours 1 a/c crashed in Square 2365, flames at point of impact being observed by 2 crews, followed by firing of red distress signals (thought to be the missing Staffelkapitän’s crew).
(B) At 0402 hours in Square 335, 3 red verey lights observed (thought to 2nd missing crew).
(C) At 0315 hours in square 5344 red verey lights were observed.
(D) At 0348 hours in square 5487 a fire was observed (thought to be the scene of an a/c crash).
(E) 1 crew, reported as missing in the report of 26/9, crashed at Hankenberge, about 15kms south-east of Osnabrück. A/C completely destroyed, crew killed.
(F) 1 a/c did not take part in the operation owing to engine trouble at the take off.

NOTE: A previous example of III./KG 3 reporting to Battle Unit Hallensleben was on 25/9 where the Gruppe sent in a crash report to the Battle Unit (T319/10 and notes)