He 111 ordnance control

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello,

Does anybody know if a wartime manual or instructions survived of the He 111 H-22 (or any He 111 converted to carry the V-1)?

Who released the V-1 and what switch was used for the release?

Roger

[Chris Goss]

I have some K Reports about the training and methods used for dropping. I have just written an article for Flypast on the campaign if this is of interest

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Roger Gaemperle

Hello,

Does anybody know if a wartime manual or instructions survived of the He 111 H-22 (or any He 111 converted to carry the V-1)?

Roger

Roger, for what it's worth, I've never found a single He 111 H-22 in any of the numerous ULTRAs about the air-launching Gruppen, only a "normal" variants such as the H-20 or H-16 and so I suspect that they were all conversions.

As for the release mechanism, this from ADI(K) 555/1944:

… The release control consists of two buttons. When the first is pressed, the jet of the flying bomb is started up; the second button for releasing the bomb is pressed 5 seconds afterwards.

[Chris Goss]

I agree-all my records say H-16 or H-20

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

Air Launching (of V-1)

Automatic Launching Device ( Zaehlwerk).

Air-launching of flying bombs from Heinkel 'parents' or 'carrier' bombers was, in the main, carried out against London; but whatever the target for this means of attack, the problem was to put the 'carrier' into the correct position and on the correct bearing to release its bomb at a precisely calculated moment. Navigational aids were, in themselves, insufficiently accurate to determine the bomb release point and, to overcome this difficulty , each specially converted bomber carried an automatic timing device to ensure the highest possible degree of accuracy at launch. Great secrecy was maintained by the Germans over the whereabouts of bomb release points, which were constantly varied and known only to the observer and bombardier/navigator.

The instrument which determined the correct times for starting the bomb's motor, and for subsequently releasing the bomb, incorporated a tachometer and was attached to the pilot's upper instrument panel where it could also be seen by the observer. Known as the Zaehlwerk, it incorporated a small display panel with five or six digits. These also appeared on a repeater box for the bombardier/navigator, together with two push-buttons coloured black and red: a lever beneath the repeater box released the bomb. At the beginning of the flight, he would move a switch at the left hand side of the unit causing the counter to run down by single units, a sequence which took about twenty minutes. When the counter reached zero, the bombardier/navigator released the bomb.

Once the Zaehlwerk had been started, there was nothing for the bombardier to do until the figure 100 had been reached. At this pont he received a warning from the observer to get ready. When the counter reached the figure 23, the bombardier/navigator pressed the black button, or 'Austellknopf', which ignited the bomb's motor whose vibration and noise could be heard in the 'parent' aircraft. When the counter reached 0, (some ten seconds later), the bombardier/navigator pulled the lever beneath the repeater box to release the bomb.

In case of premature ignition, the motor could be cut by pressing the red button, or 'Abstellknopf'. If it became necessary to jettison the bomb, this operation was carried out by the pilot who pulled the red painted lever above his head.

See:
The Flying Bomb.
Young,Richard Anthony.
London:Ian Allan,1978.
p.150 (Appendix 9).

Col.

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello Chris, Nick and Col.,

That is much more detailed information than I expected I could get when I posted my request. So, thank you very much!

I wonder if such a Zaehlwerk and cockpit equipment for launching the V-1 has survived.

The reason why I was asking is that I have a He 111 control wheel that has an unusual button attached to the wheel. So far I failed to find a wartime photo of a He 111 cockpit/wheel that shows this button. Therefore, I thought it could have been used for launching the V-1, but since there were two separate switches that were not attached to the control wheel, it must have had another purpose.

I have published photos of the wheel and button at my website:

https://vintageeagle.com/product/for...control-wheel/

Cheers,

Roger

[Snautzer]

What is the fl number on that button?

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

For the purists, the term Zaehlwerk, is actually spelt Zahlwerk, with an umlaut over the 'a'.

Col.

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello,

One small addition: the III./KG 3 also used He111 H-6's for V-1 launches.

Best regards, Marcel

[Kutscha]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

I have some K Reports about the training and methods used for dropping. I have just written an article for Flypast on the campaign if this is of interest

Did you mention the Wellington AWACs in the article?