Tamiya 61052 1-48 V-1 Fieseler Fi 103

The Fieseler Fi 103, better known as the V-1 German: Vergeltungswaffe 1, retaliation weapon 1 and Buzz Bomb, also colloquially known in Britain as the Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile. The V-1 was developed at Peenemunde Airfield by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename Cherry Stone. The first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series designed for terror bombing of London, the V-1 was fired from ski launch sites along the French Pas-de-Calais and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on 13 June 1944, one week after and prompted by the successful Allied landing in Europe. This caused the remaining V-1s to be directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped when the last site was overrun on 29 March 1945. In total, the V-1 attacks caused 22,892 casualties almost entirely civilians. The British operated an arrangement of defences including guns and fighter aircraft to intercept the bombs before they reached their targets and as part of Operation Crossbow, the launch sites and underground V-1 storage depots were targets of strategic bombing. « less