V-1 flying bomb

The V-1 flying bomb, officially the Fieseler Fi 103 and also known as the buzz bomb or doodlebug, was an early cruise missile and the first of the German Vergeltungswaffen or vengeance weapons. The Luftwaffe developed it at the Peenemünde research centre in 1942 around a pulsejet mounted above the tail, with compressed air forcing petrol through atomizing fuel jets. Mass production did not begin until the spring of 1944, and the Wehrmacht first launched V-1s against London on 12 to 13 June 1944, a week after the Allied landings in Normandy. Launches came from ramps along the French and Dutch coasts and from modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft; 9,521 were fired at south-east England and a further 2,448 at Antwerp and other Belgian targets. British defence relied on anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons and fighters under Operation Crossbow. The last V-1 reached London on 28 March 1945.