Battle of London: Royal Marine AA Gunners bring down V1 Flying bombs

A painting commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee and depicting Royal Marine AA Gunners bring down a V1 Flying-bomb is described on the IWM site as 'Four marines take cover in a ditch as a flying-bomb, trailing smoke, plummets to earth'

But the painting provides only a small hint of the Royal Marines involvement in the V1 and V2 story.

The V-1 was the first of the Vergeltungswaffen (V-weapons) deployed for the terror bombing of London.

German V1 (Fiesler Fi 103) flying bomb, shortly after launch. Image: IWM (CL 3433)

Developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center in 1942 by the Luftwaffe, and during initial development was known by the codename "Cherry Stone".

Thousands of V-1 missiles were launched into England, fired from launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts from special launch sites or by modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft.

The V1 Offensive on London Operation Eisbär, the missile attacks on London, commenced on 12 June, operating from the Pas-de-Calais area with 72 launchers.

None of the nine missiles launched on the 12th reached England, while only four did so on the 13th. The next attempt to start the attack occurred on the night of 15/16 June, when 144 missiles reached England, of which 73 struck London, while 53 struck Portsmouth and Southampton.

A V1 falling on London

Damage was widespread and Eisenhower ordered attacks on the V-1 sites as a priority.

Two regiments of the The 5th R.M. A.A. Brigade Equipped with the QF 3.7-inch (94mm) AA gun were deployed in critical areas in the approaches to London, and between them they accounted for 122 flying bombs before they were moved across the Channel to carry on with the same task in Antwerp.​

Battle of London: Royal Marine AA Gunners bring down a Flying-bomb by Leslie Cole 1944 (Art.IWM ART LD 4514)

Anti-aircraft gunners soon found that such small fast-moving targets were, in fact, very difficult to hit.

The cruising altitude of the V-1, between 600 and 900 m (2,000 and 3,000 ft), meant that anti-aircraft guns could not traverse fast enough to hit the missile.

The standard British QF 3.7-inch mobile gun could not cope with the altitude and speed of the V-1. However, the static version of the QF 3.7-inch, designed for a permanent concrete platform, had a faster traverse.

The cost and delay of installing new permanent platforms for the guns was found to be unnecessary as a temporary platform devised by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and made from railway sleepers and rails known as "Pile platforms" (named after General Sir Frederick Pile, head of Anti-Aircraft Command), was found to be adequate for the static guns, making them considerably easier to re-deploy as the V-1 threat changed.

A battery of static QF 3.7-inch guns on railway-sleeper platforms at Hastings on the south coast of England, July 1944

The development of the proximity fuze and of centimetric, 3 gigahertz frequency gun-laying radars based on the cavity magnetron helped to counter the V-1's high speed and small size. In 1944, Bell Labs started delivery of an anti-aircraft predictor fire-control system based on an analogue computer, just in time for the Allied invasion of Europe.

These electronic aids arrived in quantity from June 1944, just as the guns reached their firing positions on the coast. Seventeen per cent of all flying bombs entering the coastal "gun belt" were destroyed by guns in their first week on the coast. This rose to 60 per cent by 23 August and 74 per cent in the last week of the month, when on one day 82 per cent were shot down.

The rate improved from thousands of shells for every one V-1 destroyed to 100 for each. This mostly ended the V-1 threat.

Almost 30,000 V-1s were made, approximately 10,000 were fired at England with 2,419 reaching London, killing about 6,184 people and injuring 17,981.

Civil Defence workers collect up salvageable furniture and belongings from the rubble of a house following a V1 attack in the Highland Road and Lunham Road area of Upper Norwood. The house belonged to a man (just visible second from right) who had been for a walk as his wife and daughter-in-law prepared the Sunday lunch, and returned to find that his house had been destroyed and his wife and daughter-in-law killed. IWM (D 21221)

The greatest density of hits was received by Croydon, on the south-east fringe of London. Antwerp, Belgium was hit by 2,448 V-1s from October 1944 to March 1945.

Royal Marines of 30 CDO were also involved in the hunt for the V2 Rocket Sites as part of 'Operation Crossbow' and the chase to capture V weapons intelligence and technology across France and Europe.

Related Royal Marines 'Dits':

• Royal Marines 5 AA (Anti Aircraft) Bde - Shooting down over 122 V1 'Divers'

• 30 AU in Normandy - 17/18 June - Examination was carried out of three "Crossbow" sites

• 30 Cdo AU - Capture of Jet Engines

References/ Read More:

1. IWM Search - The V Weapons Offensive 1944-45

2. Wikipedia - The V1 Flying Bomb