![]() ![]() Ī larger "Heavy Crossbow" bunker was built at Siracourt, between Calais and the river Somme, as a V-1 storage depot. 617 Squadron RAF with Tallboys on July 4. The Saint-Leu-d'Esserent mushroom caves was the largest of the underground V-1 sites. One in the Rilly-la-Montagne railway tunnel was attacked by the British with Tallboy earthquake bombs on July 31, collapsing both ends of the tunnel. The Nucourt limestone cave complex between Pontoise and Gisors was bombed on J with 298 V-1s buried or severely damaged. By February/March 1944, a plan for three new underground V-1 storage sites was put into effect. Ī depot to serve Cherbourg launches was built near Valognes. To serve the ten launch sites planned for Normandy, a depot was constructed at Beauvais. Sautricourt near Saint-Pol (bombed June 16, 1944).Renescure near Saint-Omer – finished in November 1943, it was bombed by the USAAF on June 16, 1944, by 48 B-24s and on July 2 by 21.Domléger near Abbeville – bombed on June 14 and 16, and on July 4, 1944.This suggests that these storage sites were perhaps not completed because they were destroyed prior to completion. An RCAF Halifax pilot's logbook describes the target of his raids on "flying-bomb sites" on July 1, 4, and 5, 1944, as "Biennais #1", "Biennais #2," and "Biennais #3". Sites at Biennais, Oisemont Neuville-au-Bois, and Saint-Martin-l'Hortier were not completed. To supply the V-1 flying bomb launch sites in the Calais region, construction began on several storage depots in August 1943. This event was given the operational code name Crossbow during World War II. These are the areas in which the Royal Air Force and 8th Air Force heavy bombers concentrated their bombs to destroy the weapons - part of the pre-invasion plan. : 126Ī World War II map shows the two areas where the Germans were setting up their secret "V" weapons to bombard England (right, center). Aircrews were billeted five miles away at Grossenkneten for secrecy. The ten-day-long aircrew training was at Peenemünde, and the bases were in Gilze-Rijen, Holland, for launches through 15 September 1944, and in Venlo for launches after the first week in December. ![]() In addition to the storage and launching sites listed below, operational facilities included the airfields for Heinkel He 111 H-22 bombers which air-launched the V-1 from low altitude over the North Sea. Other V-1 production-related sites included a Barth plant which used forced labor, Buchenwald (V-1 parts), and Allrich in the Harz. December 1943 to a chateau near Creil (" FlakGruppeCreil"), with the unit's telephone relay station at Doullens. : 27 Launch crew training was at Zempin, and the headquarters for the operational unit, Flak-Regiment 155(W), was originally based at Saleux, near Amiens, : 173 but was subsequently moved c. : 133, 135 Flight testing was performed by the Luftwaffe at Peenemünde West and, after the August 1943 Operation Hydra bombing, at Brüsterort. Production plants to modify several hundred standard V-1s to Reichenberg R-III manned aircraft were in the woods of Dannenburg and at Pulverhof, with air-launch trials at Lärz and Rechlin. The unpiloted aircraft was assembled at the KdF-Stadt Volkswagenwerke (described as "the largest pressed-steel works in Germany" ) near Fallersleben, at Cham/ Bruns Werke, : 40 and at the Mittelwerk, underground factory in central Germany. The Allies became aware of the sites at an early stage and carried out numerous bombing raids to destroy them before they came into use. Some of the installations were huge concrete fortifications. To carry out the planned V-1 "flying bomb" attacks on the United Kingdom, Germany built a number of military installations including launching sites and depots. ![]()
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