Chapter 193 Volume 6, Chapter 3, Bombing of Unmanned Weapons

13th June Commencement of attack on London Structure and performance of missiles 18th June garrison headquarters chapel destroyed Damage and casualties Allied countermeasures 22nd June I appointed a small committee 6th July My speech to the House of Commons Bomber command finds new targets Coastal redeployment of anti-aircraft artillery Missiles subdued by everyone's exploits Long-range rockets Controversy over rocket size Swedish rockets A scientific intelligence report of August 26 is impressive Technical Achievement First Rockets Landed in London 8th September Speer's Opinion V. Failure of Type III Weapons Disaster in Belgium Duncan Sands' Report to the War Cabinet on Missiles.

The enemy's long-term research to use unmanned missiles to attack the United Kingdom has now begun.Their target is Greater London.We have been debating the nature and scale of this attack within ourselves for more than a year, and we have racked our brains and made preparations in a timely manner as resources permit. In the early morning hours of June 13, exactly a week after the offensive was launched, four unmanned aircraft flew over our coast.This is the result of the German army urgently issuing an order on the day the offensive was launched in order to respond to our successful landing in Normandy, which resulted in premature consequences.One of them flew to Nesnoll Green, killing six and injuring nine; the remaining three were uninjured.Nothing else happened until June 15, but from that evening onwards the Germans began their campaign of revenge in earnest.Within twenty-four hours, more than 200 missiles came at us, and within five weeks, more than 3,000 more.

Hitler named what we came to call the missile the V-One because he hoped for some reason it was only the first in a series of terrifying weapons that German research had to offer.The missile's engine was a novelty and ingenious jet, and because of the screeching sound of its engine, it was not long before Londoners called it a radio-operated drone, or jet-propelled bomb.Its flight speed is 400 miles per hour, its altitude is about 3,000 feet, and its explosive weight is about one ton. The missile body is calibrated by a magnetic compass, and the range is controlled by a small propeller. The missile body flies in the air. Just make propeller rotate.When the number of propeller rotations is equivalent to the distance from the launch site to London, the control device of the missile is released, causing the missile body to dive to the ground.The damage caused by its explosion is especially serious, because the projectile body always explodes before reaching the ground.

This new method of raiding caused even greater hardship to the citizens of London than did the air raids of 1940 and 1941.People feel anxious and tense for a long time.Daybreak certainly cannot relieve their pain, and cloudy weather does not necessarily make them more comfortable.Returning home at night, a man never knows what he will find out about the house; and his wife is alone or with the children all day, and there is no way of knowing for certain that he will come home safely.The blind and impersonal nature of the missile leaves those on the ground helpless.He was barely able to cope with the situation, and simply couldn't see the enemies he could hit.

My daughter Mary was still serving with the Hyde Park Antiaircraft Battery.I was at Checkers on the morning of Sunday, June 18, when Mrs Churchill informed me that she was going to visit the anti-aircraft battery.She happened to meet the company in combat.A missile flew over there, destroying a house on Bayswater Road.As my wife and daughter were standing on the grass together, they caught a glimpse of a small, black object coming straight down from the clouds, and it looked as if it would land very close to Downing Street.My car was driving to collect letters at that time, and the driver was surprised to see that in the Parliament Square, all the passers-by were lying face down on the ground.There was a muffled explosion right there, and the people went about their business again.The missile landed on top of the chapel at the Guards Headquarters at Wellington Barracks.At that time, a large number of active duty and retired officers and soldiers from the Guards Brigade gathered there for a special service.The missile hit directly.In an instant, the entire building was destroyed. Nearly 200 guards, including many outstanding officers, and their relatives and friends were killed there, or were crushed under the rubble and seriously injured.

This is a tragic event.I was still in bed watching business when my wife came back. The anti-aircraft battery was still firing, she said: but the chapel of the guard had been blown up by the enemy. I immediately issued instructions to relocate the House of Commons into the Church Building, which is a modern steel frame structure, which is safer than the Palace of Westminster.This involved a lot of paperwork back and forth and redeployment.There was this brief interlude when we were having a secret meeting.One congressman asked angrily: Why are we back now?I didn't have time to answer him when another MP interrupted:

If our venerable gentleman will walk a few hundred yards to Birdcage Road, he will see why.At that time, everyone was silent for a long time, so we stopped talking about this matter. As the days wore on, every borough of London was under attack.The worst damage was in the area from Stepney and Poingley to the south-west to Wandsworth and Mitcham.In terms of individual districts, Croydon was the hardest hit.On one occasion, in one day alone, eight missiles fell in the area, followed by Wandsworth, Lewisham, Camberwell, Woolwich and Greenwich, Beckenham, Lambeth , Orpington, Coulsden and Purley, West Ham, Chiselhurst and Mitcham. [1] About 750,000 houses were damaged, of which 23,000 were damaged beyond repair, but London was the worst hit, and the death, injury and loss extended far beyond it. outside the range.Parts of Sussex and Kent, commonly known as Bomb Lane because of their position on the path of the missiles, were badly hit; all aimed at Tower Bridge, but falling far In the countryside from Hampshire to Suffolk.One fell near my home in Westerham, where twenty-two homeless children and five adults were living together in a shelter built for them in the woods. All of them were killed. die.

[1] In terms of the order of missile density, that is, the number of bombs dropped within every 100 miles, the order is different: the first is the urban area of ​​London, and the order is: Peng Ji, Bermondsey, Deptford, Greenwich, Camberwell, Lewisham, Stepney, Poplar, Lambeth, Battersea, Mitchum and Wandsworth. As early as six months ago, our military intelligence had accurately predicted the performance of this missile, but at the time we felt that it would not be easy to prepare fighters and anti-aircraft defenses of appropriate quality.In fact, Hitler was convinced that our fighters were useless, based on the experiments he had seen with intercepted Spitfires against missiles.Our timely warning enabled us to disappoint him, but only to a limited extent.Our fastest fighter jets were specially lightened and powered up to catch up with the fastest flying missiles.Although many missiles do not fly as fast as the manufacturers expected, it is often difficult for our fighter jets to intercept them in time.To make matters worse, the enemy tried to saturate our fortifications by firing salvos of missiles. Our usual emergency take-off method was too slow. Therefore, we had to order fighter jets to patrol the air frequently, Find and pursue their targets by means of instructions from ground radar stations and air observation team posts, and with the aid of constant briefings of the situation.The body of the missile is much smaller than that of an ordinary aircraft, so it is difficult for people to find and even more difficult to hit.At too many distances beyond 300 yards, there is little chance of killing them, but at a distance of less than 200 yards, it is extremely dangerous to fire at them, because the exploding missiles may kill the attacking force. Its fighter jets are destroyed.

The red flames from the missile exhaust pipes made them easier to spot in the dark, so for the first two nights our anti-aircraft guns in London fired on them and claimed to have shot many of them down.This helped the enemy to achieve his goal, because otherwise some missiles might have landed in the countryside outside the capital. Therefore, we stopped firing anti-aircraft guns in the capital area and moved them to other places by June 21. North Downs front line went.The altitude at which many missiles fly makes anti-aircraft guns difficult to deal with at first glance, and heavy guns are too low to shoot them, and other types of guns are too high; but it turns out that heavy guns can be used To deal with those targets flying lower altitude than we originally thought.Of course, we have long expected that some missiles will slip through the net of our fighter jets and anti-aircraft guns. For this reason, we have deployed a huge balloon blocking net in the south and southeast of London to try to block these missiles that slipped through the net. missile.In fact, during the course of the battle this jamming net intercepted two hundred and thirty-two missiles, each of which was almost bound to fall at some point within the London area.

We are not satisfied with these defenses.Since December 1943, the ninety-six ski resorts for launching missiles in France have been heavily bombed by our bombers and have been largely wiped out. [1] However, despite all our efforts, the enemy managed to launch such attacks from new and less noticeable points, and the number of missiles passing our defenses was far more than the enemy had hoped. Much less, but it raised many questions for us.During the first week of this bombing, I took control of everything myself, and on June 20, handed it over to the Joint Service Committee under the chairmanship of Duncan Sands, code-named Stonebow.

【1】See Chapter 13 of Volume Five of this book. Prime Minister to Home Secretary Sir Edward Bridges and General Ismay to the Chiefs of Staff Committee June 22, 1944 Now that we have a better idea of ​​what to do, I have decided, in consultation with the Chiefs of Staff, that the Crossbow Committee, which I have chaired so far, should consist of a relatively small report on the effectiveness of the report, as well as the progress of countermeasures and preventive measures taken by us.The Joint Under-Secretary for Munitions (Mr. Duncan Sands) will be the Chairman of this committee and its membership should be as small as possible This committee shall report daily, and whenever necessary, to myself, the Home Secretary, the Air Secretary, and the Chiefs of Staff Committee. If necessary, I shall attend meetings myself with the Home Secretary and the Air Secretary. The members of the committee are: Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Bottomley, Air Force Ground Liaison Officer Commanding Great Britain Air Defense Lieutenant General Hill and Air Defense Command General Commander General Pyle. On July 6th I explained to the House the preparations and actions the Government had made in this direction since the beginning of 1943, when many constituencies in the House of Commons were tense due to missile attacks.In any case, no one can say that we were attacked by surprise because we were not prepared.Everyone has no complaints.Everyone knew that we had to endure, and our hopes of a smooth advance in Normandy made the ordeal a little easier. I made a detailed report. So far, the total weight of bombs dropped by our side on the locations of missile and rocket targets in France and Germany, including Peenemünde, has reached nearly 50,000 tons, and the number of reconnaissance flights has totaled thousands. Second-rate.Just to examine and judge the tens of thousands of aerial photographs taken for this purpose is a formidable task undertaken by several aerial reconnaissance and photographic interpretation teams of the Royal Air Force.This is some tough work for both the enemy and us.Over the past few months, we have brought a substantial portion of our air power from various other offensive activities.On the German side it was a great sacrifice of industrial capacity that could have been used to augment their fighter and bomber forces to cooperate with their beleaguered ground forces on all fronts.In this process, it is still impossible to say which side has already suffered losses and will suffer the most serious losses in the future.An invisible battle, in which both sides poured enormous material power, has actually been going on for the past year.This invisible battle has now suddenly flashed into broad daylight, and we will be able, and indeed have to, to watch its progress at a fairly close distance We should neither underestimate nor exaggerate this.As of 6:00 this morning, a total of about 2,750 missiles have been launched from various launch sites along the French coast. A large number of these missiles either failed to cross the English Channel or were shot down or destroyed by our various methods. But the weather has been unfavorable for us in June.In Normandy it deprived us of a great part of the great advantage which we could employ; in Britain it made the operation and coordination of our anti-aircraft guns and aircraft more difficult.It also weakened our tendency to take advantage of all favorable opportunities to attack rocket launch sites and suspicious locations across the strait.However, I think the House of Commons will appreciate and be amazed that exactly one man was killed for every missile fired by the total number of missiles fired from various enemy launch sites. In fact, as of six o'clock this morning, the latest statistics: The enemy fired 2,754 missiles, and 2,752 of our side were seriously injured and died. Not all of them were serious or fatal. A large part (approximately About 10,000 pieces) occurred in London, where an area eighteen miles wide and more than twenty miles long became the target of the enemy.London, therefore, was an unrivaled target for the use of such a proven inaccurate weapon.In its nature, purpose, and effects, the missile is, and indeed is, an indiscriminate weapon.The fact that the Germans are starting to use this weapon clearly raises some serious issues that I would not recommend discussing today. Arrangements were made for the evacuation of the women and children, and for the opening of the deep underground shelters hitherto reserved for use, and I explained that we would do everything in our power to defeat this new type of attack; When reporting, I used a tone that seemed to match the mood of ordinary people at the time. We will not allow the Normandy combat operation to be compromised, nor our ongoing attacks on particular targets in Germany.These are matters of first importance, and we must adapt our domestic arrangements to the general plan of operations.We shall not permit the slightest weakening of the fighting in order to lessen the extent of the damage which, though it might cause severe suffering to many, and affect in any measure the industry and the normal and orderly life of London , but that should not prevent the British nation from fulfilling its obligations as a victorious and avenging world vanguard.The thought by some that they are sharing in no small measure the risks our Soldiers overseas run, and that the blows that fall upon them will lessen the blows that may otherwise be inflicted on our combat Soldiers and their allies A severe blow is not a consolation.But of one thing I am sure, that London can never be conquered, can never be defeated, and that her reputation, which has stood victoriously through all severe tests, will long live brightly among men. We now know that Hitler thought this new weapon would be decisive in formulating his own fanciful peace scheme.Even his military advisers, though less fanciful than their masters, hoped that London's suffering would prompt us to send some troops to the Pas de Calais for a disastrous landing in an attempt to capture Those missile sites; but neither London nor the British government flinched, so on June 18 I was able to assure General Eisenhower that we could stand the test to the end, no Ask him to make any changes to his strategy within France. We continued to bomb these missile launch sites for some time, but by the end of June it became apparent that they were no longer important targets at present.Bomber Command, eager to share the work more effectively in the relief of London, went out in search of better targets; these were quickly found.Several major missile storage depots in France were located in several large natural caves around Paris, which were developed by French mushroom growers for a long time.One of the caves is located in Saint-Lüdeslan in the Oise River Basin. According to the German estimates, it can store 2,000 missiles and has supplied 70% of all the missiles launched by the enemy in June.By early July the cavern had been largely destroyed by bombing through the top floor with some of Bomber Command's heaviest bombs. In another place, it is estimated that a thousand missiles can be stored, which were bombed to pieces by US bombers.We know that in this one cave at least three hundred missiles were irretrievably buried.London was thus spared the scourge of all these missiles, while the Germans had to switch to a bomb they had previously judged unsuitable. These achievements of our bombers have not been without loss.Of all our armies, they are the first to deal with missiles.They bombed research centers and factories in Germany, as well as missile launch sites and supply depots in France.By the end of the battle, nearly 2,000 British and Allied bomber pilots had died defending London. In the British Air Defense Headquarters, many considerations were given to the role of fighter jets and anti-aircraft guns.Our deployment seemed quite realistic: fighter jets were out to sea and patrolling over most of Kent and Sussex.The missiles were scattered in these places; the anti-aircraft guns were concentrated closer to London, where the missiles formed a denser mass as they approached their targets.Such a disposition seemed to give every method of defense the best chance of being effective, so that in the first few weeks of the campaign, indeed, as in all previous campaigns, it was not surprising that the fighters achieved greater success than the anti-aircraft guns.By the second week of July, however, General Pyle and several knowledgeable experts had come to the conclusion that the anti-aircraft guns would do a much better job if they moved the various anti-aircraft batteries closer to the coast. without unduly compromising the fighter's achievements.The fire command radar of the anti-aircraft gun will have a wider range of sight, and it will be safer when using the artillery shells equipped with proximity fuzes that are being shipped from the United States at this moment. [1] Because of the danger of enemy radio jamming, we have never been sure that the anti-aircraft guns on the coast will be able to use radar. However, our intelligence is so good and the bombing is so accurate that on the day of the offensive, , All the radio jamming stations on the German side were destroyed and rendered useless.But to remove the entirety of this huge anti-aircraft organization from North Downs and redeploy it to the coast, knowing that doing so would spoil the achievements of the fighters, was a very serious decision. [1] This kind of shell is designed to explode when it is shot close to the target. It is dangerous to use on land, because if the shell misses the target too far, it will wait until it hits the ground. It exploded. Duncan Sands, who advocated for this change, reported to the War Cabinet on July 17th: Based on the results obtained over the past few weeks, our defense plan against missiles has been re-examined.Experience has shown that under the original plan fighters and anti-aircraft guns interfered with each other from time to time, and that a large proportion of the destroyed missiles were unnecessarily shot down on land.Therefore, it has been decided to divide our defense into four different areas and redeploy as follows: (1) Sea Fighter Zone: Fighters should operate under short-range radio control at a distance of not less than 10,000 yards from shore. (2) Anti-aircraft artillery zone along the coast: All the anti-aircraft guns allocated for defense against missiles should be directed to a narrow strip five thousand yards wide from Cape Beach to St. Margaret's Bay.These anti-aircraft guns were limited to no more than 10,000 yards into the sea. (3) Inland Fighter Zone: In the inland zone between the coastal anti-aircraft gun zone and the balloon-blocking net is the second fighter zone in which aircraft are to operate on the basis of continuous situational analysis by radio.In the anti-aircraft artillery field, the explosion of anti-aircraft shells should be of great help to the pilot to observe the flight path taken by the approaching missile.At night, the pilots were given the additional assistance of searchlights over the entire inland fighter field. (4) Balloon zone: There will be no major changes to the boundaries of the balloon blockage net. The redeployment of the anti-aircraft guns at new points along the coast was completed at the end of last week, and this new defensive plan was put into effect at 6 o'clock this morning. The new deployment was a massive undertaking, carried out with commendable speed.At that time, nearly 400 heavy cannons and 600 double-barreled automatic anti-aircraft guns were to be moved to a new location and re-erected.Three thousand miles of telephone lines were laid.Twenty-three thousand men and women were relocated, and vehicles owned by Air Defense Command traveled a total of 2.75 million miles in one week.This migration to the coast was completed in four days. The entire operation was decided and carried out at the initiative of Lieutenant General Hill and General Pyle, with the consent of Duncan Sands.After redeployment, in the first few days, the number of missiles destroyed by our joint defense force was greatly reduced compared with before. This was mainly due to the new restrictions on the movement of fighter jets, which were quite constrained.It did not take long, however, for this regression to cease.The anti-aircraft guns were soon under control, and the effectiveness increased rapidly.With all the new radar and anticipation equipment, especially the new proximity fuzes, that we had requested from the United States six months earlier, the anti-aircraft gunners had achieved more than we could have imagined.By the end of August, no more than one seventh of the total had slipped into London.The record-breaking hunt occurred on August 28th. On that day, a total of 94 missiles flew close to our coast, but all but four were destroyed by our side.The balloons intercepted two missiles, the fighters twenty-three, and the flak hit sixty-five. The V-type missile has been controlled by our side. The Germans watched our anti-aircraft guns keenly from across the Channel, completely bewildered by the achievements of our artillery.During the first week of September, when their launch site was destroyed by the British and Canadian troops advancing from Normandy to Antwerp, they still could not solve this mystery.The achievements of these armies have liberated London and its defense forces from the tense state of affairs in which they had been for the past three months, so that, on 6 September, Mr Herbert Morrison, Home Secretary and Home Security Secretary, It can be declared that the Battle of London has been won. After that, although the German army still harassed us from time to time with missiles launched by aircraft and a few long-range missiles launched from the Netherlands, since then, the threat level has been insignificant.A total of about 8,000 missiles were fired on London, of which about 2,400 passed the defense line.The total number of civilian casualties in our country: 6,184 dead and 17,981 seriously injured.These figures do not tell the full story.Many people were traumatized but not admitted to hospital for treatment, so their casualties were not registered [1]. 【1】According to the exact number of missiles fired from the launch sites in France towards London, the Germans numbered 8,564, of which 1,006 crashed shortly after launch. Our intelligence services have played a major role.The size and performance of this weapon, as well as the scale of the enemy's planned attack, were learned by our side in good time. This allows our fighters to be ready at any time.The discovery of enemy launch sites and missile caverns enabled our bombers to delay enemy attacks and lessen their violence.We used all methods of gathering information and assembled them with remarkable skill.I pay tribute to all those who have provided us with information, many of whom worked in deadly situations, and others whose names we will never know! But good intelligence alone is not enough.Fighters, bombers, anti-aircraft guns, balloons, scientists, civilian air defense organizations, and all the various organizations that can back it up, each played a full role in the overall situation.It was a great and well-coordinated defense, rendered invulnerable by the victories of our troops in France. A second threat looms.Here it is: Long-range rockets, or V-2 weapons, which we have paid great attention to twelve months ago.However, the Germans encountered difficulties in perfecting this weapon, and at that time, the missile was the first to successfully manufacture it.However, almost at the same time that the missiles had just begun to attack our side, there were some signs that the rocket attack was not far away.The weight of the rocket and the warhead it carries has been the subject of much debate.Some early, but dubious intelligence hints at a warhead weight of five to ten tons.Some of our experts believed such a weight to be plausible on other grounds, and believed the information.Other experts believe that the rocket may weigh 80 tons and carry a 10-ton warhead.Lord Cherwell, now amply vindicated that he was right about the missile in June 1943, had serious doubts about the practicality of the weapon even before intelligence had made any hints about it. One day of use [1], of course, not to mention an eighty-ton behemoth.Between these two extremes there are several intelligence hints that the rocket weighs much less than eighty tons, but, despite the long debate, we are still very anxious. [1] See pages 206 and 212 of the fifth volume of this book. We were informed that the enemy's work in Peenemünde was still going on, and that the sparse reports from the mainland forced us to reconsider the scale and urgency of the attack.On July 18, Dr. Jones informed the Crossbow Committee that the enemy might have prepared a thousand rockets.On July 24, Sands reported to the cabinet: Although we have not yet received reliable information about the operation of launching rockets from Germany to the west, but based on this contradictory evidence alone, it is believed that the enemy will not soon It's not wise to use rockets.The next day, the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Services Committee wrote in a memorandum to me: The Air Staff agrees with this statement and the Chiefs of Staff feel that this should be brought to the attention of the War Cabinet immediately.On 27th July, Cabinet discussed the situation and considered Mr Herbert Morrison's proposal.That proposal involved the evacuation of some one million people from London. There are still omissions and omissions in the information about the size, function and characteristics of rockets that our country has, so we do everything possible to enrich them.Fragments of evidence collected from various sources were collected by our country's intelligence agencies and sent to the Stonebow Committee.Based on this information, it was concluded that the rocket weighed twelve tons and carried a warhead weighing one ton.Its light weight explains many of the things that have puzzled us, such as the idea that it lacks a sophisticated launch mechanism.These estimates were confirmed when the Royal Aeronautical Research Institute had the opportunity to examine the wreckage of an actual rocket.This rocket fell into our hands through a fortunate and precious blunder during the enemy's experiments at Peenemünde on June 13th.The following is the account obtained from the confession of a prisoner of war: The Germans have been attacking our shipping with glide bombs for some time.This type of bomb is launched from an aircraft and guided by radio to its target.At that time, the enemy decided to try again, whether the same method could be used to guide a rocket.They found an expert operator and put him in a vantage point to observe the missile body from launch to launch.The Peenemünde experimenters, who were quite accustomed to watching the ascent of rockets, did not expect that the glide-bomb specialist would be alarmed by the spectacle.He was so flustered that he forgot his own responsibility in the procedure.In panic, he pushed the joystick too far to the left and held it down.Therefore, the rocket obediently kept turning to the left, and when the operator calmed down, the rocket had gone beyond the control range and flew towards Sweden.It fell right in that country.Soon, our country learned of this matter, and after some negotiations, its wreckage was sent to Farnborough, and our experts sorted out the shattered fragments, and achieved considerable results. We knew for sure what was coming before the end of August.This is illustrated by the above two tables, which compare the figures recorded in the August 26th report by the Scientific Intelligence Service with those found in German records after the war. The rocket is an impressive technological achievement.Its thrust is developed by the combustion of alcohol and liquid oxygen in the injectors, consuming almost four tons of alcohol and about five tons of liquid oxygen per minute.To press the fuel into the injector according to the required level, a special pump with nearly 1,000 horsepower is required.The pump itself is powered by a turbine powered by hydrogen peroxide.The rocket is controlled by a gyroscope; or by radio signals on a large graphite sighting plate behind the nozzle to adjust the direction of the exhaust, which plays a role in navigation.It first went up in a straight line for about six miles, and then the automatic controller turned it around and made it soar upward with gradually increasing speed within a forty-five-degree slope.When the speed is accelerated enough to reach the required range, the further control is to cut off the fuel injected into the injector, so the projectile will fly forward along a height parabola, and the height that can be reached is about fifty miles. It fell about 200 miles from the launch site.Its top speed is about 4,000 miles per hour, so the entire flight will take no more than three or four minutes. At the end of August it seemed possible that our army could drive back all the enemy forces within a rocket range of 200 miles from London, but the enemy managed to hold Valcheren and The Hague.On September 8, a week after the main V-bombing had ceased, the Germans launched their first two rockets into London. [1] The first V-2 landed at Chezik at 6:43 p.m.; the other landed at Epping sixteen o'clock later.During the seven months before our army liberated The Hague, the site from which most of the rockets were fired, the enemy fired some 1,300 rockets at Britain, many of which missed their targets, but 500 Hit London. [1] In the war, the first successful launch of the enemy's long-range rocket, ten hours earlier than this one, was fired towards Paris, but the consequences proved to be insignificant. [2] German records show that, out of 1,359 launch attacks, 1,190 rockets were successfully fired towards London. The casualties caused by the V-2 weapon in Britain were 2,724 dead and 6,476 seriously injured.On average, a rocket causes about twice as many casualties as a missile.Although the warheads of the missiles and rockets are about the same size, the sharp whistle of the missile engines has warned people to cover in advance, but the arrival of the rockets is silent. 我方曾經試過許多反措施，而且還在作更多的探索和研究。一年多以前，對佩內明德進行的空襲，在減輕這種威脅上，比用任何其他辦法更為有效。不然的話，V二武器襲擊的開始，至少會和V一武器的開始襲擊同樣早，而且可能會從一個比較短的距離內發射出來，因此，在六月分內，其準確性也就可能比在九月間及其以後的時期內更高。美國空軍在七八兩月內，繼續轟炸佩內明德，並與轟炸機司令部聯合攻擊了製造火箭組成部件的一些工廠。我們感謝我方軍隊在德軍準備就緒發射之前，就已經把火箭逐回到它的射程極限的地點。我方戰鬥機和戰術轟炸機持續不斷地騷擾海牙附近的敵方發射場。我方還準備好，如果德方使用無線電控制火箭的話，我們就對他們的無線電控制，加以干擾，並且甚至考慮到，在火箭降落時，設法用炮火進行空中截擊，使之爆炸。 我們的努力，使得敵人對倫敦和大陸的襲擊總數不超出每月四五百支的火箭，而不是他們原定的九百支。因此，儘管在火箭一旦發射之後，我們無能為力進行抵抗，但是，我們卻推遲了，並且大大減輕了敵方襲擊的猛勢。敵方每月有二百支左右的火箭，是以倫敦為目標的，其餘大部分襲擊安特衛普，還有少數則以大陸上其他地方為目標。敵方在十一月八日以前，始終未提起他們這種新式的火箭，我也覺得在十一月十日之前，沒有作任何公開聲明的必要。在十一月十日，我已能向下院保證說：這種襲擊的規模和效果直到目前為止並不嚴重。在戰爭的其餘幾個月中，這句話幸而是一直與事實相符的。 儘管火箭是技術上的一項重大成就，施佩爾，那位具有卓越才幹的德國軍火部長，卻為他們費了這麼大的力量去製造它而表示遺憾。他說：每生產一支火箭所需的時間，可製造比火箭更有用得多的戰鬥機六七架，而一支火箭的成本要抵到二十個飛彈。這項戰後的資料證實了徹韋爾勳爵事前所常表示的見解。 幸虧德國人在火箭上，而不是在轟炸機上，花了這麼多力氣。就連我們的蚊式飛機每架成本雖不見得比火箭為昂貴，可是它在使用年限中，在距離目標一哩以內，每架卻平均可以投擲炸彈一百二十五噸，而一支火箭投擲的炸彈只有一噸，其平均誤差又達十五哩之巨。 希特勒還曾希望擁有另一種的V型武器。這就是原來準備埋設於加來海峽省米莫耶克村附近土地內的一項多管遠射程大炮的裝置。它有五十個滑膛炮管，每個炮管長約四百呎，準備發射的炮彈，其直徑約為六吋，炮彈的穩定不是靠陀螺，而是靠一支像飛鏢那樣的尾翼來保持的。炮身上每隔一點距離就有一個側射管，裡面裝著炸藥，隨著炮彈運行逐漸加速而依次點燃。設計者的打算是：炮彈從炮管射出的時候，它至少具有每秒鐘五千呎的速度，他們還希望利用這許多的炮管，而每隔幾分鐘就向倫敦發射炮彈一枚。然而，這次希特勒的希望可完全落了空：試射的炮彈全部都在飛行中來了個倒栽蔥，所以，這種炮彈的射程和準確性都是很差的。一九四四年五月四日，一百名科學家、技術人員和管理火箭的軍官在柏林集會，作出了一項不愉快的結論，認為必須把這項失敗告知元首。我方直到後來方才得悉此事，並且作為一種預防措施，我方的轟炸機曾一再對米莫耶克的混凝土結構，進行猛襲狂炸，而敵方的五千名工人則一再進行搶修。 當我寫下希特勒對英國發動的報復戰役的經過時，我們不應忘記，比利時境內各已解放的城市，因德方試圖用同樣報復性的武器襲擊，而遭受了同樣的災難。當然，我們不容敵人肆無忌憚地濫施襲擊。我方對敵人的生產中心和其他目標所施的轟炸，使他們攻擊比利時的規模就像攻擊我們的規模一樣可喜地縮小了，但是要把有精密控制設備的戰鬥機和大炮防禦工事，在新近收復的地區內重行部署，事非容易。 根據德方的紀錄，迄戰事結束時為止，以安特衛普為目標，曾經發射了八千六百九十六個飛彈和一千六百一十支火箭。總計有五千九百六十發落在市中心周圍八哩以內的地區，兩種武器共炸死比利時市民三千四百七十人和盟軍軍人六百八十二人。另有三千一百四十一個飛彈系以列日為目標，一百五十一支火箭則是向布魯塞爾發射的。比利時人民以與我們同樣的精神，頂住了這種毫無人性的轟炸。 德軍的V型武器雖終未見成功，但我方對於這些新方法的潛力卻不能無動於衷。鄧肯‧桑茲在向內閣所作的報告中，強調說明了導彈在未來戰爭中所可能具有的決定性的重要作用，並且指出有以大量資源專供發展這項武器的必要性。下列摘錄是具有特殊意義的： 這種遠程的、無線電控制的、噴氣推進的射彈的出現，在軍事作戰行動上開闢了廣大的、新的可能性。在未來的歲月中，遠程火箭炮所具有的優越性，將會與海軍或空軍的威力所具有的優越性同等重要。我們應該保持一批高級的科學和工程人員，連同廣泛的研究設備，作為我們和平時期軍事組織的一個永久性的部分。 我們已開始設計我們自己的導彈，到戰爭終了時，我們已經為達到這一目的而成立了一個永久性的機構。 這就是希特勒多少個月以來，頑固地寄以厚望的新式武器，以及這些武器為英國當局憑其先見之明、各軍兵種的技術，以及人民堅忍不拔的精神予以挫敗的故事經過；英國人民在這次戰爭中，再度用自己的行動，給大倫敦增添上一層更大的自豪感。