1 — Fi-103 (V-1); 2 — Fi-103R-I: 3 — Fi-103R-II;
4 — Fi-103R-III; 5 — Fi-103R-IV.
4 — Fi-103R-III; 5 — Fi-103R-IV.
Under Project Reichenberg, the Germans also built a piloted,
suicide version of the V-1 which was tested by diminutive pilots, including the
famous Hanna Reitsch, but the Re 4 model was never placed into action due to
resistance in the Nazi leadership to an explicit suicide weapon.
Towards the end of 1943 consideration was given in Germany
to possible use of piloted missiles for precision attacks on targets such as
warships & other high profile targets like Buckingham Palace & the
Houses of Parliament.
Design work was carried out by Deutsches Forschungsinstitut
fur Segelfug (German Gliding Research Institute) & the modification of
standard V1’s for testing purposes was carried out by the aircraft manufacturer
Henschel, under the code name of Reichenberg. Initial test flights were carried
out at Larz where the first two aircraft crashed killing the pilots. Test
flying was thereafter carried out by Hanna Reitsch & Heinz Kensche.
Two factories were set up to manufacture piloted V1’s, one
at Dannenberg & the other at Pulverhof both using slave labour. They
produced approximately 175 piloted Fieseler Fi 103R-4’s before production
ceased. 70 pilots were under training when the project ceased in October 1944
owing to a shortage of fuel for training & political differences within the
German High Command. The operational Fi 103R-4’s were to have been operated by
5/KG200 & was to be known as the Leonidas staffel.
In July 1943, the idea was again resurrected after Germany
had successfully developed the V-1 rocket. The Vergeltungswaffen 1 (Vengence
Weapon 1) was an unmanned flying bomb, powered by a pulse-jet with a range of
148 miles (238km). It was designed to be launched from a land installation but
the idea of using U-boats as a launch platform was proposed. The notion was to
provide the weapon with mobility, where it could strike almost any city in the
world. The V-1 however was a Luftwaffe weapon and the idea was again rejected.
In a separate development, by the end of the war, the
guidance system for targeting surface vessels with anti-ship rockets fired from
submerged U-boats was complete and installed in the latest Type XXIs. Known as
SP-Anlage, the device could accurately pinpoint the location of surface vessels
and enabled anti-ship rockets to be fired up from below. The rockets however
were still under development when the war ended. This project was named Project
Ursel.
After the war, this concept led to the US and Soviet
ballistic missile submarines of the 1950s.
Variants
There were four variants: By October 1944 about 175 R-IVs
were ready for action.
R-1 - the basic
single-seat unpowered glider.
R-II - had a
second cockpit fitted where the warhead would normally be.
R-III - a single
seater, with the pulsejet intake fitted to simulate its handling.
R-IV - the standard
powered operational model.
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