V-1 Flying Bomb

V-1 flying bomb Fieseler Fi 103 Flakzielgerät 76 (FZG-76)
Type	Guided missile
Place of origin	Nazi Germany
Service history
In service	1944–1945
Used by	Luftwaffe
Wars	World War II
Production history
Designer	Robert Lusser
Manufacturer	Fieseler
Unit cost	5,090 RM
Specifications
Weight	2,150 kg (4,740 lb)
Length	8.32 m (27.3 ft)
Width	5.37 m (17.6 ft)
Height	1.42 m (4 ft 8 in)
Warhead	Amatol-39
Warhead weight	850 kg (1,870 lb)
Engine	Argus As 109-014 Pulsejet
Operational range	250 km (160 mi)
Speed	640 km/h (400 mph) flying between 600 to 900 m (2,000 to 3,000 ft)
Guidance system	Gyrocompass based autopilot

The V-1 missile or V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1")—also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern (cherrystone) or Maikäfer (maybug)—was an early cruise missile and the first production aircraft to use a pulsejet for power.

The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". The first of the so-called "Vengeance weapons" (V-weapons or Vergeltungswaffen) series designed for terror bombing of London — because of its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from launch facilities along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on 13 June 1944), one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landings in Europe. At its peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the V-1s were directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped only a month before the war in Europe ended, when the last launch site in the Low Countries was overrun on 29 March 1945.

The British operated an arrangement of air defences, including anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft, to intercept the bombs before they reached their targets as part of Operation Crossbow, while the launch sites and underground V-1 storage depots were targets of strategic bombing.