As explained by a military expert user on Quora, German technology produced the V1, essentially the first “cruise missiles,” after the conflict. (The V2 was the first ICBM ever built.)
It was designed by Werner von Braun and Robert Lussier, who later worked on projects for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. However, he used his technical ability in jet technology during World War II to develop weapons to combat the Allied Forces, in this case, a rocket weapon to scare England but it failed.
As a result, the “tactic” has now given rise to urban legends, with social media commentators debating whether the technique actually was used by pilots to bring down the feared bombs, also known as “buzz bombs” or “doodlebugs,” which were the early precursors to modern drones or cruise missiles, or whether it was just a myth.
It was true, but, according to Wing Commander Nick Robson of the current RAF Air Command High Wycombe, “This was NOT a routine action.” The bumping was a last-ditch effort. The goal was to get the plane’s wing as close as possible to the missile.
The internal gyroscope of the V1 bombs allowed these “cruise missiles” to travel from German-occupied territory to London with a rudimentary level of accuracy, which RAF pilots occasionally took advantage of.
Pilots of Spitfires (or of Tempests or Meteors) would move to intercept when a V1 Flying Bomb was spotted. There was an “X” factor with the V1s: you never knew when they were going to go; better to shoot and blow them up from a distance. The book “V1 Flying Bomb Aces” confirms that specific ranges were used in the 1940s for shooting bombs so they exploded in the air without causing harm, which was much preferred against tipping.
“…the proper range to engage the V1 with guns was 200-250 yards. Further out and the attacker would only damage the control surfaces, causing the V1 to crash and possibly cause civilian casualties upon impact. Any closer and the explosion from hitting the V1’s warhead could damage or destroy the attacking aircraft.”
As V1s were loaded with 1,000 kg of Amatol-39, a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate, pilots frequently had to fly in close to them to take a shot, especially given that the pulse-jet-propelled doodlebugs flew at speeds of up to 400 mph, the tactic is also believed to have reduced some of the risks associated with shooting down a highly explosive flying object.
The Nazis’ badly designed equipment apparently featured a gyro stabilizer for only two dimensions, which left flight control without roll movement and was easily exploitable as the reason tilting operated at all.
Technically and scientifically tipping was a risky move because physics would cause the weapon to detonate on an unknown target.
The competence of the Second World War pilots, according to Wing Commander Robson, meant that the Spitfire’s wing did not really need to “strike” a V1 wing; instead, it used an inventive technique to exploit airflow to divert the flying bomb.
“The V1 is what you and I would call today a ‘drone’ – a pilotless missile – that came off the rails, it was pointed towards London, probably from northern France, and it was just fired.”
“It was literally fire and forget.”
“The problem we found in that time was that shooting it down from the ground was very difficult – they are very fast, and also it’s very difficult to see, so we had to find a way around it.”
He pondered, however, as to what a Spitfire pilot might actually have done. He said: “There is a difference in air pressure above and below the wing – as it gets closer is it actually touching the wing?”
“Some pilots would have touched the wing – the different air pressure at the tip of the aircraft would be enough to cause a disturbance in the aerodynamics around the wing which is then enough to knock it off course, disrupt the gyroscopes, and then get the aircraft crash into the ground.”
“That’s all it needed to do to disrupt the flightpath, just slightly, and either by physically hitting the wing, or actually it takes more skill, to put the wing so close that the vortexes at the wingtip disturb the air around the V1 wing itself, causing it to go off course.”
He said that the Spitfire might have sustained some damage from a mid-air collision. But for that to happen, pilots would have needed to strike a V1’s wing very hard.
Instead, he suggests a different scenario might have been taking place, saying: “We’re not looking at ‘ramming it off the road’ in the sense of the police programs you see now, this is just very sensitive disruption of the airflow around the wing.”
However, they wouldn’t waste ammunition since they would employ a different tactic. Simply moving near the V1 caused the Spitfire to tap its wings and throw off its gyroscope. Simply moving near the V1 caused the Spitfire to tap its wings and throw off its gyroscope.
Ken Collier of 91 Squadron physically dropped the first V1 bomb while flying a Spitfire Mk IVX. He had seven V1 victories and eventually died in combat.
