FLYING BOMBS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23013, 3 October 1944, Page 5

FLYING BOMBS

Fault Saved Hundreds Of Lives

(Rec. 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 2. Details of the construction of flying bombs and an unexpected fault which may have saved hundreds of lives were revealed to the Press on a visit to the Ministry of Aircraft Production research station when a flying bomb which landed without exploding was examined arid photographed. “The Times” says the distance travelled by a flying bomb was controlled bv a small windmill in the nose. The windmill’s revolutions were recorded on an electrical counter. When it had travelled a certain distance the flying bomb was pushed over into a steep dive. Experts say that many lives were saved by the unforeseen warning by this action. The flying bomb, when directed downward, throws its fuel into the top petrol tank. The engine, thus starved of fuel, stops. Experts say that the flying bomb was certainly intended to dive with the engine running. Londoners learned to listen for the stopping of the engine—a warning the Germans never intended to give. The belief that the flying bomb was radio controlled has not survived investigation. There was nothing in the nature of a radio receiver, but a small number of flying bombs carried a wireless transmitter with a trailing aerial allowing information to be obtained on the flying bomb’s course. Flying bombs were inade for the utmost ease of production. The construction was almost entirely of mild steel, and the jet propulsion unit was cheap and easy to build. Tire flying bomb filled with fuel ready for launching weighed 47001 b, including a warhead of 20001 b, which was composed almost entirely of explosive. There were two mechanical fuses and one electrical fuse. In 12 weeks of intensive flying bomb attacks against Southern England, 2559 fell in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, says the “Daily Mail.” Practically all these were brought down by fighters, anti-aircraft suns and balloon barrages. The regional commissioner for South-west England, Lord Monsell, said: “It took 10 flying bombs to kill one civilian in this area. If they had gone on to London they would have killed 22. This is justification for shooting them down. I am proud to say we received no protest against this policy from anybody in this region.” Further German Preparations The Stockholm correspondent of the British United Press says that the carting of large quantities of steel and concrete to the top of the 6000 feet high Gausta Mountain in Telemark Province, and the banning of the whole area around the mountain to Norwegians, led. to the belief that the Germans were preparing to send large flying bombs or a similar weapon against Britain from South Norway. The Germans are reported to be experimenting with a new powerful explosive derived from heavy water at a plant a few miles froih Gausta Mountain.