Show Notes
When intelligence indicated that the Germans planned to deploy a ballistic missile against England, one of Churchill’s scientific advisors claimed it to be impossible since, in his expert opinion, it required solid propellant. According to Lord Cherwell, that made the missile too huge to hide, thus it was false intelligence. When the V-2s began falling in September 1944, an angry Churchill stated, “We have been caught napping!”27 In that situation, one individual with a wrong idea created doubt in many of the analysts that held true information. That made them hesitant to share accurate data until absolute proof of its significance existed. Because of the accurate intelligence, the British did have a good idea about the characteristics of the missile before the first attack. The examination of a V-2 that crashed in Sweden, reconnaissance photos, a dummy missile and documents taken in Normandy and Enigma messages all led to a basic understanding of what they faced. The V-2 took about an hour to erect, fuel and launch. It flew about 200 miles in under four minutes. After reaching an altitude of 60 miles, it came in at nearly Mach 3, dug 30 feet into the ground and detonated its one ton warhead. There were two explosions in a V-2 strike: the first was impact, the second was the sonic boom. The mobile Meillerwagen transporter-erector made the system very difficult to find and destroy before launch.
More from ISR Audio Tour Part 1
After being brought back from the Pacific Theater, this George went to a children’s playground in San Diego, California. The museum received it in 1959 and in 2000 the museum began an extensive, eight-year restoration. They found serial numbers from four different aircraft during the disassembly. This beautiful restoration either came from several different aircraft brought back to the U.S. for exploitation after the war, or from the Japanese putting several aircraft together during the war. The serial number 5312 was most common and is now the number cited.
The B-29’s photo-reconnaissance capabilities yielded what Major General Haywood Hansell called, “probably the greatest…single contribution…in the air war with Japan.” The Superfortress’ photo-reconnaissance configuration was the F-13A. On 1 November 1944, one of the two F-13A aircraft that arrived from the U.S. just two days before flew from Saipan to Tokyo. Captain John Steakley’s aircraft flew over Tokyo at 32,000 feet for 35 minutes taking 7,000 images. A Japanese fighter approached the F-13, but did not attack it. That was the first land-based American plane to fly over Tokyo since the Doolittle Raid in 1942. Those photos provided the XXI Bomber Command locations of Japanese aircraft manufacturing plants, helping the mission planners to choose targets for the coming B-29 onslaught. Steakley’s F-13A became “Tokyo Rose” after that mission.
The Catalina performed some of the most critical surveillance missions of World War II. An RAF Catalina located the German battleship Bismarck, enabling the Royal Navy to destroy it in May 1941. A Canadian Catalina warned the Royal Navy’s Indian Ocean fleet of the approach of a Japanese carrier group in April 1942 before being shot down by a Zero. A Catalina also spotted the Japanese carrier force as it approached Midway Island in June 1942 and provided one of the most important radio messages of the war. This aircraft is a Consolidated OA-10 Catalina.
The world’s first operational jet fighter was the Me 262A-1. On 16 May 1945, technical intelligence personnel found this aircraft at Munich-Riem airfield where fighter ace Adolph Galland’s Jagdverband (JV) 44 left it behind as the unit fled to Austria. Personnel of the 54th Air Disarmament Squadron named it Beverly Anne and it became one of 10 Watson’s Whizzers aircraft returned to the US at the end of the war. While being ferried from Lechfeld, Germany, to Cherbourg, France it stopped at Melun, France. It was there that Beverly Anne became Screamin’ Meemie. Lieutenant Bob Strobell named it that because of the sound it made. On 27 June 1945, this jet served as the lead ship in an aerial exhibition for General Carl Spaatz. After arrival in the U.S. it went to the U.S. Navy, along with four other Me 262s, serving at Patuxent Naval Air Station.
The FW 190D-9 on display surrendered to the Royal Air Force at Flensburg, Germany, up near the Danish border. It served with JG3 during the war. The American technical intelligence troops acquired it from the British and loaded it on board the H.M.S. Reaper for the trip back to the United States. As FE-120, the aircraft participated in six hours of flight testing here at Wright Field, before being stored at Freeman Field and later in Maryland. The D-9 was 20 inches longer than a standard Focke-Wulf, due to the large Jumo 213 bomber engine placed in it for greater performance. It could fly 426 miles per hour, putting on par with the P-51 and it featured a wooden propeller.