Military History > Miscellaneous Military History
V2 rocket site excavation
MartinR:
Also out of area. Mum lived in Coventry during the war. She recalled going into the city after the blitz, but when she returned in the evening the pubs were open, even if just a table in a near ruin, to save their licenses. I think it was then that they had the roof blown off. Later in the war she left school and joined the Royal Observer Corps and recalled realising that D-day was on well before the announcement. Not only was there a vast amount of air traffic, but they kept getting reports of parachutes caught on tail wheels and flight surfaces. Dad was at school throughout the war and received his call-up at Easter 1945. He was allowed to defer it for a few months to sit his A-levels (right name?) but then the atom bombs were dropped and he was spared active service. He would otherwise have completed basic training at about the time the Japanese mainland was invaded, and given the projected casualty rates I probably would never have been born. I came along 10 years after the war, but still remember playing in bombed-out houses that still hadn't been cleared in the early 1960s.
Lyn L:
You've cleared it up for me anyway Martin.
I'm really quite glad I wasn't born and have the experiences my Mum and siblings had. And my Dad came back home too.
MartinR:
Well if it was a V1, then you've a choice of two, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:V-1_cutaway.jpg The two large spheres just abaft the wings held compressed air to drive the flight control system and to pressurise the fuel tank (centre of the fuselage, surrounding the main spar). The tanks were pressurised to 900 psi (60 bar) so had to be substantial components. The forward sphere was a lightweight wooden construction that held the compass, so is unlikely to have survived the impact and explosion.
Lyn L:
Thanks MartinR ,
What a lovely name for it.
Mind you it could even have been a V1 flying bomb. My brother didn't remember it was my late sister told me. Can't ask her now sadly but there were ball shaped things in them. Could have been the spherical compressed air tanks that drove the gyro's ? Don't I sound as if I know. Only because my son sent me a pic .
Sorry going off topic.
MartinR:
It might have been the hydrogen peroxide tank, see https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Aggregat4-Schnitt-engl.jpg and notice the "Wasserstoffperoxdtank".
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version