Sledgehammers for Tintacks: Bomber Command Combats the V-1 Menace, 1943-1944

In the summer of 1944, in the skies over Southern England, a new era in international warfare began. A German reprisal weapon, called the V1 or 'flying bomb', launched from occupied France, would bring indiscriminate terror and panic to the civilian population of London and the home counties. The German High Command hoped the weapon would not only revenge the Allied bombing of their homeland, but seriously hinder Allied invasion plans. The Allies tried desperately to prevent this new scourge diverting their attention from D-day and the liberation of Western Europe. It was the job of RAF's Bomber Command to combat the new threat. The author details all raids against flying bomb targets and also covers raids against other German secret weapon targets. The story is told using fascinating photographic coverage, previously unpublished records, intelligence information and graphic first hand accounts provided by Bomber Command veterans, Luftwaffe night fighter veterans and accounts from French people who witnessed the whole German operation from the construction of the secret weapon installations to the launching of the flying bombs.