U.S. EIGHTH AIR FORCE KICKS OFF OPERATION APHRODITE
London, England • August 4, 1944
In early June 1944 the Royal Air Force began deploying the first of several bunker-buster bombs—the 4,000 lb./1.8 metric ton Tallboy S (small), Tallboy M (medium) weighing in at 12,000 lb./5.4 metric tons, and its successor Grand Slam (Tallboy L, large) at 22,000 lb./9.97 metric tons, whose blast yield was equivalent to 6.5 tons of TNT. Meanwhile the United States Army Air Forces had nothing similar to deploy (its largest general purpose bombs weighed 1,000 lb./454 kg), much less a delivery mechanism capable of dropping a 12‑to‑20‑ft./3.7‑to‑6‑m‑long bomb on its target. On this date, August 4, 1944, the U.S. Eighth Air Force operating out of England kicked off Operation Aphrodite, a program developed in total secrecy and designed to deliver precision-guided, bunker-busting munitions using a pilotless delivery system. Aphrodite and the U.S. Navy’s equivalent, Operation Anvil, were experimental methods for destroying high-priority enemy targets that were heavily defended and hardened, such as V‑weapon sites and U‑boat pens, and simultaneously disposing of B‑17 Flying Fortresses, B‑24 Liberators, and Navy PB4Y‑1 Liberators that had outlived their operational usefulness.
U.S. war-weary bombers were stripped of all nonessentials right down to the aircrafts’ machine guns, which were replaced by broomsticks painted black. Instead, the bombers were packed to capacity with Torpex, a new, more powerful explosive, plus were outfitted with advanced electronics containing a (as it turned out in at least one case, jerry-rigged) arming panel that set off the Torpex. The planes were then flown by volunteer pilots and co-pilots, eventually descending to an altitude of 2,000 ft./620 m, at which time the payload would be armed, followed by the 2 aviators bailing out the bottom of their aircraft. Guided by a mother ship using radio-controlled equipment and a TV camera in the nose cone, the pilotless drone would fly into its bomb-resistant target and explode.
In this first mission 4 B-17 drones flew to the Pas-de-Calais region in occupied Northern France to destroy cruise missile or ballistic rocket storage facilities and a hardened bunker. Neither this nor the other 12 missions were successful. They were expensive and exceptionally dangerous. On the fifth mission to the Pas-de-Calais (the first of two for Project Anvil)—this on August 12 against the Fortress of Mimoyecques near the hamlet of the same name that was to house a battery of V‑3 cannons aimed at London—Navy Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr’s plane, Zootsuit Black, escorted by a dozen planes and under control of the mother ship, detonated prematurely off the North Sea coast of England. The largest bomb explosion up to that time in history—as powerful as a dozen V‑1 rockets—left not a trace of pilot and co-pilot. Falling wreckage onto a nearby village caused widespread damage and small fires, but no injuries. The shock wave blew roofs off several houses, doors off hinges, ceilings to collapse, and shattered windows up to 9 miles/14 km distant. (Lt. Joseph Kennedy was the elder brother of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy.)
Operation Aphrodite/Anvil effectively ended on January 1, 1945, when both explosive-laden B‑17 drones were shot down by flak batteries over Oldenburg, Northern Germany. The program was terminated on January 27, 1945, when Gen. Carl Spaatz, commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe, banned any further drone operations. In the Pacific Theater a version of Operation Aphrodite was in the initial stages—a few surplus B‑24D/J Liberators had been converted into radio-controlled flying bombs for use against fortified installations on Japanese-occupied islands—but the Japanese campaign was scrubbed before launch date.
Operation Aphrodite, 1944
 |
 |
Left: An Aphrodite assault drone at takeoff from a relatively remote airfield in Norfolk, England. The drone carried a payload of 30,000 lb./13.6 metric tons of Torpex, an explosive used in the British Tallboy bombs that was 50 percent more powerful than TNT by mass. Drones required a pilot and a co-pilot because the remote-control system was insufficient for safe takeoff.
Right: After completing 80 missions, this Aphrodite B‑17F (The Careful Virgin) was used on August 4, 1944, against Mimoyecques, near Calais in Northern France. (The site is very close to the French end of the present-day Channel tunnel.) Dug 9 stories deep into a limestone hill, the Mimoyecques site was to fire 9‑ft./2.7‑m-long, dart-like, 300 lb./136 kg high-explosive projectiles from 412‑ft./126‑m-long V‑3 “supergun” cannons (gun tubes) on London at a rate of 600 every hour. Without knowing the exact purpose of the site, the U.S. Eighth Air Force and the Royal Air Force, as part of Operation Crossbow, bombed Mimoyecques twice in November 1943, 6 times in March and April 1944, and 6 times between May and July. The Aphrodite mission against Mimoyecques on August 4, 1944, the first using a remote-controlled aircraft, failed when the worn-out B‑17 spun out of control and impacted short of its target.
 |
 |
Left: A 4-engine RAF Halifax flies over Mimoyecques on July 6, 1944, as exploding bombs send smoke and dust into the air. Mimoyecques was put out of commission on this date when RAF heavy bombers dropped 3 deep-penetration Tallboy M earthquake bombs to collapse underground railway tunnels, elevator shafts, storage areas, and inclined gun tubes, leaving enormous craters. Two of the 12,000 lb./5.44 metric ton bombs were direct hits, entombing and drowning hundreds of workers, among them engineers and miners from the German Ruhr Valley and forced laborers from 18 nations. The July 6 raid was in response to the Germans test firing Mimoyecques V‑3 cannons that delivered 7 shells 32 miles/51.5 km from London 4½ weeks earlier. An RAF squadron of 226 bombers made a final appearance over Mimoyecques on August 26, 1944, without losing a single plane. Shortly after that the Germans abandoned the V‑3 site, which the Canadians captured on September 5.
Right: Two U.S. Army soldiers with a captured 150 mm/5.9 in. finned projectile “Sprenggranate 4481,” a very-long-range shell similar in design to one that had been test fired on June 13, 1944, from Mimoyecques’ V‑3 cannon. (The V‑3 cannon was also known as the Hochdruckpumpe, “High Pressure Pump,” HDP for short; aka London Gun and Busy Lizzie.) The 150 mm/5.9 in. shell for London was designed to have an explosive charge of 25 kilograms/55 lb. The projectile pictured here was the kind fired on Luxembourg, where 142 rounds fell, killing 10 and wounding 35. The U.S. Army disassembled captured gun tubes, spare parts, and ammunition and shipped them to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland for testing and evaluation.
Operation Aphrodite, a Dangerous Weapon for Its Users
httpv://youtu.be/zTWZjbie-dI
