V1 rudder (Fi-103 Vengence)

[robs]

I have been seeking one of these for a while now and finally I have one in my collection.

A V1 rocket rudder or tail fin. A bonus is the stencilling paint warning is still visible, albeit faint.

The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern (cherrystone) or Maikäfer (maybug). At its peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the V-1s were directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped when the last launch site was overrun on 29 March 1945.

Feel free to post your V1 or V2 parts.

[robs]

2

[robs]

3

[robs]

Here's my little part of a V2.

[Geof]

I met an odd guy in the Inn River Valley once whose uncle had been an engineer under Von Braun. The old guy own a metal junkyard that was also where the engines were tested. I got to see the original blast room as well as fuel tanks off a V2 that were out in the scrap yard.

[Berghof]

Saw this old post. Here's a tail rudder I just got in. More parts on the way.

[Jean-Loup]

Is there any story about how these items survived?

[Berghof]

The only story with this one is that it's from the outskirts of London (Romford). A couple of guys I talked to over the years said they picked up pieces like this one when they were children. They would hear these things coming and it would be a race to the explosion sites looking for debris.

These rudders were held in place by two small pins where they swiveled on. A small control arm protruded 90 degrees from the lower right side of the rudder, where the servo linkage connected (the control arm was broken off on this particular example). I would imagine the swivel pins would shear on impact and these rudders would detach. I've only found parts from the rear of the rocket...furthest from the explosion.

[Gran Sasso]

Is there any story about how these items survived?

Many were found app. 5 years ago, a guy had them in his garden, as fence for his areas were he planted vegetables.