brims@BNKL01.astro.ucla.edu (05/24/91)
From: brims@BNKL01.astro.ucla.edu >From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >It turns out that this is just a rediscovery of WW2 experience; I was >re-reading "The Rocket Team" the other day and found its descriptions >of massive -- and quite unsuccessful -- efforts made to find and >attack mobile V-2 launchers quite relevant. I recall one account on this subject, from Raymond Baxter, ex-Spitfire pilot and later BBC science journalist. In the later days of WW2, he and his wingman were flying over a heavily wooded part of Belgium, looking for German trains or armour to take out with rockets. Suddenly a V-2 rose out of the trees just a few hundred yards ahead of them. Baxter managed to get as far as "For God's sake don't..." when his wingman fired off two rockets at the ascending V2. Given the size of a V-2 warhead and the amount of fuel at launch, you can figure from the fact that they both lived to tell the tale that he missed! George Brims brims@BNKL01.astro.ucla.edu