Operation Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the World War II code name of a United States Army Air Forces operation to use worn out Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated PB4Y bombers as radio controlled flying bombs against bunkers and other hardened or reinforced enemy facilities. A parallel project by the United States Navy was codenamed Anvil. The missions were not generally successful, and the intended targets in Europe were either overrun by the ground advance of Allied troops or disabled by conventional attacks by aircraft.

Background
The plan called for B-17E/Fs that had been taken out of operational service (various nicknames existed such as "robot", "baby", "drone" or "weary Willy" ) to be loaded to capacity with explosives, and flown by radio control into bomb-resistant fortifications such as German U-boat pens and V-weapon sites.

The German offensive against London with the V-1 flying bomb, a jet powered autopilot weapon, began in June 1944. This increased interest in the use of aircraft loaded with explosives and directed onto targets by remote control which was already under consideration,

By late 1943, General Henry H. Arnold, General commanding the USAAF, had directed Brigadier General Grandison Gardner's electronic engineers at Eglin Field, Florida, to outfit war-weary bombers with automatic pilots so that they could be remotely controlled.

The plan was first proposed to Major General Jimmy Doolittle, commander in chief of the US Eighth Air Force sometime in 1944. Doolittle approved the plan for Operation Aphrodite on 26 June, and assigned the 3rd Bombardment Division with preparing and flying the drone aircraft, which was to be designated BQ-7. The USAAF also planned to outfit war-weary B-24 Liberators with explosives and automatic pilots to be used against defended targets in Japan, under the designation BQ-8.

Project Aphrodite was officially ordered by USSTAF on 23 June and the 8th Air Force was directed to carry out the "development and operational trials" There was no specific equipment in the UK so the Azon bomb control system was adapted for use. There was an experimental Azon unit at RAF Horsham St Faiths (458th Bombardment Group with Consolidated B-24 Liberators) that supplied control aircraft, crews and technical expertise.

Final assignment of responsibility was given to the 562nd Bomb Squadron at RAF Honington in Suffolk, England. Similarly, on 6 July 1944, the U.S. Navy Special Attack Unit (SAU-1) was formed under ComAirLant, with Commander James A. Smith, Officer in Charge, for transfer without delay to Commander Fleet Air Wing 7 in Europe to attack German V-1 and V-2 sites with PB4Y-1s converted to assault drones.

Project history


At RAF Honington, B-17F and B-17G Flying Fortress bombers were stripped of all normal combat armament and all other non-essential gear (armor, turrets and guns, bomb racks, radio transceiver, seats, etc.), relieving them of about 12000 lb of weight. To allow easier exit when the pilot and co-pilot were to parachute out, the usual escape hatch was removed and the opening enlarged and modified for quicker egress, and on some aircraft the cockpit roof was removed.

The aircraft were fitted out at Burtonwood in Cheshire (the major servicing station for all USAAF aircraft in the UK) with Azon radio remote-control equipment. Azon (a contraction of "azimuth only") could only provide one axis of movement so two sets were needed in each drone aircraft. Two television cameras were fitted: one in the cockpit to show the main instrumentation panel and one in the nose to show a forward view during the target run, to be transmitted back to an accompanying B-17 "CQ-4" 'mothership'. A precision radio altimeter, connected to the aircraft's C1 autopilot, was fitted. A whip aerial on the nose received control signals, and an antenna on the tail gun position transmitted the camera signal. To improve reception, the mother ship had a directional receiving aerial. A smoke canister under the aircraft could be used to leave a trail to improve observation by the mother ship. The drone was loaded with explosives weighing more than twice that of a B-17's normal bomb payload. The British Torpex ("Torpedo Explosive") used for the purpose was 50% more powerful than TNT alone. The control equipment was wrapped with primer cord to ensure its destruction.

When the training program was complete, the 562nd Squadron had ten drones and four 'motherships' (three B-24s and a B-17G). On missions, the drone and its two motherships were accompanied by a small fighter escort (eight P-47s) and supported by a Mosquito flying ahead reporting on the weather.

A relatively remote location in Norfolk, RAF Fersfield, was the launch site. Initially, RAF Woodbridge to the south in Suffolk had been selected for its long runway, but the possibility of collision between a loaded drone and damaged aircraft that diverted to Woodbridge caused concern. Fersfield was allocated to the USAAF but otherwise unoccupied, and the transfer was made in July. At Fersfield they were joined by the US Navy's Special Air Unit No.1 (with volunteers drawn from maritime patrol units at Dunkeswell) and a Wright Airfield detachment working with television-guided bombs (codenamed "Batty")

The remote control system was insufficient for safe takeoff, so each drone was taken aloft by a volunteer crew of a pilot and a flight engineer to an altitude of 2,000 ft (600 m) before transfer of control to the CQ-4 operators. After successful turnover of control of the drone, the two-man crew would arm the payload and parachute out of the cockpit. The 'mothership' would then direct the missile to the target.

After the failures of early August, the "double Azon" system was replaced with an improved system brought from the US and missions were paused while this was installed and tested. Aircraft with this fitted had the codename "Castor". The system was a single transmitter in the mother aircraft and a receiver in the 'robot'. The first missions with the Castor was on 11 September 1944. There had also been modifications to improve visibility of the drone: Eureka/Rebecca radio equipment for the mother to home onto, the smoke dispenser (controlled by radio signal), and painting the upper surfaces of the drone yellow.

For Anvil missions, the US Navy provided their own controller aircraft, two Lockheed PV-1, and a B-17 accompanied it to receive the television signals.

The Castor missions were targeted against enemy installations that did not require long flights over enemy territory so reducing likelihood of the drone being brought down by flak. The mother ships flew a different profile than before- now at same altitude as the drone ( 2,000 - 2,500 ft) but a couple of miles behind, then letting the gap increase to about six miles in the run in on the target. In late October the targets for the remaining drones were changed to industrial sites deep in enemy territory. Remote control of the throttles was added so the drone could be flown at a higher altitude (10,000 ft) before dropping to a lower one for the actual attack.

After the Anvil and Batty projects had left Fersfield, operations were transferred by the 3rd Division to the unit's parent base at RAF Knettishall, a few miles to the West and over the border in Suffolk, and missions from there began in December.

The USAAF wanted to transfer the program to the continent to attack industrial targets but the UK objected to this use of the drone in light of V-2 attacks on Britain. Approval was given in January but then rescinded before the end of the month. The program effectively ceased on 27 January 1945 when General Spaatz, (C-in-C USSTAF) sent an urgent message to Doolittle: "Aphrodite babies must not be launched against the enemy until further orders". The USSTAF made representations to President Roosevelt about use of Aphrodite against the Ruhr and a presidential telegram to Churchill on 31 March received a cautious agreement in April. However, the imminent end of the war in Europe led to the project being formally ended on 27 April.

It had been hoped that Operation Aphrodite and Operation Anvil would match the British success with 5-ton Tallboy and 10-ton Grand Slam ground penetration ("earthquake") bombs but the project was dangerous, expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. Of 14 missions flown, none resulted in the successful destruction of a target. Many aircraft lost control and crashed or were shot down by flak, and many pilots were killed, though a handful of aircraft scored near misses. One notable pilot death was that of Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USNR, son of the former US Ambassador to the UK, who was expected to have a political career in the US and was the elder brother of future US President John F. Kennedy.