Originally Posted by
Blossy
In the book Target London (which some kind soul had recommended on this forum) some astonishing figures were given.
32,000 V1s were made. 10,492 were launched against our capital. 4,261 were shot down by AA, fighters or collided with barrage balloons.
17,981 (mostly civilians) were injured and 6,181 killed.
No less than 1,402 V2 rockets were launched against the UK. There was no defence possible against these.
The damage caused by both these weapons was staggering. 107,000 homes destroyed and over 1.5 million damaged.
The figures given almost beggars belief.
I watched a TV program about the V2 the other night. Apparently the number of slave laborers who died building the V2 out numbered the number of British killed by the weapon by something like a factor of 5...
It wasn't mentioned in this program, but I understand that the German civilians also suffered from the V2 - the diversion of a large portion of the potato crop to creation of alcohol fuel for the V2 contributed greatly to the mass starvation of the German populace in the later stages of the war.