Friday, January 6, 2012

Operation Aphrodite

Operation Aphrodite Video Clips. Duration : 2.08 Mins.


Operation Aphrodite was the World War II code name of a secret USAAF program that began in 1944. The United States Eighth Air Force used 'Aphrodite' both as an experimental method of destroying V-weapon facilities and as a way to dispose of B-17 and PB4Y bombers that had outlived their operational usefulness, although only two PB4Ys were modified for the Navy's sister operation, Project Anvil. The plan called for B-17 aircraft which 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-1 missile sites. It was hoped that this would match the British success with Tallboy and Grand Slam supersonic ground penetration bombs, but the project is now remembered as dangerous, expensive and unsuccessful. After previous US Army Air Forces Operation Aphrodite missions were conceptualized on July 23, 1944, Kennedy and LT Wilford John Willy (born May 13, 1909 in New Jersey) were designated as the first Navy flight crew - LT Willy had pulled rank over ENS "FNU" Simpson (who was the regular co-pilot with Kennedy) in order to be on this mission in a modified version of the B-24 Liberator (code named "Anvil") in the US Navy's first Aphrodite mission. After the two Lockheed Ventura mother planes and a navigation plane had taken off, the BQ-8 "robot" aircraft completed take-off from RAF ...

Keywords: Operation, Aphrodite, US, Army, Air, Forces, Joseph, P., Kennedy, Jr., BQ-8, robot, Liberator, World, War, II, jaglavaksoldier

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