After this, the Germans directed V-1s at the port of Antwerp and at other targets in Belgium, launching a further 2,448 V-1s. At peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at southeast 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. The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landings in France. Because of its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from launch facilities along the French ( Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts.

It was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center in 1939 by the Luftwaffe at the beginning of the Second World War, and during initial development was known by the codename 'Cherry Stone'.

The V-1 was the first of the Vergeltungswaffen ( V-weapons) deployed for the terror bombing of London. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany as Kirschkern ( cherry stone) or Maikäfer ( maybug). Its official Reich Aviation Ministry ( RLM) designation was Fi 103. The V-1 flying bomb ( German: Vergeltungswaffe 1 'Vengeance Weapon 1' ) was an early cruise missile.

Doodlebug definition