Fritz X

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Fritz X

Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X

Fritz X was the most common name for a German air-launched anti-ship missile, used during World War II. Fritz X was an allied code-name; alternate names include Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X, X-1, PC 1400X or FX 1400. The latter is also the origin for the name "Fritz X". It can be considered to be one of the most important precursors of today's anti-ship missiles and precision-guided weapons.

1 History
2 Combat service
3 Characteristics
4 Operators
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The Fritz X was a further development of the high-explosive bomb SD 1400 (Splitterbombe, dickwandig, 1400 kg; German for "fragment bomb, thick-walled, 1400 kg"). It was given an more aerodynamic nose, four wing stubs with a span of 1.40 m and a box shaped tail unit. The missile was steered by radio from the aircraft. The crewman who guided the bomb always had to see the target. Thus the bomb let out a trail of smoke so that it could be seen from the aircraft. The disadvantage with this - in comparison to glide bombs like the Henschel Hs 293 - was that the aircraft had to be flown over the target. The minimum release height was 4,000 meters.

Dipl. engineer Max Kramer who worked at the DVL had been experimenting since 1938 with remote-controlled free-falling 250 kg bombs. In 1940, Ruhrstahl was invited to join the development, since they already had experience in the development and production of unguided bombs.

[edit] Combat service

The Fritz X was deployed on 29 August 1943. On 9 September 1943 the Luftwaffe achieved their greatest success with the weapon. After the Italian armistice with the Allies, the Italian fleet had steamed out from La Spezia and headed to Malta. To prevent the ships from falling into Allied hands, 12 Dornier Do 217s from the III. Gruppe of KG100 took off; each carrying a single Fritz X. The Italian battleship Roma, the flagship of the Italian fleet, received several hits and sank after her ammunition magazines exploded. 1,455 men, among them Admiral Carlo Bergamini died. Her sister ship Italia was damaged.

One week later, the Germans scored another three hits with Fritz X on the British battleship Warspite at Salerno. One bomb penetrated six decks before exploding against the bottom of the ship, blowing a large hole in her. The ship took on a total of 5,000 tonnes of water, lost steam (and thus all power, both to the ship herself and to all her systems) but casulaties were few. She had to be taken in tow to Malta and then returned to Britain via Gibraltar and was out of action for near 9 months; she was never completely repaired, but returned to action to bombard Normandy for the invasion of Europe.

The control system was susceptible to electronic countermeasures - either straightforward jamming, which blocked the control signals from the bomber, or spoofing, in which the missile was given a signal that sent the control surfaces to an extreme position, eg hard left or full down, sending it out of control into a stall or spiralling dive. By the time of the Normandy landings the combination of allied fighters that kept bombers at bay and ship-mounted jammers meant the missiles had no significant effect on the invasion fleet. Some accounts say that the Norwegian destroyer HNoMS Svenner was hit by a Fritz X at dawn, D-Day.

If it worked properly, the missile was able to pierce more than 20 inches of steel armor plate.

Other ships, which were damaged by the Fritz X included: