Henschel Hs 293
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| Henschel Hs 293 | |
|---|---|
 Hs 293 on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich |
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| Type | anti-ship missile |
| Place of origin |  Nazi Germany |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1943 - 1944 |
| Used by | Nazi Germany (Luftwaffe) |
| Wars | World War II |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Henschel |
| Produced | 1942 - ? |
| Number built | 1,000 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 1045 kg |
| Length | 3.82 m |
| Width | 3.1 m |
| Diameter | 0.47 m |
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| Warhead | explosive |
| Warhead weight | 295 kg |
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| Engine | liquid-propellant rocket motor, 5.9 kN thrust for 10 s; subsequently glided to target |
| Operational range |
at 2.2 km altitude 4.0 km at 4.0 km altitude 5.5 km at 5.0 km altitude 8.5 km |
| Speed | maximum: 260 m/s average: 230 m/s |
| Guidance system |
Kehl-Strassburg FuG 203/230; MCLOS using a joystick |
The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German anti-shipping guided missile: a radio-controlled glide bomb with a rocket engine slung underneath it.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Hs 293 project was started in 1940, based on the "Gustav Schwartz Propellerwerke" pure glide bomb that was designed in 1939. The Schwartz design did not have a terminal guidance system - it used an autopilot to maintain a straight course. The intention was that it could be launched from a bomber at sufficient distance to be out of range of anti-aircraft fire. Henschel developed it the following year by adding a rocket motor underneath it to allow it to be used from lower altitude and to increase the range.
The weapon consisted of a modified standard 500 kg bomb called SZ, with a thin metal shell and a high explosive charge inside, equipped with a rocket engine under the bomb, a pair of wings, and an 18-channel radio receiver, getting its signals from a Kehl transmitting set. The rocket provided for only a short burst of speed making range dependent on the height of launch. From a height of 1400 meters the Hs 293 had a range of about 3 km.
The Hs 293 was intended to destroy unarmoured ships, unlike the Fritz X that was intended for use against armoured ships. The operator controlled the radio-guided missile with a joystick. Five colored flares were attached to the rear of the weapon to make it visible at a distance to the operator. During nighttime operations flashing lights instead of flares were used. [1]
One drawback of the Hs 293 was that after the missile was launched the bomber had to fly in a straight and level path, and could thus not manoeuvre to evade attacking fighters without aborting the attack.
To improve the control of the weapon and reduce vulnerability of the launching aircraft a television-guided variant (Hs 293D) was planned but was not made operational before the war ended.
Over 1,000 were built, from 1942 onwards.
[edit] Combat performance
On August 25, 1943, an Hs 293 was used in the first successful attack by a guided missile, sinking the British sloop HMS Egret. On November 26, 1943 an Hs 293 caused the sinking of the troop transport HMT Rohna killing over 1,000 personnel.
Other ships sunk or damaged by the Hs 293 include:
- HMS Landguard (slightly damaged)
- HMS Bideford (slightly damaged)
- HMCS Athabaskan (heavily damaged)ATHABASKAN page.
- HMHS Newfoundland (heavily damaged and later sunk by Allied gunfire)
- SS Bushrod Washington (sunk)
- SS James W. Marshall (damaged and written off -- possibly due to a "Fritz X")
- HMS LST-79 (sunk)
- SS Samite (damaged)
- SS Hiram S. Maxim (damaged)
- SS Selvik (damaged)
- HMS Rockwood (damaged slightly, later written off)
- HMS Dulverton (heavily damaged and scuttled)
- MV Marsa (sunk)
- SS Delius (damaged)
- HMS Jervis (damaged)
- HMS Janus (damaged -- possibly from Hs 293, or a torpedo)
- USS Prevail (damaged -- possibly from Hs 293)
- USS Mayo (damaged -- possibly from Hs 293 or a mine)
- SS John Banvard (damanged)
- SS Samuel Huntington (sunk)
- HMS Spartan (sunk)
- USS Herbert C. Jones (damaged)
- SS Elihu Yale (sunk -- LCT 35 alongside is also destroyed)
- HMS Inglefield
- HMS Lawford (sunk -- possibly from Hs 293 or mine)
- USS Meredith (sunk -- possibly from Hs 293 or other causes)
- HMCS Matane (damaged)
- USS LST-282 (sunk)
Although designed for use against ships, it was also used in Normandy in early August 1944 to attack bridges over the River See and River Selume. Only one bridge was slightly damaged for the loss of six of the attacking aircraft [2].
The Hs 293 was carried on Heinkel He 111, Heinkel He 177, Focke-Wulf Fw 200, Dornier Do 217 planes. However, only the He 177 (of II./KG 40), certain variants of the FW 200 (of III./KG 40) and the Do 217 (of II./KG 100 and III./KG 100) used the Hs 293 operationally in combat.
[edit] Variants
- Hs 293A (later Hs 293A-1), the original version.
- Hs 293B was wire-guided to prevent jamming; it was never put into production, because jamming was never serious enough to prevent the radio-guided version from being effective.
- Hs 293C (production version designated Hs 293A-2) had a detachable warhead.
- Hs 293D was television-guided. Twenty were built and tested, but it was never used operationally as the television equipment was unreliable.
- Hs 293E, an experimental model to test spoiler controls as a replacement to ailerons; never put into series production. This modification was put into the final version of the Hs 293A-2 but by then the Luftwaffe had no aircraft available for anti-shipping operations and it was never deployed.
- Hs 293F, a tailless variant; never got further than the design phase.
- Hs 293H, an experimental variant designed to be launched from one aircraft and controlled from another. Abandoned because allied air superiority had reached the point where it was felt that the second aircraft would be unable to remain in the vicinity of the ship for long enough.
- Hs 293V6 designed for launching from the Arado Ar 234 jet bomber at 720 km/h. The main change was reducing the wing span of the missile to allow it to be carried within the aircraft. The missile did not proceed past the design stage.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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