The Operation Crossbow Site is a historic location at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. During World War II, a reconstruction of a German V-1 flying bomb launch site was built to test the measures needed to destroy the actual bases in France.
Operation Crossbow Site | |
   | |
| Location | Eglin Air Force Base, Florida |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 30°36′10″N 86°18′04″W / 30.60278°N 86.30111°W |
| Area | 14 acres (5.7 ha) |
| Built | 1944 |
| NRHP reference No. | 98001256[1] |
| Added to NRHP | October 22, 1998 |
In January 1944, General Grandison Gardner orders read, "Reproduction of the ski sites in complete detail and destruction in various ways." He determined low-level bombing with the heaviest bombs achieved the greatest accuracy.[2][3]
On October 22, 1998, it was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places.
The Site was built in a hurry, "working around the clock for 13 days" in 1944 on a "remote part of the Eglin reservation".
Current state
edit"Portions of nine concrete and brick structures" remain on the 14-acre site. Some buildings are "virtually intact and show little damage from the many attempts over the years to destroy them."[4] A 2014 Historic American Engineering Record survey noted two existing clusters of buildings, left as they had been in 1944.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Dornberger, Walter (1954). V-2. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. p. 155-157.
- ^ Zaloga, Steven (2008). German V-Weapon Sites 1943-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 29-30. ISBN 9781846032479.
- ^ "Operation Crossbow National Historic District". Fact Sheets. 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Office. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
- ^ Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. FL-29, "Operation Crossbow Historic District, Test Areas C-80-B and C-52-C, Eglin Air Force Base, Mossy Head, Walton County, FL", 33 photos, 56 data pages, 5 photo caption pages