[Lee Stewart]

The United States Army Air Forces dominated the skies over Germany in 1944 with conventional weaponry. However, a late-war spurt in German scientific activity (V1 & V2 rockets) inspired a futuristic American response: The US would use remotely piloted bombers, loaded with explosives, to target hardened German targets.

The result was a pair of top-secret programs, the AAF’s Aphrodite and the Navy’s Anvil. War-weary B-17, B-24, and PBY4-1 bombers were stripped of standard equipment and laden with explosives, so that they could be guided by a “mother plane” to dive into a heavily defended target. The crewmen would bail out 10 minutes before the suicide dive.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but failed badly in practice. The effort is today remembered largely for killing Navy Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., the son of the former ambassador to Great Britain and the brother of future President of the United States John F. Kennedy.