- This article is about the offensive use of the V-weapons and the military campaign in which they were employed. For descriptions of the individual weapons, see V-1 flying bomb, V-2 rocket and V-3 cannon. For other German superweapons, see Wunderwaffe.
V-weapons, known in the original German as
Vergeltungswaffen (
German: "retaliatory weapons", "reprisal weapons"), were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for
strategic bombing during World War II, particularly
terror bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They comprised the
V-1, a
pulsejet-powered
cruise missile, the
V-2, a
liquid-fuelled ballistic missile, and the
V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a military campaign against Britain, though only the V-1 and V-2 were so used in a campaign conducted 1944–5. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe.