The Operation Crossbow Site is a historic location at
Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.
The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, a reconstruction of a German
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...
launch site was built to test the measures needed to destroy the actual bases in France.
In January 1944, General
Grandison Gardner
Major General Grandison Gardner, USAF (18 September 1892Crestview, Florida, "Col. Gardner Made Brigadier General", ''The Okaloosa News-Journal'', Friday 21 August 1942, Volume 29, Number 31, page 1. – 1 February 1973), Air Corp service number O ...
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.
On October 22, 1998, it was added to the United States
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
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
"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." A 2014 Historic American Engineering Record survey noted two existing clusters of buildings, left as they had been in 1944.
See also
*
V-1 flying bomb facilities
To carry out the planned V-1 "flying bomb" attacks on the United Kingdom, Germany built a number of military installations including launching sites and depots. Some of the installations were huge concrete fortifications.
The Allies became aware ...
*
Operation Crossbow
''Crossbow'' was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German V-weapons, long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme.
The main V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket – these were launched aga ...
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Site
Site most often refers to:
* Archaeological site
* Campsite, a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area
* Construction site
* Location, a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere
* Website, a set of related web pages, typically ...
Buildings and structures in Walton County, Florida
Military installations in Florida
World War II sites in the United States
1944 in Florida
Military installations established in 1944
National Register of Historic Places in Baker County, Florida
World War II on the National Register of Historic Places