The World’s Oldest Smart Bombs

Today it seems like all bombs are "smart." But when was the first guided missile actually used? The answer may surprise you.

Smart bomb development actually started in 1938 when a scientist named Dr. Max Kramer, working for a German company, successfully added a radio-controlled spoiler to the tail of a 550-pound bomb. Two years later the system had proven itself on the smaller bombs and was then added to a much larger bomb called the FX-1400. This bomb weighed 3,469 pounds and was ten and a half feet long. It was popularly dubbed the Fritz-X. The bomb boasted an armor-piercing warhead and could sink large battleships.

The new bomb required good visibility because after it was released, the bombardier visually guided it with radio signals by sighting on a bright flare mounted on the bomb’s tail. A total of 750 Fritz-Xs were eventually produced and kept at coastal airfields throughout Europe.

Perhaps the best-known action involving Fritz-X bombs occurred when the Italian Fleet defected and was intercepted by a flight of six German Do217's. The fleet consisted of three battleships, six cruisers, and many auxiliary ships. The ultra-modern Roma was among the battleships.

The Roma took a direct hit just forward of her front smokestack, starting a major fire which reached the forward magazine. The explosion ripped open her hull and the Roma sank, taking over 1,250 sailors with her. The Roma was the first capital ship sunk by a guided bomb. This bomb proved only partially effective, which is not surprising for such a radical new technology. Between August 1943 and February 1944, the Germans launched 28 separate attacks against ships, but sank only one and damaged four others with their "smart bomb." Still, when you consider that the technology was so new, and relatively primitive, the experiments were successful enough to continue research and further advances.

It is also worth knowing that in 1942 the Allies began developing its own guided bombs designed to attack bridges, railways, and other narrow targets. These bombs were the first of the Vertical Bomb-1 (VB1), forerunners of the azimuth-only family of weapons used in Burma, Europe, and in the Pacific Theater.