Yankee Doodle

After eight months of V1, military scientists were more impressed than ever with robomb potentialities. "The importance of the V-weapons," wrote Hanson W. Baldwin, military columnist of the New York Times, summing up battlefront reports, "increases day by day."

Last week the U.S. Army showed pictures of the U.S. version of V1, called "Yankee Doodle". Yankee Doodle is faster (400 to 440 m.p.h.) than the German robomb and reportedly more accurate. It is launched from a ramp by means of a rocket-propelled undercarriage on wheels, which is jettisoned after the takeoff. It is now in quantity production. But up to this week there had been no report of a Yankee Doodle fired at an enemy target.

Meanwhile, citizens along the Atlantic coast, who had been warned by Admiral Jonas H. Ingram to watch out for V-1 (TIME, Jan. 22), got a few official tips on V-protection. London guessed that U-boats equipped with launching platforms might carry and launch four or five V-1's apiece. The best defense, once the robombs are launched, is probably alert spotting and pursuit by fighter planes. (Against this defense, V-1 is usually camouflaged with dark green paint on top, light blue underneath.) A Washington rocket expert of the Army Air Forces calculated that within its aimable target area--a radius of 25 miles--the chances of any individual's getting hit by V-1 are one in 15,000,000. Londoners have learned that at its approach it is essential to: 1) get away from glass, if indoors; 2) hug the ground, if outdoors (see MEDICINE).

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