Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg

The Fieseler Fi 103R, code-named Reichenberg, was a late-World War II German crewed version of the V-1 flying bomb (more correctly known as the Fieseler Fi 103) produced for attacks in which the pilot was likely to be killed (as actually intended, for use of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service’s Ohka rocket-powered kamikaze suicide anti-ship missile) or at best to parachute down at the attack site, which were to be carried out by the “Leonidas Squadron”, V. Gruppe of the Luftwaffe’s Kampfgeschwader 200.

When Werner Baumbach assumed command of KG 200 in October 1944, he shelved the Reichenberg in favour of the Mistel project. He and Speer eventually met with Hitler on 15 March 1945 and managed to convince him that suicide missions were not part of the German warrior tradition and later that day Baumbach ordered the Reichenberg unit to be disbanded.

Photos of scale models of the Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg can be found here.