"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ...
"Eugene Griessel" wrote in message
om...
David Lesher wrote in message
...
(Eugene Griessel) writes:



Ski ramp? The ski sites took their name from the large concrete
ski-shaped bunkers used to store V1s. Those were the intended
targets.

True but the Germans switched to using portable steel ramps
when the allies were clearly bombing the fixed sites.

The Germans partially abandoned the idea of on site storage facilties
altogether (some ski sites - obviously the less damaged ones - were
still used for storage). The modified sites were very simple, a quick
prefab launch ramp that could be assembled in 48 hours and the little
compass alignment room were often the only indication that they
existed at all. It also made them unprofitable targets as they were
easy to move and hard to hit. In fact if the Germans had not spent an
enormous effort on fixed ski sites (96 I think, in all) they probably
could have got the campaign off to a much earlier start.

Sometimes a modified site was erected near or on the facilities of a
less damaged ski site. I have, somewhere in my magazine collection, a
quite extensive article on a modified site/ski site with the skis
still usable but the assembly, alignment and launching all being done
from modified facilities.