Operation Crossbow Site

	Operation Crossbow Site
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
Coordinates	30°36′10″N 86°18′04″W / 30.60278°N 86.30111°W
Area	14 acres (5.7 ha)
Built	1944
NRHP reference No.	98001256
Added to NRHP	October 22, 1998

The Operation Crossbow Site is a historic location at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. During World War II, a reconstruction of a German V-1 flying bomb launch site was built to test the measures needed to destroy the actual bases in France.

In January 1944, General Grandison Gardner 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.^[2]^[3]

On October 22, 1998, it was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places.

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."^[4] A 2014 Historic American Engineering Record survey noted two existing clusters of buildings, left as they had been in 1944.^[5]

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ Dornberger, Walter (1954). V-2. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. p. 155-157.
^ Zaloga, Steven (2008). German V-Weapon Sites 1943-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 29-30. ISBN 9781846032479.
^ "Operation Crossbow National Historic District". Fact Sheets. 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Office. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
^ Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. FL-29, "Operation Crossbow Historic District, Test Areas C-80-B and C-52-C, Eglin Air Force Base, Mossy Head, Walton County, FL", 33 photos, 56 data pages, 5 photo caption pages

[nris-1] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.

[walter-2] Dornberger, Walter (1954). V-2. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. p. 155-157.

[3] Zaloga, Steven (2008). German V-Weapon Sites 1943-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 29-30. ISBN 9781846032479.

[4] "Operation Crossbow National Historic District". Fact Sheets. 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Office. Retrieved 2009-03-04.

[5] Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. FL-29, "Operation Crossbow Historic District, Test Areas C-80-B and C-52-C, Eglin Air Force Base, Mossy Head, Walton County, FL", 33 photos, 56 data pages, 5 photo caption pages

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