In 1944, volunteer crews muscled stripped-down bombers packed with 20,000 pounds of explosives into the air, armed them in flight, then bailed out through the open cockpit. This episode dives into Operation Aphrodite and its Navy counterpart, Operation Anvil.

We examine the desperate need to destroy hardened V-weapon and U-boat sites, the primitive Azon radio controls and early television guidance, and the string of catastrophic failures, including the death of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

• Why 1944 targeting couldn't hit reinforced concrete bunkers from altitude
• How Torpex-packed planes were stripped down and remotely flown
• The crude azimuth-only controls and vacuum-tube TV cameras
• The premature explosion that killed Lieutenant Joseph Kennedy Jr.
• Why the program failed and how it foreshadowed modern drone ...