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Spit XIV and Tempest V were used in tandem. After extensively testing and comparing the two aircraft, the Air Fighting Development Unit reccommended the Tempest be used for air superiority missions below 20,000 and the Spitfire XIV be used for missions above 20,000.
The Tempest was also supposed to take over the ground attack role from the Typhoon.
The Tempest went into action in the Spring of '44, but soon the equipped Squadrons were pulled back to bases in southern England to focus on the destruction of the V1 flying bombs. With its very high low altitude speed and effective weapons, the Tempest was ideally suited for intercepting and shooting down these very destructive unmanned rocket bombs. The British population had gone through the first blitz in 1940, plus the various night blitz's but the morale of Londoners was being seriously affected by these flying bombs with their 4,000 pounds of explosive. The bombs made a very distinctive pop-pop-pop-pop... sound. When the sound cut out, that meant the engine had run out of fuel and the bomb was nosing down and would impact in seconds. Typically one of these bombs could destroy an entire city block of houses. People who lived through that said waiting for the sound to cut out was incredibly nervewracking.
The bombs did 400+ mph at approx. 5,000ft.
