Jan 042013
In order to assure safe staging, the first stage of the Saturn V was equipped with eight solid retro-rockets, paired behind the F-1 engine fairings. Each rocket weighed 504 pounds, of which 278 pounds were propellant, and produced an average of 87,913 pounds of thrust for 0.633 seconds.
Details are sketchy, but it appears that the retro-rockets simply blasted through the fairing. Given the expendable nature of the S-IC and the distance to the S-II stage, the damage this would do and the shrapnel it would throw out would be pretty meaningless.
[youtube iJIY4n5oXjc]