How to hit America to weaken it, intimidate it and demoralize it? Hitler believed that the best solution was to bomb New York. The problem, however, was the great distance between Europe and the eastern coast of the USA. The Germans did not have a bomber with such a large range. Searching for a solution, incl. attempts to construct an airplane called the "Amerika Bomber" lasted almost until the end of the war. Ultimately no bomb fell on Manhattan, but the Germans were close.
American isolationism, pacifism and reluctance to get involved in European affairs stems from, inter alia, from a great distance between the United States and the Old Continent. Americans are not interested in and do not know our problems. During both World War I and II, they were reluctant to join the fight . The moment when the "American boys" would go to the front and die over the sea has been postponed as long as possible.
During World War II, this "avoidance" policy was fostered by the fact that the US population was not threatened by air raids, artillery or rocket fire. The Atlantic Ocean was the security barrier protecting America from the eastern side. On the other side of the continent, the waters of the Pacific separated the United States from the enemy that was Imperial Japan. These two great bodies of water proved to be the best and reliable protection that ensured peaceful sleep for the inhabitants of American cities on both the east and west coasts during the war.
Europe is awake
Meanwhile, there was no sleep in Europe. Both the inhabitants of Great Britain, who were hit by German bombs on their heads, and the Germans, who were bombed during the day and night by British aviation, and in the second phase of the war, also by the American ones, did not sleep. Hitler's staff members were also awake, and from the first to the last days of the war they were looking for a solution that would allow America to hit America so hard that it would withdraw from the war or limit its military involvement in Europe. Therefore, German staff officers were looking for a way to implement Hitler's vision of bombing cities and industrial centers on the East Coast to intimidate Americans and increase pacifist sentiment .
In a way, Hitler and his staff members believed in American democracy. They believed that society shaken by the air raids was capable of persuading the White House to withdraw from the war . For the Germans, the recall of American troops from the continent and the cessation of technological aid for Great Britain and the USSR meant a chance to end the war on favorable terms and to maintain most of the territorial gains in Europe, e.g. Poland, the Benelux countries, France, Norway, the Balkans ...
London after the bombing
The Germans design
Although the Luftwaffe made a great technological and qualitative leap from the beginning of the 1930s, the Germans did not have long-range bombers. First of all, they focused on the construction of fighters and on dive and horizontal bombers guaranteeing direct support of the battlefield whose task was to pave the way for the forward "panzer divisions". Before the war and in its first phase, most of the German aviation construction offices and factories were geared to meeting the needs arising from these assumptions. Only a few plants and a small group of engineers have worked on long-range aircraft.
Due to the complicated design and the enormous cost of such machines, e.g. four or six engines - such aircraft were made in a small number. Once created, they were used very sparingly. Such aircraft were not sent on dangerous missions with the risk of losing the machine and crew . Large bombers and transport planes were to do their job and return to Reich airports at all costs. There was no plan to lose aircraft and crew in the attack, even for the most valuable targets.
Too far, too expensive
German planners made plans to invade America long before the war. However, only the defeat of France and the occupation of its west coast accelerated the work on the program of flights and "transatlantic" bombing . It is easy to calculate that taking off a plane from an airport in France shortened the flight across the Atlantic by at least several hundred kilometers in relation to the flight from Germany. However, it should be remembered that New York is separated from Europe by as much as 6.5 thousand. km, which is six times the distance from Berlin to London. From the westernmost Brest to New York it is closer, because already "only" 6 thousand. km. Given that the plane attacking America was to return to base, it would have to have a range of over 13,000. kilometers. Even today, there are few planes that can cover such a distance without stopping or refueling in the air .
In 1941, the Luftwaffe developed a plan called "Grossraum USA" (US territory), which explored various options for a bomb attack against the United States. It pointed out that single-plane missions, even if they arrive over New York, may not be enough to scare the Americans. It needed more long-range bombers, heavy-tonnage bombs, and aviation fuel for these big machines . The chances of getting enough fuel were seen in the oil-bearing fields of the Caucasus in the territories of the USSR. However, in order to reach them, it was first necessary to defeat the Red Army, and only then to start exploiting the deposits and transporting fuel to Western Europe.
Apart from the work of the staff members, the work of engineers was still ongoing. Long-range bomber and transport aircraft designs were developed, and the possibility of modernizing passenger planes to be bomb carriers was investigated. It was even considered to combine two bombers with one wing to increase the range and payload of such a machine. The Germans took the matter of airborne refueling very seriously and carried out trials of such operations. The possibility of towing by the plane ... a flying tanker, which was to double the range of a strategic bomber was also investigated .
In search of a bomber…
The presentation of several dozen aircraft designs, which were taken into account in the project of the attack on America, is beyond the scope of this study, because it would take several hundred pages. However, let's mention a few of the most interesting ideas. As early as in the fall of 1939, the Germans had a long-range Heinkel He 177 bomber at their disposal. It turned out, however, that his engines fail, there are fires and there are aerodynamic problems that were not eliminated by the end of the war .
The design office at the Messerschmitt factory was intensively active. The projects of the multifunctional Me 261 aircraft and the Me 264 superbomber were created there. The latter was to have a range of 20,000. km and lifting capacity of 5 tons. The Junkers factory's work on the huge Ju 290 and Ju 390 transatlantic bombers was advanced. The latter was to have a 50-meter wingspan and six BMW-801E engines. The famous Blohm Und Voss factory carried out an order to build a flying boat (aircraft taking off and landing on water) with a lifting capacity of 10 tons. The BV 238 aircraft was to have six engines, the range would exceed 7,000. km, wingspan of 60 meters and a fuselage of 43 meters. This machine was eventually built and used in combat. To imagine its enormity and technical and operational difficulties, it is worth watching the movie posted on YouTube.
The Me 264 superbomber was to have a range of 20,000. km and lifting capacity of 5 tons
Hitler demanded not so much machines capable of bombing the US, but most of all long-range planes that could support "wolf packs", ie u-boats hunting in the Atlantic. The answer to his demands came from the Arado company, which proposed the use of a twin-engine Ar-340 aircraft with a capacity of 3 tons of bombs for this purpose. Although the factory did not have the capacity for mass production, it proposed five (sic!) Variants of long-range bombers. One of them could theoretically carry 5 tons of bombs from France to New York and return. But there was one problem - this plane existed only on the drawing boards, there were no engines for it, and even the engineers had doubts about the viability of this project .
Another factory to join the race to build the "ocean" bomber was the Focke-Wulf. The proposed solution was to modernize and increase the range of the great FW-200 "Condor", a passenger plane that could be used as reconnaissance and bomber. As it turned out, the Focke-Wulf "transatlantic liners" were ultimately not made . Work on the FW-300 was suspended in 1944, and the FW-238 project was rejected, ordering work on a completely different machine - the Ta-400 "plane of the future". However, by the end of the war, dozens of more or less serious projects had been developed, including many - long-range bombers.
The implementation of the attack plan on America was made difficult by Hitler himself, who did not allow his pilots to go on suicide missions until the end of the war, although the Luftwaffe had adequate machines and volunteer pilots for this. While the possibility of a raid on the US and then abandonment of the plane in the Atlantic was considered, the possibility of a suicide attack was not considered , similar to the one carried out by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2011. The Luftwaffe also did not agree to abandon the machine at sea because of its value . This position was not changed even by the idea of a plane crew parachuting over the Atlantic, being picked up by a submarine and taken back to Germany. As it turned out later, the assumption that the attacker and its crew had to return from the mission effectively ruled out the possibility of a bomb attack on America.
Airport in the middle of the Atlantic and Paukenschlag
Although the best engineers of the Third Reich were looking for a way to bomb the USA, none of the ideas could bring the coast of France closer to the coast of the USA. The solution was of course found ... Hitler, who in May 1941 proposed the occupation of the Canary Islands or the Azores . In these archipelagos, located in the middle of the Atlantic, airfields for bombers and patrol planes, as well as bases for u-boats, were to be built. However, as it turned out, the Germans did not even manage to conquer Malta, located in the Mediterranean Sea, the more impossible was the landing of soldiers and heavy equipment in the Azores or "Canaries" located in the middle of the Atlantic. The staff in Berlin therefore had to continue to search for technological solutions available "here and now", while work on long-range bombers was to continue in the design offices and assembly plants.
Due to the impossibility of launching an attack on America from the air, the Germans decided to launch an attack from water, or rather from under water. The offensive, codenamed "Paukenschlag", began on January 13, 1942. It should be remembered that the US withdrew from neutrality and entered the war only after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Germans quickly mobilized forces and sent them against their new enemy. Initially, 11 submarines were sent to the east coast of the United States, followed by more. The aim of the attack was primarily to cripple coastal merchant shipping and hamper the delivery of Great Britain's war material . An additional aspect was, of course, the intimidation of the American public.
Operation "Paukenschlag" was intended to cripple coastal merchant shipping and hinder the delivery of war material to Great Britain
The U-boats did not attack the cities, but they achieved great success on the offensive. The U-123 operated near the entrance to the port of New York, and other U-boats easily sent American merchant ships sailing along the coast to the bottom without destroyers escorting. U-boat sailors watched the American cities from the sea and were surprised that they were not darkened, like all cities in Europe. During Operation Paukenschalg, over a dozen German u-boats sunk 87 American ships with a total tonnage of over 500,000 BRT . The success of Doenitz's submarines encouraged Berlin to continue searching for an aircraft capable of bombing New York. Other completely "cosmic" ideas were also taken into account.
Hit and come back
Under the microscope were, among others large bomber planes, which were to carry on their fuselage smaller planes in the "Mistel" system, which the Germans used in combat at the end of the war. According to these assumptions, the bomber was to deliver a small plane, for example, Me-109, near the US coast on its "back", detach the machine it was carried and return to Europe. The attacking plane was to drop a 1,000 kg bomb on New York or another city, and the pilot was to be captured at best . Attention was also paid to the launch of an unmanned missile or a guided bomb from the carrier plane. However, at that time of the war, the guidance systems used by the Germans were not yet perfect and such a solution did not guarantee a hit.
In the third year of the war, the Germans were already conducting research on launching rockets from under the water from a submerged submarine. The attempts were successful and probably one of the u-boats operating in the Black Sea had such a launcher on board. The rocket U-boat was not, however, able to overcome the capricious and hostile waters of the Atlantic . There was little chance that the rockets would still be fit for launch once they had reached the US coast. The idea of implementing this project on a larger scale was also rejected because the rockets fired from the ship were small and contained little explosives. Such rockets would do little damage to the target under attack. Hitler wanted a really hard blow that would bring America to its knees.
Powerpuff or V2?
Work on the German atomic bomb lasted almost until the end of the war and was very advanced. The Allies, however, kept their finger on the pulse and did not allow it to rise. They have by all means slowed down research and production, for example by attacking plants and 'heavy water' transports in Norway. German analyzes showed that an atomic bomb, for example in Manhattan, could have completely destroyed the city and forced America into a ceasefire . However, the Germans knew that until 1945 they would not be able to use their "nuke". But they had something else at their disposal. From September 1944, they had V2 rockets and their mobile launchers. They fired them over Paris, London, Antwerp and other cities. By the end of the war, as many as 5,500 were fired !
As V2 rockets were relatively readily available and attacks on London were considered successful in Berlin, a plan was conceived in the keen minds of German engineers to use rockets to attack America. The problem was, of course, the range of the V2, which was only about 400 km. They wanted to solve this problem by transporting the rocket and the launcher near the American coast. U-boats capable of carrying V2 rockets and launching them from the water were being designed, and the possibility of a submarine towing a barge to become a platform for launching a rocket out of water was considered.
The revolutionary and modern (for those times) solution was called Prüfstand XII. It assumed towing a huge metal cylinder with a rocket initially prepared for take-off by the u-boat. At sea, near the target, the launcher was to be flooded with water and set vertically. The service was to be transferred from the submarine to it, the task of which was to prepare and launch the rocket. In December 1944, a contract was concluded and the production of an underwater launcher began. However, only one unit was produced, which underwent trials in the Baltic Sea, but was not used in combat.
Prüfstand XII
The implementation of the project of attack on America using this solution was very difficult. The towing of the launchers across the Atlantic was supposed to take 30 days, and the liquid fuel propelling the rocket was unstable. There was therefore no guarantee that the rocket ready to launch would leave the launcher, rise to the surface of the water, and even less that it would hit the target .
The most unusual and truly cosmic idea to bomb America, however, was to use a rocket bomber to drop bombs from the stratosphere. Sanger's single-seater spacecraft was supposed to reach speeds of 10,000 to 18,000. km / h with a range of 30 thousand. km. The machine was to take off from Germany, bomb New York and land on the islands of Oceania occupied by Japan. The plane was to operate up to 80 km above the ground. The problem was that the speed that the rocket bomber was supposed to achieve did not allow the bombs to be aimed in any way. Using the sights available at that time, the attack on the city from a height of 100 km and at a speed of 15 thousand. km / h meant that the bombs could fall even ... 1000 km from the target !! The fact that the work on the missile bomber was carried out while the Red Army was standing on the Oder, 80 km from Berlin, does not mean that German engineers were rocking in the clouds. As it turned out, many of their projects were taken over after the war by the victorious powers:the USA, Great Britain and the USSR.
America under the boom and what next?
From the beginning of the war, German military staffs, numerous teams of scientists and designers were looking for a way to invade America and eliminate it from the war. Dozens of projects, plans, ideas and even specific technical solutions were created. Trials and tests were carried out until the last days of World War II. In retrospect, it can be concluded that the work was futile and the scientific potential was wasted . The Germans did not take into account that the attack on America could be counterproductive. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Americans demanded from their government a strong military response, culminating in the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A similar reaction was caused by the attack on America carried out on September 11, 2001 by Al Qaeda. With a pacifist and isolationist attitude, America invaded Afghanistan and defeated the Taliban supporting terrorism.
If German bombs fell on Manhattan, the Americans' response would be radical - American bombers would ruin German cities on a larger scale than was the case with Dresden or Hamburg, and the post-war occupation would not be a "rest camp" for the Germans, but rather a "survival camp".
Bibliography:
- Manfred Griehl, Luftwaffe over America. Secret plans to bomb the US in WWII , pub. Bellona
- Roger Ford, Secret weapon of the Third Reich , pub. Goal
- Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer, Secret Luftwaffe Projects , pub. Profit and S-ka