Luftwaffe Over America

The Secret Plans to Bomb the United States in World War II

Manfred Griehl

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781784380168
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

The plans that Nazi Germany had to raid - and bomb - New York and the eastern seabord are revealed in this book. They were were based on the use of transoceanic aircraft planes, such as the six-engined Ju 390, Me 264 or Ta 400, but the Third Reich was unable to produce such machines in sufficient numbers. If the Soviet Union had been conquered, however, these plans would have become a reality. With the seizure of vital resources from the Soviet Union the Wehrmacht would have had enough fuel and material to mass-produce giant bomber aircraft: it was a near run thing. The collapse of the Wehrmacht infrastructure and the end of the Thousand-Year Reich ensured that plans for long-range remote-controlled missiles never got off the drawing board and were never manufactured. Manfried Griehl makes it clear that until the collapse, numerous secret research laboratories seemed to have worked in parallel seeking nuclear power and explosives. Only classified material held within British, French and American archives can prove whether these groups were close to perfecting small atomic explosives. But, without a shadow of doubt, Germany was far more technologically advanced by the end of 1944 that has been previously suspected.

Contents

List of Photographs

List of Diagrams

Introduction Prussian Dreams of Conquering the New World

Chapter 1 The Path to Strategic Air War

Chapter 2 From the Outbreak of War to December 1940

Chapter 3 The Year 1941

Chapter 4 The Year 1942 – First Half

Chapter 5 The Year 1942 – Second Half

Chapter 6 The Year 1943 – First Half

Chapter 7 The Year 1943 – Second Half

Chapter 8 Techniques to Increase Range

Chapter 9 The Year 1944 – First Half

Chapter 10 The Year 1944 – Second Half

Chapter 11 The Year 1945

Chapter 12 Rocket Attack

Chapter 13 The Ordnance

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index

Photographs

The German Aviation Ministry

Focke-Wulf 200C aircraft

Biscarosse flying boat base with a BV 222

Bombs on a Focke-Wulf 200C

Radio cabin in a BV 222

Cockpit mock-up of a Ta 400

Front view, BV 238 prototype

Side view, BV 238 prototype

Heinkel 177

Side view, Me 264 prototype

Front view, Me 264 prototype

Do 19, Löwenthal airfield

Do 19 SV-1 in flight

Artist’s impression of Ju 89 A-l

Ju 89 SV-1 prototype

Focke-Wulf Transozean

He 177 and crew

Wind tunnel model of Ta 400

Side view of Ta 400 model

Engines of the He 177B

He 274 in flight

HL 151Z rear gun-turret

MG 131 gun-turret

He 274 V-l ready for maiden flight

He 274 being tested by Allies

He 274 under construction

Junkers EF 100 model

Mock-up of MG 131 turret

Ju 390, airfield view

Ju 390 in flight

Naval reconnaissance flight by FAGr 5

Ju 390 V-1 prototype

Ju 390 V-1 at Dessau

Ju 488 destroyed by French Resistance

Me 261 V-1 after crash landing

Damaged Me 261 V-2

Me 261 V-2 at the end of the war

Wind tunnel model of Me 264/4m

Karl Baur and ground crewman

Interior view of Me 261

Cockpit area of Me 261

Front three-quarter view of Me 264

Me 264/6m model

BV 222 A-0 in flight

BV 222 flight deck

Flying boat on land

BV 238 V-l at Hamburg-Finkenwerder

Göppingen 8 model, for Do 214 design

Potez CAMS 161 flying boat

Latécoère 631 flying boat

He 111 Z-l in flight

Towed fuel container

Ar 234 B-2 and SG 5041 fuel container

Fokker-Grulich FII with refuelling equipment

Mid-air refuelling equipment

Ju 88 A-4 and Bf 109 F-4 Mistel combination

Bf 109 climbing away from Mistel partner

BV 238 V-l prototype

Pulse-jet version of Me 328

Me 328 AV-3 being tested with Do 217 K-0

Me 328 AV-2 second prototype

Me 328 model for wing root test

Ju 287 A-l model

Mock-up of Ju 287 V-3 crew compartment

Horten IX mock-up with jet turbines

Model of three-engined Ju 287 V-3

Wernher von Braun

Engine section of Horten IX V-2

Heinkel-Hirth HeS 11 engine

A4 in launch position

A4 on transporter

Sea-launched V-2 ready to fire

Sea-launched V-2, detail

Experimental apparatur for Sänger rocket bomber

Sänger rocket bomber model

Rocket engine under test

He 177 V-38 bomb bay

SS-Obergruppenführer Kammler

Oxen towing a jet aircraft

Diagrams

Effects of a bomb dropped on Manhattan

Ranges of German long-distance aircraft

HD 151 twin-turret for the Fw 200F

Seventh design of the Fw 200F

Fw 300

BV 250, land version of BV 238

Focke-Wulf bomber with four BMW 801E engines

Focke-Wulf bomber with six DB 603 engines

Fuselage of Focke-Wulf ‘Long-Range Bomber’

Weight groupings of the Ta 400 Ra-1

He 177 A-3

Four-engined He 177 B-5 with MG 131 gun-turret

Ju 290 B-l

Twin-version of Ju 290 with eight BMW 801 engines

Ju 390 A-l propelled by six BMW 801E engines

Ju 488 A-l

Me 264 development with Jumo 004C jet turbines

The BV 222 prototype

The BV 238: a provisional sketch

The Do 214 flying boat

The Jumo 222 E-0/F-0

The heavy Jumo 224 engine

The fork-locking procedure for mid-air refuelling

The tube-tow refuelling procedure

Air-to-air refuelling by a fuel hose

The combined hose-hawser refuelling procedure

The Me P 1073B parasite fighter

Three designs for a midget fighter

Cabin detail of the Me P 1107

The four-jet turbine Me P 1107

Me P 1108 bomber with short fuselage

Me P 1108 bomber with long fuselage

Horten XVIII long-range bomber

Junkers design for a flying-wing transatlantic bomber

Flight trajectory of the A10 rocket

Flight path of a two-stage rocket with 4,000-km range

The two-stage rocket later developed into the A10

Dr Eugen Sänger’s rocket bomber

The Uranium-machine reactor project

‘The most intriguing point for the historian is that
where history and legend meet’
Goethe

‘The most intriguing point for the historian is that
where history and legend meet’
Goethe

Introduction

Prussian Dreams of Conquering the New World

From a quite early stage there existed, at least hypothetically, a threat to the United States of America:

The German High Seas Fleet, followed by an armada of colliers and troop transports, each tightly packed with tens of thousands of grenadiers, heads for the eastern shores of the USA. Perfectly trained, a perfect example of European military planning, the Kaiser had despatched his Fleet against the motherland of democracy.

The US Navy put to sea but suffered a devastating defeat off Norfolk, Virginia. Admiral George Dewey lacked the ability of his German counterpart, von Tirpitz, and so lost the battle.

German occupation troops came ashore at Cape Cod and set off for Boston while battleships and battlecruisers entered New York’s Lower Bay, pounded the coastal batteries into submission and bombarded Manhattan. Endless salvoes from the battle fleet’s 16-inch guns turned New York into a city of burning ruins. The population fled in panic.

Now the USA was forced to negotiate with the German Reich…

During the winter of 1897, this was how naval lieutenant Eberhard von Mantey considered that an attack on the United States would succeed. Around the turn of the century, after the Samoan Crisis, Imperial Germany thought war against the USA a strong possibility, but at the time the Reichsmarine lacked the necessary battle fleet.

In March 1889, von Mantey presented his second study. This bold scenario reckoned that New York would fall to three battalions of infantry and one of engineers! The invasion force would require 25 days for the Atlantic crossing. Up to 60 colliers would be attached to the naval squadron. The young lieutenant thought it could definitely be done. Secretary of State Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz concurred and ordered the plans to be drawn up. But General von Schlieffen, Chief of the General Staff, had his doubts. He thought that such an expedition would require at least 200,000 troops for any hope of success. Imperial Germany still lacked the means to achieve such purposes but ideas like these played a part in providing the impetus for a rapid expansion of the German High Seas Fleet.

In November 1903, Operational Plan III for an offensive against the United States had not diminished in importance. Wilhelm Buchsel, a close confidante of Tirpitz, had been appointed Chief of the Admiralty Staff and was given permission to prepare plans for an attack against the United States, using the assumption that the German Reich would be completely free from other conflicts in Europe. Buchsel’s idea was to take control of the Panama Canal and use this to break down Washington’s domination of the entire continent. Schlieffen was asked to calculate what would be required in terms of ground forces, but by then the Venezuela Crisis of 1904 had demonstrated that the US Navy had begun to arm.

The growing problems in Europe, with the ominous signs of a new war brewing in the ‘Old World’, led within a few years to an increase in naval armaments across the continent. Within a few more years, Admiral Dewey’s prophecy that the next enemy of the USA would be the German Reich proved correct.

Besides plans for an attack by German naval forces, from about 1917 the idea of using long-range bombers or large ...