Hitler was fascinated with the idea of New York City in flames
Hitler and his Nazis planned a series of attacks on the United States (USA). If the Japanese planned to destroy the United States using high-altitude balloons equipped with bombs, the Nazis considered other daring attacks. This may interest you : NYC smallpox numbers ‘really’ not the full picture, health official says.
Let’s take a closer look at the four plans that Adolf Hitler considered for attacking the USA:
Nazi scientists did extraordinary pioneering work in the fields of submarines and rockets.
The Nazi Type XXI revolutionized submarine warfare by being able to remain underwater for most of the time, while other submarines of the era only went down under attack.
Wernher von Braun developed the V1 and V2 rockets, which were the basis for rockets that sent humans into space and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
However, the Nazis did not stop there. They tried to combine submarines with missiles.
At first, they attached nebelwefers, a German version of the Katyusha rocket, to submarines to bomb ships.
However, the idea had many problems. The main one was the nebelwerfers missed every ship they fired at. The second problem was the installation of missiles that lowered the submarine significantly.
After the war, when the V1 and V2 were successfully developed and put into action, the Nazis planned an attack against the continental USA using a combination of V2 missiles and submarines.
The V2 missile was too large to fit under a submarine, so it had to be launched in a special container and towed by a submarine near the coast of the United States. Once close to the coast, the V2 rocket will be moved vertically and launched over New York.
Since the plan was drawn up in December 1944, there was not enough time to carry it out.
One V2 tank was produced and the XXI submarine was completed, however, fortunately, Nazi Germany lost the war before they could launch an attack against the United States.
Operation Pastorius was a secret Nazi project to infiltrate subversives into American society.
The Nazis recruited eight Germans who spoke fluent English. They received three weeks of intensive training on how to use explosives and explosives.
During the training, they had to read American newspapers to keep up with the current situation in the United States.
In June 1942, two submarines sent eight German men to the shores of the United States. The first crew landed near New York, the second in Florida.
Their job was to blow up important factories and transport routes and thus create panic.
However, the leader of the New York group, George John Dasch, teamed up with another member, Ernst Burger, and betrayed the group by contacting the FBI.
Dasch and Burger were arrested and returned to Germany after World War II. The remaining six conspirators were executed by electric chair.
In 1942, Hermann Göring (1893-1946), head of the Luftwaffe, received a secret plan to create the Americabomber, a long-range heavy bomber.
Göring and his team chose three bombers: the Messerschmitt Me 264, the Junkers Ju 390, and the Heinkel He 277.
The Nazis hoped to use the Azores as a base to bomb America. The Portuguese government had already allowed German submarines to use the Azores as their base.
However, investigations have shown that neither of the two proposed persons has the ability to carry a heavy bomb and return. After all, the distance from Europe to the USA is 11,600 kilometers (7,200 miles).
The Nazis faced many problems, ranging from a lack of equipment and qualified personnel to technical issues, such as finding stable engines capable of flying that distance.
One of the most important setbacks was Portugal’s decision to lease the Azores to the Allies for a military base.
Therefore, the Nazis abandoned the project.
Hitler was impressed with the Wunderwaffe (German wonder weapon).
Austrian engineer Eugen Sänger (1905-1964) conceived the Silbervogel, a rocket-powered bomb that could go to the edge of space higher than American bombers.
The plane will be propelled by a large rocket on a 3 kilometer (two mile) long rail to reach a speed of 1,930 kilometers per hour (1,200 miles per hour).
Once airborne, Silbervogel would fire its rocket engines to reach an altitude of 145 kilometers (ninety miles) and a speed of 21,800 kilometers per hour (13,500 miles per hour).
Silbervogel would drop bombs on the United States and continue to travel to Japanese-controlled territories in the Pacific Ocean.
The Nazis considered Silbervogel to be bombarded with radioactive sand, thus creating a dirty bomb. When it explodes high above New York, it will create a cloud of radiation over the city.
Sänger submitted his idea to the Nazi government in 1941, but the project was canceled due to proven technology.
After World War II, scientists realized that Sänger’s idea was good, with only one flaw. The heat recirculating in the atmosphere is much higher than Sänger’s calculations, which could cause the plane to collapse.
However, Sänger’s theoretical work broke the theoretical foundation for the development of space vehicles. Also, Sänger’s proposal to use rocket fuel to cool the engine is used by most modern rockets.
Hitler himself knew that the Nazis did not have the resources to conquer America.
He thought that the next generation of Nazis could do it after the conquest of the Soviet Union would secure a huge amount of resources.
However, the Nazis tried to carry out a sabotage operation (Operation Pastorius) and planned to bomb New York using long-range heavy bombs (Amerikabomber) or rockets.
The Nazis knew that even if the Nazis were to attack, the physical damage would be minimal.
However, the Nazis wanted to attack the continental United States to bring the war to American soil to strike fear into the hearts of American citizens, letting them know that nowhere is safe.
