Luftwaffe attack on New York

[Laurent Rizzotti]

There certainly was an aircraft in Axis inventory able to do a one-way flight to New York. But there is something wrong in your assumption that the USA were defenceless. I am sure you will find that New York had some AA defences and probably hundred of fighters, maybe of units finishing their training, were on the East Coast. But any patrol aircraft may engage a Condor in an aerial battle and may shot it down.

As for the American being on the line of fire, I have often wondered of the official numbers of American civilians killed during the war: 6 (by a Japanese balloon). In fact it is the number of American citizens killed by enemy action on USA soil (excluding Hawaii and Alaska, that were not American states at this time). But during 1942, when U-boote were roamning at will off the East Coast, probably far more civilians died aboard attacked ships. And often the burning and sinking ships were seen from the coast and the bodies of the crew washed on the ocean. A raid on New York may be a good propaganda move by Germans (if it worked) but won't certainly change much of the American public opinion.