Luftwaffe attack on New York

[Jon]

Just a hypothetical question but did the Luftwaffe / German High Command ever consider attempting an attack on New York ?

Yes i appreciate the range was vast but would not a single FW200 Condor perhaps converted for the job been able to make a one way journey drop a few bombs into New York, with no AA defence and i would imagine limited fighter cover and crash into the sea , perhaps near a waiting U Boat !!!.....Yes i know all far fetched but think about it, i am sure it could have been done as other than the Japanese balloon bombs the USA was un harmed. Although the attack would have caused little damage and perhaps killed a few people only it would have been a major problem for the US having to keep some fighters at home and also AA guns with troops etc and also showing the American public that they like the British, French, Dutch etc...were in the line of fire also.

I think the Germans were planning later versions of the V2 able to hit New York but was any other plan such as my fantasy above every considered ?

Could a FW200 have reached New York witha fanatical crew not intending to return ?

[Huib Ottens]

Hi,

If you want to know more on the subject you should look for:
Luftwaffe Over America: The Secret Plans to Bomb the United States in World War II by Manfred Griehl
Hardcover 256 pages (August 15, 2004)
Publisher: Greenhill Books
Language: English
ISBN: 185367608X

It is readily avaialble from on-line bookstores like Amazon.

[Jon]

Thanks Huib
I shall certainly look this book up, but could the FW200 have got to New York with a few bombs ?

[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.