TENTATIVES OF AXIS ATTACKS OVER NEW YORK IN WW2

During WW2 there were some Axis "projects" to attack the USA territories. Some of the most famous were those against New York, studied by the Italians. Here it is my research about the two projects made by the Italians, that were not done because the Italian surrender in September 1943 blocked them.

The most important was the one studied by the Italian Air Force:

It was initially proposed to use for crossing the Atlantic Ocean and bombing New York the airplane Cant Z.511

The Cant. Z. 511 was designed from 1937 for transatlantic passenger transport. Its development as a civilian transport aircraft remained unchanged despite the war. Only in 1942, when the first of two prototypes left the experimental phase, was it considered for military use. Initially, it was considered for long-distance transport of naval saboteurs and spies, and then for evacuating prisoners of war from the Red Sea, but it never saw actual operational use. 

Thus it was that on 7 February 1943, General Ilari, Deputy Chief of Staff for Construction of the Italian Royal Air Force, chaired a technical meeting in which the idea of ​​using the CZ 511 for a flight to New York was outlined, taking off from Bordeaux and splashing down in the Atlantic on the return flight to refuel from a submarine. Initially, the idea was to drop two small bombs over the city from the side door (because the plane was a passenger transport, not a bomber). Then the traditional drop of a large load of propaganda leaflets was decided upon.  Given the negligible damage that the two modest bombs could cause, the aim was to emphasize the propaganda aspects with a flight of high technical value. However, moving on to the operational planning phase, the mission was canceled because a ditch for refueling was deemed too dangerous. In fact, at that time, it was impossible to make any kind of predictions about the weather conditions encountered on the Atlantic route, and especially about the ocean swell at the time of ditching. 

Thus, the plane remained in its prototype stage on Lake Bracciano where, on or around September 8, 1943, it was hit with a pickaxe (yes, a pickaxe!) in its floats and sunk. The second aircraft, in an advanced stage of construction at the Monfalcone factories, was instead damaged by the workers and rendered unusable. For the record, in August 1943 (well after the fateful July 25th, when Mussolini was arrested) the Air Force General Staff considered using the prototype of the Savoia Marchetti 95, another passenger transport aircraft under construction, to drop leaflets over New York, but the surrender of Italy on September 8th was just a few days away...and nothing was done.

The other tentative was done by the "X MAS", a special unit of the Italian Navy:

.......to be continued.....