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, and -of course- there were also those done by Germany and Japan.
Here it is my small research about: 1) the two projects made by the Italians, that were not done because the Italian surrender in September 1943 blocked them; and 2) the "attacks" by Germany and Japan.
Italian CA midget submarine on the "Da Vinci" submarine in a photo of April 1943, just before the planned attack against the New York port
ITALY
The Italians did two tentatives to attack New York: one by sea (A) and another by air(B). If interested, please read a detailed info in my https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2016/06/plannded-italian-attack-on-new-york-in.html .
A) The most important and famous was the one studied by the Italian Navy:
It was done by the "X MAS", a special unit of the Italian Navy under the command of Valerio Borghese (see the video: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=attacco+a+new+york+1943+X+MAS&mid=E415BC40672627E48A4DE415BC40672627E48A4D&FORM=VIRE. ).
From the beginning of the Second World War, the United States was a distant and difficult target for Axis strategists: the Germans never managed to get their saboteurs past the clutches of American intelligence to strike at the war industries overseas, while after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had indeed sent a submarine to bomb the California coast, but the result was only minimal damage and a great deal of confusion. An episode more akin to the curiosities and tragic oddities of every war than an action worthy of being remembered in the history books.
Attacking the port of New York, however, would have had a far greater impact, even from a strategic perspective. The commander of the X MAS, Junio Valerio Borghese, knew it well, the Navy leaders knew it, and the men who trained for almost a year for the mission knew it.
The attack on the port of New York, which was to be followed by a similar incursion on the African base of Freetown, Sierra Leone, was not carried out due to the subsequent armistice.
In July 1942, Borghese studied a very ambitious project: an attack by the 10th MAS Flotilla on the port of New York. The Atlantic submarine "Leonardo da Vinci" from the BETASOM base in Bordeaux was chosen as the approach vessel. The submarine was to carry a small CA-class midget submarine to the mouth of the Hudson (the CA 2 was sent by train to Bordeaux for the operation) in a special "well" created in place of the forward gun of the submarine. Borghese was to lead the small CA-class submarine, which, with some "Gamma Group men" (assault divers) on board and 28 explosive charges ranging from 20 to 100 kg, would go to the port to mine ships.
The work was carried out in August 1942 and in September the release tests of the CA 2 from the "Da Vinci" were carried out, under the supervision of Lieutenant Eugenio Massano. The tests obtained appreciable results: the "Da Vinci", submerged at about 12 meters, managed to release the small CA and recover it. In reality, recovery was a very remote hypothesis, and it had already been foreseen that the members of the Gamma Group w ouldwith upgraded new-build ex have to destroy the vessel at the end of the operation and then reach the USA mainland.
The trials were deemed a success, but the old CA mini sub-boats needed replacement with new units so there was a delay in carrying the plan, during which time the "Da Vinci" was rerturned to regular submarine operations (see the video: H I Sutton - Covert Shores )
The mission was postponed following the battle loss of the "Da Vinci" on 23 May 1943 and then cancelled following the armistice two months later. It was also foreseen that similar raids against Cape Town (South Africa) and Freetown would follow the attack on the New York port.
B) The other tentative was done by the Italian Air Force and was called "OPERAZIONE S":
SM95BBomber.jpg)
"Operazione S" (or "Operation S" in English language) was an Italian Air Force plan, never implemented, to conduct a demonstration air attack on New York City during World War II. The plan initially called for the use of the record-breaking Piaggio P.23R aircraft, later replaced by a four-engined CANT Z.511 seaplane and subsequently by the Savoia-Marchetti SM.95 transport aircraft.
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.
Additionally, in August 1943 (well after the fateful July 25th, when Mussolini was arrested one month earlier) the Air Force General Staff considered using a military prototype of the "Savoia Marchetti 95" (nicknamed SM95), another passenger transport aircraft under construction, to fly over New York, but the surrender of Italy on September 8th was just a few days away...and nothing was done. It was reported that the fuel load of this SM 95 B was raised to 23,800 kg, for a total of 39,3 tons.
The mission, with a 500 kg (1,100 lb) load, was supposed to be done in late fall 1943.
It is noteworthy to pinpoint that a special version of this aircraft, the SM.95B-GA, was designed to have a range of 6,840 miles, sufficient to bomb New York. But, when reminded of the large numbers of Italian immigrants living there, Mussolini directed that only propaganda leaflets were to be dropped (read:https://www.alieuomini.it/catalogo/dettaglio_catalogo/savoia_marchetti_sm,95.html).
GERMANY
In the autumn of 1943 the Germans began to develop a plan that would have allowed them to attack American cities using the V-2 weapon. The idea came from Dr. Bodo Lafferentz, one of the Third Reich's most brilliant engineers. Lafferentz proposed building sealed canisters big enough to contain a V-2 and towing them behind a submarine to within 100 miles of the US Atlantic coast.
It was estimated one submarine could tow up to three of these hundred-foot-long, torpedo-shaped canisters. Upon arrival the submarine would surface and remote controls would be used to flood the back end of the canisters to bring them from a horizontal position to a vertical one with just their tops clearing the surface of the ocean. The exposed end of the canisters would then be opened and technicians would enter the floating silos to prepare the V-2s for flight toward New York and other US coastal cities.
The Germans estimated that within thirty minutes the V-2s could be readied and launched. With the rockets on their way, the U-boat could then cut its connection to the canisters and flood them with water to sink them to the bottom. The submarine could then return to Germany while the three missiles continued on to plow into New York and/or some other American metropolis.
However the "Amerika Bomber" was the most famous (and possible to happen) German project to bomb New York:
In 1942, German air force chief Hermann Goering sketched out the requirement for the Amerika bomber—a strategic bomber capable of making 7,200-mile round-trip across the Atlantic. By the end of World War II, Nazi Germany was pursuing a diverse array of "Wunderwaffen" (wonder weapons.) The diversion of valuable production resources to so many experimental technologies reflected an almost megalomaniacal tendency to believe science could compensate for Nazi Germany’s materially untenable position combatting the combined might of the Soviet Union, the United State and the United Kingdom.
The decentralized nature of German military research led to money being funneled into numerous competing projects instead of being efficiently prioritized for faster and more concrete results.
German manufacturers built three different prototype heavy bombers to perform the task: the Junkers Ju-390, the Messerschmitt Me-264 and the Heinkel He-277. While prototypes of the Me 264 and Ju-390 were flown, none entered large-scale production. The Junker-390 was made only in two prototypes; and there are allegations that in January 1944, a Ju 390 made a transatlantic flight from France to within 20 km of the US East Coast and back (https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.php?aircraft_id=409.)
Nazi scientists also began developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, piggy-back aircraft to execute inter-continental strikes and a manned suborbital rocketship called the "Silbervogel" (German for "silver bird"). The Silbervogel was the most futuristic of these projects and was to deliver a 4,000 kg (8,800 lb) bomb over new York.
In 1944, the air ministry issued a revised requirement for bomber with 6,800-mile-long range with 8,800-pound bombload. After other German firms failed to offer viable design concepts, in December 1944 the Horten Brothers proposed their own novel idea: a flying wing powered by six Jumo 004B turbojets embedded on the back of its fuselage pod. These were derived from the same engines then being used on German Me-262 jet fighters. The Horten XVIIIA was in effect a spinoff of the Horten brother’s wooden Ho.229.
Even as American troops poured over the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen into Nazi Germany, Goering still wanted his Amerika bomber and approved the design in February 1945—but he wanted the Brothers to build the jet by committee with engineers from Junkers and Messerschmitt. These new members wanted to install large vertical tail fins, despite the resulting increase in drag.
Perhaps the Nazis mistakenly counted on a political effect. To be fair, the Japan's materially ineffectual one-shot Doolittle raid of 1942 had caused Japan to redirect substantial resources from its offensive operations to home defense. Perhaps Goering hoped a few raids would cause the U.S. to redirect force away from Europe, or motivate the supposedly ‘soft’ democratic citizenry to demand U.S. withdrawal from war.
According to Samuel Eliot Morison's book, "The Battle of the Atlantic," the German submarine U-608 laid 10 mines in New York Harbor on November 10, 1942. The first of these was found by a minesweeper, and as a result, New York Harbor was closed for two days, the only period the port was closed during the entire war.
"At 1117 Hours, Minesweeper YMS-20 witnessed an under water explosion two miles from Ambrose in 40-25-42N; 73-44-00W, bearing 170 degrees True from minesweeper, range 300 yards. YNS-20 considers explosion actuated by reverse pulse. Column of water 200 feet high was seen. EDC reports all Army mines have been accounted for. Explosion evaluated as magnetic mine or old depth charge. Port entrance closed until 1800/14 while twelve minesweepers operate in area". War Diary of the Eastern Sea Frontier. November 13, 1942
Furthermore, we have to remember that Hitler had ordered that biological warfare should be studied only for the purpose of defending against it. The head of the Science Division of the Wehrmacht, Erich Schumann, lobbied for Hitler to be persuaded otherwise: "America must be attacked simultaneously with various human and animal epidemic pathogens, as well as plant pests." The plans were never adopted because they were opposed by Hitler. And one of the main Schumann's targets was New York.
Image of the futuristic "Silver Bird" (in German language "Silbervogel") flying in the stratosphere over the Atlantic ocean from European Germany to North American New York during WW2.
JAPAN
The Japanese concentrated all their efforts against the USA in attacking the western Pacific coast, but they did also some tentative to hit New York and the US Atlantic coast.
The Imperial Japanese Army launched "Project Z" (also called the "Z Bombers Project") in 1942, similar to the Nazi German "Amerika Bomber project", to design an intercontinental bomber capable of reaching New York and other US cities.
The Project Z plane was to have six engines of 5,000 horsepower each; the Nakajima Aircraft Company quickly began developing engines for the plane, and proposed doubling HA-44 engines (the most powerful engine available in Japan) into a 36-cylinder engine. Designs were presented to the Imperial Japanese Army, including the Nakajima G10N, Kawasaki Ki-91, and Nakajima G5N. None developed beyond prototypes or wind tunnel models, save for the G5N. In early 1945, the Z project and other heavy bomber projects were cancelled.
Indeed, during the final months of World War II, Japan had planned to use bubonic plague as a biological weapon against U.S. civilians in San Diego, California, during "Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night" (and later in other coastal cities of USA, like New York). The plan was set to launch at night on September 22, 1945. However, it was shelved because Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945
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