They were never expected to commit suicide.
Alternate A-bomb transporters
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They were never expected to commit suicide.
Junkers88A1
Staff Sergeant
ok..but it would be a one way trip.. so that i a sense means that they would not come out of it alive.. atleast how i heard it and read about it.
If they were expected to bail out after dropping their bombs, maybe then I could believe it.
Junkers88A1
Staff Sergeant
thats probaly it..will search in the musem for more info on that attack..we have some documents on it !!
I still have trouble believing that the aircraft had the range to reach the US from Norway though.
Junkers88A1
Staff Sergeant
you are correct regarding the polar route and the mission was supposed to take place from bodø ( way up north )
I did not think of that route...
kool kitty89
Senior Master Sergeant
I think the He 277 would have been a better choice. Still not enough range for a round trip (max ~5,000 mi), but enough to give more options on what they could do after dropping their payload. (ie possibly meet up with a U-boat for the return trip) Plus the higher serivice ceiling would make it more difficult to intercept and all it to better escape a nuclear blast.
Kiwikid
Airman 1st Class
DerAdlerIstGelandet I hear what you say. I have been told the He-177 A-7 with wider span wings had a range of 4,500sm, but failed to consider as you correctly point out that this may have just been a ferry range figure.
One Greif A-7 example was flown from Europe to Wright Patterson. With the Korean War it went to the Park Ridge depot and ended up being bulldozed under Chicago O'Hare airport in 1953.
One point worth pondering is whether Greif ever operated from a landing strip in Greenland ?
On 15 December 1944 Swedish newspaper Sud Svensk Dagbladet Snällposten carried a Reuters report about fighting on land in Greenland between US and German forces. During one such skirmish the American forces were attacked by "two-engine bombers". (Report, ABC, Madrid, 15.12,1944).
There had indeed been two proposals earlier in the war to attack New York. One was with Bv222, armed and refueled at sea by U-boats. the other for FW200 Condors of II/KG40 to attack new York and ditch next to U-boats afterwards.
A U-boat operation by Gruppe Seewolf in April 1945 may have elements of this FW200 mission, but substituting He-177 aircraft, but that is just my speculation. I would sure be interested to know how twin engined Luftwaffe bombers were operating in Greenland in December 1944 ?
The Ju-390 was intended to carry three Me-328 pulse jets as parasites slung under it's wings and fuselage for an attack on New York. Provided the payload were within 10,000kg from the fuel consumption figures which I have investigated this much of the mission was achievable.
Testing of this parasite fighter concept was carried out with the Ju-290. Later vibration problems with the Me-328 saw it dropped in favour of HS.293 robot flying bombs. In September 1944 RLM declared the Ju-390 wings to be two weak for the bombing mission envisaged. A mute point since the Ju-390's production was canceled in May 1944. Interestingly Junkers was paid compensation for seven Ju-390 airframes and Junkers company records also disclose that the Ju-390A production aircraft actually flew. Author and German translator Geoffrey Brooks tells me ha has seen documents dated October 1943 recommending to Milch that the second Ju-390 or V-2 prototype be designated as the first A series aircraft.
I have also learned that a winged V-2, or A-4b was seen to make a horizontal night launch towards Russia from Rudisleben on 16 March 1945. Claere Werner saw the rocket climb with a huge flame from behind it. She said a telephone operator at Arnstadt that night confirmed to her what she saw. Sworn testimony of this rocket sled vehicle from four separate witnesses was adduced at a judicial enquiry of the DDR East Germany in 1962 and came to light in 1989 with reunification of Germany.
German documents which i have seen excerpts from record fifteen A-4b test rockets from A-4 V1b to V15b. With the V16 prototype the designation appears changed to A-4c.
Whether a transatlantic V-2 was feasible in 1945, it does appear to me that winged A-4 launches were within grasp by late in the war.
One Greif A-7 example was flown from Europe to Wright Patterson. With the Korean War it went to the Park Ridge depot and ended up being bulldozed under Chicago O'Hare airport in 1953.
One point worth pondering is whether Greif ever operated from a landing strip in Greenland ?
On 15 December 1944 Swedish newspaper Sud Svensk Dagbladet Snällposten carried a Reuters report about fighting on land in Greenland between US and German forces. During one such skirmish the American forces were attacked by "two-engine bombers". (Report, ABC, Madrid, 15.12,1944).
There had indeed been two proposals earlier in the war to attack New York. One was with Bv222, armed and refueled at sea by U-boats. the other for FW200 Condors of II/KG40 to attack new York and ditch next to U-boats afterwards.
A U-boat operation by Gruppe Seewolf in April 1945 may have elements of this FW200 mission, but substituting He-177 aircraft, but that is just my speculation. I would sure be interested to know how twin engined Luftwaffe bombers were operating in Greenland in December 1944 ?
The Ju-390 was intended to carry three Me-328 pulse jets as parasites slung under it's wings and fuselage for an attack on New York. Provided the payload were within 10,000kg from the fuel consumption figures which I have investigated this much of the mission was achievable.
Testing of this parasite fighter concept was carried out with the Ju-290. Later vibration problems with the Me-328 saw it dropped in favour of HS.293 robot flying bombs. In September 1944 RLM declared the Ju-390 wings to be two weak for the bombing mission envisaged. A mute point since the Ju-390's production was canceled in May 1944. Interestingly Junkers was paid compensation for seven Ju-390 airframes and Junkers company records also disclose that the Ju-390A production aircraft actually flew. Author and German translator Geoffrey Brooks tells me ha has seen documents dated October 1943 recommending to Milch that the second Ju-390 or V-2 prototype be designated as the first A series aircraft.
I have also learned that a winged V-2, or A-4b was seen to make a horizontal night launch towards Russia from Rudisleben on 16 March 1945. Claere Werner saw the rocket climb with a huge flame from behind it. She said a telephone operator at Arnstadt that night confirmed to her what she saw. Sworn testimony of this rocket sled vehicle from four separate witnesses was adduced at a judicial enquiry of the DDR East Germany in 1962 and came to light in 1989 with reunification of Germany.
German documents which i have seen excerpts from record fifteen A-4b test rockets from A-4 V1b to V15b. With the V16 prototype the designation appears changed to A-4c.
Whether a transatlantic V-2 was feasible in 1945, it does appear to me that winged A-4 launches were within grasp by late in the war.
Kiwikid
Airman 1st Class
I managed to identify the likely He-177 unit. That would be II/KG100 disbanded at Aalborg, Denmark in Feb 1945 with 44 airworthy aircraft.
