Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Could a '40's vintage autopilot be coupled to an ADF?Anything was possible.
Probable is something else, hanging a V-1 under any sort of WW II bomber on a transatlantic flight is going to cut hundreds of miles off the range/radius.
Navigation is going to be spot on or the V-1 (unless much improved) will be lucky to hit one of the five Burroughs of NYC and not New Jersey or outlying towns.
Maybe Boston is a better bet? except that Boston is tiny.
Even if you could home in on a radio signal, what signal are you homing in on? Commercial broadcast transmitter?
What do you hope to achieve?
it is possible that the German high command would have had the war crime of deliberately targeting civilian populations by aerial bombardment added to the list at Nuremberg, after losing the war.
Hey guys,
IMO there would be three definite effects:
1. The positive effect on German morale, ie "Look at what we can do, and the Americans can barely touch us flying from England."
2 The negative effect on American morale, ie "Even though America is some 3,000 miles away from the ground conflict in Europe, our civilians are not safe (at least not on the east coast)."
3. The US would have to divert resources to defend the east coast areas within reach of the German bombers. This could have many secondary effects, such as slowing down the build-up for Pacific operations, reducing the Lend-Lease volumes, etc. Possibly even having to move manufacturing resources if the Germans were able to actually hit anything that mattered on a somewhat regular basis.
It would certainly weaken the efforts in the Pacific. This may lengthen the war in the Pacific, as the Germans would have also directly attacked the US.Another possible (probable?) effect would be to strengthen American resolve against the Germans.
Also, it is possible that the German high command would have had the war crime of deliberately targeting civilian populations by aerial bombardment added to the list at Nuremberg, after losing the war.
That was my thinking as well. Without WMD nor hundreds of available aircraft this sounds about as effective as the Japanese balloon bombs.What do you hope to achieve ?
Attacking the coastal fringe with a small bomb load is only going to strengthen american resolve .
Yeah, and we were building P-61's already. Considering that we were already operating off the United Kingdom, we would turn the full force of our bombers on the cities of Germany instead of some pretense of a targeted attack on railway yards, factories, and stuff like that.Attacking the coastal fringe with a small bomb load is only going to strengthen american resolve.
Were any convicted on that specific charge?They already did. The Nuremburg Charter identified the bombing of civilians as a war crime and the defendants were thus charged.
That, I understand: The aerial bombing policies practiced by most all sides was frank barbarism -- some were even involved in the act before the official start of the war. Germany (Madrid and Guernica) & Japan (Chongqing) definitely were.The idea that the Germans would be tried for something that the UK and US had planned to do from before the war even started is a sore point for me.
That's why war-crimes legislation fail to stop powerful and/or desperate nations from engaging in the practice. You only get tried if you lose, unless the matter manages to get a huge enough public outcry (I can only think of one case, My Lai).The fact that the UK and US did such a thing is an even bigger sore point.
Sorry, I was being a bit sarcastic and ironic.