US Coastal Air Defences in WW2

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

First they have to be able to do it, which the Germans couldn't really. In Germany's case it's a bit of a red herring in its impact given that from 1943 its cities are being rained on by day and night. I doubt the propaganda value of one aeroplane dropping a few bombs aimlessly over the USA will have much impact on the German people being subjected to the likes of the Hamburg raids, but I get your point, Dave.
Early in the war, a German air raid on an important (or not very important) city would more likely just piss us off, in the same way as we were furious with the Japanese. Maybe the US would even treat its own African-American soldiers better than the German PoWs.
 
Early in the war, a German air raid on an important (or not very important) city would more likely just piss us off, in the same way as we were furious with the Japanese. Maybe the US would even treat its own African-American soldiers better than the German PoWs.
Well, anything more than a nuisance raid (a few balloons with an incendiary bomb) early in the war could have had some consequences as several hundred towns all screamed that they were more important than their neighbor and needed costal defenses more than they did.
Thousands of soldiers stationed up and down the east coast with penny packets of guns delaying the forming up and shipping out of the first divisions to send overseas.
1941-1979-dan-aykroyd-ned-beatty-pic-4.jpg

:)
 
Well, anything more than a nuisance raid (a few balloons with an incendiary bomb) early in the war could have had some consequences as several hundred towns all screamed that they were more important than their neighbor and needed costal defenses more than they did.
Thousands of soldiers stationed up and down the east coast with penny packets of guns delaying the forming up and shipping out of the first divisions to send overseas.
View attachment 664872
:)
West coast as well...

1650216417586.png
 
Be a bit harder to keep German bombers attacking the Northeast US under wraps than the baloon-borne Fu-Go bombs that were tiny and landed in the middle of nowhere.
The Japanese nearly scored a huge victory with their balloons, when one came down (of all places) at the Hanford Site, causing a short circuit in the power lines to the reactor's cooling system!
 
Here's some info about the Fu-Go balloons that has details of the Hanford incident:

 
What was the state of coastal air defence of the United States during WW2?

I Imagine that the east coast would be well defended due to the concentration of industry in that region, the north east in particular.

My question stems from the start of this Megaprojects video, in which the myth of a bomber flight to the US east coast is mentioned.



I would think that such a flight would have been intercepted by US aircraft.

Here is a link where you can spend a couple of days reading. And there is much more if you search around a bit. The American Theater of Operations
 
Backtracing somewhat:

In researching Whirlwind and the LeMay bio I found that the Army Air Corps (not yet AAF) took upon itself the mission of coastal defense beyond X miles. A most peculiar situation because apparently Big Navy did not much object (maybe figured it wouldn't be necessary) AND the army conducted almost zero training for the mission.

Despite Billy Mitchell's 1921 staked-out Elephant type of tests, it should've been obvious (like totally) that hitting a maneuvering ship from a level bomber at umpteen thousand feet was, um, unlikely. (IIRC at Midway the B-17s dropped 322 bombs without a hit. The Forts did somewhat better in the Solomons, sinking 1 or two destroyers but I don't remember if they were moving.)

Just FWIW
 
About every one of the old coast artillery sites, some dating to the late 1890s, were manned with 3 inch anti-aircraft guns in WWII. These forts were generally unarmed as the original canons were removed for use in WWI as railway artillery once converted and mounted on special railcars. The forts also received more modern 90mm fixed and mobile guns. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego on the pacific coast and almost all of the major coastal cities on the Atlantic coast were similarly armed. For information on where the gun emplacements were located, check out the Coast Defense Study Group. Plans and maps are available as free downloads.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back