What if? Nazi Missile Was to Strike New York

PRAVDA.Ru ^ | Oct, 03 2002 | Vasily Bubnov

[Jasonconley]

Wernher von Braun also developed the A-9/A-10 missile by 1943. The missile was then called V-3. The range of the missile was immense: it could easily reach the US eastern coast from Europe. However, the V-3 project was delayed for a certain period of time when the Germans experienced failures on the Eastern front. However, Von Braun did forget about his creation. He suggested that Germany use the V-3 to strike New York. Work on the V-3 project was resumed in November of 1944 under the code name “Project America.”

[mhking]

Then the first nuke may have struck Munich instead...

[chit*chat]

I believe we are missing the point in America. Traditional wars as we have known them are dead. Attacks such as those in Oklahoma and NY are the new wars. Conducted in secrecy and relatively easy to finance (like businesses were set up in the US and we inadvertantly helped to finance it) are the new war tactics.

It's important that we 'get it' if we are to beat it.

[JohnGalt]

Shoddy historical take at best (like all claims of the the super-weapons Hitler was about to unleash) however, its a good thing resources were wasted on the militarily useless V-2 rocket program or more focus might have been spent on the jet engine systems that would have provided effective coverage over German skies.

[Man of the Right]

"Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown,
'Ha, Nazi, Schmazi,' says Wernher von Braun.

"Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun.

"Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town,
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.

"You too may be a big hero,
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero.
'In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I'm learning Chinese!' says Wernher von Braun."

-- Tom Lehrer

[Seydlitz]

One mistake in the article: The V-3 designation was for a super-gun built in France for bombarding England. Joe Kennedy, Jr. was killed during a mission to take out the V-3 gun site. The missile planned for the attack on New York was just a V-2 modified for firing off of the deck of a U-boat (Type IX, most likely).

Interestingly, much of the technical data on the V-3 gun was recovered by a young Gerald Bull, the creator of Iraq's super-gun. Bull ultimately met his death at the hands of Mossad in Brussels (if memory serves correct).

[Lokibob]

 

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/v1.htm

 

 

Above -- A German V-1 bomb in flight about to crash and explode in London. (Photo credit: U.S. National Archives)

The 'V' came from the German word Vergeltungswaffen, meaning weapons of reprisal. The V-1 was developed by German scientists at the Peenemünde research facility on the Baltic Sea, under the direction of Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger.

They were nicknamed "buzz bombs" by the British due to the distinct buzzing sound made by the pulse-jet engines powering the bombs, which overall resembled a small aircraft. Other British nicknames included "doodlebugs" and "flying bombs." Each V-1 was launched from a short length catapult then climbed to about 3,000 feet at speeds up to 350 miles per hour.

As the V-1 approached its target, the buzzing noise could be heard by persons on the ground. At a preset distance, the engine would suddenly cut out and there would be momentary silence as the bomb plunged toward the ground, followed by an explosion of the 1,870 pound warhead.

The first V-1s were launched against London on June 13, 1944, a week after the D-Day landings. During the first V-1 bombing campaign, up to 100 V-1s fell every hour on London. Over an 80 day period, more than 6,000 persons were killed, with over 17,000 injured and a million buildings wrecked or damaged.

Unlike conventional German aircraft bombing raids, V-1 attacks occurred around the clock in all types of weather, striking indiscriminately, causing suspense and terror among the population of London and parts of Kent and Sussex.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill recalled, "One landed near my home at Westerham, killing, by cruel mischance, twenty-two homeless children and five grownups collected in a refuge made for them in the woods."

According to German records, 8,564 were launched against England as well as the port of Antwerp, with about 57 percent actually reaching their designated targets. The remainder failed as a result of antiaircraft guns, barrage balloons, and interception by fighter planes.

Over 29,000 V-1 bombs were built, mainly through slave labor at a huge underground factory near Nordhausen. Launch sites and production facilities were specially targeted by Allied bombers during Operation Crossbow. In those raids, nearly 2,000 Allied airmen were killed.

Eventually, British and American planes knocked out the majority of the launching sites. By September of 1944, however, the Nazis introduced the V-2 rocket, a liquid-fueled rocket that traveled at supersonic speeds as high as 50 miles, then hurtled down toward its target at a speed of nearly 4,000 miles per hour, smashing its 2,000 pound high explosive warhead into the ground without warning. Unlike the V-1, the V-2 rockets could not be intercepted. Over a thousand were fired at London.

 

I just finished watching an old movie called "Operation Crossbow".  Excellent study in courage, by the way.

It got me to thinking a lot of things.

Britan suffered weapons of mass destruction (remember, this was pre-atomic era, so state of the art) in the V-1 and V-2 program far greater than we did.  And yet, we don't hear them comparing the WTC tragedy to what they suffered.  Is it the famed British stiff upper lip? 

Is the memory of the V-1 & 2 program the roots of the English support of our moves in the ME?

How can anybody look at the numbers in the above article (6,000 killed, 17,000 wounded and a million buildings destroyed or damaged) and think a madman like Saddam would act any different?

Just food for thought.

LOKI

 

 

[sharktrager]

Once a missile designer for the Germans, he became a invaluable rocket scientist for the Americans

Today, Germany celebrates the day of German unity. The German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany became a united country twelve years ago. This day is celebrated for another event in history as well. Sixty years ago, on October 3, 1942, The first A-4 rocket, more commonly known as the V-2, was launched. This rocket was called Hitler’s rocket during WWII.

The V-2 was a creation of the main Nazi missile designer: Wernher von Braun. A lot of researchers think that the successful test of the rocket was one of the major steps on the way to the space exploration. This could be true, but the V-2 served another purpose. Over 4300 V-2 missiles struck London and other European cities by September of 1944.

Work on the V-2 missile started at the end of the 1930s. However, the first tests were held in the summer of 1942. At first, they was not successful, but October 3 went down in history as the first successful launch of the V-2 missile. However, it turned out that many more successes would be needed. Two additional years were spent on the completion of the missile before Germany was able to use it to help the war effort.

The English knew that the Germans were working on the new weapon. Polish partisans sent the V-2 design and a plan of the Peenemunde base, where the missile was tested, to London in July of 1943. A week later, the base was attacked by about 600 English bombers. The base was completely destroyed, but the Germans managed to set up the production of missiles in an underground factory in the mountains. Thirty thousand concentration camp prisoners worked in the factory.

Wernher von Braun also developed the A-9/A-10 missile by 1943. The missile was then called V-3. The range of the missile was immense: it could easily reach the US eastern coast from Europe. However, the V-3 project was delayed for a certain period of time when the Germans experienced failures on the Eastern front. However, Von Braun did forget about his creation. He suggested that Germany use the V-3 to strike New York. Work on the V-3 project was resumed in November of 1944 under the code name “Project America.”

After the war, there were rumors that Nazis were about to strike New York. It was also rumored that there was a group of commandos deployed on the eastern coast of the United States. This group allegedly was to set up radio beacons. Supposedly, this group was destroyed by the American coast guard. It is hard to say whether this was true or not. At any rate, there is no official evidence or documents to prove this version of events. Yet, there are also no rejections either.

According to the official reports, the V-3 missile was successfully launched only three times. Production the new missile was never started. The Nazis lost the war, and Russians and Americans got their hands on all of Germany's projects.

American soldiers found Von Braun on May 10, 1945 at a ski resort in the Alps. He was then sent to the USA, where "Hitler’s scientist" became a leader in designing missiles.

Vasily Bubnov
PRAVDA.Ru

[JohnGalt]

Churchill exacted his pound of flesh at Dresden where 130,000 civilians died. Is it any wonder the Germans are dubious of Anglo-American righteousness?

[Slyfox]

Right out of high school I worked as a nurse's aide as I was going to college. A patient of ours was a woman who was a young girl in England during the WWII. Twenty years after the war she was still absolutely terrified of those buzz bombs. She would talk to anyone about it. I will never forget the terror in her eyes as she spoke. We felt really helpless as to do anything to help her.

[Lokibob]

I can understand Germany's reluctance to support bombing (don't agree with it, but understand it)(2nd thought: they have had a lot of muslum terrorism on their soil), but have not seen any commentary about the Brits comparing their WW2 bombing to 9/11.

to sly: It must have been absolutely terrifying to her. While watching "Operation Crossbow", I was in wonder at the people just looking up at the v-1's coming over them. Of course, when they heard the buzzbomb, that meant it was still flying. The real danger was when it quit "buzzing".

[Mr. Bird]

Is it any wonder the Germans are dubious of Anglo-American righteousness?

No more a wonder that people still try to make moral equivalency arguments with respect to the Dresden bombing. Allow me to bottom line it for you: the allies would never have bombed Dresden, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki had their opponents not initiated hostilities. Too bad a lot of Germans were turned into bacon crisps, but they were the idiots who put their man in power, not us.

[rdb3]

...yet the Amerika misssle...

Amerika?

[Karsus]

The number of people killed/murdered by germany was in the 10's of millions. Is there any wonder why the Americans are dubious of german righteousness?

[BlueLancer]

"Is it any wonder the Germans are dubious of Anglo-American righteousness? "

They're just lucky that they were knocked out of the war before we had the chance to let them see Little Boy and Fat Man, or their siblings, up close and personal.

[foreverfree]

bump

[Lokibob]

"Amerika' is correct. The German spelling of America is the name of the rocket. HOWEVER:

Missile is incorrect. Guidance of a rocket makes it a missile. An ungided rocket is still a rocket. The Amerika and the v-2 were unguided.

[robowombat]

Wernher von Braun's final years were a strange contrast to the glare of publicity he functioned in while head of the Army ballistic missile program at Redstone Arsenal. Thanks to adroit exploitation of the media in the wake of Sputnik von Braun became something of a national hero complete with a white washing Hollywood biopic titled, if memory serves, "I Aim at the Stars". The advent of the Kennedy Administration and the consolidation of ICBM programs in the hands of the USAF and space programs in NASA put Wernher's career in the shadow. With the loss of major bureacratic battles with NASA over funding of liquid fuel very large boosters and general disinterest in the Army at anything other than theater ballistic missiles he plugged along for several years as a high level DOD consultant at the Pentagon and retired and immediately sank without trace in the population of retired once VIPs in the DC area. He lived in a comfortable but not luxurious home in an upper middle class section of Alexandria and deliberatel cultivated so low a profile as to be virtually invisible.
Von Braun apparently was very biter over the perceived lack of recognition that he got from both the Federal Republic of Germany and from his adopted homeland for the services he had rendered in the Cold War. There is some evidence that he became clinically depressed in his final years especially with the onset of the cancer that would eventually claim his life. The instructions von Braun drafted for his funeral reflected this bitterness. There were to be no public memorial services and the interment was private at an old but well maintained cemetary in Alexandria, Ivy Hill. He stipulated that there were to be no official government representatives at his funeral other than the Federal Republic could send one representative in plain clothes. His grave marker is simple and unpretentious and easily overlooked. A representative for the funeral service that handled his burial told me it was the smallest funeral he had ever handled for a major public figure. There were only four persons at the interment; the widow, a retired USAF general and his wife who was a neighbor and close personnel friend and the representative from the German embassy. So RIP Wernher von Braun, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.