Angriffe auf Nordamerika während des Zweiten Weltkriegs

Attacks on the United States mainland during World War II by the Axis Powers were rare, mainly due to North America's geographical separation from the central theatres of conflict in Europe and Asia.

Japanese assaults

Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, which drew the United States into World War II, was but the first of a number of assaults by Japan on the U.S. fleet stationed there.

Ellwood shelling

Mainland USA was first shelled by the Axis on February 23, 1942 when the Japanese submarine I-17 attacked the Ellwood oil production facilities at Goleta, near Santa Barbara, California. Although only a catwalk and pumphouse were damaged, Nishino radioed Tokyo that he had left Santa Barbara in flames. No casualties were reported and the total cost of the damage was estimated at approximately $500.

The Battle of Los Angeles

In an incident now known as "The Battle of Los Angeles", the U.S. Army fired several thousand anti-aircraft shells at an unidentified target over Santa Monica, California during the night of February 24-25, 1942. The target was later officially determined to be a lost weather balloon, although this was never confirmed. [1] [2]

The San Francisco Bay Area on alert

In May and June 1942, the San Francisco Bay Area underwent a series of alerts:

May 12: A twenty-five minute air-raid alert.
May 27: West Coast defences put on alert after Army codebreakers learned that the Japanese intended a series of hit-and-run attacks in reprisal for the Doolittle Raid.
May 31: The battleships USS Colorado and USS Maryland set sail from the Golden Gate to form a line of defense against any Japanese attack mounted on San Francisco.
June 2: A nine-minute air-raid alert, including at 9:22pm a radio silence order applied to all radio stations from Mexico to Canada.

There was also a forty-five minute air-raid alert and radio silence order later in the year, on November 28.

Battle of the Aleutian Islands

On June 3, 1942 the Aleutian Islands near Alaska were invaded by Japanese forces as a diversion from the Japanese attack on Midway Atoll. Having broken the Japanese military codes, however, the U.S. knew it was a diversion and did not expend large amounts of effort defending the islands. Although most of the civilian population had been moved to camps on the Alaska Panhandle, some Americans were captured and taken to Japan as prisoners of war. In what became known as the Battle of the Aleutian Islands, American forces engaged the Japanese on Attu Island and soon regained control.

In response to the United States' success at the Battle of Midway, the invasion alert for San Francisco was canceled on June 8.

Nobuo Fujita standing by his Yokosuka E14Y "Glen" seaplane.

Attacks on Oregon

In what became the only attempt to attack a mainland American military installation during World War II, a Japanese submarine surfaced near the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon on the night of the 21-22 June 1942 and fired shells toward Fort Stevens. The only damage recorded was to a baseball ground's backstop.

On 9 September 1942, a small Japanese Yokosuka E14Y1 seaplane was launched from the Japanese submarine I-25 toward Oregon, piloted by Nobuo Fujita. Flying over Mount Emily, near Brookings, Oregon, it dropped 170lb incendiary bombs in an attempt to start a large forest fire. No significant damage was reported. This was the first bombing of mainland America by a foreign power. A repeat attempt was made three weeks later on 29 September, again to no effect.

Fire balloons

Between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan launched over 9,000 fire balloons toward the American mainland. Carried by the recently-discovered Pacific jet stream, they were to sail over the Pacific Ocean and land in North America, where the Japanese hoped they would start forest fires and wreak devastation. About three-hundred were reported as reaching North America, but little damage was caused. Six people, Elise Mitchell and five children, became the only deaths due to enemy action to occur on mainland America during World War II when one of the children tried to recover a balloon from a tree near Bly, Orgeon and it exploded.

Japanese heavy flying boats operations

Vice Admiral Kazume Kinsei, a former UCLA student and the brother of a famous Japanese aero engine designer, ordered the construction of the Kawanishi H8K "Emily" Flying Boat. These seaplanes had an operational range of 4,443 miles, were equiped with four 1,850 hp 14-cylinder engines, had a top speed of 289 mph, and could climb to 27,740 feet. Using the 92-foot long and 124-foot wingspan seaplanes, Kinsei drew up plans for a concentrated air attack on the American mainland, to be launched from Wojte Atoll (Marshall Islands, South Pacific Mandate) about 2,300 miles west of Pearl Harbor. When asked about why he was interested in the seaplanes, Kinsei responded "To bomb America!"

He wanted six of the flying boats, equipped with 26,445 pounds of high explosives, to rendezvous with three submarine tankers 50 miles off the southern coast of California. Once refueled, they would take off at dawn to fly to downtown Los Angeles and drop their bombs. Then the seaplanes would fly 4,000 miles west to a second refueling from I-Boats near Japanese-controlled waters.

The plan was evaluated by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. A trial operation against the Hawaiian Islands using a trio of H8Ks caused no significant damage and their bombs only fell in uninhabited areas.

Kinsei persisted in his idea. He envisioned a rendezvous of the H8Ks with I-Boats off the Baja California peninsula, south of southern California, from where they could take off and bomb Texas oilfields and then fly to the Gulf of Mexico. They were to operate in conjunction with German U-Boat tankers. This Axis Powers cooperation was planned for air raids up and down the North American eastern seaboard, with special "Propaganda Raids" on Boston, New York and Washington D.C.. The plan was approved by the Japanese naval high command and German U-boat Chief Admiral Karl Donitz, who authorized the use of the first pair of "Milch Kuh" (Milk Cow) German U-boat tankers for the operation. Vice Admiral Kinsei ordered the manufacture of 30 H8Ks from the Kawanishi Company for completion in September 1942.

However, by the autumn of 1942 Japan's defensive posture compelled their navy's high command to confine all long-range aircraft to more conventional missions nearby in the South Pacific.

I-400/Aichi M6A plan

The Imperial Submarine Squadron One, under the command of Captain Tatsunosuke Ariizumi (I-400 "Sentoku" Class Submarine/ Aichi M6A1 special torpedo-bomber force) was composed of: I-13, (equipped with 2 aircraft); I-14, (equipped with 2 aircraft); I-400, (equipped with 3 or 4 aircraft); and I-401, (equipped with 3 or 4 aircraft)

For their first mission, Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, Vice Chief of the Navy General Staff, selected "Operation PX", a top secret plan to use the I-400 unit's ten aircraft to unleash bacteriological warfare on populous areas of the American West Coast and Pacific Islands.

On March 26, 1945, this mission was canceled by General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, who declared that "Germ warfare against the United States would escalate to war against all humanity".

As an alternative, the staff considered bombing San Francisco, Panama, Washington D.C. or New York, and decided to launch a surprise air strike against the Panama Canal's Gatun Locks. Destroying these locks would empty Gatun Lake and block the passage of shipping for months.

For the 17,000 mile round trip to Panama, each submarine needed 1,600 tons of diesel fuel, which was unavailable at Kure. I-401 was therefore dispatched to Dairen, Manchukuo, to bring back the needed oil. On April 12 she grazed a B-29-laid mine off Hime Shima Lighthouse in the Inland Sea and had to return for repairs. In her place I-400 successfully carried out the undersea tanker mission.

While the submersible carriers were perfecting their tactics to cripple the Panama Canal, the Japanese Navy was steadily deteriorating. Before the submarines could set sail for Panama, more than 3,000 Allied warships and transports had reached the Pacific for Operation Olympic, the forthcoming invasion of Japan.

This growing threat forced Tokyo strategists to reconsider the attack on distant Panama, which now appeared a questionable diversion. Over his vehement objections, Captain Ariizumi was ordered to abandon his squadron's carefully rehearsed canal strike and attack instead the American naval forces at Ulithi Atoll.

Japanese land based long-range bombers

The Japanese Navy ordered the construction of Nakajima G10N1 "Fugaku" (Mount Fuji), an ultra-long range heavy bomber, for bombing the United States mainland. The bomb-load capability of the bomber was 20,000 kg for short-range sorties; 5,000 kg for sorties against targets in the U.S. Another similar project with a similar purpose was the four engined bomber Nakajima G8N "Renzan" Rita.

The Japanese Army ordered the design of Tachikawa Ki- 74 "Patsy", an ultra long-range reconnaissance bomber originally designed to be used against Soviets in Siberian lands. Later, it was ordered for development for bombing missions against the United States. The bomb charge was 500Kg-1,000Kg. This bomber was also known as the "Japanese Siberian Bomber"

Japanese invasion plans

Kinoaki Matsuo, a high-ranking officer of the Black Dragon Society, wrote the Book The Three Power Alliance And The United States-Japanese War, which is purported to detail the Japanese war plans for the simultaneous invasions of the Panama Canal Zone, Alaska, California and Washington.

German assaults

German sabotage

Adolf Hitler ordered German saboteurs to wreak havoc on America. On June 12, 1942, the U-Boat Innsbruck offloaded four men with explosives and plans on Long Island [3], New York. A Coast Guardsman spotted them, and told his superiors. They planned to blow up hydroelectric dams, canal locks, and a railway station, among other locations. This operation would be foiled when a saboteur named George Dasch confessed the operation to the FBI for reasons unknown.

Four other operatives were dropped off near Jacksonville, Florida, on June 17, 1942. The Florida group made their way to Cincinnati and split up, with two going to Chicago and the others to New York. However, the Dasch confession led to the arrest of all four.

Six of the eight men were executed later; the others served prison time. Following the failure of this mission, no more raids on America were ordered by the Nazi leadership.

U-Boat operations

A number of assaults were made by German U-Boats against Allied shipping in the Atlantic Ocean though only a fraction of them close to the United States mainland.

Several ships were torpedoed within sight of East Coast cities such as New York and Boston; indeed, some civilians sat on beaches and watched battles between U.S. and German ships.

Shipping in the Gulf of Mexico was also targeted. In one instance, the tanker Virginia was torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German U-Boat U-507 on May 12, 1942, killing 26 crewmen. There were 14 survivors.

Other sinkings took place in the St. Lawrence River. A significant attack took place on November 2 1942. U-518, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Wissman, attacked two ore carriers at Bell Island, Newfoundland. The attack began at 3:30 a.m. and the S.S. Rosecastle and P.L.M 27 were sunk with the loss of 69 lives. However, one of the most dramatic incidents of the attack occurred after the sinkings when the submarine fired a torpedo at the loading pier. Bell Island became the only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces in World War II.

Aircraft and rockets

Datei:JunkersJu390.jpg

The Junkers Ju 390

The Messerschmitt Me 264, part of the "Amerika Bomber" program, was developed to bomb the continental United States from Germany. Only three prototypes were built, and the project was cancelled before any attempts were made to even see if the journey was feasible.

A similar design was the Junkers Ju 390. It was intended to strike America, particullarly New York City. This gave it the name "The New York Bomber." It is alleged that such a bomber made it close to New York, but this has never been confirmed.

Another plan called for V-1 and V-2 rockets to be fitted to U-Boats and launched on New York City. These would be launched by Luftwaffe Junkers 290 planes armed with four V-1 under their wings. The Germans also considered using Long-range versions of A-4 rockets (V-4 "Rheinbote" multi phase missile or other similar types) launched from France to hit the American mainland.

German plans for invasion

Operation Barbarossa, the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, was alleged by some to be a testing ground for an invasion of America. Another alleged German invasion plan was "Operation Felix", in conjunction with Spain, which called for obtaining control of Atlantic islands and seas to launch long-range strikes and an eventual invasion of America.

Italian plans

New York Harbor Attack

Fascist Italy planned to damage dock facilities and sink ships moored in New York Harbor using Maiale Midget submarines. In 1943 preparations were well underway to deploy these weapons against the United States.

The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force), working in conjunction with the Regia Marina (Italian Navy), prepared two long-range Cantieri Zappata CANT Z.511 flying boats for the operation. The CANT Z.511 was powered by four 1,500 hp Piaggio P.XII RC 35 radial engines giving it a maximum range of 2,796 miles. This seaplane also had extremely good stability in waters with up to 7-foot waves. It could carry two or four Maiales.

The operation was to commence as follows: CANTs flying the Atlantinc would fly low under enemy radar to a point from which the midget submarines could be launched. The crews of the submarines were special volunteers, who after completing their mission, were authorized to surrender. No plans were made for returning them to the seaplanes.

By May 1943 cooperation with supply U-boats was obtained. The CANTs had been sucessfully tested with Maiales man-guided torpedos and special volunteers for one-way missions. The raid was scheduled to take place under ideal weather conditions in mid-June of the same year. However, only three weeks before, both the seaplanes and their specially fitted launch racks were partially damaged by British fighters when the CANT's base in Lake Trasimento was strafed. The following July Marschal Pietro Badoglio declared an Italian armistice and the project was abandoned. The planned attack against New York might have scored a success paralleling the Italian attack in Alexandria Bay, Egypt during the Axis Powers' North African campaign.

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