Luftwaffe over America: The Secret Plans to Bomb the United States in World War II - Manfred Griehl

An Interesting and Well Written Book!

This interesting and well written book examines developments in Nazi Germany to conduct a strategic bombing campaign against the United States following a successful invasion of the Soviet Union. Fortunately for the American people, the German invasion of Russia was not so successful. Had it been, Adolph Hitler would have had the resources available to produce enough long-range strategic bombers to pummel the American east coast.

The style of the book is a bit technologically oriented. Nonetheless, there is a great deal that the reader will find eye-opening.

First, are indications that the Nazis may have detonated two small atomic bombs late in the war, indicating that they were much further along in the development of atomic weapons than has been previously believed.

Certainly the portion of the book devoted to trans-Atlantic bombers is of tremendous interest, especially since the Third Reich's flying wings appear to be precursors of American Stealth aircraft.

The Germans also experimented with mid-air refueling for their bombers and the use of towed, winged fuel tanks.

I found the parts of the book devoted to submarine launched ballistic missiles and even submerged barge-launched ballistic missiles of particular interest, proving that there are few obstacles that human ingenuity and technology cannot overcome.

Finally, the author discusses the threat of Nazi weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical and biological weapons.

It is for good reason, then, that the Americans classified documents discussing all these developments for a period of 100 years following the Second World War.

Particularly disturbing were hints by the author that some of the German WWII underground facilities, which may have numbered in the several hundreds, were never found.

Could there be a Nazi flying wing, loaded with weapons of mass destruction, waiting in some long-forgotten underground hanger?

An interesting read!

Why America Wasn't Bombed in WW2

Manfred Griehl's 'Luftwaffe over America: The Secret Plans to Bomb the United States in World War II' is a well researched documentation of why and how the United States was not subjected to ongoing aerial attack by the Germans during World War Two. This inability on the part of the German war machine stands in stark contrast to US and British efforts both in the European and the Pacific theaters of war.

In point of fact, it is the Pacific analogy - included early efforts in 1943/1944 to bomd Japan from India and China - that is more similar to the challenge facing the Germans: development and production in meaningful quanitites of a long-range, multi-engine bomber with sufficient payload to daamge US industry and population centers. Flying from occupied Europe to England or England to Germany was one thing; flying thousands of miles across an ocean and back was another.

Author Griehl takes a year-by-year chronological appraoch to explaining why Germany was not able to achieve this critical piece of war-making capability. His analysis shows a plethora of reasons, ranging from strategic short-sightedness on the part of the Nazi leadership; battles between aircraft manufacturers over contracts that makes current lobbying int he US look like solidarity; a strong tendency toward poor aircraft design and the inability to produce reliable high-power aircraft engines like those of Rolls-Royce/Packard and Curtiss Wtight, for example.

Along the way, we learn about virtually all efforts at developing a strategic bombing component for the Luftwaffe. Actual aircraft such as the FW-200, HE-177, and the ME-264,among others, are discussed with candor. The book also addresses more heady R&D aircraft that were technologically beyond actualization at the time. As mentioned, Griehl also comments on the difficulties with prop and jet power plants and the somewhat more esoteric issue of weaponry.

Although his European style of writing and command of English is a little bumpy for the American reader, Griehl's work meets its objective on providing an accurate and objective desecription of the Nazi strategic bombing programs, as well as a primer on weapons program R&D activities.

Good Look at Nazi Procurement Mess

First off this is not a book about dangerous flights or shootouts with submarines on the high sea. It is a detailed look at the (thankfully) complex and ever changing priorities of the Nazi aviation R&D establishment. The Germans never bombed the East Coast because they could never decide what aircraft they should concentrate on. Land based or seaplane? Which model? Which engine to choose? None of them worked very well. What materials to use? They were making planes out of iron because they didn't have enough aluminum to go round. In the end the long range bombers were never a priority and none of the endless staff meetings came to anything. The book's text does not jump off the page at you but it is a good look into the inner workings of the German war machine.

A Non-Technical Introduction

"Luftwaffe Over America" is one book that holds a lot of promise, and certainly touches on a very interesting topic. Few may have realised that the USA was a potential target that was considered by the Nazis, and this was really news to me, as well.

Despite the book being quite good, I should issue a caution to those seeking a very technical description of the plans and how they were to be achieved: this book does not go into it all that much. The technical details of the aircraft envisioned are very limited, basically sticking to range, weight, division of weight between various considerations such as payload and armament. The pictures or photos supplied in the book cover some of the major models, but certainly not everything. Also, you might need to gain some familiarity with different machine gun types and engine types, as this knowledge is assumed, (such as the different between a DB 606 and DB 610 engine).

There is a bewildering range of type numbers for engines, weaponry, bombs and aircraft that can be a bit confusing at times. You might have to review a couple of times to keep track of different projects that are being discussed.

On the positive side, the book is set out very logically in chronological order, with specific chapters on ordinance and other topics of interest. Mostly, the chapters discuss six-monthly blocks of time, as well as having sections in each about the policies made by the government of the day. It is these policies and the way the departments in the Nazi regime worked that seemed to plague the research programmes with problems, along with the ever-increasing shortage of material.

Overall, Griehl's book is a great introduction to the topic and a good starting point to further reading. However, for those looking for a more technical dealing with the various aircraft and their development, you may be a touch disappointed in this book. Also, Griehl does leave a lot of things unexplained, assuming some details, as mentioned above.

Easily read, "Luftwaffe Over America" will whet the apetite, but not much more. As a starting point, I would reccommend it. If you already have a good knowledge of German research into long-range bombing, then you might want a different book with more detail.

Saxon genius at its best

A stunning book. While many anti-Nazi reviewers constantly try to play down the true level of the genius that lay within the ill-conceived Third Reich, there is no denying its reality - as this book and others prove.

Comedian Bob Hope once invoked the wrath of the Russian Govt in the wake of the Sputnik success in the late fifties, when he said "I'd like to thank the 'Russian' scientists, but I don't speak German..." Germany was so far ahead of the Allies in everything from rocketry to sub-orbital aircraft technology, that you wonder how they could have lost the War.

The Amerika Bomber concept alone that Griehl explores is one more example of how Hitler failed to appreciate what was being offered to him. There were at least 4 different bombers capable of hitting the Eastern USA, perhaps the best of which being the ME 264. Yet Hitler did not seem to understand the enormous propaganda and morale impact that regular German bombing raids against the US would have had.

Perhaps the most stunning German design and overall concept was Sanger's 'Silverbird' sub-orbital bomber, that was to be launched on a rocket sled and propelled to the edge of space by a lengthy rocket burn, after which it would use a 'skipping' technique whereby the plane, in virtual glide mode, would keep bouncing off the atmosphere to the extent that it could literally fly around the world at high speed, bombing any target in the US on the way. The 8,000 lb bomb that it carried, dropped from the edge of space, would have had an enormously enhanced blast radius, giving it at least a battlefield nuclear weapon level of destructive capability.

Sanger offered this project in 1935. It could have been operational by the early 1940's.

The later US Dynasoar and Hypersoar projects were directly based on this German technology.

A must read.