He 115 over New York

[tigercat]

I am toying with painting up a He 115 to look at least superficially like a Douglas Boston the justification of this would be that as a desperate last ditch roll of the dice Two would be despatched from Norway armed with nerve gas bomb or a dirty bomb . I don't think they have the payload to carry a full up WHIFF German Nuclear Bomb.

  They would leave Norway and enroute rendezvous with the catapult ships FALKE and BUSSARD which would refuel them with a back up of U -boats stationned at various waypoints for refuelling. They would be accompanied by 2 float equipped Junkers 188 heavy fighters  which would fly top cover  as escort.

After their last refuelling rendezvous they would detonate explosive bolts seperating the floats from the plane and thus making them look more like Douglas Bostons , the 188 's could do the same as the floats would no longer be necessary and would increase their speed and range. The He 115  would then fly over New York and drop its weapons

Please could I have some Feedback

Is the weapon feasible, will it be effective enough to warrant the effort. Could a He 115 fly without its floats or would it effect the trim too much .

So what do people think is it feasible ? 

[sideshowbob9]

For what it's worth, I like the idea! Even if the He-115 has CofG issues sans floats and proves to be a bit of a handful, does it matter? It's a one way trip!

I'd ditch the Ju-188s though. While the He-115s might get away with being a Boston, the -188s won't and they'd do little more than have a security blanket effect for the -115 crews anyway as they're not going to be able to mix it up with Mustangs or the like. The whole premise relies on the subterfuge of a harmless ol' Boston chugging along, perhaps on a nav exercise and a little lost. More aircraft are going to attract more attention.

My 2p anyway. 

[sequoiaranger]

Maybe you could paint it Olive Drab, and have some sort of fake national marking that would have a US-like blue field with a white six or seven-pointed star, somewhat like Israeli colors reversed. Then, equip it with an IFF device captured from some "wrong-way Corrigan" that landed an intact American aircraft on a German airfield. It might fool enough people long enough for the He-115 to get close. You do realize, however, that the He-115 was about a 100 mph slower than the Boston?

You might also consider a "mistel" in which the He-115 lower component *IS* the bomb, and a He-112 or something sits atop it as an escape machine (not that it could fly very far, but just get away from the immediate area).

Not to rain on your parade, but I think a more "efficient" method to get the nerve gas to NY would be a submarine-carried V-1 like the subsequent US "Loon" program.

[tigercat]

I did think about the speed differential but it turns out there was a

He 115D one aircraft fitted with BMW 801C engines rated at 1,193 kW (1,600 hp) each compared to the normal  2× BMW 132K 9-cylinder radial engines, 630 kW (970 hp) each which hopefully would make up the difference plus of course w/o floats the speed should increase.

True about the V1 but i thought I'd try something different plus I have a He115 in my stash

[deathjester]

How about the final leg of the attack being radio controlled by a u-boat?  The pilots pass a waypoint, switch to radio control, bail out, and are picked up by the u-boat.  This precludes the possibility of capture and interrogation, and makes it easier to find 'volunteers'. This also gives the SS the option to shoot the pilots so there are no witnesses.

[tigercat]

That is impressive , I think that might be the solution and while it doesn't look exactly like a Boston it is close enough from a distance and what it doesn't look like is any recognizable German aircraft the lack of floats makes a big difference to the identification

[NARSES2]

Not to rain on your parade, but I think a more "efficient" method to get the nerve gas to NY would be a submarine-carried V-1 like the subsequent US "Loon" program.

Eddie Kruk one of the UK SIG guys built an S Boat loaded with nerve gas V-1's for exactly that purpose. Nice build as well

[Radish]

I love the premise....

[Mossie]

This is similar to the story in 'A Thousand Suns' by Alex Scarrow.  In that book, the aircraft used is a captured B-17 that is rigged for a one way trip.  Rather than converting an aircraft to look like an enemy, why not use an enemy aircraft & equip it with floats?

[Geoff]

KG-200 operated a B-17 and a couple of B-24's in OTL.
As for a fake ID on the He-115, the IJN was going to paint stars and bars on the Seirans in the Canal Zone attack.

[tigercat]

A Catapult launched Float B17 or B24 would be an impressive sight.



What set me off down this train of thought was discovering that the Kriegsmarine had Aircraft Carriers of a sort if limited. And trying to work out a scenario where they could play a more active role in the war.

http://www.luftarchiv.de/gerat/falke2.jpg

[Mossie]

I can't remember how they got around the range of the B-17 in the book (vaguely remember it had to land at a base in allied occupied France), but a B-24 would have been a better bet.  Strip it of unnecessarys, throw some extra fuel tanks in & you should make the US of A pretty easily without having to make any heavy mods.  Late war the Atlantic was a pretty dangerous place for any German warships or U-Boats so if you could eliminate them, all the better.

[tigercat]

I thought the B24 would have the longer legs plus doesn't it have a greater payload than the B17 . If you were working from payload perspective a captured Lancaster  would have been the best bet possibly in Canadian markings.

KG 200 doesn't seem to have had so many British aircraft on the role if any

[Geoff]

KG-200 did set up a series of airstrips across Africa in one mission. They flew in a team in IIRC Me-108's who cleared a strip for the bigger aircraft following. How about a similar mission to somewhere remote in Greenland? Then stage the attack force through there?

(Edit - sorry that digresses from your origional post a lot. It wasn't ment as a thread hijack)

[tigercat]

I believe they operated Ar 232's so maybe one of them could be part of the advance party. They could handle rough terrain.