Since
szukający has already posted a link to Dr. Rider's book, I will add a link to his "German Atomic Bomb Slides" here:
Here are a few parts of
Forgotten Creators which describe wartime German work on nuclear weapons and guided missiles---including submarine-launched variants---that were intended to deliver them against targets in the US mainland and elsewhere throughout Allied territory.
Page 4309:
"There is considerable evidence that fission bombs were successfully tested during the war (Sections D.2.5, D.2.6, and D.2.7), and that a hydrogen bomb was nearing completion when the war ended (Section D.2.4). Given the enormous amount of resources that would have been invested in developing nuclear weapons, and Germany’s desperate state late in the war, there must have been concrete plans and methods for delivering such weapons to Allied targets, including targets in the United States. In the usual German fashion, several different delivery methods, including aircraft and large missiles, were probably developed in parallel....
There is significant evidence that Germany was developing the following specific methods to deliver weapons of mass destruction (especially nuclear weapons) to Allied targets such as New York and Washington, D.C.:
1. There is documentary evidence for intercontinental bomber aircraft, and for nuclear weapons designed to be dropped by such aircraft (often dropped with a parachute, indicating that the expected blast was so large that the aircraft needed more time to escape to a safe distance after dropping the bomb). See for example: Postwar Allied discoveries of intercontinental jet bombers intended to attack the United States (Section E.2.1) Erwin Respondek (p. 3247) Werner Grothmann (pp. 3298 and 3384) Edmund Tilley (p. 3335)
2. There is documentary evidence that V-1 cruise missiles were modified to attack the United States with a payload sufficiently destructive to justify the mission. There were several different versions of the V-1 that could be ground-launched, submarine-launched, or air-launched from a large aircraft, and that were either unmanned or manned. See for example: Allied discoveries of piloted and air-launched V-1 missiles (p. 1695) Interrogation of Edmund Sorg regarding nuclear-armed V-1 missiles (pp. 3648–3649) Hans Kammler’s 23 April 1945 telegram ordering the destruction of special V-1s near Berlin to prevent them from being captured by Russian forces (p. 3649) Allied intelligence reports on submarine-launched V-1 missiles intended to attack the United States (pp. 4119–4126)
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Page 4121:
Clayton Bissell and Hewlett Thebaud to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 9 December 1944. Subject: Agreed Joint Evaluation of the Possible Existence of the V-3 Rocket and Probability of Attack against the U.S. [Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. Map Room Files, Box 164, Folder Naval Aides. Files: A/16—General Correspondence]
1. The cable from Lieutenant Commander Earle, Naval Attach´e, Turkey is probably propaganda and represents a plant by the Germans. There is no reliable information available of German development of a long range rocket other than the V-2.
2. The V-3 may possibly be a rocket of smaller dimensions than the V-2 with a shorter range. It would be possible to launch such a missile from specially designed or modified submarines.
Attached is a sketch of a German submarine based in a southern Norwegian port showing a pair of rails extending from conning tower to the bow and terminating at a flat, rectangular surface. The purpose of this is unknown.
3. German attack from Europe of United States cities by long range rockets is deemed impossible now. Small rocket or flying bomb attacks from specially constructed submarines are considered possible. Any such action would be made with propaganda effect rather than material damage as the primary objective.
Page 4123:
Clayton Bissell to Stockholm Military Attache. 3 November 1944. Outgoing Cable WAR 56799. [Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. Map Room Files, Box 49, Folder Rocket Bombs 1944]
Have been advised through OSS that Tykander their representative in Stockholm has received reliable information that German U boats are equipped with bomb launching platforms. Investigate and keep us fully informed.
Page 4124:
U-Boat Aimed V-Bomb Here, Army Paper Says. New York Times. 15 May 1945 p. 10.
A German submarine tried to V-bomb New York last election day, presumably with a jet-propelled or rocket-propelled weapon, the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes reported tonight, quoting “sources considered reliable.” It was reported that the bomb was launched from the deck of a U-boat lying off the coast and that it fell short or was knocked down by fighter planes patrolling as a screen against any such projectiles. The
Stars and Stripes said that “operators” at Mitchel Field were quoted as having said that it was determined that the bomb fell into the sea. The paper recalled that last Nov. 8, the day after the Presidential election, the Army and Navy in a joint statement said that a V-bomb attack on the United States was entirely possible. A Navy spokesman in Washington said that the report of the submarine attack was without foundation, The United Press reported. An official of the bomb squad of New York’s Police Department said last night that the squad had no knowledge of an attempted bombing of New York last Nov. 7 by the Germans. “Undoubtedly, if a robot bomb had been launched at New York from a U-boat, as reported, and had neared its objective, we would have been informed,” the spokesman said.
[Dr. Rider: "The original version of this story appeared as: U-Boat Aimed V-Bomb at New York,
Stars and Stripes, 14 May 1945. Considering that the report came from the U.S. Army’s own newspaper and sources that they considered reliable, the subsequent denials by the U.S. Navy spokesman and New York bomb squad do not seem very convincing. If the incident actually occurred, can it be clarified if the weapon was a sub-launched V-1 cruise missile or something else? If the weapon fell into the sea, was it ever located? Was the warhead a conventional explosive, or a chemical, biological, or nuclear weapon? A V-1 strike on a U.S. city with only a conventional warhead would have done relatively little damage and would have had no strategic military value. For evidence of modified V-1 missiles that could have delivered weapons of mass destruction, see pp. 1695 and 3648–3649, as well as Henshall 2000, pp. 129–130."]
Page 4125:
Robot Bomb Attacks Here Held ‘Probable’ by Admiral. New York Times, 9 January 1945, pp. 1, 6. AN EAST COAST PORT, Jan. 8
A strategically futile attack on New York or Washington by robot bombs within thirty to sixty days was described today as not only “possible but probable” by Admiral Jonas H. Ingram, new Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, whose command stretches from the Arctic to the Falkland Islands. [...]
“And we know very definitely that there are three ways in which he might get robot bombs within range of either city. He might sneak a half dozen submarines off the coast. He might launch robots from the long-range planes we know he has. Or he might sneak a surface ship, disguised as a neutral, within range.” [...] [See also: Officials Silent on Robot Threat/London Paper Predicts Attack. New York Times, 10 January 1945, p. 7.
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There are plenty of other intelligence reports and additional documents in
Forgotten Creators that describe the German effort to develop submarine-launched guided missiles. As I stated above, intelligence such as you see here is what led to USN preparations to destroy any u-boats so armed should they be detected in time. PS Nearly all US files at NARA relating to the
kriegsmarine nuclear scientist Otto Haxel remain classified and totally off limits to the public to this day. Why?
, but its extremely hard to invent the justification...
