Hitler speeds up initial rate production of long-range bombers designed to bomb Manhattan

[Cantankerous]

I was told by a YouTube commentator that some German generals advised Hitler against invading the USSR, and yet Hitler didn't listen to them and instead felt overconfident of victory over the USSR because he had easily overrun Poland, Benelux, and France. If Hitler had chosen not to invade the USSR, he could have ordered the Messerschmitt Me 264, Focke-Wulf Ta 400, and Heinkel He 277 into production so that he could carry out his goal of bombing Manhattan to coerce the US to accept an accommodation with the Third Reich, given that Hitler always called black people inferior to his Aryan master race.

[KDF33]

No.

[T. A. Gardner]

Of these, only the Me 264 got anywhere in terms of development. The He 277 is too short-ranged to make that flight (max range ~ 2500 miles). The Ta 400 never got to prototype stage.

As for the Me 264, the first prototype flew in December 1942. The second prototype was about to start flight testing when destroyed in a bombing raid in late 1943. So, in this scenario let's say the 264 is given some higher priority and a operational version is first rolled out in say mid to late 1944. Production starts at about 1 per month ramping up to 2 or 3 per month. That's about where Messerschmitt would be building an aircraft roughly equivalent to a B-29 without the advanced defensive armament. That's about what Junkers could manage with the Ju 290 / 390 series in production.

So, by sometime in 1945 the Germans might be able to manage a smallish raid of a dozen or so Me 264 on New York. It'd be the first and last time they got to do it for free as the US would respond by beefing up air defenses and moving in available fighter squadrons in the US to intercept such a raid. The Germans might also face interception in route to the target by either carrier aircraft in the Atlantic, or ones based in England, Iceland, Greenland, or Canada.

[Erwinn]

Without the Atomic bomb what contribution can this make? There were no factories in Manhattan. Unless you raze Detroit into the ground, there are hardly anything worth of doing this.

Unless you wanna use them as Ural bombers and bomb Soviet factories over there.

[Cantankerous]

Of these, only the Me 264 got anywhere in terms of development. The He 277 is too short-ranged to make that flight (max range ~ 2500 miles). The Ta 400 never got to prototype stage.

As for the Me 264, the first prototype flew in December 1942. The second prototype was about to start flight testing when destroyed in a bombing raid in late 1943. So, in this scenario let's say the 264 is given some higher priority and a operational version is first rolled out in say mid to late 1944. Production starts at about 1 per month ramping up to 2 or 3 per month. That's about where Messerschmitt would be building an aircraft roughly equivalent to a B-29 without the advanced defensive armament. That's about what Junkers could manage with the Ju 290 / 390 series in production.

So, by sometime in 1945 the Germans might be able to manage a smallish raid of a dozen or so Me 264 on New York. It'd be the first and last time they got to do it for free as the US would respond by beefing up air defenses and moving in available fighter squadrons in the US to intercept such a raid. The Germans might also face interception in route to the target by either carrier aircraft in the Atlantic, or ones based in England, Iceland, Greenland, or Canada.

On the He 277, I should emphasize that the He 277 was confused with the He 177B four-engine version of the He 177 Greif (Griffon) for many years in post-WW2 books on German aircraft of World War II, and there was a story that Heinkel referred to the He 277 as He 177B to avoid infuriating Hermann Goering. However, official RLM and Heinkel company documents indicate that the He 277 was a different plane than the He 177B, and that the He 177B designation was allocated to an He 177A variant with four individual engines (originally designated He 177A-8) in August 1943, months after the He 277 was conceived. The He 277 had a wingspan of 131 feet with a range of up to 6,900 miles (11,100 km) (in contrast to the He 177B having a 101 foot span), so would have had sufficient range to bomb aircraft and steel factories in not just New York but also other parts of the US Eastern Seaboard.

Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_277

[T. A. Gardner]

On the He 277, I should emphasize that the He 277 was confused with the He 177B four-engine version of the He 177 Greif (Griffon) for many years in post-WW2 books on German aircraft of World War II, and there was a story that Heinkel referred to the He 277 as He 177B to avoid infuriating Hermann Goering. However, official RLM and Heinkel company documents indicate that the He 277 was a different plane than the He 177B, and that the He 177B designation was allocated to an He 177A variant with four individual engines (originally designated He 177A-8) in August 1943, months after the He 277 was conceived. The He 277 had a wingspan of 131 feet with a range of up to 6,900 miles (11,100 km) (in contrast to the He 177B having a 101 foot span), so would have had sufficient range to bomb aircraft and steel factories in not just New York but also other parts of the US Eastern Seaboard.

Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_277

The He 277B-6 variant, which is what you describe has a range of 3500 or so miles (even your source states that) so it would just barely reach.

In any case, the problem remains. First none of these planes would be operational before mid to late 1944 at the earliest. Next, production would remain a few a month at most, more likely as I stated, just two or three at full production. After a first raid by say a squadron of 12 to 15, assuming surprise, the US would go all-out to make sure it didn't happen again.

For the US that would mean using fighter groups stationed in the US already, just shifting some of them to the Eastern seaboard, and possibly the Great Lakes region. I could see the US Navy being ordered to put radar picket ships off Canada and Greenland for early detection of a raid. That wouldn't take more than about a dozen destroyers to accomplish. They'd have plenty of time to detect and track such a raid. If there were an escort carrier or two with fighters aboard, they could work the raid over while still out in the Atlantic.
Then when the raid survivors reached the US they'd be intercepted again and worked over thoroughly. It would be impossible to fly such a raid only at night although timing one to arrive at night is possible. This is due to the low cruising speed of the planes involved which would be around 200 knots or about 16 + flying hours one way.
One raid successfully intercepted and losing as little as 6 to 8 planes (say 50% of those sent) would set the program back 2 to 3 months in production. Accidents, maintenance downtime, etc., would render the whole effort meaningless in just a few attempts.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Nothing would change. Development alone would eat up a lot of time ... and the Americans learned a lot from the Germans about defending against unescorted heavy-bomber raids.

[Cantankerous]

Of these, only the Me 264 got anywhere in terms of development. The He 277 is too short-ranged to make that flight (max range ~ 2500 miles). The Ta 400 never got to prototype stage.

As for the Me 264, the first prototype flew in December 1942. The second prototype was about to start flight testing when destroyed in a bombing raid in late 1943. So, in this scenario let's say the 264 is given some higher priority and a operational version is first rolled out in say mid to late 1944. Production starts at about 1 per month ramping up to 2 or 3 per month. That's about where Messerschmitt would be building an aircraft roughly equivalent to a B-29 without the advanced defensive armament. That's about what Junkers could manage with the Ju 290 / 390 series in production.

So, by sometime in 1945 the Germans might be able to manage a smallish raid of a dozen or so Me 264 on New York. It'd be the first and last time they got to do it for free as the US would respond by beefing up air defenses and moving in available fighter squadrons in the US to intercept such a raid. The Germans might also face interception in route to the target by either carrier aircraft in the Atlantic, or ones based in England, Iceland, Greenland, or Canada.

I should mention that the Focke-Wulf Ta 400 wasn't really capable of reaching the US Eastern Seaboard because wartime Focke-Wulf company documents explain the intended long-range mission of the Ta 400:

The tasks of naval warfare today require an aircraft that can be used to support the submarine fleet. The ways in which it can support the submarines are: 1) In providing reconnaissance over large areas of the Atlantic. 2) In defence against enemy aircraft that would disrupt the operations of our submarines.

Furthermore, the required aircraft should be equipped with droppable weapons on its own, to be able to carry out effective attacks on enemy shipping targets over a range of about 9000km. This task resulted in the present design of an aircraft which is designed to be suitable for use as scout, destroyer and bomber.

Fabrication of a Ta 400 airframe would have required greater manpower than manufacturing a single Me 264 given the shape of the Ta 400 design. I also should emphasize that the Junkers Ju 390 of which only one prototype was built and six additional prototypes and twenty Ju 390A-1 production aircraft were on order when the Ju 390 program was canceled in mid-1944 probably would have been truly capable of reaching the eastern US but likewise too time-consuming and costly.

[Kurt_S]

No.

Agreed.

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I'd add that Hitler's rationale for the Amerika bomber was both more sophisticated and limited than commonly portrayed. Its purpose was to force the US to spend resources on air defenses, not to achieve coercive dominance. Cited and discussed in Schmider's recent book Hitler's Fatal Miscalaculation, which is excellent and from which I can cite on this point at a later time if anyone's interested.