The Fuhrer not just wish for world domination. He was specifically obsessed with the vision of the destruction of America’s city, New York.
Adolf Hitler concocted the recipe for an apocalypse in New York where skyscrapers are lit with fiery fire, buildings are reduced to ruins and people are running amidst the chaos. He desired so badly to see the collapse of America’s Big Apple and to crush the star-spangled nation whose democracy and capitalistic system make his blood boil.
The apocalyptic images provoked by the mind of the madman has the same horrific signature as that of Osama bin Laden’s 9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in 2001. However, 56 years before the horrific episode, an different mad man dreamed of the same doomsday to befall on New York. It was Adolf Hitler.
Hitler’s target of spite was many miles from his grasps in the comforts of his dictates. Yet, he rallied his scientists and engineers to seek all means for his wicked schemes to materialize.
They planned to employ suicide planes that would unleash destruction and death into the heart of Manhattan.
While the Al Qaeda succeeded, they failed, but they pursued the idea with appalling passion possessed by the vision of mass devastation.
For years, Hitler pretended to make friend of a potential foe, the United States. He tried his best not to spark any unwanted dispute with the country almost 4,000 miles from Berlin to keep them from interfering with his rule in Europe.
And for years, his army marched uninterrupted and the Luftwaffe that rained down bombs and fire all over the continent flew without American obstruction. He even went out of his way to publicly announce that the horrors and havoc the Nazis wreak would remain within the demarcations of Europe and would not spill into transatlantic territories and Germany has no animosity towards the U.S.
Privately, however, he cursed the American system of democracy and the freedoms the Americans enjoy. He was apparently in opposition to the acceptance and cohabitation of mixed races. He shared his disgust over the Jewish bankers that litter all over America. He expressed his desire to see, one day, the country tremble before him.
He was convinced to make his rule in Western Europe and then to crush the opposing Soviet Union. And he prepared for the inevitable clash between the only two super powers that would be left once he saw through his goal east of the Atlantic.
As early as 1937, Hitler has been gearing up to challenge the might of the U.S. Willy Messerschmitt, one of Hitler’s top aircraft designer, revealed a blueprint before the Fuhrer of a massive long-ranged bomber that he was developing in his factory in Augsburg, southern Germany.
ME-264 – The America Bomber
Adolf Hitler’s apocalyptic vision of New York was sketched by an artist. For years, he worked to see to the materialization of his dream. But, all his plans were unsuccessful at that time.
Messerschmitt showed Hitler the capacity of the Me 264, a four-engine giant bomber, to support the operations of German submarines in the Atlantic region and to hold other potential operations within the borders of the US.
The full-size prototype excited the Fuhrer that he immediately ordered for the completion of the project. As it turned out, the proposal was next to impossible at that time.
The Fuhrer’s dream has to be postponed given the limitations of technology and aerodynamics during the Nazi era. It had only been 34 years since the inception of the first flying machine by the Wright brothers. The plan to create a fast giant plane that could reach the U.S. in the shortest possible time and stay in the air for the longest possible time was far too ambitious to be achieved during the period.
It would be years after the Nazi rule before scientists and engineers would be able to create a plane that can carry three-ton bombs and that was capable of flying non-stop to New York and back to German sanctuary.
Yet, Messerschmitt was undeterred and the finest engineers of Germany worked to realize the plan by conducting experiments of wing loads, engine power and weight ratios.
While the engineers were scampering to complete the plane, Nazi rule spread like wild fire all over Europe. In 1941, Germany had already defeated France, England was isolated into the corner and he thought that the Soviet Union was neutralized. The inevitable clash between the U.S. and Germany was almost beginning.
In the factory, the engineers were facing a dilemma. They had to build a plane, the Me 264, light enough to travel at great speeds across the Atlantic unhampered by enemy planes but tough enough to carry the bombs and men necessary. And they never found the correct equation to completely perfect the plane as planned.
One solution they thought of was to establish pit-stops for the plane to refuel and make the necessary check-ups and repairs. With this plan, the Fuhrer would command his naval forces to seize Iceland where the German plane could make a quick stop halfway between Europe and America.
In the mid-1941, the U.S. saw through Hitler’s plan and took a preemptive move. Though the U.S. was still neutral at that time, it established military presence in Iceland denying the Germans control over the strategic region.
Messerschmitt’s engineers had no choice but to complete the Me 264 as originally intended — to go through the full distance and back.
During the later part of 1941, the United States joined the Allies after Japan attacked the American base in Pearl Harbor. The plane had to be completed as soon as possible.
Hitler revealed the anger and disgust he so carefully kept against the U.S. He called the U.S. “an uncultured nation ruled by greed” and denounced President Roosevelt and the “satanic circle of Jews around him” as warmongers and liars.
He wished to vent his hatred on the U.S. but the plane was far from complete. He wanted to crush his newest enemy in battle using a different tactic.
Commando Mission
In May 1942, Hitler ordered a team of German commandos to a highly risky and classified mission. Four commandos landed by submarine on U.S. soil by way of Long Island beach. The landing site was just a few miles from New York. The men, disguised as civilians, were on a mission to blow up buildings in New York with dynamite. They took a train into the city and established a base in a hotel.
The men were sighted by a coast guard when they landed ashore. The coast guard alerted the FBI and immediately a massive manhunt was underway. The FBI were unable to locate the commandos.
In a thrilling twist, John Dasch, the leader of the German team, defected to the U.S. The American authorities were able to arrest the members of his team as well as another team that landed in Florida on the same mission.
J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI made public the capture of the saboteurs. He revealed that the mission of the German teams that infiltrated into American soil was to destory munitions factories.
He did not, however, reveal the real plan of the bombers which was to detonate explosives in civilian sites such as the Grand Central Station to avoid public panic. It was a close call for the U.S.
Meanwhile, a prototype of the Me 264 was finally taken out for test flights. But, the plane proved to be very unstable in the air. The engines were reported to fall off and the pilots complained of difficulty in flying the plane. The plane, which Hitler relied upon to see his dream of destruction to reality, just couldn’t be completed.
Refuel At Sea & Rockets
One of Hitler’s men in the person of pilot Col. Viktor von Lossberg proposed an alternative plan. The pilot stepped forward and offered to take a plane into the middle of the Atlantic. The plane would establish links on a submarine that would load the bombs and extra fuel the plane needs to get to American coasts.
After successfully bombing New York, the plane would go back to Germany carrying news of triumph stopping only halfway in mid-ocean to refuel.
The pilot vowed to make his mission a symbolic statement. His bombs, though of limited capacity, was to strike primarily the Jewish neighborhoods in New York. The move was also intended to spread terror and weaken the morale of the Allies.
The plan was approved. However, it proved to be very difficult. The mission was to be conducted in spring of 1944 since it would be very difficult for the submarine to travel through icy waters in the winter.
By spring, the U.S. navy nearly had full control of the Atlantic, and most of the German submarines were chased out of the ocean. Thus, Lossberg’s mission simply could not be carried out.
Hitler then turned his focus into creating rockets that could reach America. Scientists including Wernher von Braun were developing missiles at the Peenemunde Arms Research Center on the Baltic coast. The weapons developed were short-ranged but the scientists were enthusiastic that they could build one with longer range.
The Allies tried to prevent the Germans from seeing through their rockets by bombing Peenemunde. The rocket research was transferred to a new facility deep under a mountain at Ebensee in Austria. A 60ft- high intercontinental missile assembly plant was constructed using slave labor.
However, Hitler’s desire for global domination was being met by strong resistance from east and west. From mid-1944, the Third Reich was shrinking fast. The military encountered problems left and right. Their biggest logistical dilemma was fuel shortage greatly immobilizing German air and ground forces.
These problems did not stop the Fuhrer from making attempts at New York. This time, he planned on using the Condor passenger plane which was readily available and capable of reaching American soil.
The Condor
In 1938, the Condor, which was built by Focke-Wulf, was able to make its first flight from Berlin to New York without stops. The flight took 25 hours. If the plane was to be used, it would not be able to refuel making the return flight to Berlin a major issue.
Dr. Fritz Nallinger of Daimler-Benz suggested to use the plane. His idea was to load explosives on the plane and crash it into New York. The pilot would parachute out of the plane once the Condor has been set on an unmanned course.
However, the Germans were not the only ones who have thought of the idea. The Allies have secretly been using “drone” bombers loaded with explosives and crashed into targets particularly underground sites in France and Holland that have been bombing England with rockets and flying bombs. Allied pilots would parachute out of the plane at the last minute.
The Allied air force were unsuccessful in its missions. Reportedly, 19 missions were launched but not a single target was destroyed. Four pilots, including Lt. Joe Kennedy, the older brother of future president John F. Kennedy, were killed during the missions. The idea was abandoned.
The Germans also found the idea too good to be true. The Condor was too slow to be used for the mission. It would become an easy target for the fast fighter planes of the U.S.
Germany was losing and Hitler was becoming desperate. Luftwaffe fighter pilots employed suicidal tactics by crashing their planes into enemy planes once they have run out of ammunition. Japanese kamikazes have also crashed their planes on the American warships in the Pacific creating severe damage.
Still not foregoing of the plan to attack New York, Nallinger designed a giant plane with massive wing span. Suicide pilots would man five small, one-man planes attached to the fuselage of the giant plane. Once in New York, the small planes loaded with explosives would detach and dive into Manhattan.
In the early part of 1945, the idea received a go signal from Goering, head of the Luftwaffe and Deputy to Hitler. It was, however, too late. Thousands of Nazis would be honored to take the opportunity of volunteering for the suicide mission. However, the Germans ran out of time in building a large plane that would be able to get to New York.
Even when the Russians stormed Berlin, Hitler was still fuming with anger and revenge over the Americans.
Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister, revealed that the Fuhrer was shouting orders in his bunker in Berlin to be shown films of London and Warsaw being consumed by the fire and bombs that were raining from Nazi bombers. Hitler was said to be craving to see the same scene in New York.
The Fuhrer, in all the might of the Nazis, was not able to realize his fantasy during his time. But, his dream was only postponed for more than 50 years.
This time Islamic fundamentalists saw through Hitler’s wishes successful in their plot to bring down skyscrapers at the heart of the city causing thousands of deaths and destruction. America and the world was never again the same. A dangerous ideology, determined suicide bombers, and two hijacked planes were all the ingredients that took to complete the recipe of terror.