Rocket U-Boats: V-1 Missile Attack New York 1945 

>When your last gasp, desperate attack against the US becomes the future of submarine warfare

I didn't realise that the V2 was launched in such numbers, nor the amount of death/ damage it cased. I thought far fewer of these missiles were launched. Always learning from Dr Felton!

Kinda feel bad for the dudes who died on the 7th of May 1945, just a few hours before the war ended

The "dumb mortar bombs" fired from a submerged submarine deck may have have been too inaccurate to hit anything, but they would have done one thing with great precision: show the surface ships hunting them exactly where the sub was located. That might have had something to do with why the idea was abandoned.

Despite being a lifelong WW2 history buff, Mark Felton almost never fails to surprise me with the unusual, untold stories of this epic conflict.

What amazes me is how the Germans kept hammering away at these projects even as the Red Army was closing in on Berlin. Did they really believe attacking New York was going to have any effect on the outcome of the war, at such a late stage ? Anyway, another superb video Mark. This really is one of the best channels on RU-vid - well done, and keep it going!

So the germans were initiating submarines with ballistic missiles ? I've learned something today, thanks Mr Felton 🙂

My Grandparents used to tell me about the V1’s and how when you heard the engine stop, you knew it was bad news. They said the fear of the V2’s was so much worse as you didn’t even hear them coming. I can’t imagine living in times like that, and we think we have problems today?!

The technology the Germans had was insane. Not to mention their tenacity!

Germany was way ahead of its time

I only now found out from this story about how the nazis managed to improve the accuracy of the v1 to a 7 mile diameter circle. That is impressive accuracy given the relative crudity of the weapon itself.

Certainly be an emotional event for a Flower Class corvette to see a flight of those mortar bombs rise from the sea and arch down toward the ship.

There was a book on something like this but I had no idea it was based in reality, thank you Mark

I am almost 60 years old and started studying about WW2 in junior high. I have learned more from this Channel than I ever did from books.

Americans: we’re safe at home German rocket scientists: challenge accepted

Dr Felton's work deserves some major recognition.

That was interesting, and especially when he mentioned the Germans coming ashore in Maine, I lived not far from that happened! When I learned about this I did some research and found out more about the German landings , one was close to Goulsboro, , near Hancock point! They were both caught fairly quickly! It's amazing what you find out happened close by where you lived! Thanks to some curious people they didn't last long on their journey!

*Ah, it's time for that stirring music again... :)*

Perhaps 15 years ago, a Polish historian published a book on German Wunderwaffe. Most spectacularly was the German intercontinental boost-glide missile. The A9/A10 was the world's first practical design for a transatlantic ballistic missile. Design of the two stage missile began in 1940 and first flight would have been in 1946. Work on the A9/A10 was prohibited after 1943 when all efforts were to be spent on perfection and production of the A4 as a weapon-in-being. Von Braun managed to continue some development and flight tests of the A9 under the cover name of A4b (i.e. a modification of the A4, and therefore a production-related project). In late 1944 work on the A9/A10 resumed under the code name Projekt Amerika, but no significant hardware development was possible after the last test of the A4b in January 1945. Status: Cancelled 1945. Payload: 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). Thrust: 2,000.00 kN (449,600 lbf). Gross mass: 85,300 kg (188,000 lb). Height: 41.00 m (134.00 ft). Diameter: 4.12 m (13.51 ft). During the course of development, the vehicle evolved. The first stage, the A10, was first to have used a multi-chamber design: a cluster of 6 A4 combustion chambers feeding into a single expansion nozzle. Later a massive single chamber/single nozzle engine was planned. Test stands were built at Peenemuende for firings of the 200 metric ton thrust engine. The original second stage A9 design was a refined A4 with swept wings. A later version had two fuselage strakes instead of wings. Wind tunnel tests showed that these provided better supersonic lift and solved the problem of transonic shift of center of lift. A secondary benefit was better packaging of the A9 into the forward interstage of the A10. Guidance systems of the time were hopelessly inaccurate at the 5000 km range planned for the A9/A10. Therefore it was decided that the A9 would have to be piloted. After cut-off of its engine at 390 km altitude and 3,400 m/s, the A9 would re-enter and begin a long glide to extend the range. The pilot was to be guided by radio beacons on surfaced German submarines in the Atlantic Ocean. After reaching the target the pilot would lock in the target in an optical sight, then eject. Death or internment as a prisoner of war would follow. Work on the A9/A10 was prohibited after 1943 when all efforts were to be spent on perfection and production of the A4 as a weapon-in-being. Von Braun managed to continue some development and flight tests of the A9 under the cover name of A4b (i.e. a modification of the A4, and therefore a production-related project). In late 1944 work on the A9/A10 resumed under the code name Projekt Amerika, but no significant hardware development was possible after the last test of the A4b in January 1945. Designs beyond the A9/A10 were sketched out as well. Adding an A11 stage would have resulted in a satellite launcher. An additional A12 stage would result in a four stage vehicle with the A9 being a manned orbital space shuttle. Post-war refinement of the intercontinental missile concept in America and Russia went down two paths. On the one hand, it was found that it would be much more efficient for the A9 second stage to use a ramjet to extend the range to the 10,000 km true intercontinental range needed for the post-war adversaries to attack each other. This path led to the American Navaho and Soviet Buran and Burya missiles. On the other hand, improvements in rocket structures and engine efficiencies made it possible to design pure ballistic vehicles with cut-off velocities over twice as high as the A9/A10 and 10,000 km ranges. In the end, these faster, uninterceptable designs won out.

Last time I was this early operation sea lion was still in planning.

There is no finer, more comprehensive and educational channel than Mark Felton Productions.

Great video never knew about these submarines until now.

The first ICBM's, the first smart bombs, the first operational jet fighters, the first assault rifles, the first interstate highways, no wonder people are so fascinated with Nazis. Despite everything they did. Anyone remember the American pigeon guided bomb? Not sure if Mark has covered it but that was a first and a last.

So much material on this channel for supervillain plots.

As a fan of military history I must say this is one of my top three favorite channels. I won't say where it falls of the three but it's up there. ;)

Nazi part apart, but German engineering & wonder amazes me today. They developed jet engine, rocket, submarine, cruise missile and lot of other things.Lots modern technology is direct result of German. I wish they built more things instead of going onto wars.

Those towed V 2s are something out of a wet dieselpunk dream.

One of the advanced technical features on the latest German U-boat, the Type XXI, was the snorkel, an airpipe allowing the use of its diesel engines while at periscope depth. This meant it could recharge its batteries without having to surface. The 'snorkel' was in fact engineered by Dutch naval engineers shortly before the start of World War II and it was standard equipment on the latest class of Dutch submarines. Of course, when the German armed forces invaded Holland in May 1940, they captured the plans and a fully functional unit with the capture of two modern Dutch submarines, O-25 and O-26.

Antwerpen was also hit with a great number of V1 and V2 rockets.

Thank you good sir these videos are great! I always learn things I'd never heard of before.

I'd never heard about this mission so thanks for the history lesson. My Mum was a kid in London during the second war & had some great but scary stories related to the Doodlebug before she was sent out of the city to live somewhere safer. The kids today don't realise how lucky they are.

Damn, these little snippets are addictive!

Haven't even finished watching the video and I know it's good, nice content

Gotta love the way Mark gives a detailed - almost 'first person' report of the action. Thanks.

This is the only history youtube channel i can find with significant U-Boat related videos, great job.

Thanks Mark, despite being fairly knowledgeable on WWII, I'm always learning something new in your videos that I never heard before. This one was especially insightful. Keep up the great work.

Continue to be amazed & enlightened with your work Mark... Thank you!

Dr Felton- I really enjoy the recent longer format. Thank you!

I simply know my day will get bet even better, after a Felton production. You should be a screen writer/producer!

Mr. Felton's ability to teach history is unrivaled. I tip my hat to you sir.

Another gem of history Mr. Felton. Like all of your subscribers, I eagerly await your every post. Please keep them coming!

Mister Felton, you are truly digging up unknown or lesser-known aspects of the 2nd World War. It seems you could make the same kind of series for anything history. You would make a valuable addition to the staff of any museum. Many thanks to you, sir.

Just when I think I know a thing or two about this conflict along you come with a totally unheard of story. Thank you!

great vid as always! Would love to see a video about the allies breaking enigma which helped them hunt U-boats with ease.

When you realise the Germans not only invented the first jet, rocket, but they also invented the first missile submarine

Mark your content is among the best on RU-vid! Keep it up!

Mfw there is a mark Felton personality cult online at this point

My Father was a USNavy vet who studied in Italy in the 1950s. He met a former Italian Naval officer who told me he had seen the NYC skiline during the war through a German periscope.

The Type 21 electric submarine was clever but worse than useless. It relied on sticking a snorkel above the waves for almost the entire journey. Not a good idea when British airborne radar had the ability to see a snorkel from a range of several miles through cloud and at night. The first thing the U-boat crew could know about the presence of a bomber is when the bombs and depth charges exploded.

Hey learnt more watching this for 15 minutes than watching mainstream TV thanks .

When I was a kid I remember having a model kit of that American sub with the V one rip off on it’s deck

In 1944, the U.S. reverse-engineered the V-1 from parts salvaged in England. Republic Aviation built prototypes that were almost identical. A navalized version was developed to be launched from LSTs, escort carriers, aircraft, and surfaced submarines. They were put into production for planned use in the invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall).

These uploads are coming fast and furious. I love it.

I live in NY, it's cool to learn about my state's history

Damn, another amazing and informative video. I never knew about the U-boats with rocket launching capabilities! Gonna love bringing this up in my history class! Thanks Mark!!

Dr. Felton please do a video on the war crimes of the IJN. After reading your book there is so much more you could do on this channel with what you wrote about them in your book

Always excellent content and film clips, pleasant English annunciation AND German pronounciation that doesn't make one cringe. And cool theme music. Learn a lot of history from this channel. Thank you Mark Felton!

The grandfather of the Tomahawk, impressive.

The Peenemünde V1 / V2 rocket research facility, or at least the area, was in continuous military use by the GDR until 1989, a MIG Squadron for short time interception of baltic sea hostiles was stationed at the local Airport. After the war, what was left of the by then rotten experimental facilities was preserved and slowly turned into a museum from private fundings, and is a great and informative place to visit right now. I even took a date over there back when i lived nearby, could not say she was bored that afternoon. The airport is one of two on the island of Peenemünde by now, you can fly your cessna over there. The other little airport hosts annual historic flight displays with wartime planes. Peenemünde airport by now is one halfth a landing strip, the other halfth was turned into a race track right after the place was demilitarised. I crashed my Kawasaki there this summer, gonna need a new race bike now. Pretty cool to go down the strait and have a plane landing on parallel, some metres away. Albeit a nature reserve as most of the island, the bottom is so soaked from oils of the old heavy machinery back then, i would not eat any rabbit the local forester may shoot.

Fortunately for the allies it seems like the Germans had a weakness for complexity when "good enough" would have been sufficient. Many examples of it. In this case they could have probably fielded submarines capable of carrying multiple V-1s and firing them in succession from their decks at coastal targets and then slipping away to be resupplied farther out at sea. The V-1 had simple fuel needs (gasoline) and was an air breather. The V-2 on the other hand was too big, much more costly and resource intensive to produce, and required liquid oxygen as oxidizer which would have presented major challenges to carry on a submarine. Moreover they could have combined their efforts with the Japanese who were fully adept at stowing and deploying aircraft from their submarines.

Where does he get the film for these videos? He is the best I've seen on RU-vid for history. Keep up the good work Mark

12:15 the SBD is in pre-war / early war markings. SBD weren't typically on board of CVEs detached to hunter killer groups, those carried TBF and FM2.

Wonder what would have happened if the Germans had used these rockets with some kind of chemical warhead against coastal north american targets...

German technology! Unbeatable!

German enginers precursos of modernday tecnology.

Just when I thought I knew WW2, Mr. Felton teaches me something new. Kudos! What a great war flick this would make.

German scientists are always great. They have made many innovations during WW2. US, Britain and Russia used those inventions as their own inventions.

Thanks especially to Mark Felton, the more I learn about WW2 the more I realise how close we came to possibly losing..

Wow, this is an amazing bit of history that I'd never heard until now.

Considering that the German High Command (OKW) had initially planned to start the war in 1943 or 1944, and not as early as 1939, and that had the beginning of the war been at the later date with such weapons far more developed, the consequences for the Western Allies would have been even more disastrous than they already were in 1944/45. Not even considering potential German nuclear weapons, a concentrated V2 attack on the east coast of the USA would have caused widespread panic and political upheaval with unknown outcome. Hitler's gamble in 1939 and the premature start of WWII had more dire consequences for Germany than he realised at the time.

I wondered why someone came up with the notion of launching a missile from a submarine, but now I see where the idea came from.

Always delighted to watch your videos. I just can’t see how they can get any better than from what they already are!

Could you do a video on Tiger 323 the Last Tiger to Defend Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Thanks again Mark, Didn’t think I’d ever say this but your video’s are getting better all the time. Mostly because they’re longer and we don’t want them to end. Where would we be without the Germans?

It would have been terrible if any of the U-Boats succeeded in their mission, but at the same time I can't imagine how bad it would be to die aboard one and I feel bad for the poor guys crewing them

Once again, clear and precise highlighting of something quite interesting. Could listen to you all day. Well done Mark.

This dude needs more subs and views. Great job Mark 👍

Dropping a few V1s somewhere within ten miles of the intended target was never going to win the war.

These tales of German technology toward war's end just make me think how things could have been different if Hitler had held off and went to war at a much later date

How do you get the footage. It always amazes me, or the storeis even! Great work Mark! You should do a video about brutal human testing that Japanese did during war.

First view. I’ve actually never seen the “no views” icon. I could blog this, but it wouldn’t be as interesting as class with Mark Felton.

These last ditch German projects were insane. They absorbed HUGE volumes of scientific research, expense and slave labour but ALL of the projects combined didn't add one single day to WW2.

The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't, by subtracting where it is, from where it isn't, or where it isn't, from where it is, whichever is greater, it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance sub-system uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the missile from a position where it is, to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position where it was, is now the position that it isn't. In the event of the position that it is in is not the position that it wasn't, the system has required a variation. The variation being the difference between where the missile is, and where it wasn't. If variation is considered to be a significant factor, it too, may be corrected by the GEA. However, the missile must also know where it was. The missile guidance computance scenario works as follows: Because a variation has modified some of the information the missile has obtained, it is not sure just where it is, however it is sure where it isn't, within reason, and it knows where it was. It now subracts where it should be, from where it wasn't, or vice versa. By differentiating this from the algebraic sum og where it shouldn't be, and where it was. It is able to obtain a deviation, and a variation, which is called "error"

Man, i didnt realise the V1s killed over 6000 people. These videos are excellent, I'm in awe of the speed of your output. Well done sir.

The Germans were so ahead of their time it’s not even funny..

I did a report about U-boat rockets in highschool back in the 80s. This video is more comprehensive. I included a diagram of the large launch canisters the U-boat would have towed.

The US and Canadian Navies were relentless in tracking down those Jerry subs, finding subs in the middle of a cold open and large ocean is no small operation. Hats off to these brave sailors and airman for what was vary dangerous work. As for slapping around some Jerry submariners, they were big boys and all survived to return home to the fatherland, so their feelings were a little hurt, just think what would have happen to them if the Soviets were the ones who captured them.

Your content is top notch, I always learn something new

Dr Felton strikes again Thanks

Loving the Box art lifts from Model Kits and photos of Models

New material (to me) here. Thank you Mr Felton. I had little notion of the damage wrought by the V weapons on our English civilian colleagues. This is almost as wretched as the wholesale killing of civilians in Hamburg, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Dresden and other beautiful cities. Only one side had to actually answer for their atrocities. I'm an Australian and I am disgusted with the wholesale killing of civilians. I'm also tired of propaganda...

Fascinating video, I’ve never heard of this project before. Pretty ballsey move considering that they once designed a U-boat that would sink if you didn’t flush the toilet properly.

When I read the video's title, I thought, what BS story, and I immediately checked the measurements of the Fi103 (V1), the type 7 and type 9 u-boats and the legth of the G7 tropedoes used with them. The measurements matches and you also spoke of the catapult and ramp needed for a V1 launch, so there could have been something to it. Excellent research and good way of telling. I was shocked at the end how nonchalantly you glossed over the fact that the surviving u-boat crews were put under torture while being POWs. It shows again that in war, no side has the moral high ground until the end ´, when the victors choose the narrative...

How tenuous our victory over Germany was. Though inevitable it could have taken much longer with far more loss of life on both sides. Thanks Mark.

Please do a story of the U boats being welcomed at Standard Oil (Rockefeller), Linden, NJ. It is true. They were refueled there by pro-Nazis.

They had the right idea for the underwater mortar - should have fired straight up as the destroyer passed over the boat, rather than at an angle.

I read this book, it's called "Impossible Target"

Bravo Mark Best channel in its field by far!

I remember playing a WW2 aircraft game where this concept was flipped on it's head. Instead of the germans, it was the japanese attacking San Francisco with Ohka suicide bombers launched from I-400 Class subs. Strangely the mission allowed you to pilot captured Me-163s as they were the only thing fast enough to catch the tiny piloted bombs. Even more interesting was the addition of the acoustic missiles on the Me-163. Listening in for the engine noise using 4 microphones to guide them.

The German scientists were so ahead of their time, great ingenuity. Very smart, just a shame their talent was put to such terrible use