View Single Post
  #3 (permalink)  
Old September 14th, 2006, 07:20 PM
T. A. Gardner's Avatar
T. A. Gardner T. A. Gardner is offline
WW2F Veteran
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: U. S.
Posts: 4,510
Salute!: 4
Saluted 243 Times in 165 Posts
T. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to beholdT. A. Gardner is a splendid one to behold
Post

Short answer: No! Think about this for just even a few seconds and it is just silly to suggest. First, what method is used? Aircraft cannot reach the US from Europe or Japan. If a ground raid is to be used how do the troops arrive? Submarine? If so, they are on foot ashore. In the ground case, how do they reach their target(s)? Oak Ridge Tennessee is hundreds of miles inland from the East Coast. At the time, travel by road there is limited (the norm would be air or rail). Shelling the coast is a dicy proposition. Most larger ports and cities have significant coastal artillery defenses at the time.
In one case where a Japanese submarine shelled California near the San Franscio bay area the local coastal defenses were alert and ready to reply but unfortunately their 1898 model 8" guns lacked the range to reply against the newer 5.5" the Japanese were using. Of course, the shelling did nothing really.
This whole idea would have proved nothing beyond annoying to the US and would have accomplished nothing. It might even have proved a propaganda coup for the US.
Aside from all that, the Germans were really very pathetic at the cloak and dagger game in general. Their one attempt to land agents in the US reads like a bad spy novel that ends quickly. In Britain every agent the Germans dropped was either captured and/or turned. Sabotage and SAS / OSS type operations were something the Germans just seem not to have had in their national character.
Reply With Quote