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The Germans, desperate to deter the United States, searched for ways to attack the continental United States. Both V-1 and V-2 rockets were considered for bombardment of coastal cites such as New York. Because of the range limitations, an obvious approach was for a sea-based attack. One of several schemes was proposed by Deutsche Arbeitsfront Director, Otto Lafferenz The project was dubbed Projekt Schwimmweste and the containers themselves referred to by the codename Prüfstand XII. proposing the use of a submergible V-2 and launch platform towed behind a large submarine. Although several were placed on order, only one was actually built, captured by the Soviets in the Baltic after the war, and no practical sea trials were completed. The large size of the V-2 meant that it would not fit into the hull of a U-boat. Instead, the plan called for the V-2 to be mounted inside a large watertight cylindrical container and slowly (approximately 12 knots) towed across the Atlantic by a Type XXI U-boat. Each container displaced about 500 tons and would be kept submerged by the forward motion of the boat. In addition to the V-2 rocket, each container also held a reserve of diesel fuel intended to supply the U-boat in the course of its journey. In order to launch the missile, the ballast tanks in the container would be flooded, thus bringing it to a vertical position. After the guidance system was initialized, it was remotely launched from within the U-boat, where the missile would leave its container and head towards its target. Radio guidance was suggested to accurately guide the rockets to their targets.
With no GPS target and launch location determination (as is used today) or terrain mapping radar (as cruise missiles used during the Cold War), assisted by high speed computers, the many obstacles, fortunately, deterred successful development and deployment. The German navy's Chemical and Physical Laboratory at Lake Toplitzsee, hidden away in the Alps, conducted research on several different rocket configurations for the subs, some self-defense, some offensive. After the war, the lake became the source of much speculation about sunken counterfeit bank notes and gold. |
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2000-2020 J. M. Taylor |
Many technical issues were never resolved, such as how to
transport the 8 tons of fuel, including liquid oxygen, with ethyl alcohol and
sodium permanganate for the turbo pump. Fuels would be stored in the barge's own
tanks until before launch until transfer to the rocket just prior to launch,
much as the ground-based mobile launchers operated.