The rocket U-boats were a series of military projects by the German Kriegsmarine (German Navy) aimed at developing submarine-launched rockets that could be launched against sea or offshore targets.
The first experimentation with the idea of rocket U-boats is the development of solid-fuel rocket launchers in 1941 at the Peenemunde Army Research Center, where several trials were conducted on U-boat 511 using the submarine as the platform. Although the rocket launchers were launched successfully, the launchers themselves have no effective targeting system. Hence, it was not capable of targeting Allied surface ships.
This was changed in July 1943 when Germany successfully developed the V-1 rocket. Also known as the Vengeance Weapon, this unmanned flying bomb is powered by a pulse-jet engine with a range of 148 miles and can be launched from a land-based installation. Such capabilities spawn the idea of using U-boats as a launch platform to strike almost any city in the world with the use of the V1. However, the V1 is a Luftwaffe (German Air Force) weapon so the proposal is rejected.
When the V2 rocket was developed in 1943, the idea of rocket U-boats had become more viable as Germany was beginning to lose the war on all fronts. Plans for watertight, unmanned, and unpowered V-2 rocket containers for U-boats were drawn up in late 1944, which were to be towed across the Atlantic before the rockets were fueled, set up, and launched from gyrostabilized platforms. The evacuation of the Peenemunde Army Research Center in February 1945 put an end to these attempts.
However, the construction of these rocket U-boats was said to be propagandized for a potential Kriegsmarine attack on New York City, USA. Allied intelligence, which caught wind of this operation, had thus developed a Naval contingency plan to defend the East Coast of the United States, codenamed Operation Teardrop. Although the US Navy was successful in sinking some U-boats, there was no clear evidence of U-boats carrying V-2 or even V-1 rocket launch systems. Hence, leaving the intelligence to speculate that the planned German submarine attack on the United States was more of a Psychological ploy to keep the Allies on their toes as Germany breathe its last death throes in April 1945.
Still, the concept of rocket-armed U-boats did form the basis of ballistic missile submarines used by modern navies in the present day.
https://www.uboataces.com/articles-rocket-uboat.shtml
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Rocket_U-boat
https://www.amazon.sg/Mirage-Hobby-U-Boat-U-511-Submarine/dp/B007CHA158
https://warhistory.org/es/@msw/article/u-boat-tests-with-bombardment-rockets
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