- The Ju390 went to Manchuria (It is also said that it is the Ju290A-5).
- The Ju390 on test flights saw New York on the horizon.
And lots more.
Well, as I saw someone comment on another board (Redcoat?), there seems to be a whole internet cottage industry of German war tech fanbois spreading exaggerations and lunacy regarding German wartime weapons’ production and “what ifs” regarding their technical achievements. I find most of it hard to believe, and take it all with a grain of salt. Claims have been made about many weapons’ programs that were little more than at blueprints stage IMO…
The Ju390 definatly never made it to New York (and didn’t try) since the prototype (a modified Ju 90 V6) that made the alleged flight was still missing critical structural reinforcements which limited the take of weight to 38 tons (needed 72). If the program had made it into production however the plane would have had the capability for such a flight.
Hmmm… It says different on the WWII plane book I have.
It says that they stitched up Ju290 parts to make the 390.
Schmidt- take a look at the Me 264. It’s 9,300-mile range could have taken it to NY or Tokyo at any time. It was the real deal. And whether advanced German projects took flight or not you can rest assured in the knowledge that the Allies exploited any and every German design and live engineer they possibly could after the war. Dozens of things were applied on post war allied aircraft if not outright cloning.
Except the allies already had better aircraft than the Me264 and none of the prototypes survived the War…
It’s confusing that there exists so little solid information about Ju390s. And information from third reich test pilots / leading nazis / unit logs is somewhat contradictory.
And it’s not helping that many books about Luftwaffe are from the 1970s, and pretty out-of-date.
_
Yeah, no credible information available…
I think the flight could have been possible, the germans produced many “impossible” things in the war that were not deemed feasible by the allies. But unless someone in Argentina finds the manufacturers plate of the V2 prototype that was supposedly flown there and dismantled, there is no hard evidence.
I have read a book from the 1970´s that states the:
Ju 390V2 came within 12miles of the US coast near New York (city or state not determined) (presumably with no payload). It also demonstrated a 32h endurance.
The V1 should have had a range 8000km with 10000kg cargo (transport only, theoretical or demonstrated not stated). (Planned range for the unbuilt A-1 patrol bomber: 9700km for recce role (payload not stated, but probably nil)).
“Three Ju 290A-5´s made round trips to Manchuria” in 1944.
(I have seen rubber mentioned as cargo on the return flight somewhere else).
The “typical maximum range” for the Ju 290 is stated to be 5950km.
I heard they saw new york (because of that, i belive the city) on the horizon. The Ju390 could have been a potent A-bomber.
Hmmm… round trips to Manchuria, Im not sure… I think they did it once. Anybody else have a say?
It couldn’t have been a potent A-bomber because there was no A-bomb!
Even if it could bomb New York, it was little more than a symbolic propaganda victory. What would have been the point? “You can envelope whole portions of Berlin and Hamburgh in flames, but we can drop a couple thousand pounds of bombs on NYC?” So what? It would have only made things harder…
The Germans could barely do anything to London at this point…
Well, V2s were kinda tickling london…
well Nick…
with that kind of arguments we´re all out of anything to discuss here. We can all log off and stay off??
To Panzerknacker:
Being from/working out of Argentina as you are; what do you have to say about all the “funny” Argentina theories involving Junkers aircraft, UFO´s and whathaveyou´s going from Germany to Argentina in May 1945? Have anybody in Argentina ever taken this seriously enough to look into it?
(I´m pretty tired of people writing unsubstantiated about nazi´s setting up camp in Argentina (or the Antanctic for that matter) post war and doing this or that with- or without “UFO´s”. Have you ever heard of nazi communities in Argentina (with members arriving in whayever way, at whatever time) or any German arriving Argentina by air directly from Germany in 1945?)
Well, as pzk I think said somewere, thats a load of NSDAP fairy-stories. Only I ever take that load of crap seriously…
To Panzerknacker:
Being from/working out of Argentina as you are; what do you have to say about all the “funny” Argentina theories involving Junkers aircraft, UFO´s and whathaveyou´s going from Germany to Argentina in May 1945? Have anybody in Argentina ever taken this seriously enough to look into it?
Not only that I work here also I born in this land too ( quite fortunate guy)
A lot of people have taken seriously this stories mostly because 3 facts.
A) There was a lot of supporters of the nazi cause in Argentina between 1935-46
B) There was ( and there is) german owned estancias ( large agricultural or catle ranchs) in the patagonian coast in wich an aircraft or a ship could easily arrive without much suspicious.
C) There was actually 2 U-bootes surrendering in Argentina several months after the final collapse of Germany.
Of course the UFO thing is just crazy.
I made sometime ago a topic called ( ironically of course) “confirmed Hitler scaped to Argentina”, I ll try to find it.
You posted a link in the “Hitler went to argentina” thing i made.
here
http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4446&highlight=hiltler+escapedIn
Yea, that was it, thanks Walther, that russian comic showing Hitler scaping to Argentina in the Luft46 project is a killer. 
Nick I wan’t proposing that the 264 was any better or worse than any Allied aircraft simply that it actually had the range to fly almost anywhere- something the Ju 290 did NOT have have enough fuel for.
Snebold you got it. If we don’t discuss alternate possibilities we may as well sign off cause all we’d have to talk about is the history exactly as it was. If we’re going to reconfirm one anothers observations from history what’s the point?
As for any bombing of the US we need to realize just what the ramifications were beyond dismissing it as meaningless.
You all may recall UFO mystery of 1942 and the Japanese shelling and light bomb assaults on the West coast of the US. Ha ha. Trivial damage you say. But far beyond any propaganda value was the fact that it cost tons of money and tied up tens of thousands of military personnel, vehicles and equipment.
Constant patrols had to be mounted by air sea and under the sea. There were more coast watchers in the western US that in England due to size alone. The fact that large amounts of military personnel had to be billeted and fed on a daily basis instead shipping out to a combat area was the same as if the enemy had killed them since they were effectively nullified.
I’ve seen some of the memo and communiques that were secret during the war concerning missiles. While we merrily discounted their effects publicly in truth the Allied were extremely torn with the decisions concerning them. The fact that innuendo and possible scenarios existed cost GB and the US money and time. Meeting and plans had to be forged for any eventuality.
The actuality was that War Dept. memos warning of the possibility of nuclear V-1s were terrifyingly real. We did not know they didn’t have them then folks! A lot of chaos resulted in actuality while we saw old Churchill calmly putzing about portraying the confident, steadfast leadership figure. To say missiles did nothing to London at any point in the conflict is frivilously nationalistic because they expected a nuclear attack via missiles and extrordinary countermeasures and efforts were taken which used Allied resources.
Had there been a perceived threat of attack on the US it would have been assumed that nuclear ordnance could be expected. How careless would it have been to not expect the worse and be unpleasantly surprised because you didn’t take a possible threat seriously?
Irregardless of the fact that Germany may not have had an explosive nuke it did have the ability to deploy radiation spreading devices at any time after 1943 which would result in massive death and area poisoning nevertheless.
So as little as one might want to attribute to physical damage to the German missile programs the reality was that it took its toll in other ways upon the Allies. And how must we attribute Germany’s defeat? Well for the most part they went broke. The Allied war machine caused that to happen as purposefully as anything. Sabotage, bombing attacks, espionage and infiltrators all contributed to the German downfall because she had to use resources to combat the real, the perceived or the possible threats, just as the Allies did.
As we all know rifle ordnance was agreed to be jackets metal rounds instead of fragmenting ones in order to technically cause less damage. But the real truth has nothing to do with humanity. The fact that one wounded soldier requires a fully articulated organization of retreival and medical care that cost money and diverts personnel from combat duty assignments and military occupational specialties that would otherwise be used offensively, are instead relagated to massive medical care and all that entails.
It is simply the same with any form of propaganda or possible threat be it real or perceived by your enemy. If he has to take precautions it costs him resources and manpower. That takes away from the money it takes to make bullets, uniforms food or whatever else.
Thank you Panzerknacker.
Currently the poll at the “Hitler escaped” site says 69% belives he escaped to Argentina. Probably says a lot about the people that bothers to poll!
The argumentation is rubbish, besides it would be an extremely un-Hitlerish thing to do. His political actions can only be explained in one way:
He was on a mission to bring “greatness” to the German Volk. His idea of greatness excluded Germany´s evolving into a great power among great powers in peace and and qiuet. That he saw no alternative to his idea of greatness for Germany is very much mirrored in his actions: gambling against high odds, whenever he felt (correctly) that time was working against him. It was always all or nothing, there´s no way he would settle down cattle farming or building model warships post war!
Twitch: you´re right about “useless” weapons and attacks eating away at the combatants resources. This is why the V2 was such an operational failure. Compared to the V1 there was very little the allies could do about it, and thus didn´t use many resources trying to. The damage the V2 in itself did was certainly not worth the effort. (f.x. using the development effort on SAM´s would have served them a lot better).
Back to the topic: Can anybody with an appropriate map tell us if the Ju 290 had the theoretical range to reach Argentina from German territory as of 1945? (With so few Ju 290´s ever around it might even be that some authority on the subject have them all acoounted for??)
I think the Ju390 could reach NYC and the Ju290 went to Manchuia…