WW2 saw incredible advancements of weapons technology and ushered in the age of jet and rocket propulsion. Germany led the world in advanced technology by at least ten years, but to their disadvantage the remarkable capability developments were not realised to their full potential until it was far too late.

This reality has since been one of the great talking points in the alternative history universe - 'what if Nazi Germany deployed their advanced weapon technologies much earlier in the war and used them in a strategically sensible manner?

One such technology often overlooked was the potential success of deploying submarine mounted rocket and jet weapon systems on operations. These developments became the blueprint for the modern ballistic missile submarine systems. Mark Felton provides an excellent short documentary on his YouYube channel about this early technology.

If such a weapon system was employed successfully as early as 1942 the ramifications would have been huge. Germany would have gained a significant strategic advantage at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, and potentially contained Canada and the US in defending their eastern seaboard. But all this depended on the Kriegsmarine convincing Hitler to not waste the weapons at wantonly bombing civilian targets for no tactical advantage.

So what if by mid to late 1941 the Kriegsmarine would have been in possession of platform mounted multi-rail rocket launcher systems similar to the Raketen-Velfachwerfer developed later in the war or the much-famed Soviet Katyusha rocket launcher fitted to their U-Boat fleet? If this capability became a reality the game would have changed dramatically.

Deploying the weapon systems:

The strategy of the U-Boat Wolfpacks roaming the North Atlantic for convoys of opportunity could have changed into a series of containment lines. Each U-Boat throughout the fleet is mounted with a rocket system to compliment its arsenal. How this strategy may have worked may be the following:

Containment Line 1: Patrol the North American eastern seaboard and launch rocket attacks at strategic targets such as port infrastructures and naval bases from Nova Scotia all the way down to the Caribbean. Also a secondary role attacking naval and commercial vessels of opportunity.

Containment Line 2: The second U-Boat fleet patrols further to the east behind Line 1 and hunts convoys of opportunity that slip past the first net, similar to the original Wolfpack strategy.

This tactic would require the entire fleet operating in a circular fashion rotating in and out of assigned roles as well as redeploying to further targets such as the Panama Canal for example.

Advantages:

By avoiding random bombing of civilian targets (and pissing off 150 million Americans desperate for revenge) the campaign targetting naval, port and ship-building infrastructure could have created a serious impact on North American capability to supply the UK & USSR. A significant slice of Canadian and US capability would be diverted to defending their eastern seaboard - and western assuming the Axis powers operated in tandem - and critically, the UK and USSR are starved of resources.

The potential capability to launch rockets underwater would further enhance the ability to attack by stealth which in turn complicates the allies ability to detect and respond to threats just that more difficult. In time when this technology improves Hitler may have had his wish and the capability could be available to launch V1 & V2 missiles on North American cities (thus quenching his obsession to bomb New York).

Disadvantages:

The number one disadvantage to the Axis throughout the war was their lack of resources. The U-Boat fleet was never in such a number of assets to actively contain the entirety of the vast North American eastern coastline nor enough weapon systems to deploy nor the means to supply the fleet.

Such a bombing campaign on North America would have required a constant stream of U-Boats sailing up and down the seaboard launching rocket attacks continuously at multiple targets at an almost daily basis to have any hope of success. To compound matters further they were up against one of the most heavily defended patches of water in the world in terms of anti-submarine warfare. This is a feat that could be impossible to accomplish, even by today's standards.

Summary:

This is another of the great 'what ifs' in history that fortunately never came to fruition. If the campaign were to be successful to at least launch initial attacks on North American maritime assets the scale of the campaign would never be enough to contain the western allies simply because the Axis did not possess near enough resources.

But what if the campaign was a success?

To have any measure of tangible success in the war effort in favour of the Axis powers it would mean timing is everything. It would need a combined joint Axis campaign of attacking North American assets along both coastlines commencing no later than December 41/January 42 in order to confuse and divide inexperienced and under-equipped Allied assets. On the East Coast the primary objective is to wear away at their response capability, especially their naval, port and ship building infrastructure.

This in turn would force the US to relocate the bulk of their ship-building and naval assets to the West Coast - further isolating them from supporting the European and North African theatres. With the Pacific Theatre in full rage and cutting off the Panama Canal the combined Allied support to the European theatre is seriously inhibited.

As explained earlier the butterfly effect would be enormous, but not fatal. Allied production capability along with sheer strength in numbers would eventually prevail, but at a huge cost.

If a successful operation were to be mounted Axis successes in the air and on land would have increased and prolonged against Allies that are starved of manpower reinforcements, food and war-fighting assets in the African, British and Russian fronts.

Thank God it didn't happen.