launching V-1s from an aircraft carrier

"The Blue Max" wrote in message
s.com...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote

It is and changing the C of G by putting the fuel that far forward in
flight
would likely overwhelm the flight control system as the c of g
changed. In any event fuel was far from being the only limit on
the Fi-103's range. The supply of compressed air for the flight
control system was limited as was battery power and the engine
shutters on the pulse jet engiine.

Interesting. Sounds like adding range would have been tricky.

The fact that the Germans reverted to firing these weapons from
aircraft rather than modifying them as you suggest after the launch
sites were overrun further points to the impracticality of the notion

I think they had other things on their mind at that point. V-1s did
perform
a useful task, even in small numbers, in tying down air defence assets
which
would have been more useful elsewhere...which is what my what-if is
exploring.

The USN and USAAF had radar equipped aircraft operating 24/7
as well as suface ships and submarines, they could no more expect
to be undetected than Bismarck was

They don't necessarily need to be undetected. They just need to be
underestimated as a threat at the range in question.


The USN NEVER underestimated a carrier group after Pearl Harbor

The US occupied Iceland and Greenland in 1941

Would they have done that if there were no Battle of the Atlantic going
on?


Yes , it was an obvious staging point for a transatlantic raid and an
invaluable air base.

Trouble she couldnt beat Russia

Another thread...

and there's no reason whatever to assume
Canada would stop fighting, particualrly with the US in the war

Only against Japan. I am assuming that the Commonwealth as a whole would
have accepted sufficiently generous terms. AFAIK there was a substantial
lobby in Britain post-France to do just that.

most important of all you have assumed the US would not react to
such events. a poor asumption IMHO

No, I'm just assuming they'd underestimate or misapprehend the precise
threat posed by 2 German CVs and would be geared to meet air attacks on
shipping, rather than a long-range raid on a militarily useless target.
The
raid would be unrepeatable but the idea is to tie down forces to make sure
of that.


The chances of the USN underestimating the threat posed by the
Kriegsmarine, especially equipped with carriers is precisely zero.

Keith