The Raid on London 1943

Given the guts of the Home Fleet had largely relocated to other ports after the sinking of Royal Oak in 1940 and that the defenses of Scapa had been upgraded by a fair bit since (IIRC U-47 got through a channel that the poms were going to place blockships in -thus forcing any subs trying to infiltrate to run on the surface and so ge tshot to pieces- but the poms hadn't had the chance to yet).

They didnt just sink blockships they actually built causeways to link some of the smaller islands. So unless the U-boat had wheels it wasnt getting in. Prien in U-47 had excellent timing a few weeks later and his route in would have been blocked. I know everyone thinks the Royal Navy was run by morons soaked in gin but they only tended to make the same mistake once.

Some great photos of the Orkney barriers and defences.http://www.orkneypics.com/webpage/page/page011.html
 

Cook

Banned
V1 rockets...
V1 flying bombs are, as everyone has pointed out already, entirely unsuited for anything like a raid on harbour shipping and facilities. But that’s alright because the Germans did have the right tool for the job; a guided missile, two in fact: the Fritz-X for use against warships and the Henschel Hs 293 for use against unarmoured targets, both in service in 1943. They were air launched however, not surface launched. Dropped from an aircraft at a height of 5000 ft they had a range of about 12 km.
 
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I seem to recall at least one claim that while departing Scapa Flow U-47 may have sailed fairly close by the blockship on the way to block the very entrance U-47 had used...
 
OK Faralis, thanks for the idea - an E boat mounted Cruise missile (V1).

Err I obviously referred to the ground launched ones ... IIRC they even though to put them on cruisers, but it was too crazy even for them (and they had some lack of cruisers by then, of course )
 
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