The Ju-390 traces it's lineage through development of Ju-290, Ju-90 and Ju-89 types.

Two prototype aircraft were flown. A third prototype was built and paid for. Indeed Junkers received payment on 29 June 1944 for seven completed prototypes. We would not even know a second prototype flew except that a British Merchant Marine sailor in the Mediterranean in 1943 snapped a photo of the aircraft attacking his ship, now known by its registration, RC+DA. Such was the long range capability of the Ju-390 that it quickly found a niche for special missions.

A second Ju-390 prototype is highly disputed and dismissed by many historians, however strands of evidence for it's existence cannot be explained by conventional historians. The fate of this second prototype is shrouded in mystery and remains at the heart of many conspiracy theories. Long after World War 2, Argentina's secretive Government was compelled at Argentina's own congressional hearings to declassify some of it's wartime dealings with Nazi Germany. Out of this tumbled the fact that a large multi engined German aircraft flew to El Palomar airbase Buenos Aires on 2 May 1945 from Villa Cisneros [now known as Daklha] and unloaded a device simply called the Bell.

Interestingly the photo snapped of RC+DA was taken during an attack on a Malta Convoy in 1942, suggesting this aircraft was possibly operated by LTS.290 in North Africa. The photo clearly shows a white "Afrika" band used for identification of German aircraft operating in the Mediteranean, or North Africa. The photo was taken by merchant seaman Ron Whylie whilst his convoy KMF-5  was under attack in late 1942. The date alone disrupts claims that the first J-390 flight was made in 1943.

A copy of his photo of RC+DA was long held by the Museum in Vienna and published by German test pilot Hans Werner Lerche in his own autobiography. Lerche confirmed the aircraft RC+DA was indeed a Ju-390 aircraft. Many critics have attempted to dismiss the image of RC+DA as a photo-shopped image of a Ju-290 but provide no evidence for their claim.

There are large gaps in the published information on the Ju 390, a development of Junkers' previous Ju 290 series, which themselves were extensions of the Ju 90 design. In William Green's "Warplanes of the Third Reich" there is a detailed description of the modifications made to transform existing Ju 290 airframes to Ju 390 standard and lists the equipment they carried.

References are an issue, there is just not that much material on the Ju 390. Fortunately, most of the design details were consistent with the Ju 290s, and much of the operational history of the Ju 390 V2 parallels the 290s which were operated by the same units.

There are several wild tales involving Ju 290s and 390s floating around the Internet. All have proponents and detractors. Many reports appear plausible, while a few live very far down Conspiracy Lane, but it is doubtful the Ju 390s simply flew a few test flights and then did nothing else, but we may never know all the details of their actual activities.

There are only a half dozen published pictures of the V1, and just one purporting to be the V2, not matching the general description of the V2 given by Green.

V1 [factory code GH + UK] - This was the development aircraft for the transport version. Some sources state that a Ju 90 was used as the basic airframe for the conversion, and the fuselage had round cabin windows consistent with this. The fuselage aft of the wing was extended 8.07 feet, and the wings were extended 27.23 feet, bringing the total span to 165.02 feet. This aircraft appears to have spent its days conducting various tests and trials, including serving as an aerial tanker for Ju 290s. It ended the war on an airfield in Czechoslovakia, without propellers.

V2 [factory code RC + DA] - This was the development aircraft for the maritime reconnaissance version. The main structure was modified the same as the V1, except an additional 8.2 foot section was added to the forward fuselage.   This aircraft was fitted with a ventral gondola, FuG 200 radar, and full defensive armament. It was completed in October of 1943, and according to the book "German Aircraft of the Second World War" by J. R. Smith and Anthony L. Kay, the Ju 390 V2 went in January 1944 to FAGr 5 at Mont-de-Marsan for operational evaluation, from where it made a claimed flight to within 12 miles of New York.

FaG 5 was disbanded in August 1944 [to reform later on Ar 234s] when German airbases in France were threatened by the Allied advance. FaG's Ju 290s were passed to KG 200, a Luftwaffe special missions unit.

Several interesting missions are attributed to the Ju 390, including liaison flights to Japan. While confirmation is lacking [not surprising for KG 200, a special ops unit)] Ju 290A-9s are known to have completed many of the same assignments. The V2 was standing by at Rechlin to evacuate Nazi VIPs to Spain in April of 1945. While a Ju 290A-5 [W.Nr. 110178] actually made the flight to Spain, the V2 was not reported to have been located after the war. One account says the V2 was flown to Norway, where it was repainted in Swedish colors, and then used to transport German scientists to a ranch in Paysandu Province, Uruguay. The aircraft was then reportedly dismantled and sunk in the Rio Uruguay River, where it is said to remain to this day.

V3 - This was to be the Amerika Bomber Ju 390A development aircraft, but it was never built. Dimensions were to be the same as the V2, but defensive armament was to have been increased. The bomb load was to have been carried externally.

A Luft '46 project is a proposed reconnaissance version with wings extended to 181.63 feet. This was a Paperwaffe project only, and not even general configuration drawings have been found.

Ki-390 - This one is definitely a Nippon '46 "what if". Considerable interest in the Ju 390 design was expressed by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, the JAAF even purchasing manufacturing rights. However, the design was never developed.

Hans Werner Lerche records his flight in the Ju-390 on 28 October 1943, but makes no comments about this flight at all which is rather surprising if one is asked to accept this was either, the Ju-390's maiden flight, or for that matter personally his first flight in the type. Rather it tends to suggest that he had flown the type before. 

Lerche later disclosed that the Ju-390 was not unpleasant to fly however it could not be flown too fast or turned too quickly otherwise it had a flutter problem. He said it was very stable and slow flying aircraft.

The conventional view of the Junkers Ju-390 story hold that only one prototype was ever built, being the Ju-390 V1. This version asserts that the Ju390 V1 was first flown from a dirt airstrip at Merseberg on 20 October 1943, piloted by civilian Flugkapitän Hans Joachim Pancherz and engineer Dipl-Ing Gast.

However there is also an earlier claim that the Ju-390 made it's first flight in August 1943 at the hands of famous Reichlin Test pilot Flugkapitan Hans Werner Lerche at Bernberg.

The conventional view therefore is that the Ju-390V1 was retired from service and flown to Dessau in November 1944 where it was stripped of propellers and sat derelict until destroyed. There are conflicting claims of it's destruction by a US 8th Air Force raid on 16 January 1945 and other claims that it was burned in April 1945 to prevent capture.

Either way it is generally accepted the Ju-390 V1 ended its career at Dessau in November 1944 and remained derelict until destroyed in 1945. RC+DA appears to have been the aircraft destroyed at Dessau in 1945.

Ju-390 identities

RC+DA appears to have the shorter fuselage Ju-390 V1 and to have been equipped as a maritime patrol aircraft. GH+UK appears to have been the longer fuselage Ju-390 V2 equipped for a transport role.

Chief Test Pilot Flughauptmann Hans Pancherz told the British at a hearing on 26 September 1945, that only one prototype was built however in October 1943 Major Hoffmann from [GL/C/E2] RLM recommended that Ju-390 production should commence immediately and there was no need for further prototype aircraft. Hoffmann urged proceeding straight to series production. Air Marshall Erhard Milch adopted Hoffmann's recommendation. The first prototype had been flying since August 1943. This aircraft displayed some longitudinal instability. The second aircraft had a much longer fuselage with a greater tail movement arm. The Ju-390 V2 was redesignated as the production standard Ju-390 A1. Junkers company records incidentally suggest the A1 aircraft did fly. 

Technically Pancherz may have been telling the truth that no other prototype was built but that does not mean that no other Ju-390 was built. His answer was misleading the British.

At the end of the war Argentine and Polish sources which until recently were classified, both record that a Ju-390 flew from Norway to Argentina and then the aircraft was ferried to a German ranch in Paysandu Province of Uruguay where it was dismantled.  

Now we have evidence from multiple sources which prove that Pancherz lied to conceal the flight to Argentina.

On 1 December 1943 the Luftwaffe QM-General listed the first series aircraft Ju 390 V2 for October 1944. This machine would be available at the end of October, three more in November, five in December and so on into March 1946. Ju 390 V2 was expected to be ready by the end of September 1944 and flight tested in November. A report dated March 1944 indicates that Dessau was to turn out 26 Ju 390, another report from May 1944 that Junkers had no less than 111 on the order book.

Junkers was paid on 29 June 1944 for the completion of seven Ju-390 aircraft. Because of the general situation, all work on the production was stopped in June 1944 for the increased fighter production, the so-called "Jäger-Notprogramm". 

On 29 June 1944 KdE Rechlin made a surprise announcement condemning the aircraft as unsuitable for long-distance work because the wing loading would be too great for the intended payload [various other drawbacks were also recited]. Shortly before the termination of all work Junkers received contracts in June 1944 to build Ju 390 V-2 to V-7, but this might have been done for accounting purposes.

It appears RC+DA was the Ju-390V1 and the Ju-390V2, fitted with BMW801E engines was redesignated as the Ju-390 A1. It is recorded by Junkers that the Ju-390A1 transporter was built and GH+UK was clearly the transporter version as compared with RC+DA which was clearly equipped with a bomb aimers gondola as a maritime patrol aircraft. 

This type of switch happened previously when the the Ju-90 V11 was redesignated as the Ju-290V1 and Ju-90 V12 was redesignated as  J-290 V2. The Ju-90 V6 airframe was itself re-designated Ju-390 V1.

The unconventional explanation for the fate of Junkers second Ju-390 prototype concerns an alleged flight from an airfield  at Schweidnitz in Poland to evacuate a Bell shaped ionising centrifuge used by the Nazis for advanced research of high energy fields. This Bell device has become the subject of various claims, attracting cynicism from some and fantastic claims from others.

A hotly contested argument rages whether a second Ju-390 prototype was ever built. This owes in part to postwar testimony at a British military hearing by Junkers chief engineer for Ju-390 production and similar testimony from the Ju-390 project pilot, Hans Jochim Pancherz who both claimed only one prototype was ever built.

There the story might have ended except that the Ju-390 V1 prototype was retired to the airfield at Dassau and stripped of propellers where it sat conspicuously derelict until destroyed there in 1945. Then Oberleutnant Joachim Eissermann recorded in his log book flying the Ju-390 V2, twice on 9 February 1945. Contrary to modern embellishments, Eissermann's log book did not record the aircraft by it's registration markings. Only that it was the V2 prototype. The first flight was 55 minutes of familiarisation flying around Reichlin air base. The second flight  was a 22 minute delivery trip to Larz.

In their 1993 book, "Die Grosen Dessauer: Junkers Ju-89, 90, 290, 390" Karl Kössler and Gunter Ott suggest the second Ju-390 was not constructed and flown before September/October 1944, yet RLM cancelled all Ju-390 contracts in May 1944.

If the Ju-390 contract was canceled in May 1944, then it could not have been completed in September 1944. Kössler and Ott have gotten it wrong.

Soviet historical sources claim the unfinished Ju-390 airframe was in fact the V3 prototype. The Ju-390 V3 prototype was intended for completion in the "summer" of 1944. In fact the original RLM contract in March 1942 was let for three prototypes and we have evidence for the existence of two aircraft. What can be said truthfully is that only one Ju-390 airframe was found in Germany after the War. That is not however conclusive proof that only one was built.

The V2 aircraft was an unarmed transport version with a longer fuselage than the V1. It also appears to have been shortened ahead of the wing. This aircraft is reported making it's first flight from Bernberg in August 1943, flown by Flugkapitän Hans Werner Lerche.

The Ju-390 V3 may have been intended as a flying tanker aircraft for air to air refueling trials. Such trials were conducted around Prague with the V1 aircraft in early 1944. Construction of the V3 appears abandoned in May 1944 when all production was switched to emergency fighter construction.  Conventional historians who assert the existence of only one Ju-390 assert the V2 was broken up before completion. A contrary view is that it was actually the uncompleted V3 aircraft which was broken up in June 1944. By May 1944 orders had already been issued to switch all production to fighters.

On 29 June 1944 KdE Reichlin condemned the Ju-390 saying that it would be unsuitable because the wing was not strong enough for the intended 10,000 payload. That declaration is likely to require some qualification. Reichlin was testing the Ju-390 for an intended role as the Ju-390C bomber at the time to carry three Me-328 parasite aircraft.

The wing was very lightly loaded. The weight of fuel was evenly distributed across its span. On the ground it had four sets of main undercarriage. For the transport role it was likely quite strong enough. The requirements for a bomber role are quite different, such as requiring higher cruise speeds to avoid interception. 

The Ju-390 had a relatively slow VMO speed of 272 knots. If flown beyond this speed it was likely to break up as would  any aircraft flown in excess of design speeds. This does not imply it was unsafe below VMO.

As a slow transport the Ju-390 had extreme long range and was quite safe. If re-engined to obtain higher speeds and carrying extra weight from gun armament then the Ju-390 likely was inadequate. It was likely that the Ju-390's wing was unsuitable in a specific situation when pushed to higher speeds.

The bomber version of the Ju-390 was intended to launch either parasite fighters or large rocket powered glide bombs at New York. It was the weight of these weapons which the wing was too weak to carry. Not the fuel weight of a mission to New York.

Junkers Ju 390 "Amerika Bomber" Adolf Hitler badly wanted to bomb New York City. The Luftwaffe also had a prime target further in on the US mainland: the major automotive plants in Michigan busy churning out four-motor bombers that were wreaking havoc on the German homeland. The generic name for development in this area was the "Amerika Bomber." Both targets were within theoretical reach by war's end, but territorial losses and industrial damage prevented these ambitious objectives from ever being realized. The Luftwaffe had halted development of strategic bombers in the 1930s - "The Führer does not ask me how big my bombers are, only how many I have," Hermann Göring said rather fatuously - a decision which the Germans regretted as the years passed and the Allies demonstrated the devastating power of four-engine bombers. Some Nazi projects were attempted, but it was tough to tool up and develop a capable strategic bomber when the Allies were bombing any factories they could identify as manufacturing advanced aircraft. One project that did manage to get beyond the mere design stage, though, was the "New York Bomber". The German designers took the basic Junkers 290 design and expanded it for the Ju 390, lengthening the wings to fit a total of six engines and lengthening the fuselage to increase the payload. It would have carried a crew of ten in full operational mode, with two 13mm machine guns in a gondola, two on the beam as in Allied bombers, and a 20 mm cannon in the tail. The plan was to prepare it for maritime reconnaissance, bombing and transport. The engines were BMW 801D radial piston engines of 1730 horsepower apiece. These would have provided a top speed of 314 mph, better than Allied bombers and comparable to most fighters of the day, with a range of 6,030 miles and a service ceiling of 19700 feet. Two prototypes were built and flown. The first V-1 flight was 20 October 1943, with the second V-2 prototype also flying that month. Tests continued through mid-1944 before all Nazi bomber projects were shelved. The Ju 390 V2 was assembled in Bernburg and was first flown in October 1943. It is said to have been configured for the maritime reconnaissance role. Its fuselage had been extended by 2.5 m [8.2 ft], and it was equipped with FuG 200 Hohentwiel ASV [Air to Surface Vessel] radar and defensive armament consisting of five 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon. Aviation expert William Green notes different armament, specifically four 20 mm MG 151/20s and three 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns. The Germans knew all about effect vs. ineffective bomber defensive armament by that stage of the war. The aircraft never left the prototype stage, never saw any kind of action, and were destroyed in Germany by May 1945. There is an unproven legend that one of these V.2 flew for 32 hours and came within site of New York City that spring before turning back to its field in France - possibly within the aircraft's capability, but highly unlikely and fiercely denied by some experts. Other, more exotic legends such as that one actually flew over Detroit and New York are pretty much impossible, however not completely.... Disclosed in Robert Forsyth's book "Messerschmitt Me-264 Amerika Bomber" the actual proposal was for a flight from Brest in France. A captured Photographic technician, Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart, was interrogated by the US Ninth Air Force and his testimony was recorded by the A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945. Because Baumgart was from a unit at Mount de Marsan there has been an assumption that this was the actual airfield. There is also an uncorroborated claim that the flight departed Norway and passed over USA before crossing the US coast near New York to land at Mont de Marsan, so there are a smorgesboard of claims. Baumgart claimed the flight occurred in January 1944. Two aircraft were built and flown. In October 1943 the Ju-390 V2 second prototype was re-designated as the Ju-390 A1 [first production aircraft] Junkers records disclose that the Ju-390A was flown. After the war Pancherz claimed only one Ju-390 prototype flew, but conveniently concealed that the second prototype was redesignated as the Ju-390 A1. The Ju-390 V1 was derelict and stripped of propellers at Dessau from November 1944 yet there were numerous records of another Ju-390 flying until April 1945 The Ju-390 aircraft certainly had the ability to perform such a flight since Ju-390 pilot Hans Joachim Pancherz also made a flight to Cape Town in April 1944 and disclosed this in a 1974 newspaper article. A book called the "Bormann Brotherhood" written by a former WW2 British intelligence officer William Stevenson cited various flights to Argentina and South Africa during WW2. As for the reason to fly as far as Cape Town, Major Herman Fischer of FAGr.5 was actually obliged by requests from Dönitz to perform numerous long range reconnaissance missions for U-boat intelligence collection. Also in 1993 the Argentine Economic Ministry revealed classified wartime records that regular use was being made by German aircraft of Palomar airfield and that this involved trade between Germany and Argentina. The Ju-390 was taken over and flown by KG200 in February 1944. Prior to this it was flown by Versuchsverband Obd.L on trials from Mont de Marsan and Prague Letnany airfield. Now it is urban legend time. These are always fun to go through because they smack of science fiction, but they have virtually no known substance. Simpy repeating these wild tales makes you sound like people who thinks that there were Nazi Luftwaffe bases in Antarctica. The rumors of fantastic flights are true; the evidence of such flights actually taking place, non-existent. However, given the capabilities of the Ju 390, the legends are persistent, and once any old Nazi claims to have flown to Timbuktu in some fanciful aircraft, they never die. They could serve [and probably have at some point] as the starting points for alternative history novels. Also, with Nazi records being destroyed during the war, the way is open for all sorts of tales that the Ju 390 actually flew in 1942, that there was a fleet of them [or at least seven], and so forth and so on. So, every claim must be treated with extreme skepticism and judged by the standard that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof..com The first public mention of an alleged flight of a Ju 390 to North America appeared in a letter published in the November 1955 issue of the British magazine "RAF Flying Review", of which aviation writer William Green was an editor. The magazine's editors naturally were skeptical of the claim, which asserted that two Ju 390s had made the flight, and that it included a one-hour stay over New York City. This would have required a base at least in the Azores or something of the sort, or some sort of advanced refueling capability. It also would have entailed burning up a whole lot of precious fuel that the Third Reich would have had other, vastly better uses for than circling aimlessly over an enemy city (somehow without being seen) to prove some kind of point. In March 1956, the "Review" published a letter from an RAF officer which claimed to clarify the account. According to Green's reporting, in June 1944, Allied Intelligence had learned from prisoner interrogations that a Ju 390 had been delivered in January 1944 to FAGr 5 [Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5], based at Mont-de-Marsan near Bordeaux, and that it had completed a 32-hour reconnaissance flight to within 19 km [12 mi] of the U.S. coast, north of New York City. The trial flight was made to New York carrying a dummy bomb to prove it could be done. This came from interrogation of a captured German serviceman, photo intelligence Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart, who claimed to have seen the pictures of the Manhattan skyline. This was duly recorded in Ninth Air Force A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945, so it has that means the story never will die. Those who have looked into this have decided that it was "disinformation," i.e., a string of lies for some hidden purpose. A senior [unnamed] Luftwaffe figure is thrown into the mix as having separately corroborated the story. This fanciful claim by the prisoner was rejected just after the war by British authorities. Aviation historian Dr. Kenneth P. Werrell states that the story of the flight originated in two British intelligence reports from August 1944 which were based in part on the interrogation of prisoners, and titled "General Report on Aircraft Engines and Aircraft Equipment"; the reports claimed that the Ju 390 had taken photographs of the coast of Long Island. These photos have never been discovered and we can assume that they in fact never existed. However, it also has not been explained why British Intelligence came up with this story in the first place, and what interrogations it was based upon. If some German prisoner made the claim, who was it? No names have been adduced. If the report is true, that information [the interrogation report] may be sitting in some storage facility. These wild tales go on and on. Independently, there is a probably spurious report that there was a third Ju 390 constructed which either crashed, was intentionally destroyed or simply disappeared. Wreckage was reported in 1944 of a large six motor aircraft with very dark green and black paint in the sea off Owls Head Lighthouse, Maine, but nothing conclusive is known about that supposed incident. There is no reason to think that it was a Ju 390 aside from the basic configuration. This was about 17-19 September, 1944. Three bodies were supposedly found in the area on 28 September, 1944 and taken by the U.S. Coast Guard to Rockland Maine Station. One of the witnesses stated that he saw one body in German Luftwaffe Signal Corps Uniform, [grey-blue with yellow/brown collar tabs], which suggests the rank of Hauptmann [Luftwaffe Captain]. The FBI, US Secret Service, Military Intelligence etc reportedly told locals at the time that whatever they had witnessed was a submarine. Anyone who persisted was told that they had better forget what they saw. The witnesses insisted it was no submarine but rather an aeroplane, but followed instructions. Local Mr. Ruben P. Whittemore claims to have had relatives who eye-witnessed this event. The supposed proof ends there, though there again are unproven, fanciful tales of unexplained Luftwaffe wreckage having been found in that vicinity years later. A Ju 390, which may or may not have been the V2, is claimed by some to have made a test flight from Germany to Cape Town in early 1944. The sole source for the story is a speculative article which appeared in the "Daily Telegraph" in 1969 titled 'Lone Bomber Raid on New York Planned by Hitler', in which one Hans Pancherz reportedly claimed to have made the flight in question. What they would have wanted to find or do in Cape Town - a British Commonwealth nation - is a little difficult to fathom. Hans-Joachim Pancherz was a Junkers test pilot  Given that nobody disputes Pancherz made the 11,400 nautical mile round trip to Cape Town, what grounds have doubters of the New York flight got to dispute the ability of a Ju-390 to make a simple 6,230 nautical mile flight to New York and back ? Regarding the supposed Ju 390 flight to Manchuria, the story goes that there were problems with planning this that went beyond the merely technical. The best route, and the one initially (supposedly) considered, would have been from northern Norway east across the frozen Arctic Ocean, with a final jog south over Siberia. The Japanese, however, were practically hysterical at the thought of a Nazi overflight of Russia to Manchuria provoking Russia to declare war on Japan. The second route would have been a southern one, slightly more direct but infinitely more dangerous, across the Caucasus from forward German bases in the Balkans or Ukraine. The plane used would had to have been a V. 2, whose range was enough to make the trip. In-flight refueling tests were made with the Ju 390, and it was at least theoretically possible to get there. The story usually is that it was a Ju 290 that was enlarged to make trips to Manchuria under Lufthansa (German civilian airliner) markings. If the war had continued, the JU-390 would have had major strategic implications. The impact would not have been the bomb damage caused by the craft, but from the predictable Allied response. The Americans were notorious for taking extreme security precautions against proven threats. For instance, they instituted extensive convoys and other defensive measures in response to the short-lived U-Boat operation in 1942 off the American coast (Operation Paukenschlag). These remained in place long after the Nazi operation was discontinued in September 1942. According to Thomas Powers's book "Heisenberg's War," the Nazis had a concrete plan to take the war to American shores if the war had lasted longer, the parasite bomber (Mistel) concept. Another plane, the Me 328, was designed with this specific role in mind. Plans for this tactic are said to have been hatched during a meeting between Generalfieldmarschall Erhard Milch and Generalmajor Freiherr von Gablenz at Berlin on 12 May 1942. After release, the Me 328 pilot would release a bomb over Manhattan and then ditch at sea near a U-boat. The Me 328 thus was intended as a parasite bomber for the larger Amerika Bomber program. The small one-way plane was to be carried by or towed behind either an Me 264 or a Ju 390 to attack New York. It would be a one-way trip for the Me 328, using all of its fuel in a one-way dash to New York City or Washington, D.C., with the host Ju 390 not having to get too close to shore in order to avoid detection. Why this could not have been done much easier with a U-boat carrying a small plane (the Japanese had lots of these aircraft carrier submarines, one of which they used to bomb Oregon - twice - and the French had one or two as well) is a bit unclear. The Axis was full of such grandiose plans late in the war. The Japanese had a somewhat similar plan to knock out the Panama canal using planes launched from submarines. However, they ran out of time and resources. If even a few of the "New York Bombers" had bombed continental US targets, the US would undoubtedly have instituted costly air patrols, perhaps putting up observation and barrage balloons off the coast, and instituted naval surveillance for air attacks. This could even have involved diversion of an aircraft carrier or two from the Pacific, picket lines of destroyers, and the like. Such an additional defense programme would have cost the US greatly and diverted resources from other pressing tasks (just as Operation Paukenschlag forced costly coastal convoys and coastal air patrols on the US for the last few years of the war). It never happened, though, with the JU-390 project basically abandoned once the Allies captured the French airfields in August 1944. The planes based there were flown to Germany and destroyed. An idle speculation is that Hitler (or others) could have flown this bomber somewhere far away as the Reich collapsed. It had the range to go almost anywhere, especially if modified for that express purpose. However, where would he have gone? What would he have done when he got there? There were no safe havens, nowhere to run. The United States was in a unique position among all the powers involved in World War Two. For the last time in its history, it was able to undertake military operations on a global scale relatively free of the fear of enemy reprisal. Its cities and factories were beyond the reach of any known enemy bomber. Moreover, much of its industrial capacity was located in its interior, far from the northeastern Atlantic States or the Pacific coast. According to conventional wisdom that has been reiterated countless times in numerous standard histories of the war, there was absolutely nothing the United States had to fear from Nazi Germany with its "tactical mission-oriented Luftwaffe" or its puny Navy. To this day, many Americans, even ones relatively familiar with the operational details of Word War Two, believe that Germany had no aircraft even capable of reaching the United States and returning to Europe, much less of carrying a heavy enough payload, or being available in sufficient numbers, to be of any military significance. The Luftwaffe’s "Amerika Bomber" January 7, 2011  by Dr. Marshall Michel 52nd Fighter Wing historian The 'Amerika Bomber' project was an initiative of the World War II German Air Ministry to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the continental U.S. from Germany — a range of about 5,800 kilometers. The first public reference to the Amerika Bomber was on 8 July 1938, in a speech by the Luftwaffe’s commander in chief Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, and requests for designs were made to the major German aircraft manufacturers early in the war. Even though America was not in the war, it was clearly on the British side, and after the American-British Destroyers for Bases Agreement in September 1940, Hitler announced his desire to “deploy long-range bombers against American cities from the Portuguese Azores islands.” A 33 page Amerika Bomber project plan was submitted to Göring on 27 April 1942, and specifically mentioned basing in the Azores, where Portuguese dictator Salazar had allowed German U-boats and navy ships to refuel, as a transit airfield. This would allow new, four engine bombers to reach the U.S. with a 5-ton payload. But from 1943 onward, he leased bases in the Azores to the British, allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the middle of the Atlantic. Though the Luftwaffe had asked German aircraft companies to eschew the development of  heavy bombers in favor of tactical aircraft early in the war, Hitler’s desires meant four companies developed heavy bombers, the most promising being the German Junkers Ju 390, a simple development of the Junkers Ju 290 reconnaissance bombers already in service. The Ju 390 prototypes were created by simply attaching an extra pair of inner-wing segments onto the wings of basic Ju 290 airframe to help accommodate two additional engines (three to a wing for a total of six BMW 801D 1,730 horsepower radial piston engines). The fuselage was also lengthened by 8 feet, making the Ju 390 112 feet long with a wing span of 165 feet. It had a maximum take-off weight of 166,400 pounds and carried a 10 man crew. The Junkers Ju 390 heavy bomber appeared when general German wartime philosophy was still centered around medium-class bomber aircraft. Full developmental resources were never really delegated to the Ju 390 project en mass and the entire program was slow. With the second prototype, the plot thickened. According to some post war accounts, this Ju 390 made flight from the German base at Mont-de-Marsan, near Bordeaux, France, to Cape Town in early 1944. But the most fascinating claim for the second prototype is that in April 1944 it made a 32-hour reconnaissance flight to within 12 miles off the coast of Long Island, N.Y. There is considerable debate among aviation historians about whether this flight really took place. A great circle round trip from France to St. Johns, Newfoundland, was quite possible, but the additional 2,380 miles to Long Island made the flight much more problematic, though certainly not impossible. What would have been the aim of a small Luftwaffe raid on New York? It might have skewed American strategic priorities like the Doolittle Raid did for the Japanese, and it would have certainly forced a diversion of resources to defend the continental U.S. But by this time in the war, U.S. military power was so overwhelming that such a diversion would hardly have been noticed. In the event, antiaircraft, Allied air strikes and the advance of the Soviet army forced the Germans to concentrate on defense, and the contracts for the 26 Ju 390s were canceled in June 1944. All work ceased in September of that year, but the question of the Ju-390’s mission to the U.S. remains one of the most interesting questions of the war. If Hitler  had  wished to escape from Berlin in 1945 it was feasible James P O'Donnell interviewed key characters from Hitler's Bunker immediately after the war. O'Donnell made a point of tracing 250 survivors of Hitler's Bunker after the war and interviewed 100 of the most important ones. He recounted in his book "The Berlin Bunker", published 1979,  interviews with Reichsminister Albert Speer and Hitler's pilot Hans Baur about Speer's departure from Berlin. On Sunday 29 April 1945 seven couriers left Hitler's Bunker [Führer Hauptquartier], SS Col Wilhelm Zander [Bormann's aide], Heinz Lorenz, Propaganda Ministry, Wehrmacht Maj Wili Johanmier [with Corpl Hummerich], Maj Freytag von Löringhoven [Kreb's aide], Hauptmann Gerhard Boldt [von Löringhoven's aide], LtCol Weiss [Burgdorf's aide] and Luftwaffe Col. von Below [with Corpl Heinz Matthiesing]. Zander and Lorenz had instructions to deliver Hitler's last will and testament to Dönitz at Plön to the north. The standard, perhaps misleading account, is that these couriers all escaped 50 miles on foot through Russian lines along the Havel river to the Elbe, but astonishingly in his book O'Donnell said that the last of these seven couriers to leave, Col von Below, flew from Berlin on 29 April 1945. Count von Below actually had orders from Hitler to fly south and have Göring arrested and the astonishing thing is that von Below actually did this. A number of Bv138 flying boats of KG200 are now known to have landed at Tiegel See northwest of Tiegel Airfield and to have evacuated senior Nazis from an island in that lake.  Hauptmann Ernst König in 2004 told British newspapers that he had been ordered on 1 May 1945 to prepare a Bv222 for an evacuation flight to Greenland with VIP Nazis from Berlin.  In his book O'Donnell cited Speer saying that Baur had serious plans to fly Hitler out on 23, 28 and 29 April 1945. He reported Baur being coy about the Ju-390 aircraft's ability to fly Hitler away from Berlin, but quoted Baur himself after the war saying "right up to the last day I could have flown the Führer anywhere in the world". Hitler however was determined to stay and commit suicide.  In his book O'Donnell quotes former Reichsminister Albert Speer whom he interviewed after the war saying that Baur was fascinated with Rechlin projects and especially the Ju-390. Speer also said, "a Luftwaffe test pilot had flown a Ju-390 non-stop from Germany to Japan over the polar route. Baur would have known of this secret flight..."   The Ju-390 evolved from the Ju-290 which in turn evolved from the Ju-90. What not many people realize is that the Ju-290 was based upon the EF-53 four engined airliner project of 1940 for an airliner capable of flying to USA. That project directly led to the conversion of a Ju-90 aircraft V11 into the Ju-290 prototype with the lengthening of its Ju-90 fuselage. In 1942 RLM invited Junkers to resurrect the EF-53 for a long range maritime patrol aircraft able to reach America. This resulted in the EF-100 design. About the EF-100 we have a wealth of performance data available from wind tunnel testing. The military EF-100 became the Ju-390. They were directly related. The EF-100 was planned to have a maximum take off weight of 74,500kg with a 9,000km range. The Ju-390 when first flown had a Gross weight of 75,500kg and a range of 8,000km with 10,000kg payload.  In May 1944 according to Flugkapitän Pancherz the Ju-390's empty weight was reduced by 5,000kg and the take off weight was re-certified at 80,500kg for a range of 11,000km with 10,000kg payload. Pancherz revealed after the war to British Journalist Tom Agoston, his log book notes of a return flight to Cape Town in early 1944. Obviously this flight far exceeded the Ju-390's range therefore it either refuelled at a secret location or received aerial refuelling. Given the difficulty of aerial refueling a secret landing site is the more obvious answer. The EF-100 testing predicted a stall speed of just 66 knots and a take off distance of 550 meters giving excellent performance to cope with the 1200 metro runway at Bodo. If one examines the fuel consumption of a Ju-390 for 32 hours at 1800rpm one will find the Ju-390 was capable of flying 7,400 nautical miles. The distance from Bodo to Buenos Aires is about 6,900nm. A one way trip from Bodo was therefore quite possible. The Amerika-Bomber Project? Even before America’s entrance into World War II, Adolf Hitler was intrigued by the idea of attacking New York City via long-range strategic bombers. On 12 May 1942, a formal plan, coined the Amerika-Bomber Project, was submitted to the Minister of Aviation, Hermann Göring. The plan was to fly planes to the Azores, refuel, and then take off again, on course for America’s east coast. Along with New York City, the Nazi’s hoped to drop bombs on nineteen strategic American targets and two additional Canadian targets. Most of these targets built aircraft parts so it seems probable that the goal of the Project was to cripple America’s air force capabilities. Numerous planes were considered for the Project. Ultimately, the Ju 390 was selected for production. However, before it could be produced in mass quantities, the Nazi’s abandoned their efforts. While the Amerika-Bomber Project appears feasible in retrospect, it lacked the necessary resources and aircraft parts to become a working operation. Even if it had been green-lit, its ultimate impact on the War would’ve been minimal since Germany lacked the ability to deploy atomic bombs. The idea of Nazi’s attacking New York City seems fanciful today. And yet, it came close to reality…far too close for comfort. The Amerika-Bomber Project was put into motion, a feasible plan was developed, and an aircraft was selected. Only lack of time and intense Allied bombing raids on the Nazi supply chain kept New York City safe from flames.

A captured Photographic technician, Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart, was interrogated by the US Ninth Air Force and his testimony was recorded by the A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945. In that report Baumgart is quoted claiming that a Ju-390 flew from Mont de Marsan, France,  to within 12 miles of New York city. He further stated that photographs were taken of the city's skyline. The same A.P.I.W.U report also references corroboration by a more senior Luftwaffe officer, who added that the Ju-390 had an in-flight endurance of 32 hours.

Disputed New York flight in 1944

There is a heavily disputed claim that in January 1944, a Ju-390 prototype made a trans-Atlantic flight from Mont-de-Marsan [near Bordeaux] to some 20 km [12 miles] off the coast of the United States and back. Critics claim FAGr.5 (Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5) never flew such a flight. Supporters say the only link between FAGr.5 and the New York flight is the common use of an airfield at Mont-de-Marsan and the veracity of the New York flight is neither proved nor disproved by a lack of unit records for such a flight. Indeed the flight may have had nothing whatsoever to do with FAGr.5 operations.

Whilst the Ju-390's 32-hour endurance would have certainly made such a crossing theoretically possible, there is a lack of evidence to support the claim. Aviation historian Horst Zöller claims the flight was recorded in Junkers company records.

Critics have also pointed to the vagueness of the aircraft's alleged position and even the date of what would have been a milestone flight. The best known [and maybe earliest publication] of the claim in English was in William Green's "Warplanes of the Third Reich" in 1970, where he wrote that the Ju 390 flew to "a point some 12 miles from the US coast, north of New York". Critics say the vagueness of detail and lack of corroborating evidence are hallmarks of an urban legend.

Critics believe that the aircraft would have had to overfly parts of the Massachusetts coast in order to fix their location, and point out the likelihood of the aircraft being spotted by observers and/or radar, which it was not. If New York State were meant, this would have put the aircraft closer to Boston. Critics ask why this city wasn't referred to for fixing the position of the claim. Finally, it is questioned how the aircrew would have been able to fix their position so accurately anyway.

Supporters argue that a Ju-390 crew could have obtained a highly accurate fix from public broadcast radio stations. Also that a Ju-390 would not have needed to overfly Massachusetts at all. They say there was no reason why New York City could not have been approached purely from the sea.

Supporters also note that the mission was designed to deliver a single bomb to New York and that such a bomb could only have been the atomic weapon under development. Japan and Germany at the time were using the "Harteck Process" of gaseous uranium centrifuges. Germany in 1944 was shipping both uranium ores and centrifuges to Japan by U-boat.

Supporters of the New York flight say of course the mission was kept secret so as not to tip off the US Government to provide better air defences. It was an ultra top secret test flight for the delivery of an atomic bomb.

Corroboration is gleaned from the so-called Silbervogel sub-orbital bomber designed to attack New York from space with only a single bomb. Only one type of bomb was worth all the time and expense involved. Supporters say a mission so secret would never have found its way into FAGr.5 logbooks.

Supporters note the top secret unit,  II/KG200 also flew the Ju-390 as did Junkers company test pilots in Czechoslovakia.

Following the war, Hitler's armaments minister Albert Speer also recounted to author James P O'Donnell that a Ju-390 aircraft flown by Junkers test pilots flew a polar route to Japan in 1944.

If the Ju 290 was a long range low production aircraft that many hopes were pinned to, then the Ju 390 was a very long range aircraft that even more grandiose hopes were pinned to that never left the prototype phase. While that means the program had almost no real-world impact whatsoever, the planning surrounding the aircraft is pretty interesting, and a good snapshot as to what might have developed has the German aircraft industry been less messed up.

The Amerika Bomber project is a catch-all term for Nazi bombers capable of reaching the United States, bombing it, and then returning. On the face of it, it is surprising that even big dreamers like the Nazis thought about doing this, as their attempts at producing a modern strategic bomber were in perpetual disarray. A transcontinental bomber was a whole order of magnitude more difficult, and a positive pipe dream given the messed up state of the Nazi aviation industry. Still, the Nazis persisted with the idea, even after they ended production of everything but fighters and jet aircraft. The reason was simple - it gave Nazi leaders the fantasy that they could knock the United States out of the war. Earlier on in the war it was presumed even one strike against New York would so unnerve those decadent Jazz listening democrats so much they would immediately sue for peace - in the late war, the Nazis upped the ante somewhat by imagining Nazi nuclear bombers razing the east coast to accomplish the same thing. (The Nazis were not anywhere near having an actual atomic bomb, no more than they had a transcontinental bomber, but you can't stop them from dreaming).

Still, even the Nazis with their almost magical view of technology, had to modify these dreams slightly in the face of the huge engineering challenges. Most Amerika Bomber designs assumed (the Nazis being the eternal optimists that they were) that the war against all non-Germans would go so well that Fascist Spain and/or Portugal would enter the war on the Axis side, or at least become friendly enough to the Axis to allow Germany to use the Canary Islands, or the Azores as a staging area for attacking North America. This allowed the Nazis to dream of a Amerika bomber deployable before, say, the early 1950s. Even with this unlikely concession, most of the Nazi efforts in this direction remained paper projects.

Only two Amerika Bombers actually existed as functional prototypes: the Me 264, and the Ju 390. When the initial specification was issued by the RLM in early 1942, someone at Junkers had the quite sensible idea. Instead of developing a whole new airframe, why not use a suitable existing design [the Ju 290]  and simply expand the wings and fuselage? Compared to the alternatives, this approach was incredibly fast and cheap:  not only had most of the engineering work already been done in the Ju 290 program, the new airplane could use existing Ju 290 tooling instead of needing bespoke machinery. In April 1942, the Ju 90B V6 returned to Dessau, where over about a year it was made into a six-engined super Ju 290 with a 150 ft wingspan - the first Ju 390.

Using two inner wing sections was fairly useful in that it gave one an extra set of landing gear In these two pictures one can also make our the round cabin windows; showing that this aircraft was made from a Ju 90

A Ju 290 had a wingspan of 42.00 m [137 ft 9 in], and a length of 28.64 m [93 ft 11 in]. The Ju 390 had a wingspan of 50.30 m [165 ft 1 in], and a length of 34.20 m [112 ft 2 in]. These modifications worked well, and the Ju 390 had a projected range (at least) of the Ju 290 A-9: 9000 km, with some sources placing it close to 10,000 km. This modification may have also given the 390 an expanded cargo lift capacity - though this is quite murky. Sources vary on this, saying anywhere from a 10% payload boost to something like a 75% increase. Speed and altitude remained the same as the Ju 290. It should also be remarked that flying from the Azores, the Ju 390 as a bomber could have  reached New York City, as well as Philadelphia, some parts of New England, the Canadian Maritimes, and Newfoundland. This is not too shabby for a World War 2 airplane.

At any rate, the new prototype pleased the top Nazis extremely when it first flew in late 1943. An immediate order was placed for 25. The Nazis imagined a whole new series of aircraft based on the Ju 390. Like the Ju 290, the 390 was soon seen as the start of a whole family of aircraft - getting the Ju 290 B upgrade and being used for pretty much everything the fuselage could do: from a bomber to a transport. That makes the unrealized Ju 290/390 family a fairly incredible production efficiency for Nazi Germany - had these plans come to pass, nearly all of the Luftwaffe large aircraft functions would have been met by one airframe that scaled in cost and complexity depending on mission, and one that furthermore used identical tooling and identical spare parts.The 390 also would have been a natural choice for flights over Siberia to Japan.

All of these plans, of course, never came off. The first prototype, Ju 390 V1, flew extensive flight tests, and even was brought to Mont-de-Marsain to be examined by FAGr 5 crews. It also was rumored to have been a part of aerial refueling experiments. (As the Azores gambit seemed more and more unlikely, the Luftwaffe turned to thinking of the possibilities of in-flight refueling for their transcontinental bomber instead.) The fighter emergency program in the spring 1944 ended Ju 290 production, which naturally ended 390 production as well. In late 1944, the Ju 390 V1 returned to the Junkers HQ at Dessau where it was cannibalized for spare parts, presumably to keep the remaining Ju 290s operational. What remained was blown up in 1945 when American forces approached Dessau. The other prototype has an even murkier history.  The Schrödinger's cat of Nazi aircraft, the Ju 390 V2's existence is a supposition, existing and not existing at the same time. Post-war, the Head of engineering at Junkers testified to the British that a Ju 390 V2 was started - but was broken up in the factory after the fighter-emergency program ended 290/390 production. Contrary to this, flight logs identify a Ju 390 V2 being flown several times by Luftwaffe test pilots. The main source for KG 200 also claims the Ju 390 V2 was accepted into KG 200 - and then the paper trail for it abruptly ends. The fact that the evidence is conflicting is not especially surprising, given the chaos of late war German aircraft production - but the whole thing is something of a tempest in a teapot. According to the pro-existence camp's evidence, the Ju 390 V2 flew very little: only flying a few times before being destroyed to keep it out of Soviet hands.

The Ju 390 was a prototype that was very capable, and is notable because it existed, unlike nearly every other Amerika Bomber aspirant. Not surprisingly, its rumored career is much more spectacular than its real life one.

A 9000 km range from the Azores gets one the NE United States...	But from FAGr 5's base, it will only get one Newfoundland.

In 1944, a British intelligence report states that the Ju 390 while visiting FAGr 5 was used for several very long distance flights, including one that got within 20 km of New York City, and returned with photos of the great metropolis. Where this report came from is unknown. After World War 2, these reports seemed to have inspired an argument in a British Aviation magazine, where two letters a year apart claim that these flights were made twice. The first one claims the Ju 290 circled New York airspace for an hour, and the second letter sticks closer to the intelligence report, saying that the flights reached viable distance of NYC. At the same time, a men's magazine did a story on these claims. This magazine was contacted by two ex-RAF officers who claimed to have proof of these flights in the form of reports and photographs taken during that flight. The reporter asked if he could see this evidence. The officers replied "You sure can!" and were not heard from again.

There is also an intelligence report of the Ju 390 making a reconnaissance flight to Cape Town, and then returning. The problems with this story are similar to the New York flight - that to fly there and return was far beyond the capacity of the airframes in question, and there is no evidence of these flights happening. In addition to that, one could ask why the Nazis would, during a time when the Reich was under constant air attack and critically short of aviation fuel, make these flights in the first place. The only possible reason would be for propaganda purposes, and it is sure even the Nazis would not spend enough fuel in an attempt to take photos of faraway enemy cities. (New York City was foggy that day the flight was made).

File photo: Anna Kreisling, 1954

The simplest explanation for these storiesis very simple: that these were all part of a deliberate misinformation campaign by the Nazis. The pilots of FAGr 5 had seen the Ju 390, and were closely connected with German Military intelligence. Thus, they were in a position to try and confuse Allied Intelligence efforts with tales riffing off of existing operations that were possibly known to the Allies. The Cape Town tale was lent some plausibility by KG 200 operations in North Africa, and Ju 290 pilots were in fact involved with plans for flights to the far east. This was turned into a further grey area in that the Ju 390's capability was unknown to the Allies. This tall tales were of course in a background where Nazi Germany really was astounding the world with its technological advances. So as a low risk move to confound the Allies, it makes perfect sense.  Germany had also succeeded (inadvertently) before in this sort of thing: a 1944 German Propaganda film aimed at German audiences lied about the existence of new super tanks. This was taken as evidence that these new types actually existed, a rare misstep by Allied Intelligence. So! Make up stories about how far our air force can reach! Maybe that will cause the Allies to hesitate...

Of course, none of this has stopped (or even slowed down) creation of even more outlandish adventures for the Ju 290/390.

"Secret History" is a kind of disease especially common in World War 2, as it remains a historical event that engages a lot of public interest, and often  involves the Nazis, who were the prototype for modern pulp fiction villains. These things probably got started by people wanting to sell books or bad documentaries to "Discovery" and the "History Channel", and then they get repeated and fervently defended by people who don't care about facts or reason.

Anna Kreisling is one of these inventions. As a general pattern, "secret history" stories start with real confusion or plausible stories that didn't happen. Then these tales are improved upon to make them more spectacular and interesting. Anna Kreisling is the result of this iteration carried on for a few generations - a character partially based on real things (but more spectacular) and partially based on previous generations of false information (but more spectacular). First made up by a journalist in Ohio, (who claimed that the very elderly Kresling was his neighbor) the Legend of Anna Kreisling has become very popular with the "no facts or logic" set on the Internet. Here are some absolutely true and not at all made up things about Mrs. Kreisling, the "White Wolf of the Luftwaffe":

 *She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is beautiful! Like a movie star! (Regardless of circumstances, this exact simile is always used).

* She landed Ju 52s inside Stalingrad during the doomed airlift (quite a feat considering tanks frequently had trouble moving about the city streets.)

 * No photographs exist of Anna Kresling, as she is "married to one of the world's richest men."

 * She was part of the most daring reconnaissance flight of World War 2, flying a Junkers 390 over Upper Canada (Southern Quebec and Ontario), Michigan, Ohio, and New York. This flight was possible because the Ju 390 was twice the size of the B-29, and had a range even larger than the post war B-36;

 * Also if that's not enough range for that flight, she flew in the Jet Stream out to the States and back to France again, a singularly amazing feat on several counts, since it assumed 1) a B-36-like altitude capability that the unpressurized Ju 390 did not have, and 2) has the jet stream reversing direction.

 * Complete lack of evidence is of course evidence of all these things actually happening, since the evidence was systematically suppressed by the Nazis/the SS/Freemasons/the CIA etc...

 *You can see what a wide ranging information blackout there is on this woman, as she has met several US Presidents, including Bill Clinton, but there is no photographs or evidence for this.

And it spins outward from there. There are made-up interviews with Kreisling, and a bunch of people arguing with skeptics that Anna Kreisling is totally a person. Naturally the sheer vehemence of people saying Kreisling exists has far eclipsed any discussion of what this super accomplished Nazi  Starlet miracle pilot actually did. It is worth mentioning that Anna Kreisling is not only made up, the name Kreisiling isn't even a German name in Germany or Austria, it being some mysterious "Wurst" of German-ish sounds. [If you were doing the same thing with Canadian names, you'd end up with possibly "Marshall MacDonald" or "Shania Mapletree"]. This weirdness infects most places where the Ju 390 is discussed online.

More well read/less credulous minds will notice some parallels with somebody who actually existed, Hanna Reitsch. She was a famous avatrix in the Third Reich, and aside from being a fearless and highly skilled pilot, she also landed a Fieseler Storch on the streets of Berlin at the end of April 1945 during the Soviet siege. She was not movie star gorgeous, though, and therefore not worth talking about.

Did the Nazi's actually fly over New York on one occasion during 1945 in a JU-390? There is ample skepticism that any such flights took place at all, and with the exception of the US prisoner interrogation of Unterofficer Wolfgang Baumgart in August 1944 who claimed to have participated in the February 1944 flight, the only sources of information are undocumented or anecdotal. --- Not in 1945. The original claim from interrogation of a German POW was for a Ju-390 flight to New York in early February 1944. Since then, someone in US calling himself Jim Newsom (who declines to identify himself or establish his credentials) has been responsible for generating many claims about a woman by the name Anna Kreisling. The Kreisling claim has become a lightning rod for many nutcase claims both for and against such a flight. This Kreisling person, whether she really exists, or not, has since attracted a worldwide online following. The person claiming to be Kreisling claims to be an elderly former Nazi era female test pilot. She claims to have co-piloted the aircraft from Norway to Wisconsin and then to have flown back to a military airfield in France near Paris, via the New York area. This differs with the Baumgart interrogation which implies an outbound flight from Mont de Marsan near Bordeaux in February 1944. Kreisling, or perhaps Newsom writing as the Kreisling persona, originally made a claim at the Aviastar website in 2007 insisting that Kreisling flew a Ju-390 over Michigan and New York in August 1943. Critics claim this claim was implausible. In October 1943 however the Japanese embassy in Berlin sent an encrypted signal to Tokyo giving Ju-390 performance details furnished by the Germans. In that signal which was intercepted by the Allies the maximum fuel range of the Ju-390 (without extra fuel tanks) was given as 29 hours worth at 186 knots plus a two hour reserve. The average fuel consumption of a BMW 801D engine at 1700 rpm and altitudes of 6,000-12,000 feet was 50 US gals per hour. The main impediment for the Ju-390 was excessive fuel consumption over 21,000 feet. Typically Ju-290 aircraft operating maritime patrols over the Atlantic operated at 6,000 feet. Given such statistics a long range flight would not be impossible. German wartime records identify the Ju-390 prototype first flew on 20 October 1943, which if correct make the Kreisling claim impossible. It is fair to say the New York flight was hotly debated before Newsom introduced the claim about Kreisling. Now it attracts nothing but ridicule to an issue of genuine historical interest. It is not unlikely that the whole Newsom/Kreisling claim has been invented to discredit genuine debate over the Ju-390. Quite independent of this debate, in 1998 a man from Burlington VT, Ruben P. Whittemore [then 44] made some enquiries online if anyone knew much about the wreckage of a six engined German aircraft in the sea 2.5 miles SW of Owl's Head, Maine, USA. Another person "Louise" responded that she had dived the wreck and recovered artifacts including an RMZ constructors plate with the word "Junkers" on it, suggesting possibly a Junkers Ju-390 attempted the flight and failed. Whittemore, who appears to not have had any agenda said in 1998 that he had relatives who witnessed the bodies of three German aviators recovered from the sea on 28 September 1944 following the crash of this aircraft on or about 18 September 1944. --- John Newsom published his interview with former German test pilot and wartime Luftwaffe transport pilot Anna Kreisling, known as the "White Wolf of the Luftwaffe". It is claimed that she flew supply missions into the beleaguered German garrison at Stalingrad. Unfortunately Newsom has not provided any contact details with himself or Kreisling therefore it is extremely hard to verify the claim to the standards demanded by most historians. This is such a vital part of WW2 history that it is almost criminal if her information goes to the grave when she dies. We can only hope she will leave us something for posterity which can be verified independently. According to Newsom, Anna Kreisling claims she was the co-Pilot of a six engined Junkers Ju390 reconnaissance bomber that took off from Norway on 27 August 1943 and flew first to Lake Michigan and then passed close by New York heading out to the Atlantic for a military airfield near Paris [Le Bourget?] This aircraft certainly had the endurance for such a flight. It could operate up to 12,000 ft with fuel consumptions between 250 liters/hr [230kts]- 275 litres/hr [270kts]. Fuels capacity is thought to have been 52,800 lb, though this was increased in April 1944 when its weights were re-certified. Newson claims the Ju-390 overflew Canada and then photographed defence plants in Michigan which were vital to the United States. At noon on August 28 the Junkers passed right over New York above the Empire State Building at an altitude of 14,000 feet. Many important pictures of New York were taken. The difficulty Historians would have with this claim is that officially the Ju-390's maiden flight was 20 October 1943 flown by Capt Hans Joachim Pancherz. There are claims however that an even earlier flight was made by Hans Werner Lerche of another prototype on an unspecified date in August 1943 at Bernberg. The claim of this earlier flight arises from Russian historical sources. Still this suggests a flight to USA before the aircraft could not have been properly tested if we are to accept the maiden flight occurred in October 1944. Some evidence however suggests the Ju-390 aircraft flew as early as November 1942 from a photo taken of the JU-390 with registration markings RC+DA. This aircraft had a white band around its fuselage ahead of the tail. This marking was known as the Afrika band, only used by Axis aircraft during the north Africa campaign. In the case of the Ju-390 if it was in use in north Africa it would likely have been attached to LTS.290 operating to Tunisia. The photo of "RC+DA" was taken from a ship attacked during Operation Torch landings and the original is from an album owned by a veteran living near Sydney Australia. Ju-390 test pilot Hans Werner Lerche refers to the same photo from the collection of the Deutsches Museum, Munich in his autobiography. If the JU-390 aircraft attacking the Operation Torch convoy in 1942 was "RC+DA" then this implies that RC+DA was in fact the V1 prototype and not the V2 as often claimed. On 29 July 1944 Junkers was paid by RLM for completing seven Ju-390 aircraft. There is no detailed Quartermaster record of these seven aircraft being taken on Luftwaffe strength, however 80 percent of Luftwaffe records were destroyed or lost at the end of the War [most likely confiscated by US forces at Linz and their existence denied ever since] and no records remain of RLM which may not have had aircraft listed by the Quartermaster General at all. It would be useful if Newsom, or Anna Kreisling who should know might shed further light on this point? In 1955 correspondence began between William Green, then editor of the "RAF Review" and an unnamed person writing from New York who claimed personal knowledge of wartime Ju-390 flights to New York. It is interesting to speculate whether this was correspondence with Kreisling herself? In November 1955 an article by Dr Kenneth P Werrell appeared in the "RAF Review" on the subject. Werrell however referred to a Luftwaffe photographer Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart who was attached to the long range reconnaissance unit FAGr.5 at Mont de Marsan. As a prisoner of war, Baumgart was interrogated in August 1944 by the US Ninth Air Force, cited in A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945. Baumgart's interrogation was one of two POW interrogation reports cited in British Intelligence reports dated from August 1945 entitled "General Report on Aircraft Engines and Aircraft Equipment." Green later published details of the in his two books "Warplanes of the Second World War" [1968] and "Warplanes of the Third Reich" [1970]. Green asserted the Allies learned of the mission in June 1944, whilst Werrell claimed they originated with interrogations of two German POWs in August 1944. Baumgart's claim appears to differ from Anna Kreislings'. According to Kenneth Werrell Baumgart talked of a New York flight about early February 1944. Ju-390 pilot Hans Pancherz himself claimed to have performed an astonishing Ju-390 flight to Cape Town, South Africa in January 1944. Baumgart asserts In February 1944 another Junkers Ju-390 checked out the air defenses of New York by flying within 12 miles of the city. Photographs were taken of the New York skyline, but these have never come to light. The third Ju-390 prototype was a bomber intended to deploy tiny Me 328 parasite fighters against New York, but tests revealed the wings were not strong enough to support the laden weight of a New York mission and these miniature aircraft. The Mission was intended to deploy nuclear weapons. When the Ju-390 proved inadequate for this bombing mission focus shifted to developing the Heinkel He-274 at Toulouse in France to become the trans Atlantic nuclear bomber. The prototype He-274 was captured intact in 1944 and later used by the French Air Force. This aircraft was mentioned by a captured Luftwaffe general as the intended New York Bomber.

Ju-390 flight to Japan

Flights to Japan commenced before Germany's invasion of Russia in July 1941 with Operation Barbarossa. Stalin had been keen in fact to join the Axis Pact prior to this but Japan objected citing the anti communist anti Comintern Pact. Stalin however had been allowing use of the trans Siberia railway for trade between Germany and Japan prior to Barbarossa.

Early flights had involved the giant Blohm und Voss Bv222 V1 aircraft operated by Deutsche Lufthansa from Kirkenes, in occupied Norway and later from an unknown date these flights departed Nautsi Air Base in Finland. There was at least one confirmed BV222 flight to Sakhalin. Deutsche Lufthansa is known to have proposed a Bv222 mission to Japan as late as October 1943.

Another aircraft prior to Operation Barbarossa which was capable of flights to Japan was the Messerschmitt Me 261. Outwardly it looked like a much enlarged Bf-110 twin engined fighter. In detail however it was much larger had an entirely novel airframe able to accommodate it's crew and between 7-8 passengers. Its role was as a long range courier aircraft for important passengers and documents. The Me-261's first flight was 23 December 1940. It proved its range on various closed circuit trials over Europe, but it is uncertain whether it ever actually flew to the Far East.  

An early Fw200B aircraft in service with Deutsche Lufthansa

One aircraft which did make flights to Harbin, Manchuria [Manchukuo] was the Fw200K "Kurier" operated by Kommando Rowhel for the Abwehr intelligence agency. It flew from Northern Finland in civil disguise as "D-AWCG." This aircraft began its career as the Fw200B V4 prototype and was subsequently rebuilt with two extra fuel tanks as the Fw200K V10 prototype. Missions were flown by Ob.Lt Wolfgang Nebel. Upon the liberation of Allied prisoners at Harbin by the OSS Flamingo team in 1945, POWs recounted sightings of the aircraft throughout WW2 at Harbin  

From 1941 to 1943 Germany ran a highly effective fleet of surface blockade running freighters. Ships with famous names like 'Orsorno', 'Pietro Orseolo', 'Tannenfels', 'Weserland', 'Burgenland', 'Alsterufer' and 'Rio Grande' maintained an effective shuttle of supplies and personnel to and from Japan, but by 1943, assisted by Enigma interceptions, the Royal Navy began to sink these vessels. U-boats taking up to three month voyages maintained some sort of connection during 1944, but for high priority items and passengers a reliable air link needed to be created.

On 30 June 1942, a successful flight from Saporoshje [near Rostov] to Ninghsia (modern Ningxia) proved a link could be viable. The flight used a Savoia Marchetti S.75 RT [RT = Rome -Tokyo] trimotor aircraft. It's route was north of the Caspian and Aral seas then through the Altai Range past Lake Balkhash to Ningxia. The aircraft's navigator Dr Publio Magini was of the opinion that had they not been required to land at Ninxia, with the fuel aboard they could have continued on to reach Tokyo.

At that time the region around Ninghsia was largely controlled by Warlords, or Communists who co-operated with the Japanese Expeditionary Army out of self interest because their fight was with Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist Army. Out of self interest they practiced a live and let live policy with the Japanese.

Ju-290 Flights to Manchuria

The original authority on flights to Manchuria was British author and aviation historian William Green in his book "Warplanes of the Third Reich", first published 1968. The most significant source for this story was the interrogation of a Luftwaffe photographer attached to the long range reconnaissance unit FAGr.5 at Mont de Marsan. Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart, as a prisoner of war, was interrogated in August 1944 by the US Ninth Air Force, cited in A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945.

On 11 November 1955 the "RAF Review" published an article by the historical writer Kenneth Werrell claiming a Ju-390 flew within 12 miles of New York and photographed the skyline. Author William Green was an editor of the "RAF Review" at the time. Later Green also referred to the claim in his two books "Warplanes of the Second World War" [1968] and "Warplanes of the Third Reich" [1970]. Green asserted the Allies learned of the mission in June 1944, whilst Werrell claimed they originated with interrogations of two German POWs in August 1944. Werrell identified his source as two British Intelligence reports dated from August 1945 entitled "General Report on Aircraft Engines and Aircraft Equipment." These in turn refer to intelligence reports of the US IX Air Force Intelligence section.

It is possible that Green drew from various wartime Enigma decrypts prior to the interrogations of POWs. Enigma was still classified in 1955 and there may have been a mad scramble to cite POW reports to draw attention off Enigma decrypts. Because the British Government had re-sold captured Enigma machines to many African nations so it could read their diplomatic signals, any hint of wartime code-breaking had to be kept classified due to ongoing intelligence concerns. Details regarding Operation Ultra and Station X were not declassified until 1989 and various reports about Alan Turing's Enigma code-breaking not until 1996, so Green was unable to identify if Enigma decrypts were the original source for his RAF intelligence reports.

In February 1944 when KG200 took over all long range special missions, Hitler tasked the head of his own VIP flight Hauptman Braun to form a Japan Kommando flying an air bridge to Japan. This unit was also known as 14/TGS.4 [or 14 Staffel/ Transportgeschwader 4].

A Ju-290 A-5 aircraft with the Stammkennzeichen codes KR+LA was requisitioned and modified at the DLH maintenance facility on Rusnye aerodrome at Prague, not at the nearby Junkers factory in Prague. Deutsche Lufthansa pilot Flugkapitän Rudolf Mayr was placed in charge of  the Manchurian flight operation. Aircraft were stripped of armaments, military markings and were given civil DLH markings.

Trial flights began with Ju-290A-5 werke # J900170 Luftwaffe code KR+LA. This aircraft also had KG200 codes 9V+DH. It was destroyed by air raids at Reichlin in 1945. It’s fuel capacity was increased and for long range operations, MTOW was increased from the Ju-290’s standard 41.3 tons to 45 tons. 

No record is available if flights terminated at Harbin or Shenyang where there was a major aircraft manufacturing plant. Given that Tachikawa was also involved in westbound flights with a Tachikawa Ki-77 aircraft to German held territory Shenyang was more likely. 

Me-264 flights to Japan

In his book "Messerschmitt Me264, Amerika Bomber, The Luftwaffe's Lost Transatlantic Bomber", author Fobert Forsyth cites various sources for regular Me264 flights from a frozen runway on Lake Inari (Petsamo) in northern Finland to Tokyo carrying important persons, documents and cargo. Such flights became impossible after September 1944 when threatened with US bombing raids on Helsinki, Finland was forced to capitulate to Russia.

Prior to the Normandy landings, an earlier British interrogation of another Luftwaffe POW in April 1944 disclosed that the Me-261 had already made a flight to Tokyo in August 1943. This flight appears to have departed from Petsamo in Northern Finland.

J-390 flights to Japan

On Tuesday 23 May 1944 Reichsmarshall Göring convened a conference. It was attended by Minister for armaments and War production Albert Speer, Air Marshall Erhard Milch, General der Flieger Günther Korten, Petersen, Diesing, Knemeyer and Saur to confront the He-177's failings. Göring demanded other options for long range reconnaissance be developed urgently. From this meeting was set up a special long range reconnaissance unit, or Aufklärungsgruppe. It is noteworthy that following this meeting the Ju-390 and He-177 were no longer deemed available for long range reconnaissance and were already placed under control of KG200. 

With the fall of France, 2 Staffel, Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 [2/FAGr.5] based at Mont de Marsan had been disbanded in August 1944   and reassigned to Kommando Nebel for development of long range reconnaissance and communications flights under the command of Hauptmann Georg Eckl.

Hitler's new Luftwaffe chief of staff Generalleutnant Werner Kreipe recorded in his war diary that on 5 August 1944 that Hitler called for renewed efforts to prepare the Me-264 for a bombing raid on New York.

Aviator and pre-war explorer Hans Bertram was commissioned by RLM apparently in July 1944 to write a report called 'Ostasienflug' [East Asian Flight Project] to plan for a regular courier service to Tokyo using the Me-264. The mission called for a duration of 33 hours flown at 188 knots. Two routes were proposed. The longest from Berlin to Linz, Hungary, Roumania, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tsitsihar in China and finally to Tokyo. The other route proposed was through northern India and Burma to Rangoon.

Evidence of a Ju-390 flight to Tokyo in 1944  

The first public hint of a Ju-390 mission to Japan arose in the memoirs of Hitler's former armaments minister Albert Speer "Inside the Third Reich". In his book Speer referred to Ju-390 flights to Tokyo "via the Polar Route" in 1945. Speer had little to gain by revealing these flights and in fact made the comment quite non-chalantly almost in passing.

Speer also mentioned the Ju-390 flight to Tokyo being flown by civil test pilots which seems to identify them as Dornier Test Pilot Flugkapitän Quenzler, and test pilot Karl Patin.

In 1995 the radio operator from U-234, Wolfgang Hirschfeld wrote his book "Atlantik Farewell, Das Letzte U-Boot" [Atlantic farewell, The Last U-Boat] In his book Hirschfeld notes that following a collision in the Kettegat between Denmark and Sweeden with another U-boat, surfacing beneath her, U-234 was forced into a Norwegian port for repairs in March 1945. Hirschfeld noted that urgently needed cargo had to be offloaded and flown on to Japan.

Ironically the cargo referred to may itself have been production drawings for the Ju-390 which are often cited as having been dispatched on a U-boat which never reached Japan. Since the Ju-390 licensed production agreement for the Ju-390 was not signed until 28 February 1945, the only U-boat which this could refer to was the U-234.

Russian aviation historian Sergey Platov notes on his website that these Ju-390 production plans were accompanied by a Japanese military attaché from Berlin, Major General Otani all flown to Tokyo with aboard a Ju-390.

A post-war report by the War Department, entitled "NA/HW 13/47 - German Technical Aid to Japan" dated 31 August 1945  discussed how three Messerscmitt engineers with technical documents for Japanese construction of the Me-209; Me 309; Me 264, Me 262; Me 410 and Me 323 would be flown to Japan. Technical drawings would be accompanied by engineers. 

Luftwaffe Generalmajor Fritz Morzik, Chief of Air Transport for the Armed Forces in WW2 Germany wrote in an article for an official post-war USAF study paper, that the Ju-390 was used for courier flights to Japan during the war.

A Magic decrypt of a diplomatic signal from the naval attaché at the Japanese embassy in Berlin dated 21 March discussed an impending flight to Japan within the week, which Speer claimed occurred on 28 March 1945. 

• "Messerschmitt Me264, Amerika Bomber, The Luftwaffe's Lost Transatlantic Bomber," by Fobert Forsyth
• "Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer
• "Atlantik Farewell, Das Letzte U-Boot" by Wolfgang Hirschfeld