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Operation Pelikan 1943 proposed German attack on Gatun dam

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2026 9:32 am
by Paul Nuttall
From wiki

Operation Pelikan

Operation Pelikan (German: Unternehmen Pelikan), also known as Projekt 14, was a German plan for crippling the Panama Canal during World War II. In mid-late 1943 the Wehrmacht had completed preparations to haul two Ju 87 Stukas with folding wings on two U-boats to a Colombian island near the coast of Panama, reassemble the planes, arm them with "special bombs", and then send them to attack the Gatun Dam. After completing the mission, the pilots would fly to a neutral country and seek internment. However, Germany called off the plan, for unknown reasons, at the last minute. Rumours among the Germans who planned the sabotage were that it had been called off due to betrayal. Most of these types of plans involved acts of sabotage using agents in place and/or landed by U-boat.


Not sure what they were smoking when they came up with this but has anyone seen what the special bomb was...cant see only two of them going much even if perfectly placed.

Re: Operation Pelikan 1943 proposed German attack on Gatun dam

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2026 10:54 am
by Nathan45
Developing a plan that wouldn't work and probably would never be tried sure beat serving on the eastern front.

Re: Operation Pelikan 1943 proposed German attack on Gatun dam

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2026 12:25 pm
by Nik_SpeakerToCats
Didn't they reverse engineer the Wallis bouncers to small size suitable for anti-shipping ?

Snag is any bomb Stukas could haul, even short-range, was unlikely to scratch dam...

And a float-plane is further restricted...

Chemical ? That would go very, very badly.

Like the 'Special' war-heads planned for V1~~3 that were whispered but NOT deployed, there lies a rabid zoo of 'Napkinwaffe'...

Re: Operation Pelikan 1943 proposed German attack on Gatun dam

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2026 1:38 am
by Poohbah
German "Sondernapkinwaffen" are "special" in the sense that anyone buying in on them rode the short bus.

Re: Operation Pelikan 1943 proposed German attack on Gatun dam

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2026 2:39 am
by jemhouston
Poohbah wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 1:38 am German "Sondernapkinwaffen" are "special" in the sense that anyone buying in on them rode the short bus.
But much loved by some alt-history writers. I'm looking at you Discover.