Company Pelikan

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Company Pelikan , sometimes referred to as Project 14 , was a German plan to destroy the Panama Canal during World War II . The plan was never carried out.

Planning

The Culebra Cut region when the canal was built in 1904
The dam on Lake Gatun, possible target for an air raid, in 1914

The Panama Canal was of immense strategic importance during World War II, as it allowed the USA to move ships quickly between the Atlantic and Pacific without having to take the long detour around Cape Horn . According to the author Ladislas Faragó , Hermann Göring said publicly as early as 1939 that the Panama Canal was not as invulnerable as the Americans thought. Two bombs on the Culebra Cut would be enough to make the canal unusable. There had been several landslides here when the canal was built and spies had identified the region as a critical point. In 1939, however , the Luftwaffe did not have any aircraft that would have been able to reach Panama from Europe on their own, so the attack would have had to be carried out by agents on the ground. Faragó speculates that Göring then hoped that Focke-Wulf Fw 200 machines converted into bombers would be able to bomb targets on the American continent. Later plans were to ship two dismantled planes to a Colombian island, from where they should have attacked the canal. A model of the Panama Canal had previously been built at Wannsee near Berlin in order to identify possible weak points. The concrete dam on Lake Gatún was finally set as the target . The plans were abandoned in 1943, and the Pelikan company canceled at short notice; Allegedly, submersible vehicles had already been loaded onto a waiting submarine and ready for departure, but it was feared that the company had been betrayed (“mission was compromised”).

Also on the Japanese side, there had been plans for attacks on the Panama Canal: Submarines of the I-400 class , which were to transport multiple aircraft in a position to the locks should the Panama Canal with Aichi M6A destroy aircraft. The war ended before the plan could be carried out.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ladislas Faragó : The Game of the Foxes: The Untold Story of German Espionage in the United States and Great Britain During World War II . Bantam Books, 1973. p. 66 (English).
  2. ↑ 100 historical facts about the Panama Canal. Published for the 100th anniversary. Embassy of the United States of America in Panama. S. 20. Online here (PDF, English)
  3. ^ A b Christopher Vasey: Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories . McFarland & Company, 2016. pp. 126-127 (English).
  4. ^ Alonso E. Illueca: International Coalitions and Non-Militarily Contributing Member States: A Perspective from Panama's Practice and the Law of Neutrality . University of Miami Inter-American Law Review (1) 2018. p. 8 (English).
  5. ^ RJ Francillon: Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War . Putnam & Company, London, 1970. p. 294 (English).