Operation Pelikan

pelican

'Pelikan' was a German unrealised plan, otherwise known as 'Projekt 14', to cripple the Caribbean Sea end of the Panama Canal from St Martin Bay on the coast of Nicaragua or an island off the Colombian coast (1943).

The plan was neither seriously considered nor fully developed, and most variants of the basic scheme involved sabotage by agents in place and/or landed by U-boat.

In the autumn of 1943 the Germans had completed preparations to use a pair of U-boats to deliver two Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers, adapted with folding wings, to an unnamed Colombian island or a bay on the Nicaraguan coast near Panama, erect the aircraft, arm them with unspecified 'special bombs' and despatch them to attack the Gatun Dam. After completing their mission, the pilots were fly their aircraft to a neutral country and be interned.

The plan was abandoned, at the last minute, for unknown reasons.