Wars and ConflictsΒ permalink
A Pretty Close Run Thing.
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Message 1.Β
Posted by youngjerry (U7266788) on Tuesday, 15th January 2008
The discovery of the atomic bomb during WW2 appears to have been a pretty close run race between the Nazis and the Allies.
If we assume,(and history is often assumption}that the Nazis had won the race and got the bomb first-which nation amongst the Allies would Hitler have used it on?
young jerry -
Message 2
Posted by Scarboro (U2806863) on Tuesday, 15th January 2008
The Allies feared that the race was a pretty close thing. In reality it turned out to be not that close.
Hitler's scientists reported that the bomb was achievable, but would take a number of years and a large allocation of resources. Hitler calculated that he would win his war before the bomb could be developed, so he put the project on the back-burner and dedicated resources to conventional arms.
Had he prioritized the A-bomb and had it ready in time, I expect he would have used it on whatever nation was the most urgent threat at the time - no holds barred.
After all in a total war, the only consideration is victory, and moral niceties can be tidied up afterwards when the victor writes the history books. -
Message 3
Posted by schuhbox4 (U10370736) on Tuesday, 15th January 2008
I'd have to imagine Moscow would have been the first victim.
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Message 4
Posted by Sashless (U3037387) on Wednesday, 16th January 2008
Presumably the delivery system would have been the V2 . Did this have the range to reach Moscow?
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Message 5
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Wednesday, 16th January 2008
Sashless,
Presumably the delivery system would have been the V2 . Did this have the range to reach Moscow?Β
Sure, from anywhere within 200 miles of Moscow. And assuming the the navigation instruments didn't fail. -
Message 6
Posted by Sashless (U3037387) on Wednesday, 16th January 2008
If the German army was still within 200 miles of Moscow and confident enough to bring its super weapon that close to the Russian front would Hitler have been desperate enough to use it?
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Message 7
Posted by George1507 (U2607963) on Wednesday, 16th January 2008
It seems the Germans were not close at all to completing development of a nuclear weapon. Even the American bomb was scarcely ready by May 1945, when the Germans capitulated. If the Germans were years behind, then the question is irrelevant.
Delivery mechanisms - as mentioned above - would have limited the targets by 1945. I would have said Stalingrad would have been the obvious target for philosophical reasons, but by 1945 the Germans had been driven back inside their own borders, so a strike on anywhere in the Soviet Union would have been difficult.
Guidance on the V1 and V2 weapons were so haphazard that the Germans would have risked themselves as much as the Allies.
Using a plane to deliver a bomb - there wasn't much Luftwaffe left by 1945, and most of what there was was defensive (fighters) as opposed to offensive (bombers). -
Message 8
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Wednesday, 16th January 2008
Sashless,
If the German army was still within 200 miles of Moscow and confident enough to bring its super weapon that close to the Russian front would Hitler have been desperate enough to use it? Β
We'll never know. -
Message 9
Posted by ungodfather (U2173708) on Wednesday, 16th January 2008
...fortunately!
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Message 10
Posted by Backtothedarkplace (U2955180) on Thursday, 17th January 2008
Working backwards from the American bombs I am not sure that the V2 was capable of carrying the weight of an atomic warhead. It could only carry a ton or so of HE I think the early bombs were much heavier not to mention the sheer size of the thing. If it could carry the weight then a V2 would end up looking like a Microphone!
The time taken to build a bigger missle with the range to hit a meaningful russian target ie moscow would be a killer.
Its possible you might be able to shoe horn one into a Condor? but your not talking a return trip. -
Message 11
Posted by Anglo-Norman (U1965016) on Thursday, 17th January 2008
The Germans had long-range planes in development; this included the utterly bonkers supersonic, stratospheric Silverbird Orbital Bomber (aka Sanger Amerika Bomber), capable (at least in theory) of delivering a single 8000lb bomb.
The Luft'46 website used to have a couple of very good articles about Germany's progress (or more accurately lack of progress) on atomic weapons, but they seem to have vanished. -
Message 12
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Thursday, 17th January 2008
Little Boy weighed 4,000 kg; Fat Man weighed 4,630 kg.
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Message 13
Posted by Mike Alexander (U1706714) on Friday, 18th January 2008
Nitpicking here, but the race wasn't to 'discover' the atomic bomb, but rather to invent it! The theoretical possibility was well-established ever since Einstein derived his famous equation, but to actually make it work was an enormous engineering project given 1940s technology, and there were doubts as to the practicality. The project was massively expensive - 2 billion dollars at the time, the equivalent of 23 billion dollars today - and was probably the greatest gathering of scientific minds in history.
German efforts were miles behind. There is some argument about whether Heisenberg deliberately hindered progress, misleading the Nazis (with whom he wasn't very sympathetic) - or whether he simply made some big miscalculations, leading the project up the dead-end of heavy water. There is evidence on both sides, and we're never likely to know the answer. -
Message 14
Posted by Backtothedarkplace (U2955180) on Friday, 18th January 2008
War head forthe V2 is just over 2000 pounds.
Assuming the Germans arrived at a weapon with a similar weight then you cant fix it to a V2. Well not and get it to take off.
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