<<Besides the fact that A-bombs would be irradiating Germany 3 a month by the end of '45. So, it doesn't really make a lot of difference.>>
I wonder if the political will to bomb Europeans would have been there. It's one thing to microwave a bunch of Asiatics, another to nuke people who are so much like "us,' forgetting the obvious difference that we didn't gas political and ethnic enemies. After all, the fledgeling U.S. narrowly adopted English over German and we had many ties to the culture.
Also, would the scientific community objected - if that would be relevant -? There were rumblings about stopping the Manhattan Project when intelligence showed how far off track the Nazis were to making their own bomb. The spur of getting there first would have evaporated.
Also, as far as being necessary to atomize Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden, the internal collapse of the Third Reich was so imminent, would we have gone there? I think it more likely that, with Hitler's increasing physical and mental illnesses, there would have been a general uprising similar to what happened in 1918. The army and people would have quit.
That's not to say a firestorm engulfing Berlin might not have been a good idea. It certainly would have given Papa Joe Stalin something to think about.
I wonder if the political will to bomb Europeans would have been there. It's one thing to microwave a bunch of Asiatics, another to nuke people who are so much like "us,' forgetting the obvious difference that we didn't gas political and ethnic enemies. After all, the fledgeling U.S. narrowly adopted English over German and we had many ties to the culture.
Also, would the scientific community objected - if that would be relevant -? There were rumblings about stopping the Manhattan Project when intelligence showed how far off track the Nazis were to making their own bomb. The spur of getting there first would have evaporated.
Also, as far as being necessary to atomize Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden, the internal collapse of the Third Reich was so imminent, would we have gone there? I think it more likely that, with Hitler's increasing physical and mental illnesses, there would have been a general uprising similar to what happened in 1918. The army and people would have quit.
That's not to say a firestorm engulfing Berlin might not have been a good idea. It certainly would have given Papa Joe Stalin something to think about.