DBWI: What If Bomb Hadn't Been Used on August 9, 1945 on New York?

On August 9, 1945, the German U-Boat U-234, Type XB under Captain K.L. Fehler sailed into New York Harbor, New York and detonated a nuclear weapon, killing 86,000 people instantly. This was despite the surrender of the Nazi German state four months earlier. According to many historians, when the U-234, left Kristiansand, Norway on April 16, 1945, the initial plan was to surrender the vessel to Allied forces. How would the history of American and Soviet occupation of Germany, and thus the course of the Cold War, have been different without the deadliest attack on American soil?
 
Sorry, but actually it is. The Nazi atomic bomb project was so far behind the American project, that there is no chance that they would have had a working bomb in August of 1945. Further, how the heck does a diesel sub stay supplied for the 4 months between the surrender of the Germans?

If Germany had a bomb in 1945, I think we can be sure, they would have used it on a target that would make a more immediate difference on the war. A bomb or two used on Soviet or Allied forces in April might have delayed the final advances towards Berlin.

--
Bill
 
I think if what the poster originally wrote.

Then US Millitary would have come down harder on the civilian population in Germany.

/Fred
 
OOC:
There's no question that the U234 existed and sailed to the USA with a cargo of Nazi high technology. The uranium on board was probably sent to Los Alamos and some of the high-speed infrared fuses it carried may have been examined there too. More speculatively, the uranium may have been enriched to some extent and may have been incorporated in the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, although the evidence is thin. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that US secret agencies had something to do with the surrender, although there's no evidence at all of that.

I've never read anything suggesting that it had a Nazi A-bomb on board though.
 
I think if what the poster originally wrote.

Then US Millitary would have come down harder on the civilian population in Germany.

/Fred
OOC: So imagine how much worse an occupation of Germany would be under these circumstances. Or imagine how bad the situation becomes in regards to Japan....
 
Top