Hitler and the Bomb

RalofTyr

Banned
I know there's probably a ton of threads like this, but I've been thinking about what would happen if Hitler got the bomb; now, I know a German nuke wouldn't change the war; a KT bomb, the realistic size of a German-bomb, would be the equivalent damage to an Ally city of an American 500 B-17 strike*.

I have a few questions.

Just how many bombs would Hitler need to change the outcome?

Would it be possible to reduce the size of the nukes so he could load him on V2s or V1s?

What about the Ally response? As soon as the first German-bomb went off, the Manhatten-project scientists will be pulling double-shifts.

How useful would Tactical-nukes be against the Soviets?





*I'm making this up, but really, a KT bomb vs. a Western-brick and mason city wouldn't wipe the city off of the map. I guess it would produce the same results as the Dresden Bombing.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Just how many bombs would Hitler need to change the outcome?

Lots.

Would it be possible to reduce the size of the nukes so he could load him on V2s or V1s?

No.

What about the Ally response? As soon as the first German-bomb went off, the Manhatten-project scientists will be pulling double-shifts.

They were pulling double shifts anyway.

How useful would Tactical-nukes be against the Soviets?

Reasonably.
 
First, it's borderline ASB for Hitler to obtain an atomic bomb. The reasons have been discussed before, and I don't feel like repeating them, so just take my word for it until someone else posts them.

That said, Hitler nuking an Allied city will get Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and other German cities doses of Instant Sunshine. War ends with a Morgenthau Plan initiated to make sure it never happens again.

For missiles, no. Not until the 1950s by my reckoning. But Von Braun did have plans for bigger and better rockets, including a V-2 derivative placing a German in orbit by 1955 (assuming a victory).

For how many bombs are needed to change the outcome, it depends on how good the Luftwaffe is. If you can glass Britain and make them give up without the US taking over Britain the way the Germans took over Italy, you can win in the west. However, the amount of nukes necessary for that is inversely proportional to the Luftwaffe's fighting strength. More Luftwaffe dominance, less bombs needed as less are shot down.

Against the Soviets, not very. Remember how broad the front was. Even if you destroy a massed concentration of Russian armor and infantry, all you get is a pissed-off Stalin and more Russians thrown at you. The Red Army is slowed down, but not enough to drag the war past 1946 at the absolute latest, assuming that the US Navy does not bring an aircraft carrier within striking range of Germany and go for an all-out effort to beat Hitler before that.
 
Well, one bomb won't do too much good, aside from giving Germany higher priority in terms of the Manhattan project, so it would end up Germany being the first recipient of an Atomic strike. As for Atomic V-2's; Nope. the engineering needed for that didn't exist, in fact it wasn't even until much later the concept of a nuclear missile came to be viable. The other thing is how do you get it there? Yes, there's a lot of napkinwaffe that ideally could have made the trip, even then it would be nearly impossible given the distances involved. So, unless it's a one way trip, I don't see a way that the U.S would have to worry, though Hitler being Hitler it wouldn't suprise me to have him nuke London or at least try to.
 
Few Bombs Available.

When the US droped the bombs they had very few in stock. If Germany comes into the bomb at about the same time they are too few and too late.
 

Cook

Banned
For calculating the effect of an atomic bomb of various sizes on a selected city try this:

http://www.carloslabs.com/projects/200712B/GroundZero.html

Innermost radius is complete destruction (dark red bullseye)
Next ring is sever damage (red ring),
Moderate damage (orange ring),
Light damage (yellow ring).

That is physical damage of course; the greatest impact of an atomic bomb is psychological, a city has been wiped away in an instant and the same can happen to any other city.

Alternatively, for the tactical scenario, the US 1st division, a unit of some 20,000 men suffered 15,000 battle casualties in World War Two. Consider what would happen to a division that suffered that many casualties in a single minute on the beaches of Normandy.
 
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