Most Effective Target for Atomic Attack on Nazi Germany

In my TL...

...Where 2012 Britain is sent back to the post-Dunkirk Battle of Britain, a nuke is dropped on Peenemunde, destroying the research into V-weapons and AA missiles like 'Wasserfall'. I thought there would be too much collateral damage from an attack on Leuna. The slave workers are NOT disposable. Rather fewer POWs were present in the camp south of Peenemunde-Ost. Any fallout would fall in the Baltic.
 
Short of putting RATO Bottles on a Lanc, there's no way to get it flying high enough(35,000 feet) and fast enough (350mph) to avoid getting destroyed by the bomb blast.
The crew has 43 seconds after release to be far enough way
Attach a parachute to the bomb. That will retard it's fall enough for the slower aircraft in question to get clear before it goes off. This solution was used on the first air-deployable H-bombs as even the jet bombers could get clear otherwise. And it a solution that was known even before the second world war.
 
Attach a parachute to the bomb. That will retard it's fall enough for the slower aircraft in question to get clear before it goes off. This solution was used on the first air-deployable H-bombs as even the jet bombers could get clear otherwise. And it a solution that was known even before the second world war.

It took years to get parachutes to work with multi-ton high speed nuclear shapes.

And the USAF and USN had a lot of incentive to get the new lightweight bomb deployed, so in the interim, came up with predicting bomb sights for toss bombing

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But as it was, drag plates were attached to the box fin units to slow the bombs fall
 
Dresden was heavily damaged by incendiary bombs during February 1945.

May I suggest that the best use of WALLIED A-bombs was in East Germany?
WALLIES “assist” their Russian Allies by bombing East German cities shortly before the Russians invade. A-bombs ruin transportation links (railroads and canals) while killing millions of Germans.
Russian soldiers march into cities heavily contaminated by radiation and nuclear fall-out. Russian soldiers soon die of radiation poisoning. Fall out contaminates all the Rastern European countries recently “liberated” by Russia. Russian food supplies are contaminated for many years after the war. European communists economies are devestated. Russia loses the Cold War.
 
Attach a parachute to the bomb. That will retard it's fall enough for the slower aircraft in question to get clear before it goes off. This solution was used on the first air-deployable H-bombs as even the jet bombers could get clear otherwise. And it a solution that was known even before the second world war.

It took years to get parachutes to work with multi-ton high speed nuclear shapes.

There's also the issue that parachute delivery murders accuracy.

ay I suggest that the best use of WALLIED A-bombs was in East Germany?
WALLIES “assist” their Russian Allies by bombing East German cities shortly before the Russians invade. A-bombs ruin transportation links (railroads and canals) while killing millions of Germans.
Russian soldiers march into cities heavily contaminated by radiation and nuclear fall-out. Russian soldiers soon die of radiation poisoning. Fall out contaminates all the Rastern European countries recently “liberated” by Russia. Russian food supplies are contaminated for many years after the war. European communists economies are devestated. Russia loses the Cold War.

Leaving aside the gross overestimation of the effects of both the sort of atomic arsenal the WAllies can must up before the war ends (they'll only be able to kill a few hundred thousand Germans, at most) as well as long-term radioactive fallout inherent in this post, the effects of long-term radioactive fallout were not understood. The scientists in 1945 believed that fallout would reach safe levels within 24 hours. It took years of further research and nuclear testing for people to realize that number was more like 2 weeks. The WAllies may use a few bombs in Eastern Germany just to show the Soviets first-hand what they can do, but it's liable to produce few (if any) Soviet radiation casualties, have zero effect on the Cold War, and merely inspire the Soviets to further accelerate their own nuclear program as Hiroshima did.
 
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Russian soldiers march into cities heavily contaminated by radiation and nuclear fall-out.

They were airbursts, and at an altitude that maximized destruction- too high and too small a bomb to suck up a lot of material to make fallout.

Note those downwind OTL did not have that happen with the two detonations
 
The problem with Luena/Merseburg is that it is one of the most defended spots in Germany. I don’t think that the Allies are going to risk loosing an Atomic bomb right out the gate.
Just like OTL the Scientists of the Manhattan Project are going to want a relatively undamaged target in order to see just how effective the bomb actually is.
I think they are going to look for an easier target first.
Even by the summer of 1944 the RAF had already firebombed most of the major German cities.
The RAF failed to get a firestorm started in Berlin OTL because the city was built up with modern concrete and steel buildings, not enough old wooden structures.
Dresden and Chemintz are good for “shock and awe” value and for bomb damage assessment. German propaganda cannot write it off as damage from previous raids. After that you hit one of the oil cities.
Ploesti was captured by the Russians in July 1944 so that is off the list.
 
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kernals12

Banned
The problem with Luena/Merseburg is that it is one of the most defended spots in Germany. I don’t think that the Allies are going to risk loosing an Atomic bomb right out the gate.
Just like OTL the Scientists of the Manhattan Project are going to want a relatively undamaged target in order to see just how effective the bomb actually is.
I think they are going to look for an easier target first.
Even by the summer of 1944 the RAF had already firebombed most of the major German cities.
The RAF failed to get a firestorm started in Berlin OTL because the city was built up with modern concrete and steel buildings, not enough old wooden structures.
Dresden and Chemintz are good for “shock and awe” value and for bomb damage assessment. German propaganda cannot write it off as damage from previous raids. After that you hit one of the oil cities.
Ploesti was captured by the Russians in July 1944 so that is off the list.

If it's only one bomber, the Germans will probably assume it's a reconaissance mission and ignore it (that's what happened in Hiroshima). Or they could have an entire squadron fly in with only one bomber armed with the A-bomb.
 
Or they could have an entire squadron fly in with only one bomber armed with the A-bomb.
IJA got used to three plane Elements that seemed to be photorecon. flying fast&high in the daytime, rather than the massed night-time for incendiary raids.

Only B-29s could be used, mixing in B-17s would just get them killed when the bomb goes off.
But using a standard raid as cover would work, Luftwaffe, such as it was, would be trying to deal with B-17 in bomber boxes than a couple high flying B-29 weather or photo aircraft
 
If it's only one bomber, the Germans will probably assume it's a reconaissance mission and ignore it (that's what happened in Hiroshima). Or they could have an entire squadron fly in with only one bomber armed with the A-bomb.
In order to do that you have to introduce B-29s over Germany. Once the Germans get used to seeing Superforts it becomes “normal”.
 
IJA got used to three plane Elements that seemed to be photorecon. flying fast&high in the daytime, rather than the massed night-time for incendiary raids.

Only B-29s could be used, mixing in B-17s would just get them killed when the bomb goes off.
But using a standard raid as cover would work, Luftwaffe, such as it was, would be trying to deal with B-17 in bomber boxes than a couple high flying B-29 weather or photo aircraft
I really need to finish my story about nuking Nazi Germany.
You are on the right track. OTL the 8th Air Force would sometimes hit multiple targets. Case in point: The February 1945 raid on Berlin. The B-17s went to Berlin while the all B-24 Second Air Division bombed Magdeburg. Other times bomber groups would break off to secondary targets due to weather.
So a B-17 raid is launched against Leipzig for example.
B-29s break off and head for Chemintz.
 
They were airbursts, and at an altitude that maximized destruction- too high and too small a bomb to suck up a lot of material to make fallout.

Note those downwind OTL did not have that happen with the two detonations

The 'massive fallout' is one of the most misunderstood canards on the internet. I can't remember this misunderstanding coming up in conversations back in the pre net days. maybe I ran with a better educated crowd then.

Aside from very little dust and debris being irradiated by the Nagasaki & Hiroshima bombs neither was a particularly dirty bomb in terms of long last particles. Not remotely like the neutron bombs we deployed in Europe in the 1980s. There were some long lasting particles, but the primary radiation danger from both occurred during the detonation, which gave severe or fatal doses to exposed persons within a couple kilometers. Those persons were also severely burned from near visible spectrum radiation as well. While the long term effects like cancer risk can be a problem it is a fact that US Japanese & US military personnel were operating at or near ground zero soon after the detonations without short term effects.

Bottom line is unless one of these devices is detonated at inefficient altitudes that restrict and mitigate the overpressure effects ground units can operate very near ground zero shortly after the detonation. Even then the contamination that will render ground units useless is not widespread over 'thousands of square miles'. Part of my training in this included plotting the danger zone on the ground so we could avoid and maneuver around the downwind contaminated zone.
 

kernals12

Banned
The 'massive fallout' is one of the most misunderstood canards on the internet. I can't remember this misunderstanding coming up in conversations back in the pre net days. maybe I ran with a better educated crowd then.

Aside from very little dust and debris being irradiated by the Nagasaki & Hiroshima bombs neither was a particularly dirty bomb in terms of long last particles. Not remotely like the neutron bombs we deployed in Europe in the 1980s. There were some long lasting particles, but the primary radiation danger from both occurred during the detonation, which gave severe or fatal doses to exposed persons within a couple kilometers. Those persons were also severely burned from near visible spectrum radiation as well. While the long term effects like cancer risk can be a problem it is a fact that US Japanese & US military personnel were operating at or near ground zero soon after the detonations without short term effects.

Bottom line is unless one of these devices is detonated at inefficient altitudes that restrict and mitigate the overpressure effects ground units can operate very near ground zero shortly after the detonation. Even then the contamination that will render ground units useless is not widespread over 'thousands of square miles'. Part of my training in this included plotting the danger zone on the ground so we could avoid and maneuver around the downwind contaminated zone.
This. The vast majority of the A-bomb's damage comes from the heat and blast. Fallout is almost a minor concern by comparison, with the exception of those Dr Strangelove style Cobalt bombs.
 
Instead of targeting the oil drilling (where all the good stuff is underground, and the pumps are separate machines), go after the largest refinery complex.

All the crude oil in the world won't do Germany any good if it can't be converted into avgas, diesel, regular fuels, heating oil, and all the other goodies that are mixed together.

The other goal would be large complex machinery that Germany needs to keep its economy running. Similar to another post on this board about how we should have been bombing the two electric substations outside of Berlin instead of the factories in Berlin. Or targeting the 5 chemical plants that produced the high-octane fuel needed for German fighters (4 of the plants made half of the fuel compound needed, and the fifth plant was the only one that made the other half of the compound).
 
The amount of fallout & persistent radiation danger depends on a low altitude detonation. Surface or near surface bursts do put a lot of severely irradiated debris into the air to draft and fall down wind. However surface bursts have a less destructive area. The overpressure is reflected upwards and the wave spreading along the ground surface is diverted by terrain. Efficient atomic detonations are medium altitude air bursts. When planning nuke attacks we always assumed air bursts for out cannon launched warheads. Fallout and ground contamination were to unpredictable & our doctrine was to go for maximum blast effect since our targets were relatively vulnerable to that. Note: Our target priorities were: Nuclear or chemical weapons/launchers, HQ/communications centers, supply units/depots. Things like ground combat units, were very low priority.
 
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