Actually, that premise is great. It would make for an entertaining timeline. In fact, I encourage you to write it.
Nazi Germany has nukes in July 1941
- Thread starter Anti-GrammarNazi
- Start date
Perkeo
Banned
The OP refers to the year 1941. Then there wasn't much allied bombing and even less Soviet advance. So while it is undeniable (and undenied) that a nuclear bomb project pushes the German war economy to its limit, it is not clearly out of reach.
So I stand by my original opinion: None of the requirements successful Nazi bomb is really ASB. It's just the combination of them all that doesn't seem plausible.
P.S.: The quotation "One guy on the site did once do..." isn't exactly more academic than Wikipedia, is it?
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Fine, let's say Nyarlathotep shows up and hands them a dozen 10 kt warheads.
How will they deliver them? The He 177 was crap, and U-boats aren't going to make it anywhere near NYC harbor.
They'll have to wait until the V-2 is ready, in order to launch them.
And it won't change the outcome of the war.
The Reich is vastly outproduced by the Allies. This is why they lost.
They can't hit Washington or Detroit; or Moscow or Magnitogorsk; or even Liverpool.
Any targets they could conceivably hit (London, Birmingham, Antwerp) were already bombed into rubble by the end of the war.
All it would do is strengthen the Allies resolve, and lead to a nuclear V-E day.
Oh, they'll be facing plenty of Allied bombing plus a Anglo-French advance, seeing as the resources required for the bomb project would come at the expense of German conventional forces they would need to keep the Western Allies off their back.
I was referring to a plausible German bomb program. Admittedly 1941 would be an easier time for Germany to make the Bomb, in the same way it would be a better time for them to focus on other projects that they lack the math or basic breakthroughs for, such as the Silverbird or their Orbital Death Mirror.
Perkeo
Banned
No you weren't, since you proved yourself that a successful German bomb program by the end of the war isn't plausible.
As several people have said, the Manhattan Project wasn't that much more expensive than other projects that Germany DID manage to finance.
No one denies that a successful German bomb program stretches non-ASB AH to the limit. But an early start seems to me one of the less implausible POD's - albeit 1941 is really very early.
Yeah, but you see the Nazi state was so innefficient it wouldn't cost them Manhattan levels of money, it would cost ten times that much. And remember. It's not just money that's required. The Manhattan project required 20% of America's electrical power, how do the Nazi's get all the extra electricity?
Saying a Nazi bomb in 1941 is more plausible thana later bomb is correct, just like how it would be easier to drink the entire Dead Sea than it would be to drink the Pacific. Technically correct, but still not happening.
Realistically?
The average Landser , followed by the MG 42 & 88mm DP
Potentially?
Panther tank. Maybe the Me-262 if they could have somehow solved the Jumo 004 engine reliability & manufacturing issues by the end of 1942 (since they never did, this closes in on ASB).
Making things more ASB to advance its success doesn't help the plausibility argument.
Such as?
thaddeus
Donor
Fuel Air bombs worked on by Zippermayr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon
nerve gas loaded onto improved, air launched V-1
Garrison
Donor
Well to start with Heisenberg got his calculations wrong and wildly overestimated how much Uranium would be required for a bomb. As has been said they also thought that graphite wouldn't be effective as a moderator and focused on Heavy Water. Now how much of this was cock up and how much was deliberate sabotage as Heisenberg claimed later is anybody's guess.
Even if they got the numbers right its nigh on impossible Nazi Germany could have built a bomb with the time and resources available to them.
But, but...
Robert Conroy had them developing one in 3 months in 1944, so its got to be easy!
I mean, surely a big name writer like him couldn't have got it wrong...!
Robert Conroy had them developing one in 3 months in 1944, so its got to be easy!
I mean, surely a big name writer like him couldn't have got it wrong...!
Perkeo
Banned
The graphite-thing was actually true, because Nazi Germany had no access to high-purity graphite. The graphite they had was contaminated with boron which rendered it useless.
As for the deliberate sabotage: AFAIK bugging reports stated quite clearly that Heisenberg's miscalculation was real, so he indeed thought that a bomb was unfeasible and he didn't have any bomb project to sabotage.
And as for the general feasibility: To succeed, the Nazi bombmakers need to do many things very right that they did very wrong IOTL, so it seems hard to avoid the three letters ASB.