The Nazis nuke D-day

Dorozhand

Banned
Nazi Germany develops a nuclear weapon in 1944 and uses it on the D-day invasion forces.
Where exactly do they nuke, and what would allied losses look like?
What happens next?
 
Well given that Heisenberg botched his criticality calculations, it's likely that there's a nasty radioactive hazard in the middle of Germany. Hopefully a number of prominent nazis were present at the melt-down.

Still, let's give them that and say they have a single low-yield device to use.

They can't detonate it on the Normandy coast without hitting their own defenders unless they pull them back, and then -- as they only have one device - they can't cover all the landing beaches.

Alternatively, they target the flotilla as it approaches - but it's so spread out they don't get it all.

Either way, the gloves are off. Britain retaliates with poison gas and biologicals, the Nazis use their own and desperately try to get more nukes made.

End result, a hell of a lot more dead, especially in Germany.
 
The Germans aint getting a bomb that early without massive changes to their nuclear program, such as one massive centralised project similar to Manhattan instead of several small, poorly funded groups. They would also need to find funding for it somewhere at the expense of the rest of the war effort, I've heard that by removing the Aggregate rocket program they could have covered the costs but even with that they're still removing funding from armaments. They'd also need to all their research in a place both removed from the threat of Allied bombing and the Soviet advance, something which was becoming harder and harder by 1944.

Even if all those factors use ASB magic to allow the Germans to have a bomb in the double figure kiloton range by D-Day there are still issues, the Germans don't have a plane which could drop the bomb, and even if they did the Allies would have total supremacy of the skies, making such an operation too risky. They could simply put it in a bunker on the beach and wait, but they would most likely have it in Calais, where they thought the invasion was going to come. As such they would probably have to wait until the Allies had advanced to use it.

Using it to try and hold back Operation Bagration would have made much more sense, strategically and just pragmatically.
 
The Use of a Atomic weapon by Nazi is close to a ABS scenario.

in last day of war, the SS look into use of "Special Warheads" on new Rockets like Rheinbote for tactical use.
what this "Special Warheads" had to be is still unclear, some author's claim it's atomic bomb.
But with payload of 40 kg on Rheinbote, must be hell of a ABS Nuke...
 
Even less likely than our favouriteunmentionableSea Mammel. If the Allies know theGermans have a functioning device they don't invade until they have their own. Even if the Germans use their bomb theycan only use it against one beach.London or a port like Dover area better target but the bomb needs to work on a V1as theGermansare most unlikely to get a bomber through atthis point of the war.
 
The Use of a Atomic weapon by Nazi is close to a ABS scenario.

in last day of war, the SS look into use of "Special Warheads" on new Rockets like Rheinbote for tactical use.
what this "Special Warheads" had to be is still unclear, some author's claim it's atomic bomb.
But with payload of 40 kg on Rheinbote, must be hell of a ABS Nuke...

more likely to be thermobaric (fual air explosive) warheads, because the germans were experimenting with that it seems.
 
Using it to try and hold back Operation Bagration would have made much more sense, strategically and just pragmatically.

That was my thought as well. Much less problematic in terms of delivery, and likely to have a more direct impact on the course of the war - if employed properly for maximum tactical effect.

Allied air supremacy was so overwhelming at D-Day that it was ridiculously risky to try dropping one by bomber. And a V-2 rocket - and we're agreed that was the obvious budget to whack to find the money for an a-bomb project - couldn't carry a bomb like Fat Man or Little Boy.

the Germans don't have a plane which could drop the bomb

Little Boy weighed about 4,400kg. That's too much for German medium bombers (at least unmodified) but not a He 177.

They could also try lobbing one on Moscow, with the hopes of killing Stalin and much of the senior leadership, creating political chaos for the Soviet regime. Given the limitations of the Soviet air force at high altitude, that was theoretically possible as well - German high altitude bombers were rarely molested on the Eastern Front -though certainly much riskier than the U.S. atomic bombing profiles. I'd have seriously considered that if I were the Germans, at least if I had more than one bomb. There's the risk that plane is shot down or the bomb doesn't explode and the Soviets get hold of it intact. But that's a risk with a Bagration counterstrike, too.

Of course, the whole scenario is nearly ASB, especially that early in the war.
 
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yes, Little Boy weighed about 4400kg.
but that was because it's heavy armor, the Bomb designers made this so the A-bomb survive a Bomber crash during take off or landing.
without armor plate the pure atom bombe weighed around 2300 kg.

too much for german rocket weapon, but in range of a german Bomber like He 177.
if he survive tha allies fighters during bomb raid...
 

Kongzilla

Banned
If German industry was unmolested by bombers and a soviet advance didn't occur until late 45 could the Germans have thermobaric weapons.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
Yes I just started reading up on that, these wacky Nazis always surprise me with their zany schemes.

Are there any photos/videos/reports on the actual weapons and how much it would cost to mass produce the weapons. Could they be dropped by conventional fighter bombers. Kind of like a WW2 version of the Vietnam napalm dropped by the Fighter Jets. Would they be more effective against in the open against Russian wave attacks or against entrenched infantry. Could they be used effectively in conjunction with stockpiled Gas and Nerve agents the Germans have.
 
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