Welcome back. It's been such a long time. But finally, here we are.
Fair warning: this may very well be the straw which breaks the camel of plausibility's back for some, if not, most (hopefully not
all, or I'll run out of readers
) of you. While stopping
just short of giving nukes to the Nazis, I needed to give something resembling a non-huffing-lead-paint reason for NATO to kick the Reich's shit in the moment it declared war again on the Soviet Union, so much of the basis of this post is stuff which would normally be found on like axishistoryforums.
But oh well. Onwards!
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WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT
“I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come [and see]. And I saw, and behold, a pale horse. And he that sat upon him was death, and hell followed him.”
Ermin von Braun, nuclear physicist, paraphrasing Revelation 6:7-8 whilst observing the “Pale Rider” super-bomb test [1].
Figure 61: Reich Air Ministry and Wehrmacht officials, along with Luigi Romersa, an Italian observer, observing a test of the V-bomb, a thermobaric weapon designed by Dr. Mario Zippermayer. Note the mushroom cloud denoting the high-energy detonation. Rügen Island, October 12th 1944.
The two phases of the German-Soviet conflict before and after the Treaty of Sofia were marked by severe doctrinal change on the part of the Wehrmacht in the execution of Weber’s delusions of purging the continent of Communism, but perhaps more crucially by the marked advances in technology on both sides between the conclusion of the Barbarossa Campaign and the reopening of hostilities. The so-called German “Wunderwaffe” (“wonder-weapons”) have on the whole captured the public imagination due to their simultaneous enormity and outlandishness, regardless of their actual efficacy. The nightmarish new weapons of war and the shock to the international community of their potential spurred a new phase in human history: one which has brought the world closer to the brink of being able to annihilate all of known civilisation than ever before.
The exemplar of these, as alluded to in the previous section, was the thermobaric weapon known as the V-Bomb, a loose translation of “Vergeltungswaffen” (Vengeance-weapon) [2], its designation, or its colloquial name “Vergeltungsbombe” (Vengeance-bomb); although the term is better translated as “retaliation, “vengeance” is generally used to maintain the acronym. The bomb was designed and employed almost entirely as a weapon never to be used, as its incredible effectiveness led to the realisation that its aggressive use would almost certainly lead to retaliation upon the part of others, especially since although the V-Bomb was the first of the super-bombs (loosely speaking, any explosive which could exceed its literal warhead tonnage as measured in fractions or multiples of TNT), any nucleonic device would outstrip it by orders of magnitude. The V-Bomb is hence known nowadays as the ultimate “paper tiger”, an apocalyptic weapon which essentially proved to be nothing of the sort. Nevertheless, the “super-bomb race” did result in the invention and use of nucleonic weapons and the consequent geopolitical situation, in which a handful of nuclear-powered nations hold the world’s fate within their grip, owes as much to the V-Bomb.
Figure 62: Schematic of the thermobaric SHL-6000 (Sonderholladung, Special Hollow Charge) bomb, better known as the “V-Bomb” (Vergeltungswaffen). [3]
The principles of the thermobaric V-Bomb were based upon those of dust explosions, notoriously common in flour mills and coal mines. Basically, the dispersal of combustible particulate matter (flour or coal dust in the above) produces an inflammable vapour cloud which, when ignited, generates an enormous exothermic explosion which spreads at least as far as the initial vapour cloud and continuously expands as long as there remains this inflammable environment. A further development of this principle is the fuel-air explosive (FAE), which utilises two explosives: one for dispersal and the other for detonation. This second mechanism was proposed late in the final phases of the Second World Wars, but not actually employed by the Reich in the field due to fuel shortages. [3]
Attention was given to these thermobaric weapons, or as they were also known by Reich authorities, “firedamp bombs” (Schlagwetter-bombe), as a result of the slowness of the German nucleonic project. Although the principles of inter-nucleonic reactions and energy from nucleonic fission had largely been established prior to the outbreak of war, the Judeophobic policies enacted by the Reich shortly after Weber and NSDAP’s rise to power had resulted in the flight of many prominent Jewish scientists, mostly to the United States, resulting in a deficit of professional knowledge concerning nucleonic physics.
While the Reich's nucleonic energy project was nationalised similar to the American Syracuse Project and the British Substitute Materials Project, its leadership proved to be sharply divided into factions and faced severe under-funding towards the end of the war due to the perception that nucleonic fission could not be effectively weaponised in time to provide any effect that the vast V-bomb network could not. Hence, thermobaric research was accelerated as a stopgap measure to prevent interference along Germany’s western front, and its actual effectiveness was of less concern than the terror the weapon would undoubtedly inspire.
Figure 63: Dr. Mario Zippermayer, chief architect of the Vergeltungswaffen project. Late 1944. [4]
The project was headed by a certain Dr. Mario Zippermayer, an Austrian scientist who enthusiastically first joined the Austrian DNSAP, then NSDAP proper following the Anschluss, and whose expertise was picked up in 1942, following the reorganisation of the New Order. While his offices, which had contributed several torpedo and bomber designs, had formerly been sited in Vienna and Loften, Zippermayer and his apparat were quickly moved to Berlin, within the sprawling Reich Air Ministry complex itself; although his immediate superior was none less than the Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, the truth was that most of the oversight was done by Erhard Milch as Göring had been largely sidelined by the reorganisation.
The first prototypes of the thermobaric bomb were ready by late 1943, but the first full field-testing with foreign observers did not occur until October 12th, 1944. As many records of the super-bombs developed by the Reich were deliberately destroyed by Reich loyalist authorities as the entire regime began to collapse, especially after the threat of the V-bombs was being neutralised already, we largely have to draw conclusions of the operation and effectiveness of the V-bomb from the account of Luigi Romersa, a friend of Wernher von Braun, the rocket scientist responsible for the world’s first directed missiles.
The massive secrecy of the bomb was based not only on the alleged paradigm shift of large-scale destruction but also the relatively small size of Germany’s testing grounds compared to its American and Commonwealth superweapon equivalents, which had the New Mexican desert and the tundra of the North-western Territories (modern Denendeh) to conduct their tests. In contrast, the majority of the Reich’s super-bomb tests were simply conducted off Rügen Island, which made cover-ups complicated due to the island’s use as a resort for Reich functionaries; given the power of the explosion involved, it stands to reason that it was also visible from the open sea. In initial response to public enquiry, the Reich authorities used the patently false cover story that it had been the result of the accidental detonation of munitions aboard the fictional torpedo-boat Bielefeld; to this day, the “Bielefeld Conspiracy” is associated with the suspicious lack of associates of the crewmen of the “Bielefeld”. [5]
Figure 64: View of the coast of Zudar, the region of Rügen in which the V-bomb was first detonated.
According to Romersa, he was brought to a purpose-built bunker composed of thick concrete with a small gap in which a thick plexiglass window had been installed and given no instructions apart from the intent of his visit, which was to observe the effects of “a certain device”, a quote which would form the title of his main memoir concerning the events. After a certain period of time, a countdown preceded what Romersa described as “a slight tremor in the bunker; a sudden, blinding flash, and then a thick cloud of smoke. It took the shape of a column and then that of a big flower.” Romersa was only released from the compound after being fitted with “protective gear” – his vague descriptions have fuelled decades of speculation as to the possible nucleonic nature of the device, but these have largely been laid to rest – and brought to the desolate epicentre of the V-bomb test.
His description of its effects follows: “The effects were tragic. The trees around had been turned to carbon. No leaves. Nothing alive. There were some animals – sheep – in the area and they too had been burnt to cinders.” Grisly declassified photographs indicate that even beyond this area, animals had pulverised from the inside out, and mighty trees uprooted due to the vacuum effect of the firedamp bomb. The survival of this description was preserved by his quick return to Italy to report on the device to Italo Balbo. [6] Further diplomatic communiqués, intended to be covertly disseminated to the NATO powers, were sent confirming the existence of this “certain device” and the assertion that it would only ever be employed defensively due to concern for “the continued survival of humanity” – although this specific quote is usually ascribed to Göring, it is unlikely that he had deep enough knowledge of the project to comment upon it meaningfully.
At any rate, the true extent of the V-bomb and its power was not immediately known by the public as the Americans, British (and Soviets) were already working on a weapon to surpass it – namely, the nucleonic bomb. All three were considerably ahead of the German project due to better scientific fundamentals and organization, but the Soviet project was rather understandably delayed following the return to hostilities due to the massive destruction unleashed on the main facilities, which were rapidly moved eastwards as central authorities were forced to evacuate. The Syracuse Project, led by prominent physicists and engineers such as Robert Oppenheimer and, ironically enough, Wernher’s brother Ermin von Braun (who had fled the Reich around the time of NSDAP’s seizure of power) [7] bears the honour, for better or for worse, of introducing the world to the nucleonic age.
Although the project as a whole was given nondescript names for security (“Syracuse” in this case refers to a subdivision of New York State), this first test would eventually gain a foreboding nickname. As detailed in the chapter quote, Ermin von Braun evidently was in a deeply religious mood when observing Test S4, and perhaps with the test number in mind, named the device after the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse – “Pale Rider”.
Figure 65: The detonation of the first nucleonic device, nicknamed “Pale Rider”. August 9th, 1946. [8]
Much like its inspiration in the Book of Revelation, “Pale Rider” was to usher in a new era of destruction even as the firedamp bombs were intended purely to foster a sense of paranoia and keep the hands of the British and Americans tied whilst Weber waged his war of conquest in the east. Unlike its super-bomb predecessor, nucleonic bombs did, obviously, see use in conflict, although their use was vetoed during the dying phases of the Asia-Pacific War for fear that German intelligence would realise that nucleonic power was indeed a feasible basis for a weapon, which would have had major impacts on the safety of NATO’s actions against the Reich following the collapse of its Eastern Front.
It is fortunate for the world and its inhabitants that the nuclear-armed powers which emerged after the regime’s collapse and the subsequent three-way post-Reich Cold War that these nucleonic weapons have never been employed in conflicts thus far. This is generally seen as one dubious legacy of the policy of “Vengeance”, or “Retribution” promulgated by the V-bomb and its various emplacements in missile silos along the Alsace-Lorraine border and torpedo-boats based in Narvik, intended to cow the British into subservience by threatening total destruction of their coastal cities and the bulk of France. As these were nominally conventional weapons, they did not contravene the Geneva Protocols concerning chemical weapons, which were employed by German-backed Russian militias in another attempt to get around the treaty.
The role of the Reich in bringing the so-called “Nucleonic Age” to the world and catalysing the post-war technological paradigm shift has parallels in the advanced weaponry employed by the Wehrmacht during the second phase of the Great Patriotic War. While machine-carbines, jet fighters and strategic bombers did not comprise the bulk of the invasion force, their employment did provide significant strategic advantages in the critical opening hostilities, tipping the entire war in Germany’s favour from the beginning even as the Kryptos Conspiracy, the Abwehr’s final masterstroke, wrought havoc behind Soviet front lines.
While the Soviet arms industry was quick to adapt, the rapidity of the conflict meant that although its equivalents were arguably superior, the destruction of its industries west of the Urals meant that their resurgence was delayed long after the opening shots were fired. As military historians have covered these technologies in exhaustive detail, the broad outlines as to the nature of such materiel should suffice, with Kubik’s Guns, Gas and Steel [9] as an excellent primer to the evolving nature of warfare at the turn of the mid-century.
Figure 66: A MK45 machine-rifle. This specific model is a Spanish copy. [10]
Firstly, the Maschinenkarabiner 45, better known as the MK45, is considered the first fully-functional modern machine-rifle; the MP44 is considered a progenitor due to differences in operating mechanisms. This class of rifle is denoted by its ability to switch between semi-automatic and burst fire and resulting suitability for a wide variety of combat situations, especially urban combat. The need for such a weapon arose following the evaluation of the Siege of Leningrad, which had degenerated into street fighting right at the end. It was concluded that portable, man-operated weapons capable of sustained suppressing fire would prove decisive in such situations. Following many teething issues with the MP44 (infamously, the entire mechanism would become inoperable if the gun was dropped), the MK45 was mass-produced and eventually deployed along the Eastern Front.
Despite modern media depictions of Wehrmacht troops prowling German-occupied zones with MK45s, these were generally only initially issued as squad weapons and then more widely promulgated as the front began to collapse and weapons were handed backwards into Reich territory. In terms of land-based weapons, most assessments give a significant but not single-handedly decisive role to the MK45, as the Panzer V “Panther” tank also played its own role in granting the Wehrmacht an advantage over the Red Army’s T-34s, which had caused so much grief to the Heer during Operation Barbarossa. [11]
Figure 67: The Heinkel He177B long-range bomber and Messerschmitt Me262 fighter-bomber, both progenitors of the so-called “Nucelonic Age” of air combat.
Further lessons learned from Operation Barbarossa concerned the Luftwaffe, which was able to finally develop a “proper” strategic bomber, as opposed to the Junkers Ju88 and its hastily cobbled “upgrade”, the Junkers Ju188, which had seen limited utility in such a role. Walther Wever, the first NSDAP appointment in charge of Luftwaffe planning was so confident of their ability to push the Soviets eastwards into Eurasia that they promulgated the Ural Bomber project from even before the Anschluss, with the specific goal of developing a long-range bomber capable of destroying martial industries on the other side of the Ural Mountains. His death in an accident had effectively terminated development of such a project and many bomber designs were severely hampered by subsequent leaders’ obsession with tactical and dive-bombing.
This acted as a blinker on development which was only lifted when the proverbial carpet was pulled out from under Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s feet and the Luftsmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen put in charge Luftwaffe in general, and specifically aeronautical development put under the command of the inflexible but efficient Erhard Milch. Between the various aeronautical companies working for Germany, the Heinkel He177B design eventually won the competition, and it was this bomber which was to prove beyond the reach of the vast majority of the Soviet anti-aircraft defences, conducting merciless raids upon chief production sites, albeit mostly on the western side of the Urals. [12]
The other chief innovation of the inter-bellum period was that of the invention of the jet fighter. All aircraft (besides gliders) during the Great War and the first half of the Second World Wars were propeller-driven; the jet engine hence marked a paradigm shift in terms of speed, a crucial factor in bomber interception and dogfights. While the Me262 jet-fighter, like the other “wonder-weapon”, the MK45, was not as widespread as most media generally depicts either weapon (the Me262 used up fuel twice as fast as other planes in similar roles), its capabilities initially far exceeded anything in the arsenal of the Soviet Air Force until the emergence and deployment of the MiG-15. [13] These two rivals would see their greatest, most frequent, contests towards the end of the “conventional” phase of the Great Patriotic War.
Figure 68: Aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Seydlitz being converted into the “pocket carrier” Weser at the naval facilities in Odessa. Late 1945. [14]
The most obvious development in the Kriegsmarine was not drawn specifically from the experiences in the Great Patriotic War, as by and large the Soviet Baltic Fleet had been totally decimated during the Battle of Tallinn Bay, but by developments during the Great Asia-Pacific War. There, events such as the Battle of Midway and the successful ocean-wide hunt for the battleship Yamato mere days after its sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales had suggested that the age of the dreadnaught was at its end, soon to be overtaken by that of the aircraft carrier. [15]
Unlike any of the victors of the Great War, Germany was initially forced to limit its naval development to nearly comically low levels, even lower than those promulgated by the Washington Naval Treaty which was intended to de-escalate the post-Great War “naval race”, hence its general focus on undersea warfare and construction of ships just within the prescribed legal boundaries. Now freed of such shackles, the Kriegsmarine was able to proceed with full-scale naval development. However, the relatively long timescales involved in laying down and arming ships meant that totally new designs were impossible in the five-year timeframe suggested by the Treaty of Gutenberg.
As a result, the planned full-scale aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was left to languish in Baltic ports whilst conversion of civilian cruisers into the Jade-class carriers and the heavy cruiser Seydlitz was prioritised under Grossadmiral Hermann Boehm. The German intents concerning the Treaty of Sofia involved the rapid neutralisation of Soviet assets in both the Baltic and Black Seas, hence Weber’s disappointment in losing the potential demilitarisation of Sevastopol and Kronstadt. The compromise of control of Yevpatoria and Kingisepp meant that any plan to incapacitate the Soviet Black Sea and Baltic Fleets necessitated a lightning-strike on both.
While the Baltic targets were accessible enough by other means, the experiences at Sevastopol suggested that a sea-borne attack might be necessary where land and aerial assaults had previously failed. These “pocket cruisers”, now named the Jade-class Jade and Elbe, alongside the unique Weser, would fulfil this purpose. As their refitting could only speak to one very obvious purpose, the vast majority of the work was conducted in secret at the Italian-annexed port of Capodistria (Slovene: Koper) by shipping the necessary materials through the Protectorate of Carniola and Styria (occupied Slovenia) and only moved to Odessa right on the brink of the reopening of hostilities due to the tensions that the Kriegsmarine’s presence was starting to cause with Balboist Italy.
In conclusion, while not the sole cause of the Reich’s successes in the second phase of hostilities against the Soviet Union, the various technological advances made by in the time granted to it by the Treaties of Gutenberg and Sofia undeniably granted the Wehrmacht a decisive advantage in the major strikes made early on in the emerging conflict. As for the alleged superweapons of the Reich, although the thermobaric bomb would ultimately prove to be an empty threat (though mostly due to the pre-emptive strikes performed on their installations given their disastrous potential, as well as the actions of individual commanders), the threat itself was enough to nearly prematurely bring the Reich and the USSR to blows during the Crimean Missile Crisis [16], one episode in their long prelude to their final confrontation.
As stated above, the world still lives in the long shadow of the Reich and its products, the V-bomb and the policy of Retaliation Theory and its successor, Mutually Assured Destruction. Like a veritable Pandora’s Box, the thermobaric bomb has irreversibly ushered this new age of nucleonic armament and power, and the burden of super-bombs has since been borne by the generations of, and following, the Nucelonic Age.
[1] Full quote. "Come and see" is rendered as just "Komm" (Come) in German translations of the Bible.
[2] OTL (nick)names for the V1 and the V2.
[3] There are numerous, unconfirmed, reports of the Nazis developing a thermobaric bomb, and these diagrams can be found through extensive Googling on the Internet. Regardless of whether they would have worked or not, it's obvious that the OTL Reich never had the time or the resources to develop them. Also, out of respect(?) to Harry Turtledove, I decided to go with "superbomb" as a generic term for WMDs.
[4] Mario Zippermayer's biography; seeing as I couldn't find any photos of him, I used Arnim Zola from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
[5] OTL's Bielefeld Conspiracy is a somewhat more recent phenomenon.
[6] This is based on the account of Luigi Romersa, a real person, concerning some kind of weapons test on Rugen Island, fuelling theorising on the Nazis' nuclear potential. Here I've syncretised it with the thermobaric bomb instead.
[7] Great Scott!
[8] Nuclear research (called "nucleonic" ITTL) is slightly slower than in OTL due to there generally being less reason to actively pursue it, but it's massively jump-started by the emergence of the thermobaric bomb.
[9] Geddit, "Cubic"?
[10] Very few of these were actually made because of, well, the war ending, but if the Spanish CETME rifle is anything to go by, evidently the Sturmgewehr 45 could have become a viable design. Also, out of the entire discussion as to replacements for the term "assault rifle" (for which we have to thank Hitler of all people), I decided to go with "machine-carbine" in the end.
[11] Tiger tanks aren't really a thing due to this Reich's overall bias against grandiose.
[12] A thorough evaluation of the numerous Ural Bomber competitors led me to decide on the Heinkel He 117b as the most developed and plausible of the lot. As to the Amerika Bomber...?
[13] Oh, hey, look, it's your usual Wehraboo cliche. But yeah, less time getting factories bombed means more jet fighters for everyone. Weep for the nucleonic generation.
[14] This refers to these projects concerning the military refitting of civilian liners and the heavy cruiser Seydlitz. The Graf Zeppelin probably never enters full production because it's a massive waste of resources.
[15] I wonder what this could be paralleling?
[16] More on this next chapter.
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Well, that's about that for all the fantastic new ways with which people ITTL will be killing each other. Hopefully this hasn't totally ruined the TL in terms of plausibility, for which it already isn't scoring highly already.
