What if Nazi-Germany had used a nuclear bomb against USSR circa January 1945?

I mean what if Nazi-Germany had been able to construct a single nuclear device and use it against the USSR forces in the East cirka December 1944/January 1945? Maybe delivered by a V2. Would FDR (if the US nukes have been ready earlier then in the OTL). have nuked Berlin?
 
I mean what if Nazi-Germany had been able to construct a single nuclear device and use it against the USSR force in the East cirka December 1944/January 1945? Maybe delivered by a V2. Would FDR (if the US nukes have been ready earlier then in the OTL). have nuked Berlin?

Berlin isn't the guaranteed, be-all and end-all target, any more than Tokyo was when it came to Japan.
 
I mean what if Nazi-Germany had been able to construct a single nuclear device and use it against the USSR force in the East cirka December 1944/January 1945? Maybe delivered by a V2. Would FDR (if the US nukes have been ready earlier then in the OTL). have nuked Berlin?

Probably used it as a mine rather than a rocket like in the world war series
 

Flubber

Banned
I mean what if Nazi-Germany had been able to construct a single nuclear device and use it against the USSR forces in the East cirka December 1944/January 1945? Maybe delivered by a V2. Would FDR (if the US nukes have been ready earlier then in the OTL). have nuked Berlin?


What if monkeys flew out of Hitler's bum? :rolleyes:

Tell us, "Master of Science", how does Germany not only overcome the theoretical hurdles it's various nuclear programs labored under, but also enrich the uranium a bomb will need, construct the nuke, and develop the warhead instrumentation necessary for a V-2 to deliver an air burst?
 
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Leaving aside the question of whether the Nazis could have developed a bomb by 1945, then yes, FDR would have nuked Germany. I don't know if he'd pick Berlin specifically, but we would have nuked them. Even if the Nazis hadn't nuked Russia, we'd still have used it if the bomb was ready in time.

I'm not sure how much this would change WW2. If they only have the one bomb, probably not very much, although I'm not really qualified to speak to that. It would probably have a very interesting post-war impact, however, on the perception of atomic weapons and their role in warfare.

Minor note: the V-2 has a payload of about 1,000 kg; that's not enough to carry a Little Boy class bomb even if you strip off the flak shielding. (A lot of the weight of the Little Boy was actually armor just in case it was hit by anti-aircraft gunners). Delivery would have to be by other means.
 
A V-2 would not be able to reach the U.S., but a B-29 would be able to reach Germany, unless it were shot down by Germany's new jets. In the latter event, we might have had a stalemate and cold war.
 
A V-2 would not be able to reach the U.S., but a B-29 would be able to reach Germany, unless it were shot down by Germany's new jets. In the latter event, we might have had a stalemate and cold war.
Not really, there weren't enough nukes for Germany to do more than slow down the inevitable, it is still going down, even 10 nukes would not save them
 
A V-2 would not be able to reach the U.S., but a B-29 would be able to reach Germany, unless it were shot down by Germany's new jets. In the latter event, we might have had a stalemate and cold war.

Disagree. The Germans are on the ropes, the Allies aren't going to stop now. If anything they are going to go even faster and harder. Then they realize the Nazis only have the one bomb... Well...
 
Not really, there weren't enough nukes for Germany to do more than slow down the inevitable, it is still going down, even 10 nukes would not save them

I second this. Even if we just ISOT a copy of the Hanford plutonium piles to Germany, along with technical schematics for the hollow-core implosion design - in other words, the most implausibly optimistic scenario I can imagine - they can't make enough bombs to do more than delay. And even if they could somehow hold back the Allies and the Red Army with atomic firepower - which I'm pretty sure they can't - they can't make enough jets to keep the B-29s from finding and destroying their plutonium piles.
 
Well funny, there is a hole AH book in Germany, with this scenario.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_21._Juli

Cant find something in english, yet.

Kind of: One Bomb on Kiev and the allies makes peace.
All possible because Himmler joined the Stauffenberg coup, Himmler than concentrates all avaible resources in the bomb project. Manstein takes command in the east, Rommel in the west. And we have Gorderler as chancellor. Only easy to produce tanks and jets are made, so that the Reich is gaining time to assemble the bomb. Short before the front breaks, the bomb is droped. Because the american bomb project has to fight with scientists, which dont want to work anymore on the bomb (Hitler is dead). So the Allies cant retaliate with nukes. The Western allies make peace, and the soviet union follows out of fears before the german nukes.

Okay, okay we all know how ASB this is. But the book is
nevertheless really good. One part of the story is set in 1944, one 1953 in a three way cold war. I dont want to spoil that much, but i is a good spy roman.
 

Robert

Banned
Moscow Destroyed

Is Moscow was destroyed by an Atomic bomb in January 1945, then several things would happen immediately.

1. There would be extreme political confusion in the Soviet Union.

2. The Western Allies would have to stop an consider their options.

3. The Nazis would celebrate, but have to decide what to do next.


Moscow was the center of the Soviet Government. Assuming Stalin was in the city, the entire government would have been wiped out in one stroke. The military commanders led by Zhukov would have to take over as they would be the only ones with an organizational structure to do so. After seeing what the Nazis would do, they would launch an immediate full scale attack on German forces all along the lines. Red Armies would remain in close contact regardless of losses knowing that if the Nazis have another bomb they could have to use it on their own troops to kill Russians. The Russians know they have the numbers to come out on top if the Nazis can make further Atomic attacks.

The Western Allies would be torn. The British Government, except for Churchill, would seek a swift end to the war as England is extremely vulnerable to Atomic attacks. Churchill would want to continue the fight, knowing that any peace with the Nazis would be a victory for them as they would build up an Atomic arsenal and rain death on England sooner rather then later.

The United States would be Churchill's salvation. The Manhattan Project would be accelerated, and testing the first bomb would be done on Berlin. There would be no moral objection after Moscow, and the scientist time wasting habit of "admiring the problem" would be put aside because the stakes would be so much higher. A bomb could in theory be ready by March.

Hitler would be celebrating the destruction of Moscow, and would expect the West to sue for peace. If he doesn't have another bomb he would instead receive increased allied bombing of any target even remotely useful to his atomic program. Considerations in avoiding German civilian casualties would soon become a thing of the past as electrical plants, dams, factories, and anything remotely technological would be destroyed.

There would be no possibility of a cease fire. The Nazis have made it clear what their continued existence would mean for the rest of the world.

In order for the Nazis to have built a bomb at all other projects would have had to have been sacrificed. We can imagine that the Nazis don't have V-1 or V-2 rockets, jet fighters, or even Tiger tanks.
 
Nazi mad scientists don't have to obey the laws of logistics nor the laws of physics, that's how.

They had special help...

MagicalWunderwaffen.jpg


A V2 couldn't even come close to striking Moscow with Germany's situation in early 1945. Nor could it life a bomb comprable to the Fat Man/Little Boy.

Maybe a He-177 or the like could perhaps do a one way suicide trip - although I doubt it's goingt o wipe out Stalin and his ministers who are likely to be in air raid shelters if a German aircraft is detected approaching Moscow.
 

Flubber

Banned
Assuming Stalin was in the city, the entire government would have been wiped out in one stroke.


Why does everyone in these threads always assume that a WW2-Little Boy-Fat Man type device produces absolute devastation? Please read about the actual destruction Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced.

A bomb could in theory be ready by March.

Not exactly. I'll refer you to Rhodes fine book on the subject. A single Little Boy may be available, but Fat Man was developed just about as fast as possible.

We can imagine that the Nazis don't have V-1 or V-2 rockets, jet fighters, or even Tiger tanks.

Seeing as the OP wants the bombing to be done by a V-2, not having V-2s is a bit of a problem.
 
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