What if the UK stayed out of WW2...

King Thomas

Banned
whilst very quietly making nuclear weapons-which it then dropped on Nazi Germany as soon as it had three or more of them to force the Nazi's surrender as quickly as possible? Would such a thing be possible?
 
The problem with the UK using nuclear weapons without air supremacy is this:
Nuclear weapons would draw biological and chemical retaliation. The NBC triad are presently considered more or less fungible in theory (although in practice, the C is fudged a lot on). Drop a nuke on someone's city and they'll retaliate if able with B or C if they don't have N. With Japan the US pretty much had air supremacy so they could more or less guarantee delivery without much worry of significant reprisal. That wouldn't apply to the UK even in OTL and certainly not in one where they sat out the war.
 
Why is Britain at war with Germany? Without Britain France isn't going to declare war on Germany over Poland any more than it did over Czechoslovakia. With his western border secure Hitler's not going to invade any of the Western European countries and risk bringing in Britain and France. With Germany able to bring the full might of it's armed forces to bare on the Soviets they may believe that the plans to deport Polish and German Jews to the east or out of Europe entirely are still feasible and not look to a final solution. Most of Europe doesn't care what happens to the Soviets so are unlikely to go to their aid beyond selling enough weapons to keep them fighting. Britain suddenly deciding to attack Germany with terrible new weapons with no just cause instantly makes Britain the aggressor as the world sees her as a rabid lion that must be put down. Atomic weapons or not Britain cannot fight the whole world or survive long if they cut off all trade with her. It's no good being able to force through convoys if there's no one willing to trade with Britain, or use British shipping.
 
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