What would the Germans do with a bomb in about March 1945?

Thande

Donor
Somewhat inspired by the end of Turtledove's In at the Death. Let's say Heisenburg et al manage to build one nuclear bomb for Nazi Germany, but it's completed too late to make any difference to the actual war, when Germany is being overrun from both sides - say around March 1945. The question is, what would the Nazi leadership do with such a weapon?

The Allies have air superiority, so dropping it from a bomber is probably a no-no. This means that it would either have to be moved into enemy territory by infiltrators (as Turtledove had the CSA do) or left where a concentration of enemy troops is about to overrun and set on a timer.

So would the Germans use it against the western Allies or the Soviets? And how?
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
It's my opinion that Hitler would take it into the Bunker's above ground courtyard and then offer to surrender, but only to the highest ranking generals available, as a dramatic gesture it beats cyanide all hollow.

Or he'd probably order Doenitz or Goering to do it, and plan to get away in the confusion, but then they'd turn it over to the Allies in exchange for getting away to the Americans.

After the war someone showed Niels Bohr how Heisenberg was trying to make a bomb illustrated on a piece of notebook paper, from that alone Bohr figured that Heisenberg had been sabotaging the plan all along.
 
After the war someone showed Niels Bohr how Heisenberg was trying to make a bomb illustrated on a piece of notebook paper, from that alone Bohr figured that Heisenberg had been sabotaging the plan all along.

Haven't heard that. i did read, however, that the German atomic scientists were informed of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and then left in a (bugged) room. Heisenberg claimed he had determined how the bomb was constructed based on the film, and demonstrated so to the assembled scientists. When technicians from the Manhatten Project reviewed his notes from the room, they found he had most of the principles calculated correctly, but overestimated the amount of Uranium needed by a factor of 10.

As for how it would be used, I would guess the USSR would be hit off the top of my head. they are the most threatening, the luftwaffe might be able to get a bomber through to a major target 9more likely then against the western allies, at least), and Stalin is the arch-enemy in Hitler's eye. On the other hand, hitler was delusional, and might attack the west to try to force them to join him against the USSR. Either way, however, Germany has lost the war. The Atomic bomb will sting the allies, but their numbers, tech, and position (and the American bombs) will crush the Nazis.

Isn't there a rumor that germany tested a radiological weapon in Turungia in 1945?
 
During March the Soviets were massing troops to conquer Berlin, so I think they get the bomb.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
On second thought, that probably wouldn't work. I'm not sure the Arado could carry that much weight. Anybody know?
 

sanusoi

Banned
Dropping the Atomic Bomb on the Soviet offensive towards Berlin might actually slow down their offensive. Now the only snap question I have would be what would be the yeild and the damage of the Atomic Bomb ?
 

Thande

Donor
Use it on people who post spoilers for recent books without warning. At least that is what I'd do :mad::mad::mad::mad:

My apologies; I thought my reluctance to buy Turtledove in hardback made me the last person on here to read his books after they came out, but evidently not ;)
 
Put it on a boat carrying Swedish or Spanish colours, sail it into New York, London or Leningrad and detonate the thing.
 
Put it on a boat carrying Swedish or Spanish colours, sail it into New York, London or Leningrad and detonate the thing.

No chances towards Leningrad, due to the fact that little traffic got there at all, and none of it wouldn't be checked at Kronstadt.
No chances in the other directions. You might wish to check the systems used by the Allies to prevent contraband. Such a ship would have no Navicert. It would be stopped on the high seas.
 
Either save it for the inaugural UN meetings in May/June that year which is pretty pointless and will only stop all countries from clandestinely hiding Nazis as a good number did or just sail the damn thing in. Wouldn't go down too well as the US might drop an a-bomb on every major German city.

London is an option and would probably cripple the UK and possibly the world economy for the next 30 years. Many European countries have also stored their gold/economic reserves in the UK for when the war was over and would hit them too. The Nazi's were still hoping to make something of a comeback for what they saw as the inevitable showdown with Soviet Russia.

Leningrad is a very strong possibility. The Germans could also bluff and say that they can fit their device to V2 rockets but wanted to make a grand demonstrative point first. This might make the Russians negotiate an armistice, it also might make them fight harder.

If it were me, I'd sail for Leningrad. The Wehrmacht are peppering the British south coast with V2 missiles and might be able to bluff the allies into an armistice or at the very least the Soviet Union. I would also throw as much effort as possible into building smaller devices to be detonated in captured cities like Leipzig, Dresden et al. I might use what's left of the Kriegsmarine to sail bomb parts and diagrams to the Japanese and maybe get them to use on on the Americans before August.
 
I'd say they would hit a Major soviet city like Moscow or Leningrad.
And then threaten to send another one on London if the Allies don't stop.

At this point we could assume they only had one bomb and where bluffing for the attack on London...
 
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