Or it would be, if it wasn't the most insane idea for a WI outside the ASB section.
Careful, there's a lot of competition for that role.
Or it would be, if it wasn't the most insane idea for a WI outside the ASB section.
Actually, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that the Japenese Navy tested a prototype atomic bomb right before the end of the war.
Not so much cost, at least compared to everything else, but possibly complexity and certainly time. The complexity is having to figure out the ore chemistry and how to turn that particular ore into something useful and do so in very large quantities. This is a chemistry/mineral processing problem so needs an entirely different set of resources from the rest of any nuclear programme.Wouldn't that add hugely to the cost and complexity though? Or at least the time required?
In the 1930s and ‘40s Japan wasn’t even a blip on the radar as far as Physics research went.Yes, Japan had a nuclear program. So did every major power.
Just a note here don't forget that the Americans completed their development of the Bomb with a lot of aquired German knowledge aka the paperclip conspiracy.
Additionally a V2 rocket had a payload of 1000kg, so if they had developed smaller nukes, rather than fixate on the American design and go a little outside the box here. Could they have developed a 1000kg nuclear device, it is a possibility, I know technology possibly was not there at the time, but if it was, then what?
This, after all, is a forum dedicated to the question what if?
I think you are missing the point here, after a little research the technology, and weapons wise Germany were far more advanced than the US in 1944, it was German scientists that completed the Manhatten project................it was also German Scientists that enabled space travel for both the USA and USSR. (the paperclip conspiracy).
So it could have happened. The Reich were dangerously close to nuclear technology had the sabotage of Vemork, Norsk Hydro not been successful who knows where that could have gone. Therefore it is possible that this could have happened. Hitler was about in estimate 6 to 8 months away from developing a nuclear bomb at this time and all that prevented it was the destruction of the material that would have fused it.
The planned delivery medium eas the V2 rocket, which automatically leads to the assumption that a 1000kg payload was the plan, although there were plans for a 2000kg version of the rocket, but that had an estimated completion date of 1948. So, the prospect of the Third Reich developing nuclear weapons in this period is highly possible for the following reasons:
1 They had the scientific know how the success of the Manhatten project owes its accellerated success to captured German scientists.
2 They had the material to build it, until a commando mission in Norway removed it
3 They had the ideal delivery medium in the V2 long before anyone else.
4 A 1000kg payload nuke was possible. The radiation leakage from lack of cladding may have been an issue but this was an unmanned missile, so does does it matter?
So the what if comes into play in a very big way now:
I have no doubt that because of Hitler's inbuilt affinity to the British (a war that by his own admission, Hitler never wanted) London would have only received conventional payloads. However, Moscow is another situation altogether. The Russians were not even considered human in Nazi ideology, so frying a few hundred thousand would have meant nothing, lets face it the horrors of the holocaust on the Jews show what they were prepared to do to pervieved sub-humans.
Therefore I think that the precept here is a valid one and worthy of some research.
Give me time and I will post you a copy of my historical work on the third reich. However, a few corrections
My point about paperclip is not wrong....it states that the Germans had the scientific know how during the war, and it was actually a conspiracy between the USA and USSR, actually Kruschev was in charge of the negotiations from the Russian side as to who got who (but that is entirely another discussion)
You also miss the point of weight, weight could be decreased by not using layers of lead under the vast armoured steel clad (which was also not required in this scenario) A rocket is virtually impossible to shoot down, I know of two successess by the RAF out of what was called PFL, the first and third words are pure and luck, I will leave the middle one to imagination!
Additionally captured papers in 1945 after the defeat of the Reich, led to the success of the Manhatten Project, yes the Americans got them, not the Russians, for some reason Germans in that era were far happier to surrender to US/UK forces as it increased their life expectancy vastly.
So from my knowledge of the science, political and military machines of the Third Reich, this scenario is far from impossible, I would actually say that the prognosis here is more one of a lucky escape that one of it could never have happened. I can assure you, that some of the documents I read in what remains of the Nazi governments archives in Berlin show a very different picture to your accepted belief.
...but Prof. Oliver Manuel apparently believes the sun is made of iron...
Careful, there's a lot of competition for that role.
I think you are missing the point here, after a little research the technology, and weapons wise Germany were far more advanced than the US in 1944, it was German scientists that completed the Manhatten project................it was also German Scientists that enabled space travel for both the USA and USSR. (the paperclip conspiracy).
So it could have happened. The Reich were dangerously close to nuclear technology had the sabotage of Vemork, Norsk Hydro not been successful who knows where that could have gone. Therefore it is possible that this could have happened. Hitler was about in estimate 6 to 8 months away from developing a nuclear bomb at this time and all that prevented it was the destruction of the material that would have fused it.
The planned delivery medium eas the V2 rocket, which automatically leads to the assumption that a 1000kg payload was the plan, although there were plans for a 2000kg version of the rocket, but that had an estimated completion date of 1948. So, the prospect of the Third Reich developing nuclear weapons in this period is highly possible for the following reasons:
1 They had the scientific know how the success of the Manhatten project owes its accellerated success to captured German scientists.
2 They had the material to build it, until a commando mission in Norway removed it
3 They had the ideal delivery medium in the V2 long before anyone else.
4 A 1000kg payload nuke was possible. The radiation leakage from lack of cladding may have been an issue but this was an unmanned missile, so does does it matter?
So the what if comes into play in a very big way now:
I have no doubt that because of Hitler's inbuilt affinity to the British (a war that by his own admission, Hitler never wanted) London would have only received conventional payloads. However, Moscow is another situation altogether. The Russians were not even considered human in Nazi ideology, so frying a few hundred thousand would have meant nothing, lets face it the horrors of the holocaust on the Jews show what they were prepared to do to pervieved sub-humans.
Therefore I think that the precept here is a valid one and worthy of some research.
T
Manhattan used somewhere around 20% of the TOTAL electrical output of the Tennessee Valley Project (which provided power to around a dozen states in peacetime). The total Mw needed for Manhattan exceeded Germany's power output capacity, even if no other electrical usage was allowed..
USA total hydroelectric production 1937: 43 702 KwH (millions)
(USA total electric production 1937: 121 050 KwH - millions)
German total electric production 1937: 48 969 KwH (millions)
Bit of a hyperbole there.
Except we are not talking about 1937.
The U.S. and Canada built significant additional capacity as Manhattan began. Germany was actually struggling to keep up to pre war levels thanks to the RAF.