WI: The Atomic bomb is not dropped?

If you'd read my earlier posts you'd see that I agree with you. Stalin was the one who was afraid of nuclear weapons, and thus wouldn't press the issue over Japan once it surrendered rather than try and seize the Home Islands as the poster I was responding to suggested.

Stalin apparently was more shaken that the United States actually used the atom bomb then then merely that it possessed them...
 
Stalin apparently was more shaken that the United States actually used the atom bomb then then merely that it possessed them...

Meh. He knew it was coming. But he did display a fear of the bomb that kept him from pushing things over the edge. In all the major flashpoints he either backed down or refused to escalate to open warfare.
 
Alright, so if I wanted to make an alternate history where the USS Indianapolis is sunk before it can deliver the vital components for the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, where can I go from there? Does Russia attack when it still did OTL to occupy Manchuria? And will that alone be enough to force the Japanese to surrender, or will the US and the Western Allies have to mount an invasion of the Home Islands?

And what about the other nuclear weapon, the one that OTL would be dropped on Nagasaki? Unless another accident prevents it from being used, would the US still use it?
 
Does Russia attack when it still did OTL to occupy Manchuria?

Maybe a few days later then OTL. The original date the Soviets set was August 15th but they pushed their timetable up because:
1. The Americans bombed Hiroshima and the Reds were worried about Japan quiting before they could jump in.
2. They were pretty much ready by then anyways.

And will that alone be enough to force the Japanese to surrender, or will the US and the Western Allies have to mount an invasion of the Home Islands?

Possibly, but not garunteed.

And what about the other nuclear weapon, the one that OTL would be dropped on Nagasaki? Unless another accident prevents it from being used, would the US still use it?

Yes... on Hiroshima most likely (weather permitting). That should actually be interesting from a nuclear destruction standpoint, Fat Man is more powerful then Little Boy. Nagasaki only got less devestation because of the terrain... dropping the bomb in a valley confined the destruction where Hiroshima is pretty much entirely on a broad plain.
 
So, if I wanted to do a timeline where the A-bombs are not dropped at all, should I go further back than if the Indianapolis sank before delivering the parts? Say an accident during 1943 or 1944 results in an uncontrollable nuclear reaction that destroys the project and most of the best scientists in the Allied camp, setting the project back months, even years?

I really want to try this timeline, lol. :rolleyes:
 
So, if I wanted to do a timeline where the A-bombs are not dropped at all, should I go further back than if the Indianapolis sank before delivering the parts? Say an accident during 1943 or 1944 results in an uncontrollable nuclear reaction that destroys the project and most of the best scientists in the Allied camp, setting the project back months, even years?

I really want to try this timeline, lol. :rolleyes:

I have no iea, you might have to subvert the entire pacific war, and if you do that,...?
 
I have no iea, you might have to subvert the entire pacific war, and if you do that,...?

Yeah... I dunno. Just trying to throw ideas around. This is a lot different than the Alternate History Wikia I've been mostly devoted to, as just simply making a story with little help will result in a massive flame wars and such...
 
Yeah... I dunno. Just trying to throw ideas around. This is a lot different than the Alternate History Wikia I've been mostly devoted to, as just simply making a story with little help will result in a massive flame wars and such...


Yeah, I know how you feel, I SUCK at doing good AH myself.
 

Cook

Banned
Say an accident during 1943 or 1944 results in an uncontrollable nuclear reaction that destroys the project and most of the best scientists in the Allied camp, setting the project back months, even years?

There are much easier, and more believable, ways of delaying the Manhattan Project and the consequent production of atomic bombs and the earlier the even, the longer the compounded delay will be, simply because the project hadn’t gained momentum yet.

Have the ‘Maud telegram’ interpreted correctly and therefore not resulting in a belief that the Nazis were working on a bomb. Of have Mark Oliphant’s trip to the United States in 1941 delayed for a couple of months or have his plane crash into the Atlantic (a not uncommon event at the time), that alone could delay the start of the Manhattan Project by anything up to six months. Quite a number of the early experiments were initially inconclusive and needed to be repeated before a positive result was obtained, just have the same flaw in the experiment go unnoticed, resulting in an erroneous belief in the amount of uranium required for a critical mass (by anything up to a factor of ten) . A combination of two such events and you wouldn't have a bomb avaliable before 1946.
 
There are much easier, and more believable, ways of delaying the Manhattan Project and the consequent production of atomic bombs and the earlier the even, the longer the compounded delay will be, simply because the project hadn’t gained momentum yet.

Have the ‘Maud telegram’ interpreted correctly and therefore not resulting in a belief that the Nazis were working on a bomb. Of have Mark Oliphant’s trip to the United States in 1941 delayed for a couple of months or have his plane crash into the Atlantic (a not uncommon event at the time), that alone could delay the start of the Manhattan Project by anything up to six months. Quite a number of the early experiments were initially inconclusive and needed to be repeated before a positive result was obtained, just have the same flaw in the experiment go unnoticed, resulting in an erroneous belief in the amount of uranium required for a critical mass (by anything up to a factor of ten) . A combination of two such events and you wouldn't have a bomb avaliable before 1946.

I would never have thought of any of those. YOU are a very smart person.
 
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