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Originally Posted by Joachim Ronnenberg as quoted in New York Times
“They (the British army) just said it (the heavy water plant) was important and had to be blown up....”
“The first time I heard about atom bombs and heavy water was after the Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki....Then we started to understand our raid and why.”
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Times article text
And also that, had it failed, London could have ended up “looking like Hiroshima.” This belated realization of the huge stakes at play “was a tremendous satisfaction,” he said.
Historians have long argued over how close Hitler came to developing nuclear weapons. A German historian claimed in a controversial 2005 book that the Nazis conducted several nuclear weapons tests in 1944-45.
Given the demonic nature of the Nazi regime, one wonders what would have happened but for the derring-do of these adventurer-heroes.
I question whether the "missed it by that much!" group understand how much power was required in the early days of atom bombs. Roughly 60% of the output of the entire TVA went towards government projects (read bombmaking). Efforts at advanced technology sucked a lot of resources from Germany as it was.
Even if they got it first, the ruskies, brits, americans and others would have been on the case...even moreso once one or two were exploded. I'm not even sure the Germans had a plane capable of carrying the first atomic bombs.
Any alternative history would have had to take into account that they likely couldn't have produced more than 1/2 dozen weak bombs before someone else got them also...and given that a million dead was a rounding error, it may have just made the Russians and Americans and Brits even angrier and they'd use conventional weapons to smash Germany even quicker.
Now...if we really wanted to play that game and say "What if they had the Bomb in 1941?".....well, I think then that Germany would have gotten by treaty a lot of their Reich and there may have been relative peace until the USA and what was left of Russia and perhaps others could have figured out what came next. As bad as Atomic Bombs are, long range missiles with nerve agents and bio weapons and other things could have kept Hitler at the table. He was crazy but in the end what he and many others wanted was to be the single superior Superpower....not to occupy every square meter of the world.
A-bombs didn't have much tactical value, they just destroyed resources within tiny part of the theater. Hitler would have recognized that they wouldn't further his cause cost-effectively. They wouldn't have helped the US much in the Pacific a couple of years earlier, either.
The only way I can see Hitler wanting one was to simplify the blitz of London.
A-bombs didn't have much tactical value, they just destroyed resources within tiny part of the theater. Hitler would have recognized that they wouldn't further his cause cost-effectively. They wouldn't have helped the US much in the Pacific a couple of years earlier, either.
The only way I can see Hitler wanting one was to simplify the blitz of London.
I would hate to see what someone as devoid of rationality or compassion as Hitler or Tojo would have done with nukes. We almost found out with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Moderator cut: Post your political opinions elsewhere.
Last edited by mensaguy; 04-13-2019 at 05:53 AM..
Reason: This isn't the Politics forum.
I think it is the empty-headed mantra of doddering VFW flag-wavers, "(if it weren't for us), we'd all be speaking German"
For you who move their lips when you read, I guess I should have added the " " symbol.
BTW- if it weren't for all those doddering VFW flag-wavers, you'd be speaking Japanese in the Philippines now. I could add more here, but I'm sure readers have already formed their own opinions about your comment. <--That's not my thumb.
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" symbol.
<--That's not my thumb.
