Islamic nutjobs are worse than Hitler. In WWII if you killed Hitler, pack up your bags, war's over. If you kill Bin Laden 1,000 other nutjobs will take his place.
K1052
Elite Member
- Aug 21, 2003
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If the Germans had anything close to a bomb they would have used it or at least bargained for peace with it. If they had one, they could have gotten a bomb to New York on a U boat.
Hitler's policies chased most of the leading scientists out of Europe well before the war. They came here and set up shop.
As for captured German uranium being used in Little Boy, Oak Ridge must be one hell of an optical illusion.
StageLeft
No Lifer
- Sep 29, 2000
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I rememeber reading about this a bit, but I can't remember if it was true or bunk 
You can what-if all day long. People like to "what if" as if one lucky break and it would have turned the tide of the war, and maybe it would have for hitler, but it's not like he had a bunch of feelers out for psycho technology and only needed one return and the allies had nothing. Both sides were technically advanced and constantly coming up with new weapons.
You can what-if all day long. People like to "what if" as if one lucky break and it would have turned the tide of the war, and maybe it would have for hitler, but it's not like he had a bunch of feelers out for psycho technology and only needed one return and the allies had nothing. Both sides were technically advanced and constantly coming up with new weapons.
AnyMal
Lifer
- Nov 21, 2001
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It has been proven many times that germans were nowhere near getting an actual bomb. In fact, they never were able to devise a successful method for uranium enrichment.
Part of the problem was lack of resources. While raw uranium was plentiful, the heavy water was not. The only plant that was producing something close to the neede amount was in Norway. In fact, at the time it was the only plant in the world that produced heavy water of 99% purity. Supplies of it, were nowhere near what german scientists were demanding. The Norway plant was continuously sabotaged by the local Resistance as well as britsh bomping raids. The only other plant that could provide some amounts of heavy water was in Italy, but the best they could do was ~10% purity.
Another problem was that there was no centralised research effort. Several competing groups of scientists worked on their own projects, refusing to collaborate and help each other out. Since they worked under different patrons, such as Wermacht, Luftwaffe, SS, they were also forbidden from sharing any information with other groups. Interestingly enough, even Reich Postmaster sponsored a nuclear research lab.
There is another theory as to why germans never succeeded. It was rumored that most scientists simply sabotaged research to the point where it appeared that they are making progress (to protect themselves) but intentionally not getting close enough to the point where uranium could be enriched weapon's grade.
Part of the problem was lack of resources. While raw uranium was plentiful, the heavy water was not. The only plant that was producing something close to the neede amount was in Norway. In fact, at the time it was the only plant in the world that produced heavy water of 99% purity. Supplies of it, were nowhere near what german scientists were demanding. The Norway plant was continuously sabotaged by the local Resistance as well as britsh bomping raids. The only other plant that could provide some amounts of heavy water was in Italy, but the best they could do was ~10% purity.
Another problem was that there was no centralised research effort. Several competing groups of scientists worked on their own projects, refusing to collaborate and help each other out. Since they worked under different patrons, such as Wermacht, Luftwaffe, SS, they were also forbidden from sharing any information with other groups. Interestingly enough, even Reich Postmaster sponsored a nuclear research lab.
There is another theory as to why germans never succeeded. It was rumored that most scientists simply sabotaged research to the point where it appeared that they are making progress (to protect themselves) but intentionally not getting close enough to the point where uranium could be enriched weapon's grade.
elmer92413
Senior member
- Oct 23, 2004
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IronWing
No Lifer
- Jul 20, 2001
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AnyMal has it about right. The Germans weren't anywhere close to having a bomb. Uranium enrichment was not achieved in industrial quantities. Fission reactors were not achieved due to purity problems with the graphite used in the experimental pile. Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is an excellent read on the subject.
Side note: You don't even need heavy water to build a bomb. It was a fortuitous divsersion of resources though.
Side note: You don't even need heavy water to build a bomb. It was a fortuitous divsersion of resources though.
No, but heavy water is a key component in one type of 'breeder' reactor that turns natural Uranium into Plutonium. With adequate supplies of heavy water, Germany COULD have bred Uranium into weapons-grade Plutonium. But...they never had enough heavy water to.
Keep in mind that heavy water *itself* is not used in a bomb, it's just used to make the parts needed to MAKE a bomb. (FWIW, I understand it's theoretically possibly to build a fusion bomb with heavy water as the fusable element...but you'd still need a fission bomb to set off the fusion reaction, which usually calls for plutonium)
Not near the end of the war, which is when they would have had a bomb. The U-boats ruled the oceans at first, but that changed with sonar and dedicated sub-hunters. Not to mention allied subs...
K1052
Elite Member
- Aug 21, 2003
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The Type XXI could have made it since it doesn?t have to surface to recharge batteries and has a very long battery endurance. As long as they stayed clear of allied convoys and didn't engage any targets I would give them a good chance of reaching NYC and detonating close to the city.
Actually, the Germans shipped the Uranium to Japan via submarine so they could utilize it, since they realized they already lost the war. The U.S. (I think) intercepted it and good thing the war stopped then too, because Japan planned to drop a radioactive weapon on the West Coast just two weeks later.
Gibsons
Lifer
- Aug 14, 2001
- 12,530
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It's pretty well documented in a number of previous posts.
They didn't have the know-how or the industrial capability to build a nuclear weapon. Google up Heisenberg/german/bomb. Heisenberg, head of German A bomb research, thought an A bomb required tons of Uranium. He'd crunched the numbers wrong. They never figured that out. They never had a bomb and were at least a year (likely much more) away from building one.
Next up should the Mercury powered flying saucers operating from the secret underground Nazi base in Antarctica.
i am pretty sure that if this were true, it would have been brought to light alot of sooner than now. i mean the history channel pretty went through everything about ww2 and revealed pretty much everything about hitler's research programs. i didn't see anything of this type in my readings either. but a video game would be cool, i will play it.
indeed. considering that we captured several dirty bombs (uranium scattering explosives) the nazi's tried to build a nuke, but where far from figuring out a large number of the equations to start a thermonuclear chain reaction yet.
Originally posted by: Thera
It would've saved so many lives.
hehe yes, then Hitler could have nuked London, New York and other cities to get the countries to surrender, would have saved alot of lives instead of invading.
Now where have I heard that logic before hmmm
43st
Diamond Member
- Nov 7, 2001
- 3,197
- 0
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Originally posted by: Czar
Originally posted by: Thera
It would've saved so many lives.
hehe yes, then Hitler could have nuked London, New York and other cities to get the countries to surrender, would have saved alot of lives instead of invading.
Now where have I heard that logic before hmmm
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