On august 6th and 9th, 1945, the united states dropped their atomic bombs on Nagasaki and
Hiroshima.
The bombings killed at least 129 thousand people, and the vast majority of those casualties
were civilians.
Japan surrendered 6 days later.
This was the first and last time since that an atomic bomb has been used in warfare, and
let’s hope it stays that way.
Fortunately, for all of us, Germany was not able to develop the atomic bomb first, but
that doesn’t mean they weren’t trying.
We know the Germans were developing atomic bombs during the war; they were doing so at
the Heavy Water facilities in Norway.
Heavy water is used to ensure that that nuclear reactions run much faster than other types
of water.
This secret project was called Uranverein, and it began just months after Otto Hanh and
Fritz Strassman, german chemists, had discovered nuclear fission.
In 1938, Hahn Leis Meitner and Strassman became the first to recognize that when the uranium
atom, was bombarded by neutrons, split.
But the Uranverein project was sabotaged by Norwegians, who prevented the Germans from
acquiring heavy water, which in turn could have been used by the Germans to produce nuclear
weapons.
But what would have happened if the Norwegians were not successful, and the Germans continued
their nuclear weapons program?
How would it have changed the course of the war, or history altogether?
Today, life’s biggest questions asks, what if Germany invented the atomic bomb first?
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Allied forces had detained a group of 10 nazi scientists who were believed to have been
working on the german nuclear weapons program.
Two of the scientists in this group were Max von Laue and Werner Heisenberg, nobel prize
winners, as well future nobel prize winner Otto Hahn, who as I said before discovered
nuclear fission with Fritz Strassman.
Allied forces had placed them in a bugged house named Farm Hall, and were listening
in on conversations, in the hopes of finding out just how close the Germans came to developing
the atomic bomb.
Otto Hahn was recorded saying ‘I am thankful that we were not the first to drop the uranium
bomb’.
The scientists were also recorded discussing what would have happened if Germany had built
the atomic bomb.
Karl Wirtz said that they would have obliterated London, but not conquered the world, and then
they would have dropped them on us.
You might think that if Germany had developed the atomic bomb first, then that would mean
that they would have succeeded in their quest for world domination.
This is not the case.
Sure, they would have probably destroyed London, or maybe even a Russian city like Moscow.
But the minute they did, allied forces, specifically the Americans, would have undoubtedly started
executing a plan to strike Germany in retaliation.
Unlike with the case of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima, Germany dropping the atomic
bomb on London would not have ended the war, it would have escalated it.
If Germany had invented the atomic bomb and dropped it on London, Winston Churchill would
have been killed.
This would have had a devastating effect on British morale, which was already hanging
on by a thread..
Anthony Eden then would have taken control and become Prime Minister.
Being that Anthony Eden was no Winston Churchill, in fact he was said to be a weak leader, he
probably would have surrendered to the Nazis.
The Germans then take control of London.
The Americans began their nuclear program after they found out about the germans nuclear
program in 1939 through Albert Einstein.
Einstein infamously wrote to President Roosevelt stating ‘it may become possible to set up
a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium by which vast amounts of power and
large uantities of new radium like elements would be generated.
From then on, the United states believed that the first country to develop the atomic bomb
would be the country that would win world war 2.
If the germans had dropped the atomic bomb, the American nuclear program, The manhattan
project would have worked twice as hard and fast to develop their own.
And They wouldn’t have been far behind.
Its likely that the united states would have wiped berlin off the map with their atomic
bomb, and perhaps even killed Adolf Hitler in the process.
The united states would have taken back control of the united kingdom, forcing the germans
out.
Thankfully, even if the germans managed to invent the atomic bomb first, they probably
would not have been able to hit the United States mainland with it.
One of the reasons why Germany was not able to deliver an atomic bomb strike, is that
they didn’t have a heavy bomber that would have allowed them to hit England or Russia.
They simply couldn’t afford to develop one, and they were already in substantial debt
from the war.
Perhaps this would have meant that the Germans would have delivered the atomic bomb to London
using submarines and then deliver the warhead using a small boat.
But this doesn’t solve the problem of being able to strike the American mainland.
Another way of looking at it is this.
A major reason that prevented hitler from developing the atomic bomb first was that
he simply didn’t understand how powerful it could be, so he didn’t see it as a necessary
investment.
Even if Germany had invented it first, they might not have even used it at all.
According to top nazi Albert Speer, Hitler was filled with a fundamental distrust of
all innovations which as in the case of jet aircraft or atom bombs, went beyond the technical
expertise of the first world war generation.
That combined with the fact that Germany had few options for delivering and deploying nuclear
weapons, It could be that the war would have carried on in the way that we remember it,
even if Germany had invented the atomic bomb first.