Nazi A-bomb

[morse1001]

Originally posted by adrian roberts@Apr 29 2005, 11:13 PM
I'm not sure that it's possible to make a very small atomic bomb that would only destry 500 sq m. You need a certain amount of uranium or plutonium to achieve critical mass.
And there would still be radiation evident at the site of such an explosion
Adrian

Quoted post

that is quite correct and if there had been a explosion then there would more evidence.

No doubt conspiracy theorists would claim that the allies had cleaned up the area

I can see the point of using it on London, however I would have thought the then USSR would have been a more signifcant target for such a bomb.

As said though I doubt if a test had been carried out, even at 500 sq m, it would have been hard to hide.

I suppose this needs to come back to issue mentioned above that had Hitler used such weapons knowing the Allies could retaliate then I am not so sure he would have been see keen to use them.

The ability to use such WMD came I believe in the closing stages of the war for Germany, so this could have been a much more dangerous and easier time for Hitler to make such a decision possibly?

[morse1001]

Originally posted by Lee Wisener@May 1 2005, 10:25 AM
I can see the point of using it on London, however I would have thought the then USSR would have been a more signifcant target for such a bomb.

As said though I doubt if a test had been carried out, even at 500 sq m, it would have been hard to hide.

I suppose this needs to come back to issue mentioned above that had Hitler used such weapons knowing the Allies could retaliate then I am not so sure he would have been see keen to use them.

The ability to use such WMD came I believe in the closing stages of the war for Germany, so this could have been a much more dangerous and easier time for Hitler to make such a decision possibly?

Quoted post

What seems to be forgotten is that Germany lacked the strategic bombers to drop the bomb on any important political target.

If they were to use it then it would make better military sense to use it against the Russian army in an attempt to stop them in their tracks, thus allow allowing to Germany to strike at the weaker western allies; while the Russian were recovering.

There is however one important question that has to be asked. The Germans had not created a controlled fusion and had not put much effort into the atomic programme then how could they be expected to create a nuclear weapon of any size or shape?