17-06-2019, 12:45 AM
Peter, very interesting stuff that I had not heard before. I do have a couple of questions regarding how this has been substantiated particularly with respect to the nuclear weapons. I can buy that there was more than one Nazi bomb program and your word is good enough for me about the role of this Kammler fellow of whom I have no knowledge. However, where I start to wonder is how the Germans could have successfully built and tested these weapons with the degree of secrecy required for these activities to have remained unknown for this length of time. The American bomb project required an enormous industrial effort to enrich uranium and separate plutonium. The plants at Hanford and Oak Ridge were huge and comparable German plants could not have been missed by American and British aerial surveillance. The activities required for producing weapons-grade uranium and plutonium in WWII days were not things that could be conducted in caves and with the decimation of German industry by Allied bombing its not clear to me how the Nazis could have successfully pursued them. Of course, if there is evidence of the required industrial plants required for producing the bomb materials that would go a long way towards supporting the claim that the Nazi's had built nuclear weapons by the end of WWII.
With respect to the tests I have a similar difficulty. I read the article in Physics World but did not find it convincing. Sure, the German scientists could have come up with a workable design just like the Americans did. But that's a long way from building and testing a bomb. And I was thoroughly confused by the assertion that
Either it was an "atomic" bomb or it wasn't. I'm not sure what the middle ground is here. And I find the assertion that they figured out how to exploit fusion reactions a real stretch. A number of breakthroughs in mathematical computations (including the use of the first large scale computers which I'm pretty sure the Nazis did not have) and bomb design were required for the American H-Bomb effort to succeed in peacetime without a collapsing government and industrial base, not to mention foreign invaders, to contend with. Even the Soviet "layer-cake" or "alarm clock" designs required breakthroughs by Sakharov that the Germans would have had to discover independently. And I have to agree with James' point about miniaturization. Neither the US nor the Soviets were capable of building smaller bombs until many years after the war. Again, the case is being made that the Nazis, at the brink of social, economic and military collapse were able to miraculously produce breakthroughs in bomb design and weapons-grade material production that the Allies took years to repeat under much more favorable conditions.
Furthermore, it would have been extraordinarily difficult to hide evidence of the tests that the Germans supposedly conducted by the end of the war. Surely some one would have noticed the large unexplained explosions that even a tactical weapon would have produced. Is there actual evidence that anyone did? Both the Soviet and American intelligence services were aware of their respective countries' bomb efforts and would have taken notice of the radioactivity that would have resulted from these tests. It would not have been difficult for such evidence to be forwarded to their respective bomb development teams for evaluation. Of course the documentary evidence of these tests could have been suppressed but there still would have been stories in connection with these unexplained events that would have circulated. Again, is there evidence to support any of this?
Finally, if you were the Nazis at that point why waste time on tests? Surely they had to be desperate enough to just aim the thing at the advancing Soviet troops. They didn't even need a sophisticated delivery system. Just load it in a truck (assuming it would fit but it was a tactical weapon, yes?) drive it to some critical choke point, retrieve the driver(s) and then detonate it by remote control.
Anyway, I'm certainly open to being proven wrong by evidence that falsifies the points I've made here. This is a fascinating topic and I look forward to hearing and reading more about it.
With respect to the tests I have a similar difficulty. I read the article in Physics World but did not find it convincing. Sure, the German scientists could have come up with a workable design just like the Americans did. But that's a long way from building and testing a bomb. And I was thoroughly confused by the assertion that
Quote:This device was designed to use fission reactions, but it was not an "atomic" bomb like the weapons used against Nagasaki and Hiroshima (figures 1a and b). And although it was also designed to exploit fusion reactions, it was nothing like the "hydrogen" bombs tested by the US and the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
Either it was an "atomic" bomb or it wasn't. I'm not sure what the middle ground is here. And I find the assertion that they figured out how to exploit fusion reactions a real stretch. A number of breakthroughs in mathematical computations (including the use of the first large scale computers which I'm pretty sure the Nazis did not have) and bomb design were required for the American H-Bomb effort to succeed in peacetime without a collapsing government and industrial base, not to mention foreign invaders, to contend with. Even the Soviet "layer-cake" or "alarm clock" designs required breakthroughs by Sakharov that the Germans would have had to discover independently. And I have to agree with James' point about miniaturization. Neither the US nor the Soviets were capable of building smaller bombs until many years after the war. Again, the case is being made that the Nazis, at the brink of social, economic and military collapse were able to miraculously produce breakthroughs in bomb design and weapons-grade material production that the Allies took years to repeat under much more favorable conditions.
Furthermore, it would have been extraordinarily difficult to hide evidence of the tests that the Germans supposedly conducted by the end of the war. Surely some one would have noticed the large unexplained explosions that even a tactical weapon would have produced. Is there actual evidence that anyone did? Both the Soviet and American intelligence services were aware of their respective countries' bomb efforts and would have taken notice of the radioactivity that would have resulted from these tests. It would not have been difficult for such evidence to be forwarded to their respective bomb development teams for evaluation. Of course the documentary evidence of these tests could have been suppressed but there still would have been stories in connection with these unexplained events that would have circulated. Again, is there evidence to support any of this?
Finally, if you were the Nazis at that point why waste time on tests? Surely they had to be desperate enough to just aim the thing at the advancing Soviet troops. They didn't even need a sophisticated delivery system. Just load it in a truck (assuming it would fit but it was a tactical weapon, yes?) drive it to some critical choke point, retrieve the driver(s) and then detonate it by remote control.
Anyway, I'm certainly open to being proven wrong by evidence that falsifies the points I've made here. This is a fascinating topic and I look forward to hearing and reading more about it.