Who was WWII Germany going to nuke?

[Forogil]

According to the article it seems they were taking a very long view on this (unless there is some error):
"The diary of Masa Takeuchi, a worker assigned to Nishina's thermal diffusion separation project, says Nishina wanted to process hundreds of tons of uranium at the rate of 300 mg per day, according to the U.S. journal Science."

Basic math: 300 mg per day is about 0.1kg per year, so processing hundreds of tons would take millions of year.

[Nathreim]

Germany was never going to nuke anyone. Hitler did not believe in the bombs potential and defunded the program early on in the war. We lucked out big time.

[Flarelaine]

Hard to imagine any other target than a big bunch of Russians somewhere, especially so late in the war.

[Deleted]

Oh look, some more whataboutism...

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Why did Germany have all of that material? Just for funsies?

It's well-known that Germany was also working on making an atomic bomb.

[Noradin]

Why did Germany have all of that material? Just for funsies?

They mined it in the eastern parts of the country.
If you look at all time production of uranium up to 2014 the GDR comes in in fourth place.

Why does Canada have all of that material? Just for funsies?
Whom do they want to nuke? What about Australia?

[ranzino]

in an early WW2 stage germany would have nuked NY. with its demolition radius you dont need to aim very precisely and a launch in the atlantic from sub would have beeen undetected until it was to late. V2 from mainland europe would note have been able to reach targets on the east coast AFAIK.

[Ravenblade]

It's well-known that Germany was also working on making an atomic bomb.

Germany had a lot of plans and the German leadership planned in big terms based on which project has the best outcome. However the atomic bomb programme wasn't such a thing. Most of it was left at paper and early experimental stage however. This was due to the fact that Germany at the late stages of the war was a bit strapped for cash, they were also chronically lacking secure sites, manpower and finally also time. There are a lot unfinished sites above and underground and a lot physicians who participated found themselves embroiled in moral issues as well. They were no officially or unofficially supported plans for an atomic bomb mainly because military leadership was not just sceptical but rather conservative in thinking too unbelieving of the promise that atomic bombs are vastly superior to conventional bombs. It devolved into a side project with inconclusive goals and rather low level of enthusiasm maintained by a handful of people of which all are well known (Heisenberg and von Weizsäcker being the most known ones). They lacked the centralized coordination, planning, resources and oversight that the Manhattan project enjoyed, instead they were spread out thinly over Germany, losing more and more sites as Germany lost territories to the Allies, one of these labs they had actually was actually inside a school in Stadtilm which is just 15 kms away from my own town.

[Logwyn]

Unlikely - they couldn't fly bombing missions to those cities at that point; and it doesn't seem as if their V2-rockets could have carried those nukes. I am unsure if a sub-launch against London would be possible.

It depends on "when" either Japan or Germany figured it all out. If we go with the knowledge that inventors didn't 100% know what was going to happen then we could get weird uses.

You don't need a "rocket" to deploy an a-bomb a truck or sub would have done. If it was at the end of the war with Germany almost collapsing just rolling the thing out to the battle field in a truck and setting her off has an effect. You might even get Japan rolling on to Okinawa and nuking their own island. Who knows.

Earlier in the war you could have Germany just roll a sub up near a US coastal city and suicide mission the bomb. Imagine that effect.

[Wildtree]

Too bad Stalin didn't have nukes much earlier in the war, would have saved millions of lives in eastern Europe if he made Nazi-Germany glow green. Also, China could have saved millions of lives too had they had it vs Japan.

But you know Stalin's slaughter spree exceeded that of Hitler, right?
You just argued to make the biggest war criminal in WWII records even more potential than he was.
Guess what he would have done to the US if he would have had nukes? You are aware that the distance between Russia and the US is a measly 55 miles, right?

The only thing that kept Stalin in check during that war was the Nazis. First through treaties and alliances, then through warfare.

Germany was never going to nuke anyone. Hitler did not believe in the bombs potential and defunded the program early on in the war. We lucked out big time.

and this... He was more keen to have the lead in middle and long range rocket abilities than in nukes.

[Deleted]

My guess would be London with a nuclear V2 missile first. Stalingrad second.

[ranzino]

My guess would be London with a nuclear V2 missile first. Stalingrad second.

Those nukes are not cheap, Moscow then.

[Osmeric]

The germans didn't really understand that an atomic bomb was possible. Heisenberg had miscomputed (perhaps deliberately) what the critical mass would be. Also, they had missed that pure graphite could be used a moderator, since the correct measurements of carbon's neutron absorption cross section had been made by a jewish scientist and disagreed with erroneous numbers that had come from a Nazi scientist. So they stuck with heavy water, which was always in short supply (due to very well conducted allied commando raids.) Beyond all that, they didn't have the resources to push the project to completion.

[Azadina]

According to the article it seems they were taking a very long view on this (unless there is some error):
"The diary of Masa Takeuchi, a worker assigned to Nishina's thermal diffusion separation project, says Nishina wanted to process hundreds of tons of uranium at the rate of 300 mg per day, according to the U.S. journal Science."

Basic math: 300 mg per day is about 0.1kg per year, so processing hundreds of tons would take millions of year.

Probably 300 kg instead of mg. Would make abit more sense ^^

[ranzino]

Probably 300 kg instead of mg. Would make abit more sense ^^

300 kg per day is to much also, somebody fucked up the units in the report. 300 kg per year is a nice number though.

[Azadina]

300 kg per day is to much also, somebody fucked up the units in the report. 300 kg per year is a nice number though.

So if 300 kg a year is realistic number, then the whole piece of article still sucks. Because processing hundreds of tons at 300kg a year is not very realistic goal during anyones lifetime

[Deleted]

He would have Nuked the Russians to force the Americans and the English to agree to a peace.

[ranzino]

So if 300 kg a year is realistic number, then the whole piece of article still sucks. Because processing hundreds of tons at 300kg a year is not very realistic goal during anyones lifetime

Umm, what sort of 300 kg are we speaking ? Uranium oxide ready for further processing ? or a lump of yellow cake ?

[Azadina]

Umm, what sort of 300 kg are we speaking ? Uranium oxide ready for further processing ? or a lump of yellow cake ?

I wouldn't know ^^ The small quote doesn't say:

According to the article it seems they were taking a very long view on this (unless there is some error):
"The diary of Masa Takeuchi, a worker assigned to Nishina's thermal diffusion separation project, says Nishina wanted to process hundreds of tons of uranium at the rate of 300 mg per day, according to the U.S. journal Science."

Basic math: 300 mg per day is about 0.1kg per year, so processing hundreds of tons would take millions of year.

[Ghostpanther]

But you know Stalin's slaughter spree exceeded that of Hitler, right?
You just argued to make the biggest war criminal in WWII records even more potential than he was.
Guess what he would have done to the US if he would have had nukes? You are aware that the distance between Russia and the US is a measly 55 miles, right?

The only thing that kept Stalin in check during that war was the Nazis. First through treaties and alliances, then through warfare.


and this... He was more keen to have the lead in middle and long range rocket abilities than in nukes.

For sure. Hitler was horrible for Germany and a grave threat to the rest of the world. But Stalin had more blood on his hands.