How Close Were The Nazi’s To Acquiring The Atomic Bomb? | History Explained
There can be no denying the existence of German ingenuity within the Third Reich.
Materialised military advancements made by the Nazis included the Panzer Tank, anxiety-inducing U-boats, and the truly terrifying V2 rocket.
Despite these weapons, it is instead the secretive Nazi weapon programmes that captivate audiences to this day. The haunting images of giant underground bunkers, notably those built during Project Riese, have even inspired mythical imaginations of Nazi science.
While these dramatisations play no homage to historical accuracy, in reality, the Nazis did have projects that ranged from the spectacular, such as the Schwerer Gustav, to the absolutely absurd, including the Nazi Sun Gun and the Vortex Cannon that attempted to create artificial tornados.
(Schwerer Gustav spectacular, Nazi Sun Gun absurd)
Though the majority of these programmes included inventions deemed as either impractical or simply impossible, these highly ambitious projects have blinded many into dangerously believing the Nazis were intellectually superior.
However, the weapon described to end all wars, the atomic bomb, noted by its inventor Oppenheimer as making him
[insert clip] “become death, the destroyer of worlds”,
it was instead the Americans who beat the megalomaniacs of the Third Reich to the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
As our sourced evidence will show, the notion that the Nazis were even remotely close to having an atomic bomb is nothing short of a historical myth.
Understandably, the allies did not have this guarantee of retrospect and launched the Manhattan Project in 1942.
Indeed, the American fear-fuelled project was founded on the Germans discovery of fission in 1939 by Otto Han, regarded as the father of nuclear chemistry.
From this scientific breakthrough the so-called ‘uranium club’ would be formed in the months following, putting the Nazi’s 3 years ahead of the Americans who were yet to enter the race for the atomic bomb.
Even Einstein himself would write to Roosevelt, warning that it may be possible to cause a nuclear chain reaction.
Paired with the knowledge that it was the Germans who were first to propose nuclear science and advance the field in the 1800s, leading the civilised world of physics in every aspect, it was naturally rather worrisome for the allies.
Regardless of this head-start however, the Nazi’s were destined to fail. The greatest story to prove this fact comes from the very mouths of the Nazi scientists involved in the effort.
The year was 1945. With the defeat of the Third Reich looking guaranteed, a secret mission codenamed Operation Epsilon would be launched to capture the top nuclear scientists in Nazi Germany.
Thanks to the following for use of their music...
ES_Together We Rise - Philip Ayers
ES_Forever to Run - Howard Harper-Barnes
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PeabodyLDN from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bildcode:Com_M12-0346-0023-0001Fotograf:Comet Photo AG (Zürich)Titel:Panzer 61 in AktionBeschreibung:Vermutlich VorserienmodellDatierung:1964Enthalten in:Militäraufnahmen für Expo 64,Bildnachweis:ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_M12-0346-0023-0001 / CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1981-147-30A / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons
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Basch, [...] / Opdracht Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons
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Los Alamos National Laboratory (Attribution or Attribution), via Wikimedia Commons
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Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R57262 / Unknown author / CC-BY-SA 3.0
George Shuklin, CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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