http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... zisnuclear

Hitler had an atomic bomb

Sun Mar 6,10:59 AM ET Entertainment - AFP

BERLIN (AFP) - Nazi Germany built a nuclear reactor and atomic weapons before the end of World War II, contrary to popular belief, a Berlin historian says in a book to be released later this month.

In his book "Hitler's bomb", Rainer Karlsch says a reactor was functioning by the winter of 1944/45 and that nuclear weapons were being tested on a Baltic Sea island and Thuringia, central Germany, under the supervision of the SS.


"The Third Reich was extremely close to winning the race to build the first working nuclear weapon," publisher Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (DVA) said in a statement on Sunday.


However, the weapon was not well-developed enough to be dropped by air.


Karlsch, whose book will be released here on March 14, maintains that he found "the first German nuclear reactor in working order" near Berlin and discovered documents on a project for a plutonium-based bomb dating from 1941.


According to DVA, his work is based on careful examination of building plans, aerial photographs, soil analyses, diaries of researchers linked to the project and reports by US and Russian spies.


Despite sabotage by the Allies and funding difficulties, Nazi Germany did succeed in producing "dirty bombs" which killed "several hundred" prisoners during tests in Thuringia.


They were nowhere near as devastating as the atomic bombs dropped by US aircraft on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated total of more than 200,000 people by the end of 1945.


Very interesting, this could've shifted the war. I wonder if it's true and if it was why i took so long for the information to get out?

whos hitle?

That's how you spell Hitler in German.. don't you know anything Baba?

*changes thread name*

I don't think it would've changed the historic outcome of the war, but it would most definitely let Hitler go out with a bang.

Ouch.

On another note, Hans Bethe died today at age 98. One of the "Fathers" of Nuclear Astrophysics, he "helped devise the atom bomb and eventually cried out against the military excesses of the cold war..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/07/scien ... he.html?hp

Where do you think he would've attacked if he had a nuke?

Good question. Possibly London, since it was a big target that's close by. Or maybe even allied positions in Germany.

Russia...to get rid of the growing Communist Problem....

or London...considering that was the one thing he sorta never got...

Imho Nuclear weapons are the single biggest evil ever created by humanity.
Unless they start dropping bombs that carry E-bowla

You're right, it certainly would have been London, because Hitler thought London would be the heart of the British Empire. Therefore the question comes up: If London would have been destroyed, what would have happened next?

IMO, USA wouldn't have destroyed Hiroshima, but maybe Berlin, but that would bring us just to the next question about the 'ifs' and 'buts' of this war. :wink:

To be honest, I'm really glad that my country is aware of the things that happened in this war and I'm also happy that this is all history (its hard for me to understand the thoughts and behaviour of my grandfather back in 1940 and I don't want to think about how I would have acted in this difficult time)

I don't believe the historian who says he had it. But if he did, I think he'd have used it in Eastern Europe to stop the Russian advance on Germany.

Yet it's responsible for the longest period of relative peace in the modern times. The world is strange that way.

A reasonable assumption indeed.

HOPEFULLY WE SHALL SEE

the nukes in action against an ET threat one day if only for the geek-out possibilities... =D>