re: What if the Nazis developed an atomic bomb first?

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After watching The Bomb on PBS, I speculated this very possible scenario. Hitler surely would have destroyed New York, Washington, and Moscow.

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It depends on when they discovered it and then assuming they would have an aircraft which could deliver it. By the time the Allies had detonated the first bomb at Alamogordo, the Soviets had already been in Berlin for a few months.

Let's say we move the clock back a few years to 1940 when the Nazis first bombed London. Had they had a nuke at that time they would have also pursued plane tech which could carry it (Little Boy weighed 9k lb). So if they have both, the war would have been pretty much over and they would have taken all of Europe.

Hitler was very anti-Communist so he would likely have turned his sites on the Soviet Union next. The Soviets at that time had a large military but their officer ranks had been decimated in the Great Purge and they were likely still smarting from the military rebuke in the Winter War. If Hitler had nukes at that time, Operation Barbarossa would likely have gone far different. The Nazis likely would have faced a drawn-out guerilla campaign in the wilderness, but Moscow and Leningrad's falls would have shut down any large-scale, organized military resistance.

Hitler was very aggressive, he didn't like waiting for his next conquest. While they may have ended up with the technology to deliver a nuke to North America after taking off from the UK, Hitler likely would have wanted plenty of boots on the ground to take active control after the dust cleared. That would meant likely taking Iceland to stage for Greenland, then Greenland to stage for New Foundland. From there, they could bring over troops to reinforce their hold then make eventual strikes against Ottawa and DC.

Once the US fell, whatever other part of the world Hitler wanted would have fallen as well. The trick after taking North America would be to consolidate an actual hold on all the territory they conquered.

While the Japanese wanted to take part of the US, I could see Hitler negotiating a deal for the Japanese to keep everything from New Zealand to Iran they could hold while the Nazis took all of North America, the Soviet Union and Europe. Africa, Central and South America would perhaps have been left for a while Axis powers solidified their holds on their gains.