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.

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What if the Nazis developed an atomic bomb first?

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Minorities think they’re oppressed now…

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Maybe you should research it, in depth, and get back to us instead of expecting others to do your work in discounting numbers that have been reported in many sources for decades.

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I didn't make the lazy claim. Someone else did. And pointed to a source that just echoed it.

If it's so well established then it should easy to reference some documentation. Go first.

Lots of good insights. I just wondered if Hitler's talented physicists didn't go the heavy water route then they develop a prototype A bomb-possibly before we did.

They developed the Me-262 jet, so maybe Hitler relents and let's his engineers develop a long range bomber comparable to the B-17 or Lancaster instead of the hybrid fighter-bombers (Ju-88s).

Take out London first then turn attention towards Moscow. Getting any A bomb across the Atlantic would be formidable since the U boat advantage had been greatly crippled by then and his naval strength was so weakened.

Interesting to think about.

Something to ponder...

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They developed the Me-262 jet, so maybe Hitler relents and let's his engineers develop a long range bomber comparable to the B-17 or Lancaster instead of the hybrid fighter-bombers (Ju-88s).

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Even the B-17 and Lancaster could not make a trip from Europe to the US, especially with a 10,000 lb bomb load. I’d have to check but I’m pretty sure not even the B-29 could pull that off.

We knew that was a race we absolutely had to win. Einstein told FDR that in 1939. Fortunately, we did win it.

I think there are some movies and a tv show about this

Right. A trans-Atlantic flight wouldn't have been possible. They would have needed a forward air base. Take out Moscow and Stalin probably just moves his production further east of the Urals.

Any documentation that Hitler's engineers flying-wing (B-2 concept) was more than a theory? I mean, they put the Me-262 into service and even with the small numbers it was more than formidable.

Hitler wouldn’t have come after the U.S. mainland. Germany didn’t have the population to hold territory far outside of Europe. He was losing a 2 front war, had he acquired a nuke Moscow would have been target 1. Get Russia out of the way and then nuke London. That would have brought the Allies to the table to negotiate. US would have likely pulled out and let Europe deal with it and like I said the Cold War would have eventually been the US and German empire instead of US and USSR. US probably agrees to end hostilities with Germany if Germany agrees to let UK and France remain independent outside of their control. Let Germany keep Poland, Hungary, etc and Germany occupies western Russia. Russia gets split between German occupation in European Russia and USSR holds eastern Russia and its Asian satellites

They wouldn't have reached North America with it. Odds are they nuke somewhere in France, and maybe somewhere in eastern Poland or Czechoslovakia, as a means to sue for peace.

For those insisting they would have found a delivery method, their industry was getting crushed. I just watched a Forgotten Weapons episode comparing the 3 semiauto battle rifles, and the Garand was 1, the SVT (Russian) was 2, the German gun was 3rd. That's because they were getting rocked so hard, while in comparison the US was untouched, and Russia had room to retreat and rope-a-dope to the East. Same thing applies to other tech.

If they used it, they would try to stop from being crushed, and most likely our carrier forces make it to the European theater (Japan was finished as a threat long before we smoked them). We likely come at them from the Mediterranean, or airbases in Spain (who would not have stayed neutral with Axis leanings, if Hitler nuked somewhere in Europe). We would have firebombed the shite out of Germany proper, from outside their range. And our own bomb program would have accelerated faster if the Germans deployed it... and our industrial might would not have diminished. So we nuke them from somewhere soon. We probably take out Berlin within a month of them using one.

Now, Europe would be charcoal still today, Britain may be gone, and the US and USSR would be a lot closer allies for a long time... because the Russians would be terrified of us. The Australians would be the heirs to the British Empire, and probably a world power today. They'd likely own most of SE Asia, as far over as India.
*They'd be the next major military bad guy, dealing with popular revolts all across Asia today.