How Close Did Hitler Come To Nuclear Weapons? | Secrets Of The Third Reich | Timeline



US scientists worked feverishly on developing the first atom bomb. They feared Hitler’s Germany was about to build it before them. Later it was reported that the Germans had abandoned their plans. According to new documents, allied military reports and existing construction plans, Hitler had already tested a new kind of nuclear weapon in March 1945. How far did the Germans really get?

📺 It’s like Netflix for history… Sign up to History Hit, the world’s best history documentary service and get 50% off using the code ‘TIMELINE’ http://bit.ly/3a7ambu

You can find more from us on:

https://www.facebook.com/timelineWH

https://www.instagram.com/timelineWH

This channel is part of the History Hit Network. Any queries, please contact [email protected]

source

33 thoughts on “How Close Did Hitler Come To Nuclear Weapons? | Secrets Of The Third Reich | Timeline”

  1. Its already well known the Germans were no where near making or testing a nuke. America was only able to develop one because they had the time and peace to gather resources. Germany just didnt have access to the materials needed to make a nuke at that time. The Russians learned how to build one from spies they had in the American camp. In Rocket tech the Germans were miles ahead of everyone else. Would have even been more ahead had Germany saw its worth in the 1930s. Rockets were not seen as a weapon of total war in the 1930s because they were so small.

    Reply
  2. The Germans could figure out the science and design for an atomic weapon. What they lacked was spare industrial capacity needed to be diverted to produce enough fissile material. Just remember the immense scale of the plants here in the USA that for the time could barely produce material for a handful of bombs. At the same time in the war the German war economy was in no position to create such massive plants in secret nor secure them.
    Why do you think that to this day the number one concern about Iran's nuclear program is their uranium centrifuge capacity? It's because the most difficult part of the construction of a nuclear weapon to implement is producing fissile material.

    Reply
  3. At the time, Uranium bombs weren't practical. The Germans knew this. It took the U.S. 2 years and $billions just make 1 Uranium bomb. More people died in the bombing of Tokyo than Hiroshima. For the time and money required, conventional bombs were more effective. The Plutonium bomb changed all this. Plutonium took much less time and money to make. After Hiroshima, all atomic bombs were made with Plutonium. So the question is: Did Germany know a Plutonium bomb was practical? From what I've seen, the answer is no. If I remember correctly, comments from German scientists just after the Nagasaki bombing seemed to indicate they were still thinking this was a Uranium bomb.

    Reply
  4. Germany did not have the resources to produce fissile materials. The US did only by assembling the equivalent of the auto industry with a cast of thousands directed by a very capable inner circle of dedicated scientists and engineers.

    Reply
  5. It took 25% of all energy produced in the United states between 1941 and 44 to produce 2 atomic bombs !
    It also took all of the silver , so German could not afford to do it or produce enough energy for one bomb !

    Reply
  6. There is some thought that the Germans developed something on the line of a small "Dirty Bomb", but the radius of destruction was very small. Also, they were experimenting on some "secret" technologies that are in today's scientist's dreams. They had the math but lacked the resources in materials and technology to develop beyond paper. Although the Germans accomplished much – World Conquest – they never had the resources or manufacturing technologies to achieve their goals. They also had too many "Pokers in the Fire" in developing efficiency for their War Machine. Thanks.

    Reply
  7. US scientist yes but European scientists & mathematicians. It was not only US scientists by any means. Germany failed to get close, partly because their Jewish & other scientists fled Germany. This documentary is a fake.

    Reply
  8. Absolutely stupid premise. Hitler‘s scientist were not even close to developing nuclear weapons. Neither did Germany have the enormous infrastructure that the United States had to produce fissionable material. The only reason the Soviet union developed an atomic bomb so promptly was because of espionage.

    Reply
  9. If true, this casts a whole new reason for the Allies 'Germany first' argument…particularly where the US wanted to deal with Japan themselves and then changed their mind so that Europe wasn't a race between only between the British and the Russians.

    Reply

Leave a Comment