Posted on 03/14/2005 8:55:54 AM PST by NormsRevenge
BERLIN (AP) - Nazi Germany tested a crude nuclear device in March 1945, killing hundreds of people in a massive explosion south of Berlin, a German researcher claims in a new book published Monday.
That the Nazis conducted nuclear experiments has been known for decades, but "Hitler's Bomb," by Berlin academic Rainer Karlsch, suggests they may have been closer to building an atomic weapon for military use than previously believed. No independent corroboration of the claims was immediately available.
"German physicians did not lag behind their colleagues in the United States and Britain in their understanding of theory," Karlsch told a news conference. "They knew what a plutonium bomb was and what a uranium-235 bomb was."
What Nazi Germany lacked was enough fissile material - such as enriched uranium - to make a full-size, functioning nuclear bomb, he said.
Other researchers already have theorized that the Nazis conducted crude nuclear experiments, but Karlsch said he has discovered additional evidence, notably in the archives of the former Soviet Union.
The book cites postwar witness accounts and Soviet military intelligence reports to back up its theory of a March 3, 1945, experimental nuclear test blast at the Nazis' Ohrdruf military testing area, but it offers no direct documentary proof.
Karlsch acknowledged he had no positive proof the Nazis conducted a nuclear test blast, but he hoped his book would provoke more research. Soil samples that Karlsch had analyzed for his book found the presence of radioactive isotopes, he said.
Witnesses reported a bright flash of light and a column of smoke over the area that day, and residents said they had nausea and nosebleeds for days afterward, Karlsch says.
One witness said he helped burn heaps of corpses inside the military area the next day. They were hairless and some had blisters and "raw, red flesh."
Karlsch concludes that the blast killed several hundred prisoners of war and Nazi inmates forced to work at the site. Two months later, on May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered after the Soviets captured Berlin.
Ohrdruf, located in the southeastern state of Thuringia, was a Soviet military base after World War II.
Oh Geez! No they weren't. They were too little too late. A design exercise is not a weapon system. They are nothing more than model airplanes made life size.
When you look at the ten reasons the Germans lost the war...chasing the jewish scientists and university professors out of Germany ranks near the top. They basically gave up on 50 percent of their national brainpower. Just paint the picture with Einstein and all of the Jewish scientists still in Germany and the Holocost never occurring...and you start to have major changes in the outcome of the war.
For lack of the carriers, we'd be speaking Japanese and German? You've GOT to be kidding.
Japanese strategy was to shock us and throw us off balance long enough to accomplish their strategic goals in the Pacific and present us with a fait accompli that we'd not have the political will to dislodge. That strategy was NEVER going to work, and catching the carriers at Pearl would not have changed that, for one important reason: nothing the Japanese did in the Pacific was going to delay the readiness of the Bomb. You're talking about adding a year, at most, to the conflict in the Pacific, but even that is an outlying estimate.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner here.
You are EXACTLY correct. In either case, there "would" be easily detectable residual radiation.
An OSS report had opined that Hitler was fond of "dirty bombs"...
I agree with you totally. Hitler unified Germany by making people of Jewish heritage into social scapegoats. He blamed all the country's ills on them. Then the Nazis undertook 'The Final Solution' which mandated the extermination of every Jew in Europe. What utter folly!
Yes. Obtaining sufficient fissionable material and constructing it in a way where it explodes on command and not before, are still major hurdles for countries like Iran.
It's both ironic and lucky. ;)
Now for some speculation.... I wonder if Heisenberg did a deliberate MIS-Calculation?
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From a google search on Heisenberg.
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Einstein, Heisenberg, and Tipler, after equal invariant intervals in purgatory, find themselves before the Throne of God.
As a man, they exclaim, "What did I do to merit an eternity down (brrrrr) there"?
God thought for a moment; when you're omnipresent in spacetime there's no need for haste. He turned first to Einstein.
"Albert," he said, "you showed your species My creation in its most elegant form, law without Law. Then, inflamed by wartime passion, you urged the transformation of your discovery into a weapon of mass destruction."
Einstein shuffled his feet and nodded subtly. He resisted the temptation to stick his tongue out. God turned His omniscient Eyes toward Heisenberg.
"Werner, you discovered that I do play dice, and you glimpsed that I have to if anything interesting's going to happen--your last words were, `I will ask Him why there is turbulence'. I will answer you, `So there can be Heisenberg'. But you stayed in Germany, Werner! You worked on a reactor for Hitler; you taught physics to brown-shirted Nazi thugs. You'll recall that my Son is Jewish."
"Frank, Frank, Frank," God continued, "didn't you read my book? I read yours, you know. Does the phrase `Thou shalt have no other gods before me' ring a bell? How about `I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending'? You not only wanted to have another God before Me, you wanted to be Him. And the money, Frank...do you know how piddling an advance I got for the Bible?. And you assumed causality--you Frank! You should know me better than that."
Tipler, almost defiant, raised his head and fixed God with a cold stare. "Why are there singularities in Your universe?"
"Because there are things I don't want you to know," God responded calmly.
Heisenberg, his dying question answered, remained silent, pondering the choices he'd made during his life on Earth.
Einstein seized the moment, "Look, Old One", he said, "physics is local. You made it that way; I figured it out. But why is there that spooky action-at-a-distance nonlocality in quantum mechanics?"
God chuckled. Even experiencing all of spacetime at once, such events were rare. "Albert, your greatest talent has always been not finding the right answer--anybody could do that--but asking the right question. Your generation learned physics assuming I was a great watchmaker; you destroyed that notion, but most of you died off before it became evident what I was. I create abstract systems from pure information, Albert. I'm a programmer.
"Quantum nonlocality is a bug."
God turned to Saint Peter. "Einstein and Heisenberg go to Heaven. Send Tipler to the massive rotating cylinder to try again. Next case."
God hated these Judgement Days; he couldn't wait (to the extent that's possible for an omnipresent being) to get to back to his craps game with Wotan, Jove, and Shiva. Saint Peter looked up from his infinite scroll, "Fourth Commandment: blasphemy--eternal damnation. Send in Lederman and Hawking".
What was it about these physicists, God wondered, as they approached the Throne.
No, you are correct, I got a bad case of typo-twittery.
Its the ME-162 and the ME-262. Especially the 262. It had an impressive history and did more damage than is now acknowledged by those who simply hate everything German.
It seems that only one was ever shot down, and that was because the Brittish pilot surprised the airfield and caught the ME while it was taking off.
Once they were airborne, nothing we had could catch it. The Germans did not use them as fighters, instead their mission was to simply outfly the allied fighters (which they did handily) and attack the bomber formations (which they did with some terrifying results.)
Not my take on history, but the history found on display at Wright Patterson.
Feyman, I believe.
Follow the link and see "Miscelleneous" "Virus House German Nuclear Bomb Project" and "Leipzeig Sphere L-IV
Plutonium Generator"
http://www.luft46.com/armament/armament.html
Follow the link and see "Miscelleneous" "Virus House German Nuclear Bomb Project" and "Leipzeig Sphere L-IV
Plutonium Generator"
http://www.luft46.com/armament/armament.html
It wasn't Feynman. This prof never was one of the famous ones and I'll be damned if I can remember his name. He was one of the many junior physicists on the staff. The one story that sticks out in my mind was the calculation department. There were several mathameticians who broke down the equations into a series of additions and subtractions, which were then given to an army of female clerks operating the old mechanical adding machines. The only computers were tied up calculating ballistic trajectories for the Army and Navy. AS each clerk finished her assignment, it was given back to the mathametician for further integration. He said the noise in those old Quonset huts was deafening.
Quite a few ME-262's were shot down by Mustangs and Thunderbolts hanging around the landing fields, catching them landing and taking off.
Okay, I must have been thinking of "the twisting the tiger's/dragon's tail" comment...the needed amount of material to achieve an atomic reaction.
Well, there was their problem. The U.S. and Britain were using physicists to design their bombs.
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