[Strategerist]

Uggh. Not another article on this crap.

They're never very clear that the author is only claiming a "dirty bomb" test, which is just slapping some radioactive stuff around a regular high explosive. Not a very effective weapon, and it is to a true nuclear bomb what a BB Gun is to an M-16.

[Ender Wiggin]

I dunno, I read Richard Rhodes' The Making of The Atom Bomb and he said nothing like this.

If this is true the Nazis had the beginnings of an implosion device, and they tried an open air test near Berlin?

Or had a serious criticality accident, also near Berlin?

[Psycho_Bunny]

BS

[nonsporting]

German Physicians?

How 'bout Physicists?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"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."

Actually the Germans developed the theory that the US exploited. It's just that by the time of WW2, the NAZI's had chased the researchers to the US.

[Petronski]

What Nazi Germany lacked was enough fissile material - such as enriched uranium - to make a full-size, functioning nuclear bomb, he said.

They understood how to make and fire a handgun, what they lacked was steel and gunpowder and lead and brass.

[PeterFinn]

"German physicians" designed a nuclear bomb?

Good thing the silly Krauts didn't have their physicists working on it or the world would've been in deep trouble.

[camle]

hogwash!

[AnOldCowhand]

Sounds like typical second finishing Euro "Us too, us too." BS.

If they'd a had it, they'd a used it.

[ex-Texan]

There was a special report on Nazi Germany and Japan on the History Channel in January. It had photos of GIANT submarines used by Germany at the end of the war. One carried nuclear scientists, jet engines and was packed with uranium (U-235) for use by the Japanese. German surrendered. The U-Boat surfaced and surrendered to U.S. Naval forces and the submarine was captured. Japan had intended to use high altitude balloons to bomb the west coast with highly radioactive material or 'dirty bombs.' Japan also had developed jet bombers and jet fighters using German engine designs. There were movie images and photos captured by U.S. troops in Tokyo.

We were closer to losing WWII war than anyone even knows.

[steve-b]

Where's the "Not This Sh*t Again" guy?

This is sensationalist claptrap, based on obfuscation of the difference between a radiation "dirty bomb" (which any moron with a pile of radioactive junk and some high explosive can build) and a real honest-to-goodness nuclear warhead (which takes some fairly sophisticated physics and machining). The former can ruin your day if you're within a block or so when it goes off, but it is in no way comparable to the destructive capability of the latter.

[sheik yerbouty]

An OSS report had opined that Hitler was fond of "dirty bombs"...

[tophat9000]

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

[tophat9000]

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

[Junior]

"German physicians did not lag behind their colleagues in the United States and Britain in their understanding of theory," Karlsch told a news conference.

Well, there was their problem. The U.S. and Britain were using physicists to design their bombs.

[Robert357]

I just saw this story on the main netscape webpage and did a search prior to posting and found it to be "old" news.

In nuclear engineering graduate school I had the opportunity to have a series of lectures by Karl Wirtz who was a visiting professor from the West German equivalent to the Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. Wirtz had been part of the German atomic bomb program. After one of his lectures he discussed with us some of his WW-II experiences.

He told us that the principal scientists were into passive resistance and worked at glacial speeds. Just fast enough to keep from being disciplined by the military who were watching them, but as slow as possible. Some were going slow for moral reasons, some were going slow so they didn't finish their part early and end up in the military on the eastern front.

From what he told us, and I don't think he had any reason not to tell the truth, they were a long way from having an operable atomic bomb, let a long a reliable system, capable of delivery by something like an airplane or V-2.

My feeling is that this is either all much ado about nothing or it is about a dirty bomb as many before have discussed.

If it was a dirty bomb, the Germans were smart enough to know which isotopes to use to get maximum effect. They would probably use short-live energetic isotopes, like sodium and not extremely long lived isotopes. I doubt they would waste expensive U-235 on a dirty bomb.

Intelligent selection of isotopes by the Germans, would call into question any measured values in soil some 60 years later. While with neutron activation of various chemicals to create isotopes you usually get a mix of isotopes some with longer half-lives, I still would be surprised to have much long half-life isotopes still present.

What, if anything, would be present in soil samples would give a strong clue as to if it were a failed attempt at atomic detonation, with below critical mass, or if it were residue from a "dirty bomb" that was designed to be a dirty bomb.

Remember that when the first nuclear bomb (uncontrolled nuclear reaction) was tested in New Mexico, some of the scientists were unsure if the chain reaction would ever stop or if the world would be destroyed. Others felt it would stop. With some debate like that, one could understand why someone might want to "see" what would happen with a sub critical mass, prior to trying out a "real bomb."

Therefore, while their could have been a "test," I doubt that it was a serious test of an atomic bomb that anyone thought would ready for deployment if it passed the tests.

[A CA Guy]

This was a very well documented point in history.