How Close Did the Nazis Actually Come to Building an Atomic Bomb?

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Thanks to Shaker & Spoon for sponsoring today's video. Visit shakerandspoon.com/brainfood to get a $20 off coupon at checkout.

[@Goldenkitten1]

@@claratius2601 If anyone is wondering the link is totally safe and is just a bunch of loveable innocent girls who need love, not a virus or data-miner in site!

[@davidmauney4149]

@@claratius2601 p11¹

[@fredred8371]

Video starts at 2:04

[@kevinsavage5068]

I saw what you did. Noooooo. Why did you use a 24 year old whisky to make a cocktail?? That’s what blended whisky is for

[@SplotchTheCatThing]

I'm sure it's great, but cat-things don't drink. Makes it too hard to hunt afterward, you know :)

[@bigb7157]

The amount of man power, resources, time, and simply production capacity in terms of just under roof space would have been impossible while under constant bombing. The Germans where building temporary factories in the forests to just build traditional arms. The US built entire cities to build atomic weapons. They probably had the knowledge, but that’s was all.

[@igorbednarski8048]

They had the resources, they just invested in the wrong weapons. It's estimated that the V2 research and production was actually more expensive than the Manhattan Project

[@AsbestosMuffins]

they didn't even have the knowledge, the manhatten project made use of differential engines, analogue computers, and famously, eniac, to develop the science. the germans just didn't even have the raw analytical capacity to develop a bomb from scratch.

[@superpilotdude]

@@igorbednarski8048 the v 2 project killed more people who worked on them then targets. It was an extremely expensive negative K/D ratio.

[@blaire4115]

@@igorbednarski8048 You must be joking. Do you have any idea what engineering and scientific struggles Manhattan group had to get through. Not to mention, Germans simply didn't have enough Uranium ore to even begin the first small step toward nuclear weapons.

[@matthewyabsley]

Exactly. The primary requirement for any human advances is security/peace. Even weapons aren't made in conflict zones, they're made in a peaceful setting. The USA by (fortune of geography) provided that.

[@johnstevenson9956]

Just reminds me so much of when Colonel Klink thought he was drinking spring water and found out it was heavy water. "Will it kill me?" "Only if Berlin finds out."

[@frankchase9297]

Hysterical! Best Regards!

[@jrt818]

Drinking heavy water in large amounts or over a period of time is harmful. For mammals, replacing 20% of the body's water with heavy water is survivable (although not recommended); 25% causes sterilization, and about 50% replacement is lethal. Small amounts have health benefits in medicine.

[@willsee8391]

Is that the one where they're all tripping out about a shipment, only to find its water? And theyre wondering why such security over a shipment of water?

[@EdricLysharae]

I love Hogan's Heroes!

[@dontask6863]

Hahaha forgot about that one. Love that show Hogans Heros. One of the best history based comedies ever created.

[@MandleRoss]

"Kinda shot yourselves in the foot with that one, didn't you, guys?" Such pleasure in Simon's voice.

[@johanneswerner1140]

Oh, they did! The whole anti Jewish (whatever that meant) agenda in science meant crippling the whole scientific field. Look up Lenard, who was a stupid Nazi and was against the use of (apparently Jewish) maths in physics. And this guy was a Nobel laureate (as far as I can remember for his work on cathode ray tubes?). Not that I don't prefer this outcome, things would be different, and likely not in a good way...

[@Nostripe361]

@@johanneswerner1140 I mean the Nazi's had a lot of kooky ideas about science and biology. If I remember right they also reject most ideas on psychology present at the time for their own that was more in line with Nazi doctrine that was an Easter egg in that Man in the High Castle show.

[@opeeate]

yes it was very close to glee.

[@MandleRoss]

@@Nostripe361 Yeah, there is some doubt that Hitler himself believed the nonsense "science" that others believed in, but he liked the way it bonded his underlings stronger to his will, that's for sure.

[@84gssteve]

Yea, I've always thought the better question was not, "How can you be racist?" But the more relevant, "How long can you afford to be racist?" Most people seek knowledge, experience, growth and wealth.....makes you wonder why one would dismiss an entire culture or race just because they look different or pray to a different God.

[@j0njn]

Great video. Incidentally, the Norwegian heavy water raids are worth a video on their own.

[@robertwalker-smith2739]

Oh, my yes. I read "The Winter Fortress". The dedication and tenacity of the raiders is almost beyond imagination.

[@christopherlewis1847]

Definitely. It was a truly gutsy raid. Those folks were true badasses.

[@flashgordon3715]

There is a good movie covering the Norwegian resistance sinking the ferry carrying the Heavy water.

[@ballboys607]

I believe Periodic Videos made one on that raid? The one where a heavy water facility was taken out with 0 casualties?

[@peterfireflylund]

@@flashgordon3715 And killing a number of innocent civilians in the process. And all for nothing!

[@shinkicker404]

The idea that Himmler got yelled at by his mother for saying mean things about that Heisenberg boy cracks me up immensely.

[@geekehUK]

I think it's also important to consider the respective motivations for their nuclear programmes. For the Germans it was ambition for conquest, a conquest which could otherwise still be achieved, just a little more slowly, without the bomb. For the Allies it was a desperate fear that a madman and a despot might get the bomb first, and that he would have absolutely no compunction about using it to maximum effect in the most densely populated areas.

[@velvet373]

@retsaM innavoiG I believe geekehUK was explaining the motivation not the events after the creation.. your comment is well placed but still missed the point that while US did exactly what Germany wanted to do, the bomb race and motivation was the crux of the perspective geekehUK was trying to convey. There was a sense of urgency on the allied side to make the bomb where the axis side was more interested but it was not completely necessary by their view at that time, as alluded to by geekehUK.

[@Jiff321]

@retsaM innavoiG dropping the bomb saved hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives. You know that right?

[@coffeeisgood576]

@@velvet373 don't try and cover up for the "good" madman

[@checker297]

@@Jiff321 unlikely, the japanese high command was willing to wait out the nukes. It estimated that the us had very few of these weapons and no way of mass producing them, it was more that they didnt want to surrender to the russians and the us offered the best deal politically

[@vivigesso3756]

Left wingers hirer the natzi bomb makers. The hard left created the nukes.

[@culturecanvas777]

I recall reading that the Nazis dismissed the atomic bomb as a nonsensical Jewish science. Interestingly, Albert Einstein himself initially discredited the idea of an atomic bomb until he was given more evidence.

[@tardvandecluntproductions1278]

@Kabuki Kitsune Also the key ingredient to for nuclear power as a source of electricity. The Germans were looking into that (also small scale, 1 small reactor) It was still faaaaar away from nuclear bomb strength.

[@scotth6814]

@Kabuki Kitsune Wasn't that U-boat taking the Uranium to Japan?

[@TKUA11]

Well they did try to build a bomb, but Simon thinks they didn’t have enough ashkenazis to build it

[@Stacey_-bf2mb]

My favorite part is that before the trinity test, a few scientist weren’t convinced that the chain reaction of splitting atoms wouldn’t carry on indefinitely and just cause a massive fucking black hole and kiss us all goodbye

[@cameraman502]

Einstein's problem was that he's didn't believe there was a way to split the atom as the only way to do was to fire a proton a nucleus. The neutron wasn't theorized until the 20s and wasn't discovered until 1932, 6 years before the atom was ever split.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

its actually funny that the german reactor was this elaborate thing of uranium cubes suspended in this lattice with heavy water, when the first reactor in the US was built using coffee cans, blocks of graphite, and railroad ties

[@johnbockelie3899]

Edith Keeler didn't foresee that Hitler declared war on America on Dec 8, 1941.So, she more than probably been ignored. Star Trek theory.

[@adammoyle7055]

I mean Chicago pile 1 wasn’t exactly simple and was also a lattice just replacing heavy water with graphite. Heavy water is also a better moderator than graphite they just didn’t have enough of it or uranium to produce a critical reactor

[@boardcertifiable]

The US Tony Starked their way to getting nuclear power.

[@derekp2674]

@@adammoyle7055 ....and, by luck or judgement, the uranium cubes in that German apparatus are more or less optimally sized for achieving self sustaining nuclear chain reactions (i.e. criticality) with a minimum amount of heavy water moderator. But they still never managed to bring together enough fuel and moderator to achieve criticality.

[@SkunkApe407]

​@@derekp2674better yet, an American Boy Scout literally built a nuclear reactor in his mom's tool shed, using materials he scrapped from smoke alarms and watch faces. Makes you wonder if maybe the whole "genetic purge" thing ran off all the wrinkled brains in Germany? That might also explain the noticable lack of renowned German comedians.

[@thetalantonx]

I respect that you put the ad first and allow us the choice of whether to skip forward or not. You're an entertaining enough presenter I watched the full thing even though I don't drink cocktails as a rule.

[@the_hamrat]

In reality they were uncertain as to what Werner Heisenberg was actually doing

[@SafetySpooon]

I saw what you did there....

[@honeysucklecat]

On principle, of course

[@honeysucklecat]

Was makin meth?

[@Bacopa68]

As they came closer to understanding where Heisenberg was doing things, they became less able to understand what he was doing.

[@spenceremmons6571]

You could say, his principles were uncertain.

[@flekkzo]

You really need to make a video on John von Neumann. Among endless amounts of things he did, he was instrumental in the Manhattan project. Very fascinating guy, and there will be many moments when Simon laughs.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

Including a computer processor architecture named after him. There are two basic architectures used today: (1) Harvard, with separate data & program memory, used in microcontrollers, such a those powering antilock brakes, and TV remotes. AND (2) von Neumann, where the memory is common to both data & program, allowing a program to be treated as data, for uploading, then such computer can transfer control to that memory, now as the operating program. This is how Intel processors, in PCs, and ARM processors in cellphones work. On a side note Presper Eckert, the co-inventor of the ENIAC (which was thought to be the worlds 1st digital computer), also was suppose to come up with an architecture, very close to von Neumann's, but von Neumann's paper on it was published first. The ENIAC had an older, more cumbersome architecture, that Eckert would improve upon, on follow up designs.

[@r.b.ratieta6111]

Richard Feynman described John Von Neumann as a man who was "Wonderfully terrifying."

[@alexanderyacht6483]

And he was a real party animal. His parties in Princeton were legendary. He also built one of the first computers at the Institute for Advanced Study, where such practical research was usually frowned upon.

[@davidwright7193]

The issue that really explains that remark about the number of factories involved in enrichment is the value the Germans had for the neutron cross section of uranium. The value was known only very imprecisely, it’s measured in units called barns as a reflection of this. The Germans had a value determined prewar which gave a figure for critical mass of about 1-10 tonnes of enriched uranium. An amount that was totally unobtainable even if you could build a plane to deliver it. In 1940 Chadwick in the UK obtained a different estimate that led to a critical mass of 0.1-1kg an amount that it was conceivable to obtain that figure turned out to be too low but was the basis for starting the tube alloys project and the Manhattan project.

[@unbearifiedbear1885]

The Telemark mission is one of the most incredible stories of the war

[@mingusboodle]

I'm not sure I knew anything before you started making KZbin videos.

[@Hurbie_53]

Awesome video! Having written 2 papers on the matter I might add some facts about the matter: - Belgian Uranium came from belgian colony congo, a hotbed for uranium mining. The biggest known uranium deposits in direct reach of Nazi Germany was Czechoslovakia and the german invasion of march 1939 was really the thing on top of all the other causes to start the pressure on the US to start their own program: The Nazis were sitting on their own uranium. - "Physicist" Diebner was more of a physics scholar compared to the other physics heavyweights like Hahn or Heisenberg, but he was mainly an SS Officer who had massive pull on logistics to get the stuff he wanted. As mentioned the compartmentalization sabotaged their efforts massively, also fuelled by the enormous competition the Universities the research was done in, had with each other. - A bomb raid on a BASF plant near the end of the war destroyed a big shippment of prepped Uranium for experiments with the Haigerloch reactor and in one sweep wiped out basically all the leftover ready to use Uranium in what was left of Germany. - A lot of information about what happened in Germany regarding nuclear developement was learned from putting the captured scientists in Farm Hall in Cambridge, England (Operation Epsilon). They were free to move within the confinds of the building and the surrounding areas and of course were repeatetly interrogated. But was really going on was that the whole building was bugged up the wazoo. That's for example how it's documented how the physicists reacted when they heard the radio broadcast about the first drop of an atomic bomb. Otto Hahn had a nervous breakdown because he felt responsible for the deaths and his colleagues watched over him because they feared he would kill himself. All-in-all and in a nutshell it is as you said: When they had the advantage they were working against each other and when rhey started to collaborate it was ( luckily ) too late.

[@johndavis1465]

You are wrong: On 27th October 1944, at 7 p.m., thousands of prisoners in Auschwitz heard a mighty thunder and rumble from the south. Many claim it was a violent explosion twice, and those outside saw a huge reddish glow immediately afterwards, as if flames were leaping into the sky. Some even thought they saw the fire first, which was probably closer to the truth. At that time, a Polish prisoner named G. was in Auschwitz. He came from the village of Czerwonka near Allenstein, which is now called Olsztyn. He was born in 1913 and had learned the honourable profession of a carpenter. G. was arrested in May 1941 for illegal activity and sent to the Radom concentration camp. He was there from 27th of May 1941 until the end of September of the same year and was then transported to Auschwitz. There he worked as a carpenter in a prisoner construction brigade. ......... During the 27th of October 1944, a detachment of 330 prisoners was hastily assembled. They were mostly construction workers. G was among them when the detachment marched off at 17:00. On this march, with their eyes to the south, they saw two flashes of lightning at 19:00, heard a double explosion and at the same moment noticed a huge fire that seemed to rage over a large area at practically the same time. The prisoner brigade marched as if blinded in the direction of this blaze until they were ordered to camp for the night in an open field at 20:00, which meant that they had to sleep in the open on the bare earth, while in the distance the flames were still raging towards the sky. The other day, 28th of October, around noon, they reached the place where they were to work from now on. It was an exact square about a kilometre on a side, covered with still burning and smoking rubble. The prisoners, however, smelled not only the burnt wood, but also the sweet stench of burnt human flesh, which they knew well enough. They marched to the edge of the area where a small town had stood the day before and where, a few hours before, 25 people in protective suits had dared to attempt to penetrate just 200 metres into the burnt and destroyed town. Only to immediately turn back in triumph and horror. Of course, only a few were triumphant and enthusiastic, others ran silently and hurriedly, and others were so horrified by the horrors they saw that they turned back in shock and vomit. The 330 prisoners did not wear any protective clothing and were not given any during the weeks in which they had to clear away the stone rubble. On 3rd of November 1944, 680 Poles and Russians joined them, so that by 15th of December 1944, more than a thousand prisoners had cleared away the stones and burned the remaining bodies and body parts in the radiation-contaminated rubble desert. By mid-December 1944, all traces had been erased. On 17th of December, the prisoners who had not died due to radioactive dust were sent back to Auschwitz, where all but a few who had managed to hide there were also killed.

[@martinilp2513]

Simon getting excited over his sponsor is such a welcome change. Usually people give you the same ad over and over and they´re just disinterested

[@dlee645]

And in another timeline, Edith Keeler did not die in a car accident, went on to meet with President Roosevelt who then delayed America’s entry into WWII which allowed Nazi Germany to develop the atomic bomb and take over the world.

[@honeysucklecat]

I was born the day after that episode aired

[@bobbylittle6996]

I watched that episode as a kid, when it aired for the first time. Most fans know that one. Does that make me old or what?

[@scotth6814]

@@bobbylittle6996 You're in good company.

[@dlee645]

@@bobbylittle6996 Yes, it makes you old like me.

[@martineldritch]

The Germans were like "Remove John, Paul, and George from the Beatles and have Ringo create and record "Sergeant Pepper's" on his own.

[@medealkemy]

At least it has a good backbeat? 😂🤷‍♀️

[@leegreen4165]

Simon's advert pitches are so amusing that they're fun to watch even for things I have no interest in buying.

[@BMrider75]

Tom Stoppard's excellent play "Copenhagen" covers the subject of the meeting between Heisenberg and Nils Bohr. Great drama, with so much intrigue riding on the outcome.

[@khadrelt]

"So, how's Adloph doing in school?" "Well, he's failing Government, Business, Science, and Logic." "Great! Let's put him in charge!"

[@toddbradford4700]

Thank you for speaking some truth on this subject which is a favorite of the "What If" crowd. Few people realize what a huge, expensive, and resource intensive undertaking that the Manhattan Project was. Germany could not have pulled it off during the war.

[@Delmworks]

To be honest this seems to be a regular problem with America. Their overestimations of their enemies are almost as bad as their underestimations. The former seems to be the case with the Cold War as well…

[@wacojones8062]

Good presentation. My mom was a nuclear physicist in training seeing bits of these events as folks disappeared and Europeans showed up. She got her BS and MS worked for 18 moths at Mayo clinic making radon seeds for testing cancer therapies' and in the process took 27 Roentgen exposure a max safe dose most in her hands and wrists working around lead blocks every day. Keep digging for more almost lost history.

[@TheWildcard4542000]

Less people died from the Nukes than would've died in a full scale invasion.

[@PORRRIDGE_GUN]

On both sides

[@williamfabiano9407]

Yes on both sides. It was a blessing for everyone

[@enduroman2834]

I read the book "Hitler und die Atombombe" (Hitler and the atomic bomb) from 1987 and your video is very accurate. Hitler clearly did not see the potential of the atomic bomb, and therefore had no interest in development of such weapons. Also there were many cases mismanagement as you said in your video. All in all it would have been very unlikely that the Nazis would have been capable of building an atomic bomb before the war ended, even if they started earlier.

[@weirdshibainu]

True. But Hitler also harbored under the impression the Soviet Union would fall within weeks after the invasion, hence why waste resources on such a weapon. If in fact the Soviet Union has fallen in weeks, it would have seriously changed the dynamics of the war and the Allies likely would have sued for peace.

[@tomhenry897]

IF better funded and pushed they might have done it

[@AlexMarciniszyn-y1k]

The following is from the book Trotzdem by Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel: 29/3/44 while at tea with Hitler. "He made particular mention to me of the V-weapons, which we have just begun to deploy. People should not overestimate the effect of these weapons at the present time, said Hitler, because the accuracy of the missiles was still very poor. But, he went on, this would not always be the case, because at the moment all he wanted was to have rockets which were able to fly without any problem. Later, Hitler said, there would be an explosive which was like no normal explosive such as we know at the moment, but something entirely different, which would be powerful enough to effect a positive outcome to the war. He said that the development of this explosive was far advanced, and that it would soon go into production. For me, all this is completely new territory, and I can't imagine what he is talking about. Later, I hear that the explosive power of the new rocket will be based on atomic power."@@tomhenry897

[@LordMcKrakenVonLittleBits]

It's scary to think of the what if's of history but the most frightening one would be Germany beating us to the punch on the atom bomb. A Wolfenstein like world makes for a fun game but terrifying reality.

[@CurriedBat]

That's what they get for demonizing scientists

[@carbon1255]

Are we going to gloss over the British development far more advanced than Germany that was exported to the US starting the manhattan project, in case the UK was invaded... Or the German dismissal as a weapon system and interest as a power source. Britain began development shortly after discovering the atom could be split. The hydrogen bomb was all von Neumann's work, credit where credit is due, he was a mastermind.

[@Bacopa68]

Yes, The UK had started almost instantly on nuclear research. It was small-scale compared to the early German efforts but made better progress.

[@ZacLowing]

Oh, here we go... UK needs attention again. Good boy UK, here's some head pats, good boyo!

[@dougearnest7590]

@Andy Mills -- Not a bad move considering the Brits elected a commun .. er.. socia ... er.. Labour Party PM who didn't have a problem giving their jet engine tech to his Soviet friends. Or maybe it was payback for all those privately owned firearms sent over in the early days by U.S. citizens on the promise they'd be returned after the war, but which the commu .. er .. soci ... er.. Labour Party PM had dumped into the ocean. So .. just don't come crying to us when you discover knives had a useful purpose.

[@dougearnest7590]

@retsaM innavoiG You're right in that the firearms to which I referred were not for use by the active military but by the Home Guard (think "militia" for those who don't know what the Home Guard were) -- given the fact the Home Guard was raised to defend Britain from the anticipated German invasion I didn't feel the need to specify and make it more confusing. The reason the members of the Home Guard were not able to arm themselves was because the UK had only a few years before severely restricted private ownership of firearms. I confess I don't know to what extent the supplying of privately owned firearms was a government initiative, but I'm pretty sure it took a lot of government cooperation and coordination. I remember reading a bit about this a few years ago, but I'm afraid I can't remember all of the details. I specifically remember there was a plan to return them after the war, and it was Attlee who determined the guns should be destroyed rather than returned to their rightful owners - and that they were dumped into the sea. As for supplying weapons to the USSR during the war (because they were fighting a common enemy) that's significantly different from giving them the technology after that common enemy was defeated and the USSR was then considered the biggest threat to freedom and world peace. While we can anticipate the pluses and minuses of Nazi Germany defeating communist USSR and how that would have affected the outcome of the war and the subsequent postwar period. However, at the time the goal was clearly to defeat Germany and Japan ---- before they developed the atom bomb -- which I've no doubt would have been used extensively.

[@cameronward9443]

Well it was moved to Canada... then to the US.... you know while you're prepping up UK, I feel like Canada should get a nod.

[@sukrpunch]

Geiger.... Like the Geiger counter?

[@Bacopa68]

Yes, Geiger invented it because he and Marsden suffered terribly having to count by eye and hand all the phosphor flashes during the Gold Foil Experiment for Rutherford.

[@Zoomer30_]

The process of enriching uranium is known as the Ames Process, developed at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

[@Iknowtoomuchable]

"Uh... yeah! We had moral objections to the regime, so we totally sabotaged it! It's not like that was our best effort or anything! Our lack of progress was definitely and entirely on purpose!"

[@csdn4483]

The reason the Germans thought the US had huge factories for producing that much U235 was Heisenberg screwed up the calculation for the total amount of U235 needed. Heisenberg calculated that the Germans would need 10 times as much U235 as was necessary. He calculated a need of 650 kg of U235 when only around 65kg was needed. Considering it took almost 2 years of day and night running of the Oakridge diffusion plant to produce that 65kg, it's not surprising that the Germans thought the US had a huge number of factories producing U235. Heisenberg after the war claimed that he miscalculated on purpose, but I'm not so sure of that.

[@PORRRIDGE_GUN]

Everything Heisenberg said post war was arse-covering bullshit from a man that wanted to build the bomb for Germany and didn't care if Adolf dropped it on London, Moscow or Washigton

[@magnemoe1]

Stuff like 100.000 x more resources tends to helps a bit. Still it make sense the allies was scared Germany was so advanced in many fields. The strategist in the west probably probably did not grasp the megaproject scale of the Manhattan project.

[@bhgtree]

Thanks Simon for another great video. Richard Rhodes books 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' and 'Dark Sun The making of the Hydrogen Bomb' are a great read on the development of the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb.

[@MattSipka]

I heard that an advisor to hitler proposed the idea but down-hyped it, saying the research would take too much time, cost too much in terms of resources and it’s unproven that it would even work. Ultimately a waste of time. They were thinking of using uranium as an alternate fuel source or to make nuclear power plants as Germany struggled to fuel its war machine as the war dragged on.

[@josvercaemer264]

Did they really want to make a energy producing reactor. They had loads of conventional field( black and Brown coal) then again, it is possible. Let me know. Thx

[@KrGsMrNKusinagi0]

And the amount of uranium required they had that wrong as well.. I think they believed it required way more than it actually did for that type of weapon.. Either way they had other issues.. regarding requirements for the war effort

[@demonprinces17]

Don't think making electricity was even thought of then

[@MattExzy]

As much as an anti-Nazi as I am, if the leadership weren't so terribly evil, I feel like we'd have moon bases and all sorts of stuff if they continued. Time travel. Totally whacky stuff. Just a 'fun' thought... like that terrible movie, Iron Sky. Maybe they're all up there after all.

[@demonprinces17]

@@MattExzy Von Brown almost went to jail for suggesting another use of rockets other than bombing London

[@tpl608]

At one point, the Germans considered a dirty bomb in which the goal was just to deliver radioactive material. They never got far there either

[@demonprinces17]

Act of last resort when H asked where's my bomb. Didn't have the material anyway

[@shellcase20]

I honestly think of Germany got the nuclear bomb for the US that they would use it on the UK or USSR before the US. Hitler was obsessed with destroying or invading the United Kingdom and Soviet Russia was the biggest military threat both and manpower and resources. If this had played out then the UK would either be under a nuclear winter still today or a good large portion of Russia

[@patrichausammann]

No, the Germans would not have used the atomic bomb against the UK. According to official sources, the UK has threatened to send 1,500 bombers with biological and chemical weapons if Germany had used nuclear weapons, making Germany uninhabitable to this day. However, Germany has tested several atomic bombs and also used them against the USSR during the war, which I can prove on the basis of my research with the help of documents, maps and testimony. I will publish a video on this soon. However, I would like to end my video series on the Dyatlov Pass with Part 3 and 4 first. It gets very interesting, however, as the story is related in both cases.

[@flyingsquirrel1135]

And I doubt they would have been a bale to use it period. Remember if they built a bomb it would have been ready in 1944 or 1945… when the Luftwaffe ceased to exist as a fighting force…

[@patrichausammann]

@@flyingsquirrel1135 Why should the Air Force be important when the entire V-2, as well as the A-10 program, aimed at getting nuclear weapons to their destination? Incidentally, the americans were only able to build their second atomic bomb thanks to the Germans, as the submarine U-234 with several hundred kilograms of plutonium and the necessary detonators were in their hands. The Russians also had nuclear weapons much earlier than assumed. Because the Russians were able to capture scientists from Hans Kammler's staff, which was confirmed by Polish secret documents. The experiments took place with these German scientists on the Black Sea. And it was precisely these scientists who applied for and were granted all patents for civil use after the war in the 1950s, including uranium enrichment using high-performance centrifuges.

[@flyingsquirrel1135]

@@patrichausammann yea… a V2 isn’t powerful enough to carry a nuclear warhead… not to mention they could still be shot down. V1’s moved slower than aircraft and V2’s were prone to flak

[@patrichausammann]

​@@flyingsquirrel1135 No, a V-2 cannot be shot down shortly after takeoff and it is absolutely sufficient to carry a nuclear warhead, as it is designed for a payload of 1,000 kg. The V-1 was never intended to be used as a nuclear weapon, but the V-2 was. By the way, I want to look at an anti-aircraft battery that was able to shoot down a V-2 mid-flight or on approach. That was simply impossible, because a V-2 is approaching its target at around 5,000 km / h.🤓😉

[@GuntherRommel]

Today I found out I don't care enough about cocktails to watch the ad read.

[@buckshot6481]

The German program was too compartmentalized and that was the worst approach.

[@pauld6967]

There is a definite benefit to compartmentalization. I would cite an example but you aren't on the _'Need To Know'_ list. ;-)

[@paulboger7377]

The Japanese had 2 seperate programmes that were unknown to each other, and were fighting over scarce resources!!

[@MorgenPeschke]

@@pauld6967 definitely need a balance. In a way the Manhattan project was similarly compartmentalized - the compartment was just friggin huge 🙃

[@pauld6967]

@@MorgenPeschke Agreed. Happy Thanksgiving Day.

[@MorgenPeschke]

@@pauld6967 to you as well 💯

[@StairwellTheCat]

Anyone else watch these and retain nothing but thoroughly enjoy the experience?

[@EmilFoghVids]

Simon, you're just f***ing awesome!

[@christaber5988]

Great video Simon's got a great voice

[@michaelpipkin9942]

Please do the YF-23 vs the YF-22. You have A LOT of footage and it was a competition that shaped the modern Air Force. Thank you.

[@oxcart4172]

There's a great talk about the YF-23 on the Peninsula Seniors' youtube channel by the test pilots who flew them

[@pax1980]

Great video Simon! Given the level of detail shared on uranium enrichment processes, I'd expect a knock on your door in the near future... Good Luck!

[@ThatBoomerDude56]

Nice as a joke. But there's not really any useful or interesting detail in the video.

[@josvercaemer264]

Does the cia and NSA have authority to opperate in Prague? 🤔😜

[@davidwright7193]

Not really the basic principles of uranium enrichment are very well understood. The problem these days is building the equipment required. The difficulty is in the speeds and tolerances needed on centrifuges for example.

[@briancrawford8751]

@@josvercaemer264 Of course.

[@nocoffeebadday695]

The FBI showed up for Cody's lab and took his yellow cake, he had to delete the videos obviously.

[@carlstanland5333]

“I am become KZbin, maker of videos.” -Simon Whistler (allegedly)

[@usvalve]

Neil tends to speak fast, and sometimes that's too fast. At 8:08, it's so fast that it sounds better played at 75%! I think it would be better if he relaxed a bit and maybe set the autocue for 90% of the words per minute. What he's saying is worth hearing, and it would give us a little more time to take it in.

[@TheFluffyDuck]

In the end our German scientists were better than their German scientists.

[@beesnest8772]

Orange blossom water is so good. I remember as a kid my grandma making baklava using orange bloosum water. Smelled so good

[@sammysam2615]

I have zero doubt had Germany made the bomb first that Hitler would have been dropping bombs every other day

[@joshportal2808]

Even if they did, each attack would be a suicide run because the amount of power to transport and the amount of fuel. The Soviets would still have taken Berlin even more millions died. Even if the Nazis got the bomb in 1941, they would not have long enough range airplanes to transport the bombs. In the book “The man in the high Castle”, the only reason the Nazis got the bomb was a different theory on the Philosophy of intelligence. Basically don’t kill possible assets even if their Jewish but use them to the best of ability. Also Martin Bormann didn’t take any power and operation sea lion somehow worked.

[@timthorson52]

The capacity to produce enough refined material would have been a massive hindrance. By mid 1946 the us had still only made about 9 bombs. Obviously production boomed as the cold war came and production methods improved.

[@geminidawn7315]

like say the Blitz?

[@jfbeam]

Drop 'em as fast as they could be made at least. (which would've been on the order of one per year.) The US had staggeringly massive facilities and couldn't make enough for more than one bomb. Pu ("fat man") on the other hand was much easier to make and refine, however the Germans didn't know anything about that path to a bomb.

[@SafetySpooon]

@@geminidawn7315 Different types of bombs.

[@pamelamays4186]

Magic Spoon, and Shaker & Spoon. How to keep Fact Boi happy and going.

[@jimbevske]

The belief that if the Allies had known how far the German were from having a nuclear weapon it would have prevented the development of the Bomb is not realistic. The Soviets had so many spies in the Manhattan Project that once the war was over, they would have on their own have continued the research and develop the Bomb first after the war.

[@AcmeRacing]

The first Soviet device was a copy of the plutonium Trinity Gadget, which was the basis of Fat Man.

[@jesuszamora6949]

The question is, if the Allies knew how far the Germans were from a nuclear weapon, would the Manhattan Project have been given such a priority?

[@tomhenry897]

Yes When the project was started we had a long way to go to defeat Germany and the outcome wasn’t guaranteed

[@markrockwoodjr1584]

Excellent Scotch choice Simon!

[@bluebird3670]

Simon seems like a sophisticated man who would also be ridiculously fun to party with

[@flipmode45]

AP is on a straight trip! I like Fed’s answer on the movement pics, makes sense to me.

[@MrTubeStuck]

So... In RTS terms, Germany used their resources to produce lower tech tiered weapons and the Allies just dumped resources into teching up.

[@Bacopa68]

The Germans started with a robust 1930s air force, but as their enemies slowly teched past that to good 1940's air forces they resource dumped into an effort to create a fifties air force.

[@dm0065]

The Allies could afford to do both, and did. They threw the very expensive hail Mary with the Manhattan project, and put loads of resources into better conventional weapons and more efficient factories to make them. The Germans couldn't do either one as well as the Allies could do both.

[@tardvandecluntproductions1278]

Oh not even close to low tier. If they actually put V-2 and other "Wunderwaffen" resources into traditional weapons, the war could have gone a lot differently. Better for their case.

[@Devin_Stromgren]

@@tardvandecluntproductions1278 Or if they had just focused on one or two wunderwaffen.

[@gur262]

Afaik Nazi Germany did,often stupidly so,dump money into development of high tech or just stupid weapons,but didn't have the means to mass produce em. ...the maus. A giant tank.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@IKEMENOsakaman]

A weapon is not too difficult to make, because it can just blow up. It's difficult not to make it blow up.

[@pirx9798]

Best description of a nuke ever

[@ThatBoomerDude56]

@@pirx9798 No. Actually that's the *worst* description of a nuke ever. It is *tremendously difficult* to make a nuclear weapon explode. Uranium and plutonium only fission under very precise conditions.

[@CynterDOW]

@@pirx9798 exactly what Peter said. In most nukes majority of uranium doesn't actually explode

[@zollen123]

I am glad they are difficult to make, otherwise Taliban and ISIS would have already made tons of them.

[@Goldenkitten1]

@@ThatBoomerDude56 Sorta kinda correct, while true it was incredibly difficult for them to learn how to set off the chain reaction in the first place it was equally as difficult to stop said chain reaction. Many people died either due to human error or a simple mistake, not necessarily from a full blown explosion but from a huge invisible wave of rads that killed within a week in most cases. So yeah, it was hard to first create in the first place but without very careful control it was very easy to unleash a portion of the power (I mean, in nuclear reactors it's STILL a problem).

[@JM_Smith1]

Simon all your channels kick A$$!

[@HahnJames]

Neils Bohr's granddaughter became prominent in British pop culture. Her name is Olivia Newton John.

[@CybAtSteam]

That was Max Born, not Niels Bohr ...

[@lorentzinvariant7348]

There is one instance that supports the idea that Heisenberg was thwarting the German bomb effort. After WW2 ended and the Germans tasked with such research were being held for a time in England. A microphone that had been hidden in their midst recorded an extraordinary conversation. The scientist expressed amazement that the Americans had been able to developed the bomb. Heisenberg then astonished them with a correct description of exactly how one would proceed to develop such a weapon. As if he knew all along.

[@derekp2674]

I disagree. I think it is much easier to design any machine once you know someone else has already made one.

[@TheAmericanAmerican]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Thank the universe that Hitler was such a moron with resource and time management or else the world would be a very different place today...

[@momkatmax]

The Corporal who thought himself King

[@12gauge_shawtyy]

fascists tend to be like that

[@TKUA11]

Eh are u sure about that? If he was such a moron he wouldn’t have fixed the economy after Weimar Germany, and wouldn’t have been able to conquer most of Europe

[@alanaspinall7147]

@@TKUA11 and then not only lost Europe, but had his own nation blastered flat.

[@tomhenry897]

Just like democrats

[@frankchase9297]

Excellent video. I really took interest in your final conclusions. Best Regards!

[@gordoncavanaugh8744]

Interesting how capitalisms hampered development during the war in Germany. While America used a command economy, that placed limitations on competition, to develop its nuclear program quickly. Things that may you go hmmm.

[@Bacopa68]

Albert Speer himself commented on this, not just for the nuclear effort but for war production in general. He envied the power his counterparts in Britain and America had. Speer was particularly distressed by his inability to recruit as many women as he wanted into the war effort compared to massive numbers in the UK and US. The lesson here is to breed your master race after you win the war. Even the US understood that some members of its own subordinate races needed to be elevated to elite military status to win the war quickly knowing full well the risks involved.

[@tpl608]

Spelled capitalism

[@tommytrinder.1226]

Fantastic video.Very informative.

[@RCAvhstape]

The German flying saucer and moon colonization project, on the other hand, was well-funded and totally successful. Or so 'they' say....

[@thokim84]

We haven't made it a century past the first atomic bomb yet. Just under 24 years to go.

[@blakhorizon915]

I'm gonna say it again, Sam better get that b-role for busine... Brain blaze.

[@demekagamine]

Good job on this vid Fact Boy

[@LordOfReb3ls]

I remember reading an interview back in college with a German(?) recon pilot near the end of the war. He was over allied occupied territory I think in Austria and noted a double flash explosion and a mushroom shaped cloud. Shit I wish I could remember the document. I remember it was housed in an archive in Alabama

[@KingAlanI]

However, large conventional explosions can still produce a mushroom cloud

[@SpaceMonkeyBoi]

"Be gentle" Her: 1:43

[@dyslexicboogaloo]

9:53 The Germans never came close to developing an atomic bomb. But what do you expect in a beer cellar? There’s better things to do.

[@Guru_1092]

Get drunk, get krunk! 🍶🍾🍷🍸🍹🍺🍻🥂🥃

[@Kestix1234]

Drunk Germans speak about physics while philosophizing with each other. And that comes from a German. Btw. This comment section will now be invaded by us.

[@ravertaking6343]

I have a question. How were CT and MRI scanning machines developed?

[@BonShula]

Germany also made the first assault rifle

[@peterson7082]

In name and some tactics- yes. Design not really.

[@peterbradshaw3379]

I’d love to see a video on the war of 1812

[@MusicalRaichu]

Von Neumann calculated that relative to Einstein, Heisenberg's position was uncertain while Bohr was on another level.

[@scotth6814]

😄

[@rhov-anion]

Nah, we would have developed it in the 1950s with the Cold War, fearing Russia would beat us to it. There is no end to American paranoia.

[@chestermicek]

Just imagine if the Germans had been able to deploy two nukes: one at Stalingrad and another at Kursk. That would have been a game changer.

[@multipl3]

Obvs

[@AsbestosMuffins]

not really, kinda hard to use them as strategic hubs when your troops are dying from radiation poisoning

[@bbbf09]

...or alternatively kzbin.info/www/bejne/boGWmWBtdpqMirs it's a good job that far right thinking generally implies dumb thinking - so they were never in reality close

[@kurtvonfricken6829]

Just imagine if space aliens landed and helped Germany fight WW2. Since we're playing “let’s pretend” I always throw that one out there when WW2 fantasies are discussed....

[@bbbf09]

@@kurtvonfricken6829 Anything that can cross interstellar space would be vastly more advanced technology wise. That means it would be off scale insanely more advanced in military attck , defence than any side. They would have untiold amounts of energy at their disposal. Simply to cross between stars at reaosnable (though sub-light) speed in s small ship would require many times more energy than Earth has ever produced. To give you an idea teh Orion project in teh 1950s envisage a nuclear fission bomb powered space ship. It coudl reach 5% light speed. Crossing from neartest star in about 90 years - but would kick out 3 Hiiroshima type atomic bombs per second - and use over 30,000 of them. The might of present day US military vs Roman Empire would not even compare on thsi scale. But why would aliens ever align with nazis? Does not make sense. Consider - If spacefaring aliens did cross the many trillions of miles between stars and thought along nazi lines (master race /conquest/ domination) they would not stop at the Earth and be thinking 'we like these nazis -we can work with them. They would seem them as vastly inferior and/or low risk threat to their own plans and simply wipe them from existence at a stroke - in fact all humans on every side would be gone with nazi aliens. That is nazi idealogy - not cooperation and collaboration. What may be more likely - if sentient aliens did exist at all - is that they would more probbaly be benevolent and progressive and more willing to assist in resisting dark tyrannic forces where they found them. In either scenario, nazis would lose. Big time.

[@kittyyyyyyyy]

Allied? It was Norwegian resistance fighters. Don’t you dare take that away from us.

[@Atomic_Haggis]

That story was the bomb.

[@zafoquat]

Great content. I found the audio a little quiet. Fine with earbuds or on the pc but just out of a galaxy s20 phone speaker I found this a little hard to hear. Audio is mixed quieter than most YT content including all ads and with a hearing problem I found this almost unwatchable without going to my pc or using earbuds

[@izzymosley1970]

This story sounds like it was written in a book even though I know it's real history the reason why I find this story so much like a fictional story is because it seems like a battle of philosophies rather than just a normal battle because the Americans were willing to use everything they had to do their disposal and because the Nazis were so blinded by their politics the Americans were able to make the bomb even though the Nazis had a 2-year Head start the story is so good that I bet you could find some moral to it.

[@opeeate]

yep and I reckon "bureaucracy is dangerous" could be one.

[@jameswhitehead6758]

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is the book you're looking for.

[@memitim171]

The moral is if you want the best talent, you can't be a racist asshat.

[@gmcjetpilot]

Germany did not have the resources and was getting bombed. They had heavy water. They had the physics and theory but no way they could pull it off as war turned against Germany. Nazis sent nuclear technology to Japan late in war, but too late. The technology was intercepted, destroyed and never made it to Japan.

[@winstonsmith478]

Answer: not even remotely.

[@Crim1983]

Love the Babish angle during the cocktail ad

[@Rush2112Rulz]

Marie Leveaux would be a great biographics subject

[@pvuccino]

I love the fact that the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only ones ever used against an enemy. It's like the world collectively decided "This thing is far too horrible to use again, unless it's absolutely necessary" and has kept that promise for 75 years now. And I bet it takes some serious self-restraint, since most countries have them anyway!

[@nocoffeebadday695]

9 countries have nuclear capability. There's 195 countries in the world.

[@PORRRIDGE_GUN]

@@nocoffeebadday695 USA Russia France China UK India Pakistan North Korea Israel South Africa did have a nuclear capability, but dismantled it in 1991 Many other states could be described as proto-nuclear, ie: possessing the capability to produce nuclear weapons if they desired. Iran, Japan, South Korea etc

[@scotth6814]

@@PORRRIDGE_GUN Canada

[@ccengineer5902]

They knew how horrible it was when they were developing it. The scientists actually proposed to demonstrate it rather than directly use it on a target, because a bomb that massive is going to be mostly collateral.

[@joeycoe85]

When you look into how bizarre the Cold War actually becomes, especially in the 70s and, thanks to Reagan in the 80s, it’s a miracle we didn’t have WW3 breakout by MISTAKE. A BEAR wandering onto a nuclear silo in America, some sensor malfunctions on BOTH sides, etc. There was even a case where a Soviet officer just refused to follow orders, single-handedly SAVING THE WORLD. And he was sent to prison for it, no less. The Cold War really is full of mistakes of a ridiculous nature.

[@polarnaut9645]

You shaking the cocktail shaker is worth the time watching the ad.

[@nickyleighton3766]

I also like the smell of freshly cut tobacco and i don't smoke 🤣🤣🤣

[@AcmeRacing]

I drove through Winston-Salem in the summertime once and I thought the same thing. It's vile once you set it on fire, but the drying barns smelled wonderful.

[@skipper4126]

They were so close that they didn't have sufficient amounts of uranium, enough heavy water, a delivery system, control of air space. But yeah they were soo close.

[@jim99west46]

Jeezus you'll pimp almost anything. You're working hard, all the best to you.

[@dyslexicboogaloo]

Simon hasn’t pimped my ride yet. *hint hint*

[@mattjazzml]

Interesting well made video and a heavy topic. I can understand the need for advertising but, really. It doesn't go with the topic. Leaves a bad taste honestly.

[@bigprojects2560]

Seeing as they got him to advertise that for 2 entire minutes, he must have made a pretty penny 😂

[@mattjazzml]

@@bigprojects2560 for sure. Still, there are better videos for that. If I was from a family that had been affected by the things he's talking about I'd have found it distasteful to say the least. I'm guessing it just wasn't properly thought out. I'm sure no offence was meant. I hope someone reads this.

[@WernerGouws-k1t]

Awesome video! Can you maybe do a full warographics video on the border war between South Africa and Angola in the late 1900's

[@thesteadingoffranya4423]

Now I would like to know how close did the Japanese get to building an atomic bomb? I ask because I have heard stories they were only months behind the U.S.

[@peterson7082]

Maybe months behind in understanding the physics and fabricating experiments. Years behind in materiel.

[@tomhenry897]

You been lied to They thought it was impossible

[@thesteadingoffranya4423]

@@tomhenry897 fair enough that's why i was asking

[@hwilmore]

"Synthetic Rubber plant" and "Sub that surfaced in July of 1945 with a cargo of gold-lined casks" "What kinda shells do you think that Gustav gun was lobbing"

[@Irish381]

I suppose a 14% loss of key personal and a lack of cooperative work for a common goal, makes a German nuclear weapon a flight of fancy!

[@stevenmann9769]

Your sponsorship is certainly eclectic!

[@tpl608]

Germany had a plane design they built that would use a rocket on the plane on a ramp to launch and hit space. The goal was to drop an atomic bomb on new York city. The USA space shuttle has some similarities, the ability to land again for example

[@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935]

Wehraboo fantasy, zero grounding in reality.

[@tpl608]

@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935 they built a mock up and constructed the ramp. You should Google before you spout off.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbervogel

[@NoName-hg6cc]

@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935 to be fair, it's Historical truth that many scientists that worked on V1 and V2 worked later on American space program

[@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935]

@@NoName-hg6cc youtube censorship hobbling applies

[@NoName-hg6cc]

@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935 wdym?

[@fattynorun]

The thing is Oppenhimmer wasn’t the person who had or created the required formula for the splitting the atom. It was a man called Enrico Fermi.

[@DanCooper404]

Who else just skips right to the 2-minute mark on these videos?

[@ethanledina8176]

Nice vid Tifo