Lol! Nice one Oberon!

Well, i dunno guys. All that you say sound rational but as long as there is no solid proof if the bomb was used or not, i'd rather keep up believing that it happened.
After all many stuff that people wouldnt hoped they can happen, infact happened and some stayed classified until today.

Nice replies though! :salute:

Why would anyone want to keep it classified? The Russians if actually nuked in 1943, would probably be screaming for millions from Germany for reparations for residual radiation damage. The Americans, having been seen in many circles for 65 years as a pariah nation for being the first and only use nukes in combat would probably jump at the chance to shift that historical mantle to Nazi Germany. ;)

Not to mention Germany would jump on the chance to feed it's population how their new wunderwaffe is going to win the war.

Also, classified or not, there should still have been about a million other witnesses, yet nobody saw anything...

What a strange way to argue...

If you affirm something you must prove that it really happened... we don't have to prove you that it did not happen.

Otherwise, I could say any wacky things about the war and say... Well there's no proof it did not happen, so it's true!

This bomb was not used until there are solid evidence that it really existed. :know:

Anyway, as I said earlier, you can think whatever you want.

I remember that Carl Sagan's line on UFOs, alien visitations and other fringe science was that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. With conspiracy theorists it's come up with a version of history, science or events that you prefer to the current one and then try and find ways to bend or fabricate facts to fit it and ignore any that don't.

A couple problems I see with the nazi nuke theory is:

A. Why did they only explode one bomb?
B. If somehow it was a one shot deal why did they waste it on a soviet regiment used to much greater effect elsewhere, say on London or Moscow?

I'd be more inclined to think that they may have test detonated a device underground in the Thuringia area, but it was probably a fizzle. Although there are no reports of radiation in the region, and thats taking into account the after effects of Chernobyl.
Part of the problem is the location, the hub of the Nazi mystery, in the Jonas Valley in Thuringia, the US classified their findings and its still classified, then the Soviets took it over, then classified it a restricted zone and used it as a training ground and now the German army uses it as a facility, frequently having to deal with treasure hunters and other curious folks.

There is definately a curious thing surrounding the last days of the Third Reich, I mean, I just stumbled across this little gem:

Was it a nuke or just a powerful bomb? No-one knows, no-one knows a lot of things that don't add up about the last days of the Reich, or if they do, they're not going to tell us. In the meantime...it's makes for intriguing reading, like Area 51 and the Roswell incident, or Bentwaters, and that's likely to be what it will remain. :03:

There are no extraordinary evidence that assure the usage of an a bomb there but there are many reports that the Nazis were able to make one. Or more. Since the overcame the "Invention" and "Building" parts, what could stop them from going to the "Usage" part.

@Oberon
Any links to that site? This seems curious.

Then how would you explain the following things:

How would this bomb be delivered? Not only did the Germans lack a bomber that could deliver a nuclear bomb (With the possible exception of the He 177, but I seriously doubt it could carry it). Even if the bomber did exist, it would have to be extensively modified, why is there no evidence of anything of this sort?

Why was it used on such an insignificant target? Why weren't more dropped?

Why would the Germans not tell their population of their new wonder weapon? They did so with everything else and promised it would win the war.

Why are there no witnesses? The Kursk Salient saw some of the biggest concentration of manpower in history with millions of men on both sides of the front, the documents might have been covered up (Though I see no logical reason why they would), but you can't honestly shut up a million men who should certainly have seen the explosion.

A modified V2 could carry such bomb. Or at least its core.

Now, the bomb was supposedly dropped 2 days before the battle so maybe the Germans were too far to notice. (just a speculation)

As far as i know the bomb was still in testing phase so the results mustnt be as big as Hirosima or Nagasaki. (Today's nuclear bombs are at least 10 times stronger. Not to mention hydrogen bombs.) There are no clear refferences about the size of the bomb.

Incineration bombs would burn down every tree in the area of effect.
In the photographs, the tree hulks are standing and the ground seems incinerated.

As for a reason to keep it secret, Germany was suffering by spies and radio transmission thefts since the beginning of the war. Popularizing such a thing would eliminate the element of surprise and given the air superiority that was established on all fronts, it could eliminate all possibilities of doing such an attack by air.

1. The V-2 only became operational in late 1944, and by the time of the Battle of Kursk most test launches were failures. The V-2 was also too inaccurate to hit a tactical target, it could barely hit a city.

2. Even if they were (Which I doubt), what about the hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops which should've seen it?

3. I find this hard to believe. Besides all the technical issues with creating a very low-yield nuclear bomb, your supposed bomb has annihilated an entire infantry regiment, which would mean that it would have to be big enough to kill several thousand men and thus would have to have been seen by nearby units.

4. Observe the following picture from the Battle of Passchendaele:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Ypres_1917.jpg

Same effect. Was a nuke used here as well?

5. Wouldn't it make sense to use this bomb to some effect rather than telling your enemy of it's existence and gaining nothing by destroying an insignificant target?

It's actually from one of Skybirds favourite publications:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...260784,00.html

I'd say that your timeline is a bit ahead though, and that if they did have such a device it only became operational in March '45. Now by this time the war had only one more month left to run, and Hitler had ordered, and I quote:

"all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed."
(wiki source)

Now, the possible explosion occured on 3rd-4th March '45, and Hitler gave out the order for self-destruct on 19th March '45. Therefore, if he was hoping to use the weapon to save Germany, he would have planned to use it before the 19th March '45.
Former-DDR archives (which were later classified under pressure by the US) have identified four-five witnesses to a winged A-4 rocket being launched on the 16th March '45.
Ohrduf concentration camp and the surrounding area were liberated by the Americans on the 4th April '45.

It's therefore possible to assume that the explosion did not achieve the results wanted by the Reich, or it did but there was simply not enough time to create a second working bomb. However, chances are it would have been delivered by that winged A4, but after the cancellation of the project, the A4 was launched, probably to destruction somewhere.

There is, of course, the mystery of the explosion in the Baltic in '44, perhaps a prototype of the bomb they tried to build in Ohrduf?

Either which way, there is simply not enough evidence to say anything firmly yes or no, however it can be acknowledged as fact that the Nazis were more advanced into their nuclear program than was up until recently thought. Whether they were advanced enough to weaponise it, one cannot say.

Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/30/books.italy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4598955.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrdruf

Well, i have a couple crazy thoughts that have a million to one chance to occur.
The Soviets had enormous losses during the Battle of Kursk and usually the soldier"s opinion was insignificant.

Another scenario could be that the Soviets misstook it for a gas attack.
I remember reading what Stalin said about the incident "If Hitler is going to use gas weapons then so are we" Its one of the sites i posted on earlier posts.

Assuming that a bomb the size of a small car can annihilate a huge city such as Nagasaki and Hirosima, a bomb of a smaller size could take a couple square kilometers without much exposure. Much more a test bomb.

Maybe they couldnt find a way in time, to mount the bomb on a bomber.
Or they didnt wanted mounting it on a bomber at all given the air gap between the closest occupied airfield and Stalingrad or Leningrad.

Risking so many lives just to test a new weapon isnt a good idea.
And the 19th regiment was the easiest solution they had.

By the way, what weapon was used in this photo?

PS: Sorry to bother you with all this but as you can see, i like to view all possible sides of a matter before abandoning it. :salute:

But the Soviets did not use gas weapons, not that I recall anyway, and an explosion that takes out a couple of square KM would create a big enough fireball and smoke cloud to be visible for kilometers around.

Raptors photo is from a conventional artillery bombardment during the Battle of Passchendale in the First World War.

They would also have no need to keep a gas attack classified, using such weapons wasn't exactly anything new.

Nuclear bombs don't scale down as neatly as you make it out, there are technical limitations to the minimum yield of a nuclear bomb that would make it impossible for Germany (At the time) to make a bomb which is as small as you make out to be (Okay, AFAIK). Also the supposed results would mean that a lot of people would have to have seen it.