Russia's developing 100 megaton dirty Tsunami Creating submarine drone bomb

[Skybird]

The issue here is that the Horten fighters could have flown during 1945 - and they were stealthed. A US docu I saw on TV once, mentioned a radar reflection loss of over 20% for the small Horten (which was rebuild and then tested by Northtrop Grumman in some test facilities in the Mojave Desert). British radar at that time, they said, could have reached 180-190 km, and so from the cliffs of Dover they could see the German fighter packs forming up over France. With the Horten, and its huge speed advantage, that British time advantage (early warning time of 18-19 minutes) would have shrunk to 2 minutes - and even to almost nill if the fighter would have flown below I think 50 meters.

I do not know if the US Air Force could have had jets by the end of 1945 or in 1946 already, but the big bomber version of the Horten could have existed during 1946, if they would have been pushed to be build, and some say that the Germans maybe were far less than 1 year away from a nuclear bomb - maybe even justa few months. If that is true, in 1946 there would have been no defence against nuclear bombing raids against the East coast of the US. Not just because of their speed, but because they were indeed stealth bombers. Not as stealthy as today'S stealth planes - but the reduction in detection range coupled with the speed advantage would have made it impossible for the defender to react to an incoming attack in time.

And before Hiroshima and Nagasaki nobody really had a clue what demon was inside that bottle. Of course the Nazis would have struck nuclear, if they would have been the first. There can be no doubt on that. America did it for that reason: nobody knew the demon that was to be unleashed.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Skybird

The issue here is that the Horten fighters could have flown during 1945 - and they were stealthed. A US docu I saw on TV once, mentioned a radar reflection loss of over 20% for the small Horten (which was rebuild and then tested by Northtrop Grumman in some test facilities in the Mojave Desert). British radar at that time, they said, could have reached 180-190 km, and so from the cliffs of Dover they could see the German fighter packs forming up over France. With the Horten, and its huge speed advantage, that British time advantage (early warning time of 18-19 minutes) would have shrunk to 2 minutes - and even to almost nill if the fighter would have flown below I think 50 meters.

Oh, they had a reduced radar cross section, about 40% of that of a 109 I believe, so we'd have had to put up constant patrols and vector in the Meteors for intercept, and then things would have gotten interesting. I think the Horten fighters would have had the edge over the Meteor, but I imagine that they would have been a handful to fly, the B2 is a similar aircraft in design and that requires computers to keep it in the air, the Ho-IX had no such things, so it would have required some very well trained and practiced pilots, and you'd need to train them up which takes time, as Japan found out.

I do not know if the US Air Force could have had jets by the end of 1945 or in 1946 already,

The P-80 went up in '44, but didn't enter service properly until after the end of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockhe..._Shooting_Star

but the big bomber version of the Horten could have existed during 1946, if they would have been pushed to be build, and some say that the Germans maybe were far less than 1 year away from a nuclear bomb - maybe even justa few months.

They came very close, but botched some of the final parts, I believe they got a reactor critical by the end of the war, but after the first reactor got blown up by a hydrogen explosion it set them back majorly. I'd have said that they were a year away, personally, unless some new evidence comes up. The Ohrdurf incident is something that has to remain in the 'unknown' file, along with the 'Virus House' and the old favourite 'Die Glocke'

If that is true, in 1946 there would have been no defence against nuclear bombing raids against the East coast of the US. Not just because of their speed, but because they were indeed stealth bombers. Not as stealthy as today'S stealth planes - but the reduction in detection range coupled with the speed advantage would have made it impossible for the defender to react to an incoming attack in time.

I would agree there, they would probably not make it back to Germany, but they would most likely hit their targets first.

And before Hiroshima and Nagasaki nobody really had a clue what demon was inside that bottle. Of course the Nazis would have struck nuclear, if they would have been the first. There can be no doubt on that. America did it for that reason: nobody knew the demon that was to be unleashed.

They knew, they didn't know the full demon, but they knew of its existence. Anyone who looked at that mushroom cloud in 1945 knew, and it was also known that the first target was going to be Germany. The US was a year ahead of Germany in the nuclear weapons program, so two cities in Germany would have gone up in atomic fire before Germany could possibly return the favour. Then it would have been a race to produce as many nuclear bombs as possible, and Germany couldn't have won that race.
Of course, this is assuming no Normandy invasion and a reduced Soviet advance. To be honest, Hitler would probably have been more interested in using his nuclear weapons on the Soviets to counter their manpower advantage.


But getting back to my original point, both of our scenarios here revolve around one side getting the weapon before the other, not actual parity. If Germany and America had gained the weapon at the same time, and both knew this, and both knew that any attack using the weapon would result in retaliation along the same lines then neither would have used it. It's the same reason that the Nazis never used chemical weapons against the US or British, and only a small amount against the Soviets. It's the same reason that the Soviets never tried to use nuclear weapons against NATO and vice versa.

Now...if the leaders of the first world war had access to battlefield nuclear weapons....