Germany and their nuclear bomb...

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The idea that there were literally dozens of people channeling valuable information to their Soviet handlers is sensationalist and untrue. It has a faint whiff of McCarthyism about it.
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Not when it was GB tho.
 
Milosh said:
Not when it was GB tho.
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The most destructive or effective atomic spy,depending on your point of view,was undoubtedly Klaus Fuchs who was and remained a German. He was caught,tried and convicted in the UK.

We never had anything approaching the hysteria which accompanied the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee or McCarthy's activities as Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Government Operations Committee of the U.S. Senate.

When applying US visa you used to be asked (maybe still are) if you were or ever had been a member of the communist party,not something that happens this side of the pond.

Mind you the fact that some very senior people in the British intelligence services and Foreign Office were working for the Soviets,sometimes for more than thirty years, doesn't exactly leave us smelling of roses

Cheers

Steve
 
No stona there was never the hysteria which is still somewhat there.

I was hinting at your last sentence.
 
Milosh said:
No stona there was never the hysteria which is still somewhat there.

I was hinting at your last sentence.
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Yes. Our intelligence services were hopelessly compromised,something that their US counterparts tried to tell them on many occasions. Angleton rumbled Philby during the war and I think (from memory) it was the Americans (FBI ?) who first pointed the finger at MacLean or at least had him as one of a few who could be "Homer".

Some historians argue that the resulting lack of trust between the various agencies of our two governments was at least as damaging as the material these men and their comrades passed to the Soviets.

Cheers

Steve
 
al49 said:
I saw yesterday night a report on History Channel that confirms what stated above about which bomber, but also said that there were plans to develop a large flying wing propelled with four jet engines.
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By any chance are you referring to the Arado E.555?
 
Zipper730 said:
By any chance are you referring to the Arado E.555?
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There were several proposals based on jet designs, the Arado Ar E.555 was one (although 6 jet engines) and the Horton H.XVIII was another (also with 6 jet engines)

pinehilljoe said:
only conjecture, but given Hitler was fighting an ideological war, I have to believe his bomb would have been used against the Soviet Bolsheviks first.
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The Germans had been looking at ways to strike the east coast of the U.S. for years and as they became aware of a project named "Manhattan", started looking at ways to actually attack Manhattan by considering the conventional aircraft from the "America Bomber" program and then more unconventional means, like aircraft from the jet program.

This also included projects like Sanger's "Silverbird" and the advanced "V-2" rockets, like both the A-4b and the A-9. Also, with the A-9, there was plans for an upgrade to an A-10, specifically named "America Rocket".
 

Yes the Sanger vehicle, and Von Braun's A-10 could in theory have reached the East Coast. The payload for the A-10 was about one ton, much less than first generation atomic bombs. Also your applying military logic to Hitler's thinking. His ideological drive to wipe out Judeo Bolshevism was documented over and over again beginning with Mein Kampf. I still think the first Nazi Bombs would have gone East whether it made military sense or not. But all this is pure conjecture.
 
However, if you read the historical documents regarding the various projects, they saw a need to strike the east coast of the U.S. and never put much effort onto a "Moscow Bomber" or a "Moscow Rocket".

Notice the development and deployment of the "V" weapons were never turned to the east?

This is not to say that HItler didn't want to exterminate the Soviets, he was doing a fair job of it as it was. But out of all of the western Allies, Britain was the only power he really didn't want a fight with in the beginning - the U.S. in his opinion, were corrupt gangsters and half-breeds...
 
The V-1 was fired from fixed launch sites. V-1 range was about 150 miles. The V-2 was planned from the start to be launched from mobile launchers, its range was about 200 miles. The V-2 required liquid oxygen which might have been problematic on the Eastern Front. V-2 launches started in the Fall of 44, Operation Bagration was tearing the Eastern front apart. Any V-1 launch sites built close enough to hit Soviet targets would have been over run at the start of Bagration.

I have read a lot about the V programs and many bio's of Von Braun . I think the V weapons were deployed in France and Belgium out of necessity. I think it would have been hard to pick static targets on the Eastern Front within range of fixed sites for the V-1. Logistic support would have been difficult for the V-2. Neither had the accuracy for tactical use. Again all conjecture.
 
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If the Germans were so concerned about the Communists, perhaps Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein would have been better directed toward the East.
 
Luftflotte 3 operated the V-1

In LF3, there was KG3 and KG53 that was equipped with bombers designed to air-launch the V-1

Also in LF3, was FZG76 that had units operating the fixed and mobile V-1 launch operations.

There was also the joint Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe (augmented with some SS manpower) unit that operated the V-1 under Luftflotte 3's command:

Div.v.Z - Nordgruppe, Südgruppe, Heer V-4 Rheinbote (special mobile launch unit) and Heer V-3

The V-1 was not solely a "fixed launch" weapon and could have been used against Soviet targets, especially against troop/armor concentrations all along their collapsing eastern front.
 
David Irving, what do we make of him? He has certainly dome some important and valuable research, but it is always presented through the lens of a convicted holocaust denier, antisemite and racist. His book on Dresden, for example, is a disgrace.
Cheers
Steve
 
If David Irving wrote that the Sun rose in the East I would get up early one morning with a compass and check. He is a racsist, misogynist, anti semitic Bullshit merchant who makes a living pandering to Neo Nazis.
 
stona said:
David Irving, what do we make of him? He has certainly dome some important and valuable research, but it is always presented through the lens of a convicted holocaust denier, antisemite and racist. His book on Dresden, for example, is a disgrace.
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The instant I heard the name David Irving, I immediately got leery for the same reason.
 
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