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| Did the Nazis Build an Atomic Bomb? | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 25 2009, 03:35 AM (132 Views) | |
| XNavyGunner | Jan 25 2009, 03:35 AM Post #1 |
Gunner
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For years historians had argued that the Nazi effort to build an atomic bomb during World War II was far behind that of the Allies. Then in a controversial 2005 book, historian Rainer Karlsch made a startling claim… On March 4, 1945, Clare Werner was standing on a hillside in Thuringian, Germany. Not too far away was the military training base near the town of Ohrdruf. Unexpectedly there was a flash of light. "I suddenly saw something," she said, " ... it was as bright as hundreds of bolts of lightning, red on the inside and yellow on the outside, so bright you could've read the newspaper. It all happened so quickly, and then we couldn't see anything at all. We just noticed there was a powerful wind..." In the days that followed Werner complained of nose bleeds, headaches and pressure in her ears. Was what she witnessed the test of a nuclear weapon by Nazi scientists? How close did Hitler come to having a working atomic bomb? Discovery of Fission In 1938, two Germans, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, discovered that when they bombarded uranium with neutrons they could split the uranium atoms' nuclei into two parts releasing energy and more neutrons (a process called fission.) From this it was obvious to scientists around the world that it was possible to create energy-producing fission chain reactions as the neutrons from one split-atom plowed into surrounding atoms, splitting them also. A controlled chain reaction could be used for constructive purposes like making heat that could be used to produce electricity. An uncontrolled chain reaction, however, would be a bomb of incalculable power. As World War II appeared on the horizon, scientists in the United States, Germany and other nations, approached their governments, warning them of these developments. At the time the state of physics research in each country was roughly on par. If this was the case, how come United States and its allies went on to develop the atomic bomb and Germany didn't? Incompetence, Conspiracy, or Neither? In the half-century following the war, several theories arose to explain the lack of German success. Samuel Goudsmit, a member of the Allied scientific intelligence mission that investigated German progress on a bomb, came to the conclusion that the German scientists working on the project simply didn't have the understanding necessary to build such a weapon. In other words, Goudsmit claimed that these scientists, all approved to work on the project by the Nazi government, were simply incompetent. His thinking may have some support in recordings made in 1945. After Germany surrendered, German physicists involved in uranium research were rounded up and detained at Farm Hall in England. Their conversations were secretly recorded in hopes of finding the state of Nazi research in physics. Of tremendous interest to the British was the scientists' reaction to the news that the Allies had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Werner Heisenberg, the head of the German program at Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, was initially amazed at the success of the Allies program. He immediately tackled the question of how much uranium 235 (the only isotope of uranium which would work as a nuclear explosive) would be needed to build a bomb and came up with a figure of over a ton - way too high. It is from this mistake that many experts have formed the opinion that Heisenberg did not really understand how a bomb would work. However, Heisenberg corrected his estimate within a few days. Also, comments by Otto Hahn, who was another scientist interned at Farm Hall, suggests that Heisenberg had earlier, back in Germany, made the correct calculations. Perhaps he was now hiding his knowledge thinking that he and the other scientists were under surveillance, which indeed, they were. As additional evidence of the German lack of understanding, Goudsmit argued that the Germans did not appreciate that the element plutonium could also be used to fuel a bomb. Documents recently found in Russian archives, however, clearly show this idea to be false. In 1941, Von Weizsäcker, a colleague of Heisenberg, wrote about plutonium in a patent application, "With regard to energy per unit weight this explosive [plutonium] would be around ten million times greater than any other [existing explosive] and comparable only to pure uranium 235." Another popular theory is that Heisenberg actually sabotaged the German atomic bomb program because he didn't want Hitler to win the war. This idea originally was presented in a 1958 book by Robert Jungk called Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists. Heisenberg did nothing to dissuade Jungk of this idea and later hinted that in a now famous September 1941 meeting with his old mentor, Niels Bohr, he had suggested that he was willing to join an agreement among all physicists to deny these powerful new weapons to all governments. This assertion is echoed in Thomas Power's book Heisenberg's War and Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen. Niels Bohr never publicly spoke of the meeting, but papers found after his death tell a different story: Heisenberg was willing to work with the N azis and wanted Bohr to join him. Source |
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| Isis | Jan 25 2009, 06:24 PM Post #2 |
The Goddess of Darkness & Desire
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This was on the history channel tonight and i missed it... 
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     Isis, The Goddess of Desire & Darkness. In The Darkness, We Find The Light. This is a Drama Free Zone..! | |
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| hunter207 | May 20 2009, 05:50 PM Post #3 |
Boss
  ![]](http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d17/MeaninglessChatter/tbskin/endpip.jpg)
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OOO I know the answer to this one for once haha... some special forces guys (I dont remember which country they were from) went into Hitlers lab in the mountains, set some charges on heavy water cannisters, then got the hell out without fireing a shot... this put the Nazis back several months, maybe years, giving the allies enough time to take em down... it was on the History channel haha |
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| DONTEATUS | May 22 2009, 01:23 AM Post #4 |
Higher Species
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And now we know where Heavy Metal Bands All originated from. LiL-Nazi`s,Skin Heads, U-238 and Boner. ect. LoL. |
 
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| Max | May 23 2009, 08:26 AM Post #5 |
Watashi no kare wa Piloto!
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I'm sorry,but I think this "Nazi scientists tried to save the world from atomic horrors" is crap. Heisenberg and Bors had gone up the wrong tree with the Heavy water experiments-delaying themselves by at least 2 years before British Commandos could further damage their program. I love how the US is always "evil" for developing and using atomic weapons,even though we used them to end a regime that had slaughtered millions. If the Nazis or Imperial Japan had gotten atomics first,you think they wouldn't have used them? If the Nazis had one,I don't think they would have tested it in the Thuringer. I think they would have dropped it on Marshall Konev's 1st Tank Front,disrupting the Russian's main advance. |
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| DONTEATUS | May 24 2009, 08:43 AM Post #6 |
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Higher Species
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Now Max settle down it was all a bad dream! The Nazi`s did loose,and the Jap`s got the worst end of the deal ,and now were buying all there cars? Go finger?
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3:01 AM Mar 22
