World War II is considered to be the deadliest war fought on planet Earth. Not only did it result in millions of civilians getting killed as part of Hitler’s mass genocide plans, but the war also saw the use of nuclear weapons for the first time. Germany began the war winning everywhere they went. But the entry of the United States into the war flipped the scene and Allied forces started overpowering the Axis forces. One of the critical moments of the war came when the US dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan as revenge for Pearl Harbor.
But the foundation for this had started years prior to the bombing. The development of nuclear weapons had started years before USA’s entry into the war. But if the country was developing nuclear weapons for a long time, how were the Axis forces consisting of Germany, Italy, and Japan unaware of the country’s plans and defense systems? How was the secret of nuclear weapons not known to Germany?
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Was Germany In The Dark About United States‘ Nuclear Program?
There is no definite clue as to whether the Germans were aware of the US’ nuclear plans or not. There aren’t many decisive published reports from the time about Hitler and German forces’ knowledge of nuclear weapons. It is not known if they knew about America’s attempts to develop them. Many historians have suggested that if Germany wasn’t able to develop nuclear weapons, they had no clue about such technology.
The most important set of evidence in regard is the Farm Hall Transcripts. Top German scientists were kept at a British farm manor, where Allied forces recorded their conversations and their reactions to the atomic bombs dropped in Japan. Conversations between scientists like Heisenberg, Diebner, Hahn, Gerlach, and more were recorded. Their conversations point towards the fact that the Germans had no clue about the nuclear plans of America and their eventual success.
The successful Manhattan Project led by scientist Oppenheimer was supposed to be shrouded in secrecy. Therefore it is plausible that the Germans had little to no clue about it. The analysis of these transcripts suggests that the scientists really had no clue about the technology and its development. Even Heisenberg, one of the best theoretical physicists of the time, had little clue about American success. He just knew about the heavy water plant built by the Allied Forces. The scientists knew little about the Uranium and Plutonium filling of the bombs.
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Did Hitler Pursue The Making Of Nuclear Weapons?
In the 1930s, the discovery of the nature of atoms accelerated studies into nuclear technology. When the potential of enriched metals like Plutonium and Uranium was slowly discovered, all countries started scampering to gather all the necessary materials required for the production of nuclear weaponry. One such ingredient considered responsible for Germany’s loss in World War II is heavy water.
Heavy water is a major ingredient in the nuclear fission process which helps improve the efficiency of nuclear bombs. The Allied forces worked towards preventing Axis powers from procuring the heavy water required for the production of nuclear weapons. The only heavy water production facility in the region, present in Norway was the target of the German administration. But Allied forces attacked and destroyed both the plant as well the heavy water shipment of Nazis. This prevented them from obtaining an important ingredient to make nuclear weapons possible.
Later after World War II ended, letters from various German scientists revealed that they had been opposed to the idea of nuclear bombs and falsified many documents so that Germans couldn’t develop the weaponry. Scientists like Heisenberg and Weizsacker wrote letters mentioning how the scientists didn’t want the German authorities to learn about the possibility of developing nuclear bombs. These letters also mentioned how scientists were blocking the idea of nuclear weapons as they didn’t want to develop destructive weapons. Therefore, it could be said that Germany could have developed nuclear bombs but didn’t because of many reasons.
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