2006-12-07 04:39:48 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Oh dear, make me remember my High School history class. If my old age doesn't deceive me, I believe they were very close. Behind by maybe a year or two.
2006-12-07 04:44:22 · answer #1 · answered by kja63 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well they were close to delivery means...
but as far as the atomic bomb itself, a year or two behind.
They had the V2 technology to bomb England, another couple of months and they would had a chance to hit New York with V2s.
The atomic bomb wasn't the concern in the last throws of the war, they were busy retreating and going mad in fear...
2006-12-07 12:44:37 · answer #2 · answered by Kalsin C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah they were on the right track, but the project was so understaffed and underfunded that they were years behind the US. When Germany fell and we found their Nuclear Weapons facility it only had one operational reactor capable of producing weapons grade material, and there were only around a dozed scientests there. They really abandoned that project in the early years of the war feling that it was a waste of time, money and other resources.
Same goes for Japan, they saw it as a far fetched weapon that would not be developed by the end of the war.
Idiots!
2006-12-07 12:45:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not close enough. Hitler's policies had chased off a number of scientists (Jewish or otherwise) who would have helped out immensely. Also, as the war went on, the Nazis had fewer resources available to them to actually putting the thing together.
Interesting story: Moe Berg, baseball player turned OSS spy, was sent to Switzerland to listen to a speech by German scientist Werner Heisenberg to determine if the Germans were close to developing the Bomb. If Berg thought they were, he was to assassinate Heisenberg. After hearing the lecture, he realized that the Germans were a ways off and didn't have to shoot the scientist.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in NYC, btw.
2006-12-07 12:42:47 · answer #4 · answered by mr_ljdavid 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They were on the verge of "casting" refined U-235 into weapons segments when the British finally got the facility located and the RAF bombed it out of existence. The mechanical detonation devices and delivery systems were already in place. A few months at best...
2006-12-07 12:52:47 · answer #5 · answered by Gunny T 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Very. They were involved in heavy water experiments which would have led the to bomb had we not gotten there first.
2006-12-07 12:41:41 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Within nuking distance.
2006-12-07 12:41:38 · answer #7 · answered by martino 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in theory they did, Oppenheimer was one of there scientist but he defected to the united states before he completed the work.
2006-12-07 12:42:10 · answer #8 · answered by manicantputmyname 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋