OT: Hitler, atom bomb and resources

[Yaab]

Provided Hitler somehow attained the AA (Astrakhan-Archangelsk) line in 1941-1942 in the USSR, and pushed the Soviets behind the Urals, would have he been able to create atomic weapons with the resources obtained from the conquered part of the Soviet Union?

[bartrat]

Considering the amount of money the US spent, it is VERY unlikely. The A-bomb was second most expensive program in WW2, the B-29 most expensive. USA did BOTH!!! Germany could not afford either (unless no V-1,V-2,V-3 programs and curtail some other conventional weapons). Was it possible, perhaps if divert a lot of resources, the USA had so much economic power it could GAMBLE on both A-Bomb and B-29 [delivery system] on top of Lend-Lease and arming a 6 million man army/navy.
Speer believed the war would be over before the bomb would be ready.

[Yaab]

Right. I was thinking maybe the Third Reich lacked uranium or something else, that the Soviets possessed in the European part of the USSR.

[dr.hal]

You assume that it is only money that moves mountains. In Hitler's Germany there were other methods, despicable but available.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: dr.hal

You assume that it is only money that moves mountains. In Hitler's Germany there were other methods, despicable but available.

No, in this case it was money. Or better put resources. It is estimated that the US spent over two billion dollars to make the bomb. In this case we are talking money to provide the resources. No other nation was in a position to build the bomb during the war. The US was the only nation to possess the surplus production capacity and manpower. And to help matters the US was the only nation who's manufacturing base was not under some sort of attack during the war. Everybody had the science and the will but nobody else had the ways. The German economy was severely strapped from the first day of the war. It never really got any better for them. Yaab poses a good question but raw materials alone would not have gotten the job done.

The Soviets captured all they needed to know to make the bomb in 1946 but it was not until their manufacturing base had recovered sufficiently that they were actually able to produce the bomb. The first successful test was in 1949. While the US was moving on to the hydrogen bomb.