Figure 1.--. |
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It is widely assumed that the Germans did not produce an atmoic bomb during World War II because they lacked the resources to devote to the project during the War. The actual reason is much more complicated. Actually tremendous resources were avaoilable to the NAZIs. Many were poorly utilized. Some claim that the leading German scientidsts led the research now a fruitless path on purpose. There is little evidence to substantiate this claim. We do know that other factors affected the NAZI bomb program. Driving out leading physicists because they were Jews or sympathetic to the Jews deprived the NAZIs of some of the greatest minds in physics. The failure to use tho of captive narions and the view of nuclear physics as Jewish scince were other factors. Also Hitler was uninterested in long-term projects. There is, however, reason to believe that the Germans made more prigress than commonly assumed. They seem to have made considerable progress in nuclear enrichment. The Germans could have made deadly dirty bombs which the V-2 could have delivered.
Germany in the early 20th century had the strongest scientific establishment in Europe. German scientists rotinely received the largest number of Nobel prices in scientific fields. This did ot chnge until the NAZI's seized power in 1933. After the NAZI seizure, Jewish scientists as well as anti-NAZIs their position. After 1933, America became increasingly dominate in Nobel scientific awards. Despite a decline in German scientific dominance, the NAZIs still had access to a huge scientific establishment for their weapons and armament program.
The NAZI campaign against Jews culminated in Kristallnacht, a brutal explosion of violence against Jews in Germany. Before Kristallnacht, the NAZIs had killed Jews in concetration camps and prisons behind closed doors. On Kristalnacht Jews were attacked and killed openly on the street or in their homes. There intentions cold no longer be doubted. The consequences for the atomic bomb project that among leading pysicists were many Jews or anti-NAZIs. These men recognized the true nature of the NAZI regime more than others the potential danger of a NAZI atomic bomb. After Kristallnacht, even men who might have had moral quams about building an atomic bomb, were prepared to do virtually anything to stop the NAZIs.
German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute demonstrated the phenomenon of nuclear fission (December 1938).
Actually a third scienbtist had worked with Hahn and Strassmann. Lise Meitner (1878-1968), a rare female scientist in a male world was involved in the neutron bombardment experiments. She was especially close to Hahn who had befriended her. Both Hahn and Strassmann got the Nobel prize for physics, while Meitner who was Jewish did not. Meitner remained in Germany with her work while other prominant Jewish scientientists fled the country. Finally she was dismissed from the Institute and the NAZIs made it difficult to emigrate. She finally manged to get out with the help of friends hust before the war broke out. Hahn and Strassmann largely abandoned her. Paul Rosbaud was a key friend who helped her get out. She found refuge in Sweden where sher continued to corespond with Hahn about their work.
As physicists around the learned of the German achievement, they began to consider the implications--the theoretical possibility of a bomb of unimaginable destructive power. NAZI Germany had an aggressive military weapons. This discovery by German physicists raised the possibility of a NAZI German nuclear weapons program. This terrified the European scientists that knew Fascism first hand. The Luftwaffe was already the being used to terrify Europe. The consequences of a NAZI Germany armed with nuclear weapons was too terrifying to imagine. One of the ironies of history was that militarily, Hiltler was obsessed with giantism, he wanted the largest tanks, battleships, artillery, and other weapons that could be built. Yet he rejected a major effort to build the largest bomb, in part because he considered nuclear physics "Jewish science" and drove from Germany the very people that could have built him the ultimate weapon.
The concern of foreign scientists was not without foundation. Professor Paul Harteck and Dr. Wilhelm Groth wrote to the German war office, informing them that the country that first exercised the use of atomic energy "has an unsurpassed advantage over the others." (April 1939). NAZI officials took the scientific assessment seriously. Officials approved a serious atomic research program. The lead scientist was Werner Heisenberg. Considerable historical debate swirls around Heisenberg. Niels Bohr did not trust him. Some scientists believe his claims to sabatoging the German weapons program by misleading technology assessments. [Powers]
NAZI Germany in the first years of the War seemed unstopable. Hitler launches World War II with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The initial operations were dazzling successes for the Whermacht and Luftwaffe. Poland was smashed in a few weeks (1939). After Denmark, Norway was seized in a daring operation (1940), providing the Germany Kriegsmarine bases that greatly enhanced their operations. Then the stunning offensive in the West seized not only the low countries--but France. The French Army was the bulwark of the Allies war effot and was desimated by the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht in weeks (1940). The Wehrmacht next lauched a stunning attack on Yugoslavia and Greece (1941). Then Hitler launched the operation he had dreamed of for years, the invasiobn of the Soviet Union which at first appeared to be a huge success.
The NAZI campaign against the Jews began almost as soon as Hitler seized power in Germany. Even respected sientists were quickly dismissed from positions at universites and research institutes. Many of these individuals were able to emmigrte and take up their carrers America, France, and Britain. This significantly increased the pool of talented sientists available tothe American atomic bomb program. Some of the best known were Hans Bethe (Alsatian-German Jew), Albert Einstein (German Jew), Enrico Fermi (Italian with Jewish wife), Lise Meitner (Austrian Jew), Leo Szilard (Hungarian Jew working in Germany), Edward Teller (Hungarian Jew working in Germany), and Eugene Wigner (Hungarian Jew working in Germany). Some like Bethe did not look on himself as a Jew. Some authors believe that the dismissal of competent scientists and appointment of Party hacks was a major reason in the failure of the German bomb program. [Walker] Many of these nuclear scientists emmigrated early in the NAZI era when the NAZIs were primarily concerned with dismissing Jews from universities and other official positions. Fremi came much later and managed to escape with his wife when he was allowed to go to Sweden to accept a Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner (1878-1968), escaped to Sweden just before the War with the help of Niels Bohr (another Nobel laureate). She later continued to work in the United States.
History is full of unintended conseuence. The Jews were essentially an easy target for Hitler and his NAZI thugs. Few expected retribution for their actions against the Jews. There were indeed few adverse domestic consequences. In fact the NAZIs probably gained upport for these actions from anti-Semites as well as those who benefitted from the jobs opened up and the property seized. The NAZI anti-Semetic campaign not only helped President Roosevelt build support for his policies opposing the NAZIs, but help with providing the United States scientific talent which help build the atomic bomb. If the NAZIs had not surrendered in May 1945, the atomic bomb could have been used on Germany.
The American Manhattan Program was the largest weapons development program in history. General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970), Deputy Chief of Construction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was assigned to oversee the project. The Manhattan Project us named after the New York borough where the first office headquarters was located and began June 1942. Groves had just completed another rush project, the construction of the Pentagon. He considered himself an astute judge of men and chose Robert J. Oppenheimer (1904-1967) to lead the scientific team. Oppenhimer was a respected, but reatively unknown theoretical physicist. Oppenhimer's politics are a matter of extensive debate. It is know that as a Jew, he despised the NAZIs and the attrocities against European Jews.
The Germans initially had some advantages in the race to build an atomic bomb and through 1941 led in the race. Germany was the most scientifically (but not industrially) advance country in the wirld. Germany produced more Nobel prise winners in science than any other country. And German science was particularly string in both pysics and chemistry, the two disciplines needed to build a nuclear device. The first major steps taken before the War were made by Germans. The seizure of Czechoslovakia gave them possession of a uranium mine and ore (March 1939). And as the War developed, German military successes brought additional advantages to the Germans. The invasion of Norway gave them possession to heavy water plants (April-May 1940). The invasion of Belgium and France suceeded in obtaining supplies of uranium (May-June 1940). They had access to uranium ore. The Germans also posessed a nearly completed cyclotron. Germany despite 10 years of NAZI rule still possessed capable scientists and engineers and what many believed was the world's most important chemical engineering industry. What Germany did not have, however, was the spare industrial capacity necessary to actually build a bomb given the requirements of the War which Hitler had launched. Nor did Germany have the political leadership capable of disapastionately listening to scientific advisers and making informed judgements.
Building an atomic bomb involves solving two difficult problems. First is designing the bomb. Second is obtaining sufficent quantities of "weapons grade" material. This was by far the most difficult problem. Desisning the nomb was much more complicated, but obtaining weapons grade material involved an enormous industrial effort. The U235 isotope is found only in minute quantities in nature. Extracting it from natural ore was an enormous undertaking requiring among other matters, massive quantities of electricity. The other option was to "breed" plutonium in a nuclear reactor.
German scientists after the War claimed that they had no intention of building a bomb and that there was no major effort to do so. This is stll unlear. And to our knowledge , no one has yet written a definitive assessment of the German nuclear program. It is thus difficult to know just what the intentions of the German researchers were. And of course a number of different people were involved. We do know that the NAZIs during the War showed considerable interest in resources needed to build a bomb. So the scientists must have to a degree alerted officials as to the potential resources that would be useful in building a bomb. As with the American nuclear bomb program, the Gerans also identified a plutonium and uranium bomb option program. The plutonium option explains their interest in heavy water. The Germans made some progress in uranium enrichment. And there is reason to believe that they did considerable work aimed at metalizing uranium--one of several difficult undertakings involved in developing a fision weapon.
There were many factors that doomed the German atomic bomb program. The major factor was that building an atomic was an enormous undertaking requiring the massive allocation of resources. Germany never alocated the needed resources. There were several reasons for this. Perhaps the two greatest were the success in the early years of the War which led the Germans to believe that they were going to win the War without major economic sacrifices or expensive new weapon systems. Also Hitler was never convinced that the atomic bomb was a practical weapon. An important NAZI scientist (Lenard) argued that
nuclear/Einsteinian theory was degenerate "Jewish science" which helped to deny nucear science the huge allocation of reources that would havevbeen needed to build a bomb. Jews were an especially important component of the German physics community. In fact Auto Hahn who won a Nobel Prize had a Jewish woman as a colleague, but because of the NAZIs down played her role. She eventually had to flee the country. The NAZIs thus seriously weakened Germany's abiliy to build a bomb. There were as was common in NAZI Germany, serious internal beaureaucratic struggles.
The most fruitful British spy in NAZI Germany was Paul Rosbaud. He was throughout the War the best-placed British spy with access to both sciuentific and military information. His single most important contribution was the Oslo report. In it he describes the German tactics used in Blitzkrieg and U-boat warfare. It was
Rosbaud, code name was “The Griffin”, who first report on the V-1 buzz bomb and V-2 rocket programs.
He also provided early news of German consideration of an atomic weapon. And it was his reporting that evetually quited British fears of a NAZI atomic bomb. He reported that the German atomic program had made little real progress. [Kramish] Rosbaud is also notable for helping Jewish scientist Lise Mietner escape from the NAZIs when other colleagues had largely abandoned her. Rosbaud was considered so critical that the British did not share his reporting with the Americans until just before D-Day.
It should be remembered that the American Manhatten Project was an international effort, including not only American and British scientists, but refugee scientists from countries overrun by the NAZIs. [Rhodes] The NAZIs at the peak of their power controlled almost all of Europe. This gave them a trenendous industrial and scientific base. The NAZIs failed, however, to not only use this potential, but did not fully use even Germany's potential until Speer took over control of the economy late in the War. The NAZIs did use Czechoslovakia (especially the Skoda armament complex), but while other occupied countries were exploited, they were not used anywhere near their full capacity. French factories run, for example at only a small fraction of their capacity. France had an aviation and armaments industry that was not fully exploited.) The same was true of the scietific community. In fact even more so for sciebtific research. Neils Bohrs institute in Denmark was not used in the nuclear program. There is, however, considerable differences of opinion concerninf a meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr before Bohr escaped to Sweden. Nor do we know of any effort to use French scientists, especially the Curie lab in Paris. Even scientists in Germany's ally Italy were not used. American agents and the Alsos group contacted Italian nuclear phusicists after the liberation of Rome. Edoardo Amaldi who had worked with Fermi before the War informed them that Heisenberg made no effort to contact him or other Italian pysicists. He said that he and his colleagues were determined not to work on nuclear fusion and went into hiding after Italy declared war (June 1940). They found , however, that neither the Italian police or the Gestapo were at all interested in them. It is unclear why the Germans did not attempt to conscript foreign scientists. It may have been Hitler's view of the nuclear project limited their resorces. We suspect that the NAZI mind-set did not appreciate the importance of foreign scientists. There may have also been security concerns. What ever the reasons, this significantly limited the German project, especially because the NAZIs had previously depleted Germany's scientific capability by ostricizing Jewish scientists.
Many argue that NAZI Germany simply did not have the resources to wage World War II and build the atomic bomb. This is patently incorrect. The NAZIs devoted enormous resources to a variety of weapons projects. The V-weapon program was one such project. [Overy] It also had to be remembered that after the fall of France in 1940, the NAZIs had the resources of almost all of Western Europe at their disposal. The industrial resources rivaled those of the United States. It was not industrial resources that impaired the NAZIs, but rather the poor utilization of the Germany's industrial and scientific base> The scientific-industrial base available to the NAZIs was significantly expanded by their war-time agressons. The combined scientific and industrial capacity of Belgium, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands was substantial, especially when combined with that of the Reich and Italy. While the NAZIs did utilize the output of industries in those countries, there appears to have been no effort to utilize the scientic establishment in those countries. Here we are unsure as to why the Germans did bot more efficently utilize the potential. The NAZI belief in German superiority was one factor. The belieft that they had essentially won the War until the reverses in the East was another factor. The probably legitimate concern with loyalty was another factor. Not only were the industries of some countries like France poorly incorporated into the NAZI war effort, but the Germans made serious mistakes as to the weapons systems which were allocated resources. The NAZIs after their early successes did not believe that radically new weaoons were needed. When it became clear by1943 that this was not the case, only projects which offered short term results were persued as German resources were shrinking.
Some claim that the chief theoretical physicist (Heisenberg) deliberately persued unproductive directions to prevent the NAZIs from building an atomic bomb. [Powers] This is intensely debated by historians. [Pais] Heisenberg visited noted Danish phyicist Niels Bohr in occupied Denmark (September 1941). This is perhaps the most disputed scientific meeting in history. Bohr and Heisenberg have very different accounts of their meeting. Heisenberg after the War maintained his purpose was to broker a deal between scientists on both sides not to pursue an atomic bomb. Bohr strongly disputes this. And he seems to have concluded thst the Germnns were making real progress. Given that the Germans were not making much porogress, many contend that Heisenberg's purpose was espionage. [Corwell] The Danish resistance informned the British of the meeting. Bohr excaped from Denmark to Sweden (August 1943), and subsequently to London, and on to Los Alamos.
Not only did Hitler allocate limited resources to the German atomic bomb project, but the program was not coordinated. Heisenberg's group was not the only group working on nuclear weapons. The German Post Office opf all groups also has a nuclear project.
As the War began to turn against Germany, resources became more difficult to obtain and the bomb project required a massive industrial effort. In addition, the allied bombing campaign further complicating any important industrial project. The Allies after the War arrested nine leading German nuclear scientists.
Recordings made sureptitiously at Farm Hall in England reveal that the German had in fact made little progress in building an atomic bomb. They had achieved so little success that thy did not think that anyone else could build a nuclear device during the War. The NAZIs were aware that America was working on a bomb. One operative in America lesarned thsat the work was being spread out in different facilities. They were unable, however, to penertrate the program. Their basis attitude was that if German scientisdts could not build a bomb, there was no change that the Americans could do it. There was liitle respect for American science among the Germans. That was a serious mistake, especially because the American scientific establishment was enriched by both refugee European scientists and the British. The belief that the Americans could not build a bomb was so strong that the German scienitists discredited the first reports of the United States dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nakasaki (August 1945). (Typical NAZI attitude.) The Germans never were able to build a self-sustaining nuclear reactor. They failed to appreciate the differece between an atomic explosion and a reactor. Nor were they able to calculate the critical mass needed for a bomb. They even believed that plutonium was element 91. [Klotz]
Germany was no where near developing a fission werapon. This does not mean they they did not develop a nuclear weapon. The Germans do appear to have developed a dirty bomb which does not involve a sophisticated undertaking. Here we do not yet have complete details. The only difficult aspect of building a nuclear bomb is obtaining enriched uranium. And the Germans had enriched uranium.. Weknow this because of the U-234. We do not know if a dirty bomb was actually assembled and if not why. Nor do we know why it was not used. We do know that the Germans had worked out the basic principle. The Germans after the War may have hidden their work on a dirty bomb. This we do not know. One of the many questiins here is if Hitler was even told or understood the killing potential of a dirty bomb. Given Goebbels boasts and Hitler's mindset, it is not at all clear why the Germans did not use a dirty bomb.
One of the nececessary components of a nuclear weapon is a delivery system. And the Germans even after the destruction of the Luftwaffe and osing air superority over Germny had a remarkable delivery system. The V-2 was one of the stunning scientific achievemnents of the War. The V-2 could have effectively delivered a dirty bomb, killing not a few thousands, but millions of people, While German armies were retreating when the German V-2 offensive was begun, London, othger cities in southeatern Englnd, Anwerp, Brussels, Paris and other cities were well within range of the Germans, especially after Market Garden failed and the Allies were stopped at the Rhine.
We know that the Japanese and Germans were cooperating on nuclear weapons because of Magic decrypts. These decrypts described efforts to share military technology and critical materials. The Japanese attached great priority to obtaining enriched uranium. Allied command of the sea severely limited contacts between Axis allies Germany and Japan. Several German and Japanese submarines were involved in this effort because by the time the Japanese requested the uranium, surface transport was no longer possible. Details on most of the submarine transports are hazy. Ee know a cgreat deal aviut the last one--the U-234. This is because the captain surrendered to the Americans who recovered 560 kg of enriched uranium aboard. We do not know if the Germans transg\ferred nuckear technology to Japan. The U-234 was a very large mine-laying U-boat. It had been adapted as an undersea freighter to carry a much larger cargo than a standard U-boat. Germany transferred considerable weapons technology to Japan. Once the War began because of the Royal Navy and later the U.S. Navy's control of the Atlantic this had to be done mostly by U-boat. The U-234 was dispacted to Japan with a cargo of German high-tech equipment (April 1945). The cargo included air defense radars and jet engine equioment as well as German technical experts. In addition there were 80 gold-lined cylinders containing 560 kilograms of uranium oxide marked "For the Japanese Army". There is very limited cargo space even aboard this cargo U-boat. Thus only items of the highest priority would have been loaded. The only pupose for the uranium oxide given the state of Japanese nuclear research would have been a dirty bomb. Also aboard were two Japanese officer--Air Force Colonel Genzo Shosi, an engineer, and Navy Captain Hideo Tomonaga. The U-234 was informed of Hitler's suicide (May 1). Naval Highcommand ordered all German submarines to observe a ceasefire (May 4). The order to surrender was then given (May 8). The captain of the U-234 at this time arrested the Japanese officers who subsequently attempted suiside with sleeping pills. The German officers then discussed if they should surrender or proceed to Japan. They decide to surrender and to kill the Japanese who had botched their suiside attempt. This meant that they could not talk to the Americans about the purpose of the uranium oxide. Their bodies were discaded at sea. The captain then contacted naval authjorities in Halifax to arrange a surrender. Finally he decided to surrender to the Americans. The USS Sumter escorted the U-234 to Portsmouth. The U-234 was interned at Portsmouth (May 19). There the Americans learned for the first time that radio-active uranium oxide was aboard. What the Americans did not know was if other U-boats had gotten through to Japan with uranium an nuclear technology. This may have influenced the subsequent American decession to use the bomb on Japan. The nature of the uranium and disposition by the U.S. Navy is shrouded in mystery. Using lead contianers with gold lining suggests it was very high grade enriched uranium, perhaps U235. [Hydrick, p.7.] As far as I know, the Government has never released the level of enrichment which would provide an insight into the German atomic program.
It is generally accepted that the Los Alamos team was having trouble obtaining the amount of uranium needed for a bomb. [Goldberg] Some authots believe that the uranium on U-234 as used by the Americans to bomb Japan. Lt. Col. John Lansdale Jr. who worked with the Manhattan Project as a security officer an was responsible for tracking uranium. He says the German uranium was used to build the bombs dropped on Japoan. [Broad] Some authors also wonder about the "infrared proximity fuse" and wether it was actually a fuse connected with the atomic program. Many of these quetions are still unanswered. But the fact thsat the Germans had higrade enrched uranium strongly suggests thsat they had made more progress in building a bomb than is recognized by most authiors. And it raised the questions about the Japanese atmic bomb program and thextent of cooperation between the Axis allies.
The Allies had virtually no information about the German nuclear program and how much progress they made. Given the early German achievements and the German competence in nuclear physics The Manhattan Project operated under the premise that they were in a race with the Germans even at the time of D-Day (June 1944). Hitler and Goebbels made a lot of claims about secret weapons. It was unclear what they meant. Major General Leslie M. Groves organized Operation Alsos (Greek for groves). The mission was to find the German nuclear scientists and their facilities as well as nuclear materials. They were particularly concerned about the uranium the NAZIs seized from the Belgans. Groves also wanted to keep German nuclear scientists out of Soviet hands. Alsos personnel wwre deployed with both the Italian and French (D-Day) invasion force. They were ordered to keep behinf advancing Allied lines to prevent capture by the Germans, but did not always do so. He chose Lt. Col. Boris Pash, a former Manhattan Project security officer, to command Alsos. Samuel Goudsmit, a German refugee who lost his parents at Auschwitz, was chosen as the technical/scientific leader of Alsos. Alsos was highly successful, in part because most of the scientists were not exited about being taken by the Soviets. Lt. Col. Pasch anf his men suceeded in arresting most of the important German scientists, including Werner Heisenberg, Otto Hahn, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. They also found German nuclear facilities and records, although te Germans may have destroyed both faciities and records. The Germans clearly emriched some of te uranium they obtained in Belgium. Where this was dome we do not know with any certainty. They also seized some of the German stoicks of uranium. The German scientists were sequestered at Farm Hall in England for several months. This was Operation Epsilon. While there they were interogated, but perhaps more importantly the conversations among themselves were surepticiously recorded. Operation Alsos concluded that Germans made only a limited effort to build a bomb and that the Amerucan program had by 1942 advanced beyond the Germans.
Broad, William J. "A-bomb program used Naziuranium: Material was aboard submarine thar surrendered in 1945," Ocala Star Banner (Secember 30, 1995). Broad wrote for the NewYork times which was syndicated to other newspapers.
Corwell, John. Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact (Viking, 2004), 535p.
Goldberg, Stanley.
Goudsmit, Samuel. ALSOS (1947).
Hydrick, Carter P. Critical Mass: The Real Story of the Atomic Bomb and the Birth of the Nuclear Age.
Klotz, Irving M. "Captives of Their Fantasies: The German Atomic Bomb Scientists" J. Chem. Educ. 1997 74 204.
Kramish, Arnold. The Griffin: Paul Rosbaud and the Nazi Atomic Bomb That Never Was (Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, Massachusettes, 1986).
Overy, Richard. Why the Allies Won.
Pais, Abraham. Niels Bohr's Times, in Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Oxford University Press, 1991).
Powers, Thomas. Heisenberg's War (Knopf, 1993).
Proctor, Robert.
Rhodes, Richard. The Making Of The Atomic Bomb.
Walker, Mark. "The German Atomic Bomb" from "Heisenberg, Goudsmit and the German Atomic Bomb," Physics Today (January 1990).
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