Enola Gay - your boy as passed away.

[David Lee's Hair]

Terrible thing, but from my understanding the Germans were almost fully developed on the nuclear scene. Kill or be killed...

Actually the Germans weren't - but the fear that they were gave real impetus to the Manhattan Project. Once the allies reached Essen it became clear the Germans were still years away from developing a workable prototype. In any case the bombs dropped on Japan were months after the German surrender. The simple fact is Truman made the decision to shorten the war or, put another way, save American lives. It was also fear of America being the only holder of the bomb and demonstrably willing to use it that caused scientists to give the necessary data to the Soviet Union. Better they thought a balance of power and a cold war than the possibility of atoms bombs being used in Korea or elsewhere. Looking back over 60 years I have to say that history has proved them right.

Given the German ballistic technologies it'd be a scary thought if they had.

If my understanding is correct they'd basically got as far as producing heavy water, although thanks to the Telemark operations and the bravery of Norwegian commandos most of the heavy water they produced now lies at the bottom of a fjorde.

The second bomb of nagasaki could be viewed as a show by the States as well, showing the Russians they'd use it. By the time of the bombs relations with Stalin had pretty much completely broken down.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Terrible thing, but from my understanding the Germans were almost fully developed on the nuclear scene. Kill or be killed...

Actually the Germans weren't - but the fear that they were gave real impetus to the Manhattan Project. Once the allies reached Essen it became clear the Germans were still years away from developing a workable prototype. In any case the bombs dropped on Japan were months after the German surrender. The simple fact is Truman made the decision to shorten the war or, put another way, save American lives. It was also fear of America being the only holder of the bomb and demonstrably willing to use it that caused scientists to give the necessary data to the Soviet Union. Better they thought a balance of power and a cold war than the possibility of atoms bombs being used in Korea or elsewhere. Looking back over 60 years I have to say that history has proved them right.

Given the German ballistic technologies it'd be a scary thought if they had.

If my understanding is correct they'd basically got as far as producing heavy water, although thanks to the Telemark operations and the bravery of Norwegian commandos most of the heavy water they produced now lies at the bottom of a fjorde.

The second bomb of nagasaki could be viewed as a show by the States as well, showing the Russians they'd use it. By the time of the bombs relations with Stalin had pretty much completely broken down.

This is pretty much correct. The German had decided to go the heavy water route to producing a bomb. It is generally agreed 9in hindsight) that even if they had got the stocks from Norway, they would still have been some five years from producing a workable bomb. The commando raids and Norwegian resistance sabotage rendered this point moot and the Germans virtually gave up on the project. Unfortunately the allies did not realize this until the capture of Essen when it became obvious a German plutonium bomb was a non-starter.

Relations with Stalin were never good - simply necessary. Churchill wanted to keep going and push the Russian out of Eastern Europe after the collapse of Germany. Eisenhower (presumably with Truman's blessing) nixed that possibility. The US willingness to keep using the bomb caused a number of scientists on the Manhattan Project, such as Klaus Fuchs, to begin giving the Soviets the necessary data to build their own.

[Worthy4England]

Can't belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeve they 're-enacted' the bombing in Texas!!

Having spent some time in Texas, the only surprise is that they didn't find some Japs to shoot to add in some authenticity....