With hindsight of modern knowledge, it would be easy to conclude that Germany could not have developed a nuclear device. But keep in mind that in 1945 there were only a handful of people in the world who understood the concept of nuclear fission, and one of them was Werner Heisenberg. The U.S. was working on 2 methods to separate U-235 from U-238, electromagnetic separation and gaseous diffusion. We were also working to manufacture Pu-239 from U-238. It was indeed a massive undertaking and was certainly on more of a grand scale than Germany could have mustered. But keep in mind that in the 1920's and 30's, new breakthroughs in the would of nuclear physics were happening rather regularly. What if Germany had found a better method for Uranium separation or, perhaps, a simple method to create another fissionable isotope other than Pu-239 from one of the other heavy elements. I doubt that anyone could have been certain, at the time, that these things were not possible. We just didn't have enough of a knowledge base to draw from. It was, in fact, only 5 or 6 years earlier that Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch were able to confirm that isotopes of certain atoms could actually split in half.
In 1939, nuclear physicists were mostly an interesting curiosity to the outside world. After 1945, they became the country's most prized possession.
AI
