General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: Italian subs and nuclear cargo?
Posted by:
Simon Gunson
()
Date: March 29, 2006 05:14AM
Paul,
I am happy to stay in touch, but if you have some specific question maybe I can answer it here. I was planning a novel because I am a little nervous of putting my head on the chopping block and getting facts wrong. An author in germany last year came out with a claim that Germany did successfully test blast a nuclear weapon in Oct 1944 at the Baltic island of Rugen. Then a second test blast is said to have been witnessed at the Ohdruf concentration camp, Thuringa about 16 March 1945.
I remain skeptical, but the author whose name escapes me claims to have collected radioactive soil from both sites. He claims the bomb was fashioned from U233. Perhaps by a process of irridating U238 with Radium ?
It is true that by late 1944, Luftwaffe was largely incapable of missions over mainland Britain, hence the lack of an adequate delivery system was Britain's saviour.
The Ju-287 jet bomber however was being developed for a mission over London, as was a high altitude bomber whose name escapes me. The Lafferentz towed V-2 capsules being built in the eastern Baltic were another approach to bombing London and New York. The Sanger sub orbital space plane was also proposed to bomb New York so things were being proposed.
Churchill's top science advisor suggested that the V-2 rocket was too complex and expensive just to be intended to hurl high explosives. There was a longer range V-2 with nitric acid fuel, copied after the war by the Russians.
Interestingly I have also come across claims that U-219 and U-195 jointly shipped 12 broken down V-2 rockets to Djakarta which makes me ponder if the giant I-400 class Sen Toku boats may have had some plans to house a V-2 errector in their hangers ?
Lots of room for conjecture and sadly little hard evidence.
Hope this fuels your imagination Paul.
I am happy to stay in touch, but if you have some specific question maybe I can answer it here. I was planning a novel because I am a little nervous of putting my head on the chopping block and getting facts wrong. An author in germany last year came out with a claim that Germany did successfully test blast a nuclear weapon in Oct 1944 at the Baltic island of Rugen. Then a second test blast is said to have been witnessed at the Ohdruf concentration camp, Thuringa about 16 March 1945.
I remain skeptical, but the author whose name escapes me claims to have collected radioactive soil from both sites. He claims the bomb was fashioned from U233. Perhaps by a process of irridating U238 with Radium ?
It is true that by late 1944, Luftwaffe was largely incapable of missions over mainland Britain, hence the lack of an adequate delivery system was Britain's saviour.
The Ju-287 jet bomber however was being developed for a mission over London, as was a high altitude bomber whose name escapes me. The Lafferentz towed V-2 capsules being built in the eastern Baltic were another approach to bombing London and New York. The Sanger sub orbital space plane was also proposed to bomb New York so things were being proposed.
Churchill's top science advisor suggested that the V-2 rocket was too complex and expensive just to be intended to hurl high explosives. There was a longer range V-2 with nitric acid fuel, copied after the war by the Russians.
Interestingly I have also come across claims that U-219 and U-195 jointly shipped 12 broken down V-2 rockets to Djakarta which makes me ponder if the giant I-400 class Sen Toku boats may have had some plans to house a V-2 errector in their hangers ?
Lots of room for conjecture and sadly little hard evidence.
Hope this fuels your imagination Paul.