What If Hitler Had Won the War?
Relevant to this assumption, we can quote Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Buckingham,
who said about his victory over Napoleon: “It was
a near thing, the nearest thing you ever saw.” So it was
with the Allies' victory over Hitler—“a near thing.” although it is little realized today how near
a thing it was. Let’s see why that statement can be made.
Hitler was developing advanced weapons. He had a building staffed with hundreds of top-notch
engineers and scientists whose goal was
to build the most advanced weapons of war. To indicate the caliber of those
engineers, Von Braun was among their
number. Here are Just one two examples
of the weapons they developed, and which were used to attack London: The
V1, commonly known as the buzz bomb, and the V2,
the prototype of every rocket used today in space exploration. The people of London were particularly
vulnerable to such weapons as they were
still in a state of shock from the unremitting bombardment they had suffered from the assault of Hitler’s
Luftwaffe during The Battle of
London. Let’s look a little closer at
the two weapons and how they affected the London populace.
The V1
V1—The Buzz Bomb: This is a glider powered by simple engine—a
“pulse jet”— comprising a combustion chamber with shutters at one that which
would open and shut as the engine fired, propelling the glider forward,
and making a buzzing sound. And it was tipped with a high explosive. The fear and trepidation it engendered as you waited for it to hit made it
particularly dangerous. For you knew it
was coming by the buzzing, and if it kept on buzzing, you knew you were safe. But if it stopped buzzing, you knew it was
coming down in your vicinity—but where?— anywhere within a square mile of where
you were. The adverse psychological effect on the Londoners can be imagined. It
was terrifying, and they were coming over London at the rate of 100 a day,
However, because V1 was slow moving, it was vulnerable both to fighter planes
and anti-aircraft guns. A fighter plane
could come alongside it and flip it over
by wing-to-wing contact (preferably over the Channel!). And the Allies quickly caught on to where they
were coming from and intensely bombed manufacturing
and launching sites. (Peenemunde was one
such site.)
The V2
V2—The
first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile is a rocket. Every space-reaching rocket used today is
built on the basic technology of the V2. Unlike the buzz bomb, it struck
without warning like “a bolt from the blue.” It too was tipped with a high
explosive. But it was also vulnerable to countermeasures, and the sites where
it was launched that produced the materials needed for its production were soon
heavily bombed.
Originally, both were designed to carry poison gas or a weapon of mass destruction, such as
bio-weapons, or agents of “germ
warfare.” But Hitler thought better of
using such weapons, not because of any sense of humanity, but because his own country
was particularly vulnerable to such weapons, and he knew that the Allies had a full stock, and were prepared to
use them if need be.
It has been said that the effect of these weapons on the London
populace had become so intolerable that many were willing to surrender than
have the war continue.
Big Boy. The bomb that destroyed Nagasaki
Hitler would have won World War II . .
. if
he had had the atomic bomb. He would have
first shown its destructive power
by a “demonstration” of its power, much as the U.S. did with Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
by turning London or Moscow into a charnel house. The U.S. wasn’t ready with
its atomic bomb, so it to, would very likely experienced such a "demonstration” by means of a long-range
bomber, with an Eastern coastal city (perhaps New York City?) as the
target. Then, what country would, or
could, oppose Hitler? Quick surrender of
the entire world to his demands would be the only option, as shown by the quick
surrender of Japan after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
But Hitler made two mistakes. First, confident that Western Europe was
secure, he made the same mistake as Napoleon—he attacked Russia, and with his first-line troops. And they, like
Napoleon’s forces, were soon trapped by Russia’s natural defenses—the intense
cold of its winters, and mud!—for the
western plains of Russia become much like bogs due to the early winter rains. This natural
Russian defense is so effective that the
Russians have personified mud with a high military rank:
General Mud. And if those crack German troops had been available when the Allies invaded
France, there is no way the Allied troops could have succeeded in invading
France. As it was, the Allied troops
faced tremendous difficulties landing and breaking out toward Paris. Had those
crack troops on the Eastern front been
available, Hitler could stopped the invasion, and very likely, the war would
become a stalemate, leaving Hitler and his gang in power, rather than the
unconditional surrender it turned out to be.
Secondly, Hitler made the mistake of purging the Jewish physicists from
the ranks of German academia. Those that could fled to Europe and America. Chief among them was Albert Einstein, and many others of his caliber, and architects of the atomic bomb.[i] As a result, not enough of the physicists
remaining in Germany could work toward effectively toward the creation of the bomb.
It is well that the Jewish physicists escaped, for they were instrumental in creating the bomb in the United
States though the Manhattan Project.
For if Hitler had succeeded in
his world conquest with an atomic bomb, he would have hunted down the
Jewish population world-wide, with the intent of total extermination, as he
demonstrated in Europe. What a chilling thought!
With that chilling thought in mind, let’s look
forward to the next Episode of A Ball for
Genia. The day is drawing to a close, and all in Wachter’s house are again
in peril, for as the Rabbi said: It is a
night of bombs. So look forward to Episode Eleven, which will be published
on Monday, March 11.
In the meantime, please read the
anonymous comment below Interval Nine. It is in response to who wrote regarding
fellow writer Thora Lawrence and her comments on living theatre that we
offered that Interval. The comments are from a founder of theaters,
and an admired director of many plays.
And here are some of the effects that the bombing of London had on the
lives of Londoners -
Sheltering in the tube was common during those long nights of German bombs.
And how many fell? You can track the number and location of bombs during the Blitz on this fascinating new website: bombsight.org.
So, don't forget to look out for Episode Eleven on Monday, March 11th.
[i] For the complete
story of the atomic bomb and its creation, go to the invaluable Wikipedia and
the Wikipedia article titled the Manhattan Project. And please
note: The illustrations for this article
were also taken from Wikipedia. If
Wikipedia ever asks for a donation again, please be generous!
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