00:00Imagine a world where it was not America, but the Third Reich that detonated the first
00:06atomic bomb.
00:07Terrible moustache fashion would spread across the world, and perhaps worst of all, we'd
00:13all be speaking German.
00:15This nightmare haunted Allied leaders throughout the Second World War, and with good reason.
00:21A lot of the science that went into harnessing the power of the atom was invented in Germany
00:27itself.
00:27In the years immediately preceding the war, several crucial breakthroughs were made in
00:34Berlin, culminating with the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938.
00:40In a very real way, the Nazis had a head start on the single most powerful weapons technology
00:46ever conceived.
00:48So where did it all go wrong?
00:51Or right, I guess.
00:52How close did we truly get to fascist nuclear bombs?
00:56And could they have swung the war in old Adolf's favor?
01:00Well, for a start, many of Germany's brightest scientists quickly realized that Deutschland
01:06wasn't the place to be.
01:08The Nazis were famously not okay with Jews, who happened to feature quite prominently in
01:15the upper echelons of nuclear physics.
01:18Inadvertently, Hitler had shrunk his pool of atom bomb capable scientists significantly.
01:25Of course, many brilliant minds still remained, including famously amoral physicist Werner Heisenberg.
01:33As Wehrmacht troops flooded into Poland, it was his ingenuity that Nazi Germany harnessed to
01:41spearhead the world's first nuclear arms program, the Uranverein.
01:46It would take a lot of convincing before Britain and the US would kickstart similar programs
01:52of their own, though once America got its act together, it indulged in its usual habit of
01:58throwing unlimited amounts of money at a problem until it disappears.
02:02The Nazis could afford no such luxury, so even though their nuclear program was launched earlier
02:08than all others, its progress was far slower.
02:12The complex Nazi bureaucracy certainly didn't help.
02:16Hitler's ever-advancing war machine was split between multiple competing hierarchies, leading
02:23Heisenberg to the conclusion that the easiest way to keep his head was to lay low and undersell
02:29the potential of nuclear weapons.
02:32Thus, as Nazi Germany steamrolled France and then blitzkrieged into the Soviet Union, Heisenberg
02:39was giving Hitler timelines on the order of five years, almost certainly too late to make
02:45an impact on the war.
02:47Meanwhile, other parts of the Nazi science apparatus were promising much quicker results,
02:53like those fancy V-rockets' future American citizen Werner von Braun was cooking up.
02:59And so, while America was building entire secret cities for its atom bomb program, Nazi Germany
03:06had allocated only about 500 men to their nuclear effort.
03:11And it wasn't just manpower they were short on.
03:14Turns out, splitting the atom requires very specific and rare ingredients.
03:22Uranium-235, which makes up less than 1% of all uranium deposits, and heavy water to sustain
03:29the nuclear reaction, since regular water absorbs too many neutrons, causing everything to fizzle
03:35out.
03:36Now, the Nazis did have access to reasonable amounts of uranium after swallowing up Czechoslovakia
03:42in 1939.
03:45Finding enough heavy water, on the other hand, was a whole different kettle of fish.
03:50Luckily for you, my friends, finding the ultimate vehicle combat experience isn't nearly as difficult
03:56with today's sponsor, War Thunder, available for free right now on PC, consoles, and even
04:02on your smartphone.
04:04Take command of over 2,500 meticulously recreated tanks, planes, helicopters, and ships from 10
04:11major countries.
04:12From rickety 1920s biplanes, up to the meanest fighter jets of today.
04:18And forget simple hit points, War Thunder boasts one of the most sophisticated vehicle damage
04:24simulations, down to each individual component.
04:28And when something goes boom, the damage x-ray view shows you exactly how much carnage you've
04:35unleashed.
04:36War Thunder's detailed vehicles, realistic graphics, and authentic sound effects have
04:41already attracted a worldwide community of over 70 million players.
04:46And here's the best part.
04:48For a limited time only, you'll receive a massive bonus pack with 3 premium vehicles,
04:54a 50% experience boost, 2 advanced vehicles for rent, 100,000 silver lions, and 7 days of
05:02premium account time.
05:05Just download War Thunder for free using the link in the description and claim those delicious
05:10goodies today.
05:11But back to heavy water.
05:14With only one in every 40 million molecules of water being heavy, filtering it out required
05:20immense amounts of energy and the right equipment for the job.
05:24As it turns out, only one place on Earth had the capacity to produce heavy water in any meaningful
05:32concentrations.
05:33A remote hydroelectric power plant in Norway.
05:38It was originally made to produce ammonia, but a useful by-product of that process was
05:43heavy water, which had only recently been discovered in 1931.
05:48The Nazis invaded Norway in April 1940, some say to visit the fjords, which are lovely that
05:56time of year, but probably to secure their northern flank against pre-emptive allied invasion.
06:03Regardless of the official reason, the Nazis now had control of the world's only operational
06:09heavy water plant.
06:11It wouldn't remain operational for long, though, thanks to our fearless friends, the
06:16Norwegian Commandos, armed and trained by our dear Great Britain.
06:21The Norwegian heavy water plant became subject to no less than three sabotage missions and
06:27intense bombing runs, which is a story so wild that it warrants its own side quest.
06:34In any case, by late 1943, the plant's production capacity had been definitively ended, and with
06:42it, Hitler's hopes of nuclear domination evaporated like smoke over Stalingrad.
06:48By this point, Heisenberg and co had already pivoted towards the slightly less unrealistic
06:54goal of building nuclear power plants.
06:57But as it turns out, conducting cutting-edge science and engineering, while getting bombed every
07:03day isn't a recipe for success.
07:06Even if the Nazis had managed to keep the Norwegian plant going, the war had swung too far against
07:12them for a nuclear bomb to be feasible on such a shoestring budget.
07:17And even if Hitler had smashed his piggy bank and stuffed Heisenberg with every Reichsmark
07:23he could in 1939, the Nazi bomb still wouldn't have arrived on time to save them.
07:29And all of this is without even considering the order of magnitude higher effort needed to
07:36weaponize plutonium, the true final boss of nuclear fissile materials, for complex physics
07:43reasons that we might explore someday if we branch out into science.
07:48So, thankfully, the world was spared this particular alternate history nightmare, though it certainly
07:54wasn't for lack of trying.
07:56In any case, my friends, I want to thank you for watching.
07:59It is our sincere hope that you'll continue joining us on many more side quests, even on
08:05serious topics such as this one, regardless of the trials and tribulations that the future
08:10holds.
08:11Make sure to leave a like and subscribe and don't forget to download War Thunder using the link
08:18in the description to claim all those limited offer goodies, it's about as close as we can
08:23get to the thrill of fighting during World War II.
08:27But in the meantime, stay tuned for the next hypothetically horrifying episode of SideQuest.
08:36What did one uranium atom say to the other in the German lab, let's split?
08:42Let's look at another.
Comments