Last Chance Air-Raid Berlin 9 August 1946

The A-bomb was invented to be used against Nazi Germany. Instead it was dropped on Japan because Germany had already lost WW2. The B29 was designed to fight the Nazi from England or Egypt However it was used to attack Japan from the Central Pacific. The B29 had the range to reach Berlin from North America and return, but barely. On 9 August 1945, Nagasaki was attacked with the first Mark 3 Plutonium A-bomb*. On that day also the Soviet Union attacked** the Japanese army in Mongolia, Korea, China and elsewhere.

On 15 August, with two A-bombs having destroyed two cities in the prior 8 days and the chance for more; with Russian armies slaughtering the Japanese forces in northern China and Korea; with almost all of it’s cities burned out before the A-bomb; and with almost all of its fleets, aircraft and transportation destroyed, Japan surrendered.

But what if D-Day in Europe had failed and the Nazi had defeated the very large and powerful Russian army? What if we had no other way to end WW2 other than eliminating all the Nazi leadership with one attack?

This is the motivation for this picture: “Last Chance air-raid over Berlin 1 September 1946”…

* Hiroshima was a Mark 1 Uranium bomb. The Mark 2 was a Plutonium gun-type bomb that didn’t work. About 160 Mark 3 bombs were built before the Mark 4 was developed. The test explosion at Alamogordo was a test prototype of the Mark 3

** Russia had to declare war on Japan by 9 August to meet requirements of the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
https:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-Surrender_of_Japan
http:--www.boston.com-bostonglobe-ideas-articles-2011-08-07-why_did_japan_surrender-
https:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-History_of_nuclear_weapons
https:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-Gun-type_fission_weapon
https:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-Implosion_%28mechanical_process%29
https:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-Soviet_invasion_of_Manchuria
Read less