Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
Yes. Actually, the whole point of building the bomb was to counter Germany building the bomb. We had every intention of using it.
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+1
Additionally, the primary reason cited for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings was to avoid horrific Allied casualties invading the Japanese mainland because of heavily entrenched enemy positions and a fanatically loyal civilian populace that was likely to fight alongside the troops if invaded. Germany was every bit as rabidly loyal to the Nazi party as the Japanese were to their Emperor in the early 1940s to late in the ground war (some even to the bitter end and afterwards!)
The Allied casualties as a result of the Normandy invasion and subsequent march across Europe/ground war were every bit as bad as the casualties of a Japanese mainland invasion would have been and I think the commanders knew what they were in for planning Normandy. As such, I think the same logic ("save Allied forces' lives") would have unquestionably applied.
I do wonder if we'd gotten the bomb in, say, 1943 which city/cities/targets would have been chosen in Europe. The map would look a LOT different today I think though. . .