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Just reminds me so much of when Colonel Klink thought he was drinking spring water and found out it was heavy water. "Will it kill me?" "Only if Berlin finds out."

Great video. Incidentally, the Norwegian heavy water raids are worth a video on their own.

"Kinda shot yourselves in the foot with that one, didn't you, guys?" Such pleasure in Simon's voice.

The idea that Himmler got yelled at by his mother for saying mean things about that Heisenberg boy cracks me up immensely.

The amount of man power, resources, time, and simply production capacity in terms of just under roof space would have been impossible while under constant bombing. The Germans where building temporary factories in the forests to just build traditional arms. The US built entire cities to build atomic weapons. They probably had the knowledge, but that’s was all.

I recall reading that the Nazis dismissed the atomic bomb as a nonsensical Jewish science. Interestingly, Albert Einstein himself initially discredited the idea of an atomic bomb until he was given more evidence.

its actually funny that the german reactor was this elaborate thing of uranium cubes suspended in this lattice with heavy water, when the first reactor in the US was built using coffee cans, blocks of graphite, and railroad ties

I'm not sure I knew anything before you started making KZfaq videos.

I think it's also important to consider the respective motivations for their nuclear programmes. For the Germans it was ambition for conquest, a conquest which could otherwise still be achieved, just a little more slowly, without the bomb. For the Allies it was a desperate fear that a madman and a despot might get the bomb first, and that he would have absolutely no compunction about using it to maximum effect in the most densely populated areas.

In reality they were uncertain as to what Werner Heisenberg was actually doing

The Telemark mission is one of the most incredible stories of the war

You really need to make a video on John von Neumann. Among endless amounts of things he did, he was instrumental in the Manhattan project. Very fascinating guy, and there will be many moments when Simon laughs.

Awesome video! Having written 2 papers on the matter I might add some facts about the matter: - Belgian Uranium came from belgian colony congo, a hotbed for uranium mining. The biggest known uranium deposits in direct reach of Nazi Germany was Czechoslovakia and the german invasion of march 1939 was really the thing on top of all the other causes to start the pressure on the US to start their own program: The Nazis were sitting on their own uranium. - "Physicist" Diebner was more of a physics scholar compared to the other physics heavyweights like Hahn or Heisenberg, but he was mainly an SS Officer who had massive pull on logistics to get the stuff he wanted. As mentioned the compartmentalization sabotaged their efforts massively, also fuelled by the enormous competition the Universities the research was done in, had with each other. - A bomb raid on a BASF plant near the end of the war destroyed a big shippment of prepped Uranium for experiments with the Haigerloch reactor and in one sweep wiped out basically all the leftover ready to use Uranium in what was left of Germany. - A lot of information about what happened in Germany regarding nuclear developement was learned from putting the captured scientists in Farm Hall in Cambridge, England (Operation Epsilon). They were free to move within the confinds of the building and the surrounding areas and of course were repeatetly interrogated. But was really going on was that the whole building was bugged up the wazoo. That's for example how it's documented how the physicists reacted when they heard the radio broadcast about the first drop of an atomic bomb. Otto Hahn had a nervous breakdown because he felt responsible for the deaths and his colleagues watched over him because they feared he would kill himself. All-in-all and in a nutshell it is as you said: When they had the advantage they were working against each other and when rhey started to collaborate it was ( luckily ) too late.

I respect that you put the ad first and allow us the choice of whether to skip forward or not. You're an entertaining enough presenter I watched the full thing even though I don't drink cocktails as a rule.

The issue that really explains that remark about the number of factories involved in enrichment is the value the Germans had for the neutron cross section of uranium. The value was known only very imprecisely, it’s measured in units called barns as a reflection of this. The Germans had a value determined prewar which gave a figure for critical mass of about 1-10 tonnes of enriched uranium. An amount that was totally unobtainable even if you could build a plane to deliver it. In 1940 Chadwick in the UK obtained a different estimate that led to a critical mass of 0.1-1kg an amount that it was conceivable to obtain that figure turned out to be too low but was the basis for starting the tube alloys project and the Manhattan project.

Geiger.... Like the Geiger counter?

Simon getting excited over his sponsor is such a welcome change. Usually people give you the same ad over and over and they´re just disinterested

Less people died from the Nukes than would've died in a full scale invasion.

The process of enriching uranium is known as the Ames Process, developed at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Simon's advert pitches are so amusing that they're fun to watch even for things I have no interest in buying.

Tom Stoppard's excellent play "Copenhagen" covers the subject of the meeting between Heisenberg and Nils Bohr. Great drama, with so much intrigue riding on the outcome.

Thank you for speaking some truth on this subject which is a favorite of the "What If" crowd. Few people realize what a huge, expensive, and resource intensive undertaking that the Manhattan Project was. Germany could not have pulled it off during the war.

The Germans were like "Remove John, Paul, and George from the Beatles and have Ringo create and record "Sergeant Pepper's" on his own.

"So, how's Adloph doing in school?" "Well, he's failing Government, Business, Science, and Logic." "Great! Let's put him in charge!"

And in another timeline, Edith Keeler did not die in a car accident, went on to meet with President Roosevelt who then delayed America’s entry into WWII which allowed Nazi Germany to develop the atomic bomb and take over the world.

Good presentation. My mom was a nuclear physicist in training seeing bits of these events as folks disappeared and Europeans showed up. She got her BS and MS worked for 18 moths at Mayo clinic making radon seeds for testing cancer therapies' and in the process took 27 Roentgen exposure a max safe dose most in her hands and wrists working around lead blocks every day. Keep digging for more almost lost history.

I read the book "Hitler und die Atombombe" (Hitler and the atomic bomb) from 1987 and your video is very accurate. Hitler clearly did not see the potential of the atomic bomb, and therefore had no interest in development of such weapons. Also there were many cases mismanagement as you said in your video. All in all it would have been very unlikely that the Nazis would have been capable of building an atomic bomb before the war ended, even if they started earlier.

It's scary to think of the what if's of history but the most frightening one would be Germany beating us to the punch on the atom bomb. A Wolfenstein like world makes for a fun game but terrifying reality.

Thanks Simon for another great video. Richard Rhodes books 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' and 'Dark Sun The making of the Hydrogen Bomb' are a great read on the development of the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb.

Today I found out I don't care enough about cocktails to watch the ad read.

Fantastic video.Very informative.

It all comes down to Walther Bothe's calculation error determining that graphite wouldn't work as a moderator, and instead deciding on heavy water. (The American atomic program used graphite which is still used to this day). It's interesting to imagine some of the banished scientists that could've been in the room to say "Let's keep trying graphite before we completely rule it out."

Simon seems like a sophisticated man who would also be ridiculously fun to party with

Simon, you're just f***ing awesome!

Excellent video. I really took interest in your final conclusions. Best Regards!

Great video Simon's got a great voice

“I am become KZfaq, maker of videos.” -Simon Whistler (allegedly)

"Uh... yeah! We had moral objections to the regime, so we totally sabotaged it! It's not like that was our best effort or anything! Our lack of progress was definitely and entirely on purpose!"

AP is on a straight trip! I like Fed’s answer on the movement pics, makes sense to me.

Good job on this vid Fact Boy

Are we going to gloss over the British development far more advanced than Germany that was exported to the US starting the manhattan project, in case the UK was invaded... Or the German dismissal as a weapon system and interest as a power source. Britain began development shortly after discovering the atom could be split. The hydrogen bomb was all von Neumann's work, credit where credit is due, he was a mastermind.

Please do the YF-23 vs the YF-22. You have A LOT of footage and it was a competition that shaped the modern Air Force. Thank you.

Simon all your channels kick A$$!

Magic Spoon, and Shaker & Spoon. How to keep Fact Boi happy and going.

Stuff like 100.000 x more resources tends to helps a bit. Still it make sense the allies was scared Germany was so advanced in many fields. The strategist in the west probably probably did not grasp the megaproject scale of the Manhattan project.

Great video Simon! Given the level of detail shared on uranium enrichment processes, I'd expect a knock on your door in the near future... Good Luck!

Good video 👍

Excellent Scotch choice Simon!

The belief that if the Allies had known how far the German were from having a nuclear weapon it would have prevented the development of the Bomb is not realistic. The Soviets had so many spies in the Manhattan Project that once the war was over, they would have on their own have continued the research and develop the Bomb first after the war.

Neil tends to speak fast, and sometimes that's too fast. At 8:08, it's so fast that it sounds better played at 75%! I think it would be better if he relaxed a bit and maybe set the autocue for 90% of the words per minute. What he's saying is worth hearing, and it would give us a little more time to take it in.

Anyone else watch these and retain nothing but thoroughly enjoy the experience?

Orange blossom water is so good. I remember as a kid my grandma making baklava using orange bloosum water. Smelled so good

The German program was too compartmentalized and that was the worst approach.

So... In RTS terms, Germany used their resources to produce lower tech tiered weapons and the Allies just dumped resources into teching up.

You shaking the cocktail shaker is worth the time watching the ad.

I have a question. How were CT and MRI scanning machines developed?

At one point, the Germans considered a dirty bomb in which the goal was just to deliver radioactive material. They never got far there either

I honestly think of Germany got the nuclear bomb for the US that they would use it on the UK or USSR before the US. Hitler was obsessed with destroying or invading the United Kingdom and Soviet Russia was the biggest military threat both and manpower and resources. If this had played out then the UK would either be under a nuclear winter still today or a good large portion of Russia

You are wrong: On 27th October 1944, at 7 p.m., thousands of prisoners in Auschwitz heard a mighty thunder and rumble from the south. Many claim it was a violent explosion twice, and those outside saw a huge reddish glow immediately afterwards, as if flames were leaping into the sky. Some even thought they saw the fire first, which was probably closer to the truth. At that time, a Polish prisoner named G. was in Auschwitz. He came from the village of Czerwonka near Allenstein, which is now called Olsztyn. He was born in 1913 and had learned the honourable profession of a carpenter. G. was arrested in May 1941 for illegal activity and sent to the Radom concentration camp. He was there from 27th of May 1941 until the end of September of the same year and was then transported to Auschwitz. There he worked as a carpenter in a prisoner construction brigade. ......... During the 27th of October 1944, a detachment of 330 prisoners was hastily assembled. They were mostly construction workers. G was among them when the detachment marched off at 17:00. On this march, with their eyes to the south, they saw two flashes of lightning at 19:00, heard a double explosion and at the same moment noticed a huge fire that seemed to rage over a large area at practically the same time. The prisoner brigade marched as if blinded in the direction of this blaze until they were ordered to camp for the night in an open field at 20:00, which meant that they had to sleep in the open on the bare earth, while in the distance the flames were still raging towards the sky. The other day, 28th of October, around noon, they reached the place where they were to work from now on. It was an exact square about a kilometre on a side, covered with still burning and smoking rubble. The prisoners, however, smelled not only the burnt wood, but also the sweet stench of burnt human flesh, which they knew well enough. They marched to the edge of the area where a small town had stood the day before and where, a few hours before, 25 people in protective suits had dared to attempt to penetrate just 200 metres into the burnt and destroyed town. Only to immediately turn back in triumph and horror. Of course, only a few were triumphant and enthusiastic, others ran silently and hurriedly, and others were so horrified by the horrors they saw that they turned back in shock and vomit. The 330 prisoners did not wear any protective clothing and were not given any during the weeks in which they had to clear away the stone rubble. On 3rd of November 1944, 680 Poles and Russians joined them, so that by 15th of December 1944, more than a thousand prisoners had cleared away the stones and burned the remaining bodies and body parts in the radiation-contaminated rubble desert. By mid-December 1944, all traces had been erased. On 17th of December, the prisoners who had not died due to radioactive dust were sent back to Auschwitz, where all but a few who had managed to hide there were also killed.

Love the Babish angle during the cocktail ad

I heard that an advisor to hitler proposed the idea but down-hyped it, saying the research would take too much time, cost too much in terms of resources and it’s unproven that it would even work. Ultimately a waste of time. They were thinking of using uranium as an alternate fuel source or to make nuclear power plants as Germany struggled to fuel its war machine as the war dragged on.

The German flying saucer and moon colonization project, on the other hand, was well-funded and totally successful. Or so 'they' say....

We haven't made it a century past the first atomic bomb yet. Just under 24 years to go.

Very interesting topic which I somehow knew very little about even tho it's something all of us, especially here in europe, should learn about in history classes. Also that's a very majestic beard Simon

Von Neumann calculated that relative to Einstein, Heisenberg's position was uncertain while Bohr was on another level.

Germany also made the first assault rifle

Awesome video! Can you maybe do a full warographics video on the border war between South Africa and Angola in the late 1900's

I even enjoyed the commercial, now THATS praise!

I remember reading an interview back in college with a German(?) recon pilot near the end of the war. He was over allied occupied territory I think in Austria and noted a double flash explosion and a mushroom shaped cloud. Shit I wish I could remember the document. I remember it was housed in an archive in Alabama

I have zero doubt had Germany made the bomb first that Hitler would have been dropping bombs every other day

The reason the Germans thought the US had huge factories for producing that much U235 was Heisenberg screwed up the calculation for the total amount of U235 needed. Heisenberg calculated that the Germans would need 10 times as much U235 as was necessary. He calculated a need of 650 kg of U235 when only around 65kg was needed. Considering it took almost 2 years of day and night running of the Oakridge diffusion plant to produce that 65kg, it's not surprising that the Germans thought the US had a huge number of factories producing U235. Heisenberg after the war claimed that he miscalculated on purpose, but I'm not so sure of that.

I'd love to see a video on the Alsos Mission.

I'm gonna say it again, Sam better get that b-role for busine... Brain blaze.

Neils Bohr's granddaughter became prominent in British pop culture. Her name is Olivia Newton John.

Great content. I found the audio a little quiet. Fine with earbuds or on the pc but just out of a galaxy s20 phone speaker I found this a little hard to hear. Audio is mixed quieter than most YT content including all ads and with a hearing problem I found this almost unwatchable without going to my pc or using earbuds

Heisenberg probably tought he isnt in Danger, but he IS the Danger.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Thank the universe that Hitler was such a moron with resource and time management or else the world would be a very different place today...

I also like the smell of freshly cut tobacco and i don't smoke 🤣🤣🤣

Your sponsorship is certainly eclectic!

Wines, cocktails by mail... are you ever sober?

Just imagine if the Germans had been able to deploy two nukes: one at Stalingrad and another at Kursk. That would have been a game changer.

I love the fact that the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only ones ever used against an enemy. It's like the world collectively decided "This thing is far too horrible to use again, unless it's absolutely necessary" and has kept that promise for 75 years now. And I bet it takes some serious self-restraint, since most countries have them anyway!

🤣 did u just say "whoops-a-daisy?" I will subscribe just for that🤗

"No, no dig up stupid." - Chief Wiggum.

Who else just skips right to the 2-minute mark on these videos?

Jeezus you'll pimp almost anything. You're working hard, all the best to you.

The thing is Oppenhimmer wasn’t the person who had or created the required formula for the splitting the atom. It was a man called Enrico Fermi.

Marie Leveaux would be a great biographics subject

Thank god, they didn't.

Interesting how capitalisms hampered development during the war in Germany. While America used a command economy, that placed limitations on competition, to develop its nuclear program quickly. Things that may you go hmmm.

I’d love to see a video on the war of 1812

Thank goodness for the sponsor block add on in the firefox browser! Very interesting video minus the 2 minute sponsor crap at the beginning!

That story was the bomb.

This story sounds like it was written in a book even though I know it's real history the reason why I find this story so much like a fictional story is because it seems like a battle of philosophies rather than just a normal battle because the Americans were willing to use everything they had to do their disposal and because the Nazis were so blinded by their politics the Americans were able to make the bomb even though the Nazis had a 2-year Head start the story is so good that I bet you could find some moral to it.

In 12:57 it reminds me of a great super power that is currently practicing the same political and economic model that's also inefficient.

Good one. Thank you. Please consider doing a video about those giant unregulated computer buildings in India.

Answer: not even remotely.

Why aren't more creators voicing their opposition to the decision to hide the dislikes? It's hard for a creator like Simon to gain the respect he has and when your videos have a 100 to 1 l/d ratio that's something to be proud of and something to show off. If I discovered this channel today I would have no idea if the information in this video has any credibility. CREATORS PLEASE! Take a stand and let KZfaq know that you're not afraid to show the dislike count.

Nice vid Tifo