Part 5/5 of my Alternate Wolfenstein: The Atomic Bombings of Hamburg and Berlin, April 1949.
The Manhattan Project was nearly wiped out by Nazi agents shortly after the failure of Operation Overlord in mid-1944, and was only saved by several key researchers being called away to the Oak Ridge Laboratory before the attacks. These included J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, and Edward Teller.
Many, many things have changed since the raid on Deathshead's Compound in July 1946. The capture of Da'at Yichud technology allowed the Allies to speed ahead in terms of weapons development, and the discovery of the vault in Roswell, New Mexico allowed even faster and more advanced development. All of this, along with the lucky escape of the nuclear scientists, allowed the United States to successfully defeat the Germans to the A-Bomb.
In the plains of Alamogordo, New Mexico, on March 19th, 1949, the first successful atomic detonation in human history was achieved. The device, codenamed 'Trinity', possibly in reference to the Holy Trinity, had a yield of 21,000 tons of TNT.
The news being recieved from the Alsos Mission in Europe was frightening, to say the least. By their estimates, the Germans were no later than a year from a successful test of their own by the time Allied forces reached Frankfurt, the primary development site for their project.
The primary aims for the Atomic Bombings were to perform a decapitation strike on the Reich and the next person in line to take leadership to see the writing on the wall and surrender to the allies, as well as convince the German populace that the war was unwinnable.
On the morning of April 4th, 1949, Hamburg was a relatively calm city. The previous week's firebombing campaign had tapered off, and many people were already starting to recover. Around 9:30, German radar detected a flight of 2 B-47s on radar, a somewhat common sight for this sector of the airspace, as the allies had been using these flights for reconnaissance after bombing raids. Ten minutes later, one of the aircraft dropped a single piece of ordinance over the city center and immediately turned northwest. 48 seconds later, a brilliant flash of light was seen from as far away as Lübeck, and 60% of the city was vaporized instantly. As much of the population in this area had already evacuated the previous week, the immediate death toll was relatively low with the exception of the military personnel, which numbered around 3,000, but the damage was done.
5 days later, after no word had been received from the Germans, a second flight, consisting of the same 2 aircraft only their roles were swapped, conducted the second bombing in Berlin. 2,000 people were killed instantly and 40% of the city was destroyed. This time, the military toll was much worse, and as many as 10,000 soldiers were killed in this attack. It also killed most of the Wehrmacht High Command, as well as most of the inner circle of the Reich's government itself, including Hitler.
On April 14th, 1949, the Third Reich, meant to last 1,000 years, surrendered unconditionally to the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, as well as all other Allied nations. More than 120 Million soldiers and civilians had died in this fruitless venture for world domination. Democracy for most of Europe had been protected with the blood, steel, and shells of more than 100 different nations. The Old Order had been laid to rest in the fields of Poland in September of 1939, and a new one, led by the United States and Soviet Union both vying for power, had been formed in the rubble of Berlin in April of 1949.
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Thank you all for following this series that I started on a whim 7 months ago while replaying Wolfenstein again, and this is going to be my last post on this (except for one more in r/AlternateHistoryMemes). This was one of my favorite things to make ever, and once more, thank you all for following it.
[Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/comments/1m50i6o/wolfenstein_universe_what_if_the_assault_on/)
[Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/comments/1ma77vw/continuation_of_my_alternate_wolfenstein_the/)
[Part 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/comments/1qfzuzi/a_quite_late_3rd_part_to_my_alternate_wolfenstein/)
[Part 4](https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/comments/1qm4szb/part_45_of_my_alternate_wolfenstein_operation/)