Stupid Luck and Happenstance.
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Nudets don't look like earthquakes of seismograghic records, any ground shocks will be recorded, therefore airburst tests over an uninhabited (no witnesses) area are required, even the Tonguska event was witnessed, so testing will be in inaccessible locations, of course any decent intelligence agency should wonder why 50 ships are hanging around Bouvet island.
Unlikely.
Unlike the Americans, the Germans ITTL do HAVE an actual theoretical clue of WHAT kind of hell spawned FUBAR would be the aftermath of a Nuclear detonation.
It was in fact what caused most of their key Atomic scientists to near riot and retire from the development of the Nuclear option inside the Quartum Project, What shifted into the Chemical Weapon option that ended up used in Japan to conclude the War.
Furthermore, even if there are quakes ITTL, HOW the bloody hell they are going to know that they are from nuclear detonations if they NEVER have seen or done a nuclear detonation of their own, thus they lack the seismologic patterns to differentiate it from a run of the mill classic Quake?
As such, WHY in the nine hells they were going to throw out by the window the perfectly kept operational secrecy managed until now?
The best way to test would be to plan the test to coincide with a massive Soviet weapons cache that "had an unfortunate accident." After all OTL, some munitions train accidents could be measured in the kiloton blast range.
A message that only EDNA and a few Abwehr infiltrates can get the clue about its far less notorious than a sodding Airburst Nuclear Test last time that i checked.
Shadow Master
Banned
While this is true, let's revisit my first post.
Shadow Master said:
That note, it just screams of the dead giveaway of foreign intelligence services having penetrated not just the super-secret project, but the USA's own domestic services inability to locate the renegade scientist. Read as: "Hey America, sorry but we cannot allow your dude to have his own nuclear weapons program, so had to off him. Oh, and we'll just help ourselves to your materials, as well, as you cannot be trusted to keep them under control."
I think testing nukes anywhere in Europe is a non-starter. It is simply to densely settled. even if the people involved don't know or care about what it will do to the population, there is still the problem that there is no real place where you can test a nuke and keep it secret.
Some suitably uninhabited place in Deutsch-Neuguinea may be a good location. If Germany still owns the Bikini Atoll (or won it back from Japan recently) that would make a good testing place for unspecified experimental ammunition.
If the testing gets made public somebody could even name some piece fo women's beachwear after it.
Some suitably uninhabited place in Deutsch-Neuguinea may be a good location. If Germany still owns the Bikini Atoll (or won it back from Japan recently) that would make a good testing place for unspecified experimental ammunition.
If the testing gets made public somebody could even name some piece fo women's beachwear after it.
A note in English. And apart of the detail that Foreign Intelligence its stalking your country, WHAT ELSE they can do? Pointing FIngers? Get even more paranoid and stupid?That note, it just screams of the dead giveaway of foreign intelligence services having penetrated not just the super-secret project, but the USA's own domestic services inability to locate the renegade scientist. Read as: "Hey America, sorry but we cannot allow your dude to have his own nuclear weapons program, so had to off him. Oh, and we'll just help ourselves to your materials, as well, as you cannot be trusted to keep them under control."
Play Jeopardy in the matter , while most of the involved know that ANY mention of the damned incident beyond the police and FBI on the case of the Manhattan Project will mean either being laughed, get fired, or an extensive and idiotically shortsighted Senate Hearing behind closed doors that except for a few individuals like Truman are going to be playing more focused in their own self interest or aiming to covering their asses in principle?
They will do something, i admit it.....but that will be after a sodding circle of Covering their asses, blaming and such, and it will be more in the lines of...Giving the FBI further attributions to investigate the matter, and implement new Security and Intelligence protocols rather than fully create something like the OSS/CIA. After all, Hoover did caught the Soviet spies infiltrating their society(snickers)
Part 41, Chapter 525
Chapter Five Hundred Twenty-Five
10th February 1946
Berlin
They were rotated through as a reward every week but in Ilse’s opinion it was just boring. Mostly it was watching as Kat discussed the day’s events with Empress Kira. The two of them would talk about an article and then talk at length long tangents. Today it was about the new Chancellor, Theodor Heuss, who was the only consensus candidate to emerge among the parties of the majority coalition. Ilse had gotten bored and was futzing around when she noticed that Kristina, the four-year-old Princess was watching her.
“Who’re you?” Kristina asked.
“I’m Ilse” Ilse replied, “I’m friends with Gräfin Katherine.”
“Why?” Kristina asked insistently.
“There is no why” Ilse replied, “It’s just my name.”
“Why?” Kristian repeated.
“Because it was assigned to me, that’s why?” Ilse said, “I had no name until then.”
Kristina was just staring at Ilse who was feeling like an idiot. The little girl obviously wouldn’t understand what Ilse had just said.
“Assigned?” Kristina asked, “No name?” She was confused by that.
That was tricky, Ilse was figured to have been born on the feast day of Saint Elisabeth of Schönau. The surname had been the result of a church administrator somewhere having a twisted sense of humor, Tritten, because she was left on the steps out front. Ilse had no idea where the middle name of Ingrid had come from. There was no way that she could explain all of that to Kristina.
“It’s just how that is” Ilse replied.
Kristina ran away, if she understood or cared Ilse couldn’t tell. That whole conversation dredged up things that she didn’t like thinking about. The Holiday Season had actually been good, it had briefly felt as if she had a family. Gerta had been doing her best to make them all feel welcome but it idea that all of this could be taken away tomorrow was constantly gnawing at the back of her mind.
Ilse realized that she could feel eyes upon her. She noticed that Kat had been watching her and her interactions with Kristina. Had that all been a test? Ilse didn’t know.
Southern Bavaria
Nessa had been staying in a nearby town and driving into work every day. Her life seemed to be filled with odd counterpoints. She would get a call from Eugen every night wondering when she was coming home. It was too bad that his career kept him in Potsdam otherwise he could just come to Bavaria.
Today, being a Sunday, the laboratory was only slightly less active than usual. She would once again have to explain that she was doing important work for the Institute but couldn’t explain exactly what. Mostly she was making plans. The items that had been constructed against the day that Berlin fell to the Soviets had never been tested. The concern was how to do that while still preserving the operational security and as they had realized, there was no way they could do that anywhere in Europe. Then there was the two-stage device that they had discovered Ede Teller working on. If that could be made to work, then it would be even harder to hide. At the latest project meeting they had discussed a location in the Marshal Islands, Mili Atoll and Knox Atoll in particular. That was the location of a former Japanese Naval Base but was currently unpopulated, and the Kaiserliche Marine knew the area well enough. The idea was that if they could do the test deep enough under the ground then it could be done with minimal notice.
She had been read in on the sabotage of the American program and it had not been much of a surprise. She had known Johann Schultz for what he really was for a long time, since she had seen through his buffoonish persona while the Schultz family had lived next door. If anyone could have identified a point of failure and exploited it, it would be the Empire’s long-time master of dirty tricks. When she had been sent to America, it had also not been a surprise that she’d found herself working around a dead body.
Then there was her “Assistant” who she really wished would just go away. The truth was that Abwehr had this man by the balls and was not about to let go. Klaus Fuchs had confessed to her on the first day that he had been working for the Soviets and Abwehr had found out about it somehow. Fuchs had found himself delivering misinformation to the Russians. Now with his sense of paranoia he’d begged Nessa to protect him from both Abwehr and the Russians. It did however make him very receptive to Nessa’s ideas even if she had to be aware that he was the Abwehr’s spy within her program.
The other spy in the program that she knew about. He was a Naval Lieutenant named Hugo Berger. He was of a particular type that she had learned to recognize. Short, bespectacled, pale and looked as if he belonged in the radio room or working on the fire control computer on a ship somewhere. It was obvious that he was one of her father’s people. She was sure that the Heer and the Luftwaffe also had people within the program, but she hadn’t identified them yet. Field Marshal Holz was wise enough to let them have a free hand, within reason, but he seemed smart enough to have his own people involved as well. In short, the situation was complicated.
10th February 1946
Berlin
They were rotated through as a reward every week but in Ilse’s opinion it was just boring. Mostly it was watching as Kat discussed the day’s events with Empress Kira. The two of them would talk about an article and then talk at length long tangents. Today it was about the new Chancellor, Theodor Heuss, who was the only consensus candidate to emerge among the parties of the majority coalition. Ilse had gotten bored and was futzing around when she noticed that Kristina, the four-year-old Princess was watching her.
“Who’re you?” Kristina asked.
“I’m Ilse” Ilse replied, “I’m friends with Gräfin Katherine.”
“Why?” Kristina asked insistently.
“There is no why” Ilse replied, “It’s just my name.”
“Why?” Kristian repeated.
“Because it was assigned to me, that’s why?” Ilse said, “I had no name until then.”
Kristina was just staring at Ilse who was feeling like an idiot. The little girl obviously wouldn’t understand what Ilse had just said.
“Assigned?” Kristina asked, “No name?” She was confused by that.
That was tricky, Ilse was figured to have been born on the feast day of Saint Elisabeth of Schönau. The surname had been the result of a church administrator somewhere having a twisted sense of humor, Tritten, because she was left on the steps out front. Ilse had no idea where the middle name of Ingrid had come from. There was no way that she could explain all of that to Kristina.
“It’s just how that is” Ilse replied.
Kristina ran away, if she understood or cared Ilse couldn’t tell. That whole conversation dredged up things that she didn’t like thinking about. The Holiday Season had actually been good, it had briefly felt as if she had a family. Gerta had been doing her best to make them all feel welcome but it idea that all of this could be taken away tomorrow was constantly gnawing at the back of her mind.
Ilse realized that she could feel eyes upon her. She noticed that Kat had been watching her and her interactions with Kristina. Had that all been a test? Ilse didn’t know.
Southern Bavaria
Nessa had been staying in a nearby town and driving into work every day. Her life seemed to be filled with odd counterpoints. She would get a call from Eugen every night wondering when she was coming home. It was too bad that his career kept him in Potsdam otherwise he could just come to Bavaria.
Today, being a Sunday, the laboratory was only slightly less active than usual. She would once again have to explain that she was doing important work for the Institute but couldn’t explain exactly what. Mostly she was making plans. The items that had been constructed against the day that Berlin fell to the Soviets had never been tested. The concern was how to do that while still preserving the operational security and as they had realized, there was no way they could do that anywhere in Europe. Then there was the two-stage device that they had discovered Ede Teller working on. If that could be made to work, then it would be even harder to hide. At the latest project meeting they had discussed a location in the Marshal Islands, Mili Atoll and Knox Atoll in particular. That was the location of a former Japanese Naval Base but was currently unpopulated, and the Kaiserliche Marine knew the area well enough. The idea was that if they could do the test deep enough under the ground then it could be done with minimal notice.
She had been read in on the sabotage of the American program and it had not been much of a surprise. She had known Johann Schultz for what he really was for a long time, since she had seen through his buffoonish persona while the Schultz family had lived next door. If anyone could have identified a point of failure and exploited it, it would be the Empire’s long-time master of dirty tricks. When she had been sent to America, it had also not been a surprise that she’d found herself working around a dead body.
Then there was her “Assistant” who she really wished would just go away. The truth was that Abwehr had this man by the balls and was not about to let go. Klaus Fuchs had confessed to her on the first day that he had been working for the Soviets and Abwehr had found out about it somehow. Fuchs had found himself delivering misinformation to the Russians. Now with his sense of paranoia he’d begged Nessa to protect him from both Abwehr and the Russians. It did however make him very receptive to Nessa’s ideas even if she had to be aware that he was the Abwehr’s spy within her program.
The other spy in the program that she knew about. He was a Naval Lieutenant named Hugo Berger. He was of a particular type that she had learned to recognize. Short, bespectacled, pale and looked as if he belonged in the radio room or working on the fire control computer on a ship somewhere. It was obvious that he was one of her father’s people. She was sure that the Heer and the Luftwaffe also had people within the program, but she hadn’t identified them yet. Field Marshal Holz was wise enough to let them have a free hand, within reason, but he seemed smart enough to have his own people involved as well. In short, the situation was complicated.
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Raise the Hands to anyone else who thinks that this lady ITTL's ancestor of Dr. Catherine Halsey?
I think he is a fairly realistic choice in a political situation where multi-party coalitions are the norm. He was a conciliatory centrist politician and, to the best of my knowledge, genial in his personal relations with other politicians. Adenauer not quite as likely to get the top job in a Germany that includes Prussia and Saxony and Goerdeler (assuming he survived the Reichstag) seen as too Prussian in the Rhineland and South Germany. Edgar Jung too far to the right and authoritarian (likely to have got mixed up in or compromised by the unsuccessful coup if not a Reichstag victim). Herbert von Bose (if he escaped the same traps) too right wing and not populist enough (could see him as War Minister though).