V2, last ditch attempt...

[Bavarian Raven]

...what would have been the consequences (sp) if germany, as a last hope attempt, loaded chunks of raw uranium (i can't seem to spell today...sigh) into their V2 rockets and fired them at London......well it wouldn't have affected the outcome of the war at this point, but could u imagine what the radiation would have done...

 

[1940LaSalle]

...what would have been the consequences (sp) if germany, as a last hope attempt, loaded chunks of raw uranium (i can't seem to spell today...sigh) into their V2 rockets and fired them at London......well it wouldn't have affected the outcome of the war at this point, but could u imagine what the radiation would have done...

You're missing some fundamental science: the vast bulk (~99.24%) of uranium available from ore is uranium 238, which is not only non-fissionable material, but has an extremely long half-life (on the order of 4.5 billion years), meaning its radioactivity is pretty low indeed--and it emits alpha particles, which are stopped by clothing and sheets of paper. (For a comprehensive decay chain, see http://www.ieer.org/fctsheet/uranium.html )

About 0.7% of uranium available from ore is fissionable U-235, but it has to be enriched (i.e., concentrated) to form a fissionable mass--and that's a very involved industrial process.

Short version: I don't believe it would be much more than a nuisance.

 

[Blink56]

That is an ASB idea but I would like to change it slightly. What if the accuracy of the V2's were better and more were lobbed at London in a larger quanity. Now you have terror and you would see more bombing on Germany. Only one problem, when would the date for the launch of a mass of V2's would be set ?

 

[Derek Jackson]

Could nerve or biological agents have been sent by a V2 or perhaps air launched V 1s?

 

[Michael B]

Could nerve or biological agents have been sent by a V2 or perhaps air launched V 1s?

Certainly nerve gas could have been. However the Germans believed that the Western Allies knew how to produce the stuff and thus very reluctant to use it themselves.

 

[Riain]

Were people onto the effects of radiation poisoning in 1945? Govts knew all about it by the '50s, but would they have believed it to be such a danger in '44-5? BTW the Germans may not have much or any U235, but they would have been able to gather a nasty cocktail of radioactive crap to load into a V2 warhead.

 

[alt_historian]

Are you looking for something really nasty?

How about something more like this? http://www.amazon.co.uk/48-James-Herbert/dp/0006476007

 

[esl]

War heads were designed to spray Nerve Gas from both the V-1 & V-2 warhead. But I don't think they were put into production.