If Hitler had the bomb, he would have won the war? I think not.

[middleman]

If Hitler had used the bomb in any way, it would not have been as effective as Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I have read that atomic bombs dropped do much more damage when dropped than when detonated on the ground.

So, a train bombing would not have gotten as much radiation into the air; eliminating much of the secondary death.

Also, if Hitler had used his technology in the European Theater, we would have dropped one on Dresden. It wouldn’t have done any more damage than the firebombing, but it would have broken the will of the German resistance.

[Quartz]

@kunilou

Let’s try these scenarios. The Germans are at the gates of Leningrad, but unable to take the city. They bring their prototype bomb as close as they can on a railroad car and detonate it. The resulting explosion flattens half the city and sets fire to the rest.

The Allies are advancing on Paris. Von Choltitz, instead of disobeying Hitler’s orders to burn the city, instead sets a bomb next to Notre Dame. The advancing troops are greeted by a brilliant flash and a mushroom cloud.

Sorry but a ground level burst of a Hiroshima-scale nuke would do relatively little damage. Remember that unlike Japan you’ve got all those stone buildings to absorb the energy, and that a lot of the energy from the ground burst goes straight into the ground. What you do end up with is a lot more radioactive dust coating everything, resulting in longer-term deaths, but the knowledge of the effects of radioactivity was rather limited at the time.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@mks57

The power of a Hiroshima-class nuclear weapon (20 kt) should not be overestimated. According to one of the many on-line effects calculators, it would cause massive destruction (5 psi or greater overpressure) over an area of approximately 5 km^2. The city of Moscow is about 1000 km^2. It would take a 60 Mt bomb to completely destroy the city.

One word: firestorm.

Moscow burns!

[SenorBeef]

@middleman

So, a train bombing would not have gotten as much radiation into the air; eliminating much of the secondary death.

Airbursts have a further range of EMP, overpressure, and fire damage, but kick up less dirt. Radioactive fallout is, generally speaking, the radioactive dirt particles kicked up - ground bursts inherently create more.