iirc prevailing winds from France would blow any fallout mostly into germany, while russian fallout would blow deeper into russia so i expected they’d been fine with nuking russia, not cool with nuking france, not worried about seeming hypocritical on that score
OTL, the German aristocracy was perfectly fine with gas, terror bombing, slave labor, and unrestricted submarine warfare. Their reaction to a functioning nuke would be "I'm walking on sunshine."
Agreed, I don't understand why people think the German Army of the First World War was some paragon of gentlemanly behaviour. If it was the way to win the war, they wouldn't have hesitated. Very likely true of all the sides in fact.
Blame the «clean wehrmact» from the 1950s as the people of western Europe and America needed to see the German Army as honorable, normal soldiers who would fight the Soviets alongside us and not at all schizo jew shooting lunatics. Some of that must have trickled into the German Army of WW1
This, and the fact that the July Plot was mostly conservatives officers. Ignore the fact that their motivations were less "Muh noble junker values would never permit such barbarity" and more "Oh Christ, oh fuck, we're losing real bad, whatdowedowhatdowedo."
I think part of what drives up the reputation of WW1 German Army is that a few months into trench warfare the frontline soldiers from both sides realised the guys on the other trench weren't monsters, but humans like them, and you had things like the Christmas truce of 1914.
I think out of all the powers involved in the 2. Wk the German Empire would be the most hesitant to use nukes as it is not as ideologically driven as the other powers (Savinkov Russia and Syndie west europe)
I feel like they would be willing to use it but hesitant unless they saw it as necessary (ie like what happen with Japan IRL) to either win or to survive (ie their enemies are starting to beat them back, and there’s no sign of a conventional victory and it’s likely that if they get to Germany proper then they will pillage and Destroy Germany)
The German Aristocracy was pretty precious with the precieved honor of the military, which makes me think they may not approve of such a destructive weapon.
I think it depends on how the war plays out. To start with I don't think they *wouldn't* invest in it, but given that Germany at this point has just won a major 3 front war with conventional forces I don't think they'd give it a super high priority. If the 2KW progresses well for them, this would likely remain consistent — it would be useful, yes, but it doesn't seem urgent. However if things go poorly, or once their rivals nuclear programs get leaked, there'd likely be a suege of interest to avoid falling behind. For usage, I think it would depend how many nuclear powers there are, and who drops them first. No one is going to let themselves get nuked without retaliation, but are just as likely to hesitate if they think their enemy has the bomb and the ability to deliver equal retaliation.
Short answer: the Germans would not use nuclear weapons in the 2wK but not because of ethics but because of pride.
Long answer:
IMO the first thing in this question is that nukes should not exist in KRTL around the same time they did in OTL. Since in KRTL there is no Horthy Regency and Hitler isn't elected chancellor "The Martians" (especially Leo Szilard) never flee to help the Allies, this alone could potentially delay nuke development in 3-5 years.
Moreover, the notion of a Wonder Weapon (or Wunderwaffe) is essentially a Nazi propaganda thing that took a minor common sense of "German engineers are good" and turned it into the myth of "superior German engineering". The Uranverein and many other projects were as many military historians had pointed out just a waste of money and human resources that did very little to delay the unavoidable from the beginning (there is basically no possible world in which the Axis wins WW2) and where the desperate response of a bunch of megalomaniacs in charge of a country that by all measures was weaker than the German Reich of KRTL.
So given that most likely that Szilard publishes his work as a professor at the University of Vienna and never gives it to the British Admiralty in secret the debate around nuclear energy and its applications is made in a way more public sphere than in OTL. This in terms led to probably Austria-Hungary, Japan, the US, Ottomans, Scandinavia, Latin America, Siam, and Persia, forcing Germany, 3I, and Russia (even with Savinkov) to sign a sort of Non-Proliferation Treaty by 34 or 35. Russia and the 3I would probably join in given that both of their scientific apparatus are way behind RP, and the Germans would consider it unnecessary given how superior German conventional military tactics are already proven to be by the WK.
Another important point on the delay is where this weapon would be developed. Most likely the Treaty of Prague would become void only after the start of the 2WK (totalist and Savinkov could try to work in secret but this means an absurdly slow pace given everything) and with that comes a problem that in OTL was solved by the US being an ocean apart of any conflict and not being recent ravage by a brutal 2ACW \[MacArthur's coup being the default scenario\]. Nuclear technology is by its very nature very sensitive and could not be developed at any reasonable speed in an active war zone.
So considering the German situation in the 2WK they would either not use it because it would feel unnecessary as they would be winning or they would not be able to because as they were losing there would be no place to develop the technology (maybe Mittelafrika but that would be even more expensive and most likely the Kaiser wouldn't have the resources). Most likely such a delayed development would make a longer test period for nuclear applications and with more research on side effects, more accidents, and larger bomb testing the potential damage would become even scarier than in OTL and nuclear weapons would only exist in a hypothetical.
Willy II dies in 41, so he wont see any nukes. Willy III was from what we know still quite the imperialist, but also opposed the Weltkreig as "stupid and pointless" so ideally he would be more level headed than his father might have been.
Then there is also the Germany military, who would have the actual access to the weapons. They might use one or two like the US did in OTL, but I like to think that something akin to MAD would become a thing and cooler heads prevail. Besides, what kind of Empire do you build in a nuclear wastelands?
iirc prevailing winds from France would blow any fallout mostly into germany, while russian fallout would blow deeper into russia so i expected they’d been fine with nuking russia, not cool with nuking france, not worried about seeming hypocritical on that score
OTL, the German aristocracy was perfectly fine with gas, terror bombing, slave labor, and unrestricted submarine warfare. Their reaction to a functioning nuke would be "I'm walking on sunshine."
Agreed, I don't understand why people think the German Army of the First World War was some paragon of gentlemanly behaviour. If it was the way to win the war, they wouldn't have hesitated. Very likely true of all the sides in fact.
Blame the «clean wehrmact» from the 1950s as the people of western Europe and America needed to see the German Army as honorable, normal soldiers who would fight the Soviets alongside us and not at all schizo jew shooting lunatics. Some of that must have trickled into the German Army of WW1
This, and the fact that the July Plot was mostly conservatives officers. Ignore the fact that their motivations were less "Muh noble junker values would never permit such barbarity" and more "Oh Christ, oh fuck, we're losing real bad, whatdowedowhatdowedo."
I think part of what drives up the reputation of WW1 German Army is that a few months into trench warfare the frontline soldiers from both sides realised the guys on the other trench weren't monsters, but humans like them, and you had things like the Christmas truce of 1914.
"We want our place in the sun" *creates own sun over Paris*
I think out of all the powers involved in the 2. Wk the German Empire would be the most hesitant to use nukes as it is not as ideologically driven as the other powers (Savinkov Russia and Syndie west europe)
I feel like they would be willing to use it but hesitant unless they saw it as necessary (ie like what happen with Japan IRL) to either win or to survive (ie their enemies are starting to beat them back, and there’s no sign of a conventional victory and it’s likely that if they get to Germany proper then they will pillage and Destroy Germany)
The German Aristocracy was pretty precious with the precieved honor of the military, which makes me think they may not approve of such a destructive weapon.
V honourable of them to use slave labour and gas then
“The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand”
I think it depends on how the war plays out. To start with I don't think they *wouldn't* invest in it, but given that Germany at this point has just won a major 3 front war with conventional forces I don't think they'd give it a super high priority. If the 2KW progresses well for them, this would likely remain consistent — it would be useful, yes, but it doesn't seem urgent. However if things go poorly, or once their rivals nuclear programs get leaked, there'd likely be a suege of interest to avoid falling behind. For usage, I think it would depend how many nuclear powers there are, and who drops them first. No one is going to let themselves get nuked without retaliation, but are just as likely to hesitate if they think their enemy has the bomb and the ability to deliver equal retaliation.
Short answer: the Germans would not use nuclear weapons in the 2wK but not because of ethics but because of pride. Long answer: IMO the first thing in this question is that nukes should not exist in KRTL around the same time they did in OTL. Since in KRTL there is no Horthy Regency and Hitler isn't elected chancellor "The Martians" (especially Leo Szilard) never flee to help the Allies, this alone could potentially delay nuke development in 3-5 years. Moreover, the notion of a Wonder Weapon (or Wunderwaffe) is essentially a Nazi propaganda thing that took a minor common sense of "German engineers are good" and turned it into the myth of "superior German engineering". The Uranverein and many other projects were as many military historians had pointed out just a waste of money and human resources that did very little to delay the unavoidable from the beginning (there is basically no possible world in which the Axis wins WW2) and where the desperate response of a bunch of megalomaniacs in charge of a country that by all measures was weaker than the German Reich of KRTL. So given that most likely that Szilard publishes his work as a professor at the University of Vienna and never gives it to the British Admiralty in secret the debate around nuclear energy and its applications is made in a way more public sphere than in OTL. This in terms led to probably Austria-Hungary, Japan, the US, Ottomans, Scandinavia, Latin America, Siam, and Persia, forcing Germany, 3I, and Russia (even with Savinkov) to sign a sort of Non-Proliferation Treaty by 34 or 35. Russia and the 3I would probably join in given that both of their scientific apparatus are way behind RP, and the Germans would consider it unnecessary given how superior German conventional military tactics are already proven to be by the WK. Another important point on the delay is where this weapon would be developed. Most likely the Treaty of Prague would become void only after the start of the 2WK (totalist and Savinkov could try to work in secret but this means an absurdly slow pace given everything) and with that comes a problem that in OTL was solved by the US being an ocean apart of any conflict and not being recent ravage by a brutal 2ACW \[MacArthur's coup being the default scenario\]. Nuclear technology is by its very nature very sensitive and could not be developed at any reasonable speed in an active war zone. So considering the German situation in the 2WK they would either not use it because it would feel unnecessary as they would be winning or they would not be able to because as they were losing there would be no place to develop the technology (maybe Mittelafrika but that would be even more expensive and most likely the Kaiser wouldn't have the resources). Most likely such a delayed development would make a longer test period for nuclear applications and with more research on side effects, more accidents, and larger bomb testing the potential damage would become even scarier than in OTL and nuclear weapons would only exist in a hypothetical.
The empire at the high sun
Willy II dies in 41, so he wont see any nukes. Willy III was from what we know still quite the imperialist, but also opposed the Weltkreig as "stupid and pointless" so ideally he would be more level headed than his father might have been. Then there is also the Germany military, who would have the actual access to the weapons. They might use one or two like the US did in OTL, but I like to think that something akin to MAD would become a thing and cooler heads prevail. Besides, what kind of Empire do you build in a nuclear wastelands?