[ WP ] [ AH ] Alternate History - The first atomic bomb was dramatically underestimated . July 6 , 1945 saw the immolation of much of New Mexico and rendered America 's breadbasket a giant fallout zone .

I read once that Einstien had the opportunity to sign a letter to the president to convince him to build atomic weapons before the Germans. I doubt it would have made much difference. 
 
 When the Germans dropped their first Atom bomb, Mitternacht, on August 8th, 1942 bombing London into nothing, the American machine, in proper fashion, plunged trillions of dollars into building nuclear deterrents. Mitternacht was an experimental bomb, now knowing that it worked, the Germans put everything into completing three more. 
 
 It ended for them, like it ended for us. In 1945, we tested our Buddy Blue bomb in New Mexico. It was a purpose build cannon the took up an entire B-53 frame, it used 11 pounds of fissile materials in a beryllium sphere, compressed to insane pressurize with radium gas, and the shot wit the cannon. The math showed that we needed ridiculous amounts of nuclear material to get the bomb to work. 
 
 We were wrong. 
 
 On July 6, 1945 Buddy Blue was fired in an old airframe on top a purpose built tower. No one who was at the test range survived. If they had detonated it any closer to the project facility - I ca n't even imagine. better math, in 1948, estimated the destructive power at 6 gigatonnes of TNT. The atmosphere over a tenth of the U.S.A. was lit on fire, and ejected into space. Tens of Thousands died. 
 
 Ironically. The German people, so horrified by the destruction in London and New Mexico staged a violent revolt against the Nazi party, many in the army joining, along with massive Jew populations from camps, and ended the war. 
 
 The Soviets vowed never to build the bombs, and the Japanese even withdrew from Manchuria for fear of atomic reprisal. No one ever wished to see the power of the Atom harnessed in war, never again. 

