What if B-29's had been used in Europe as well as Japan?

I'd like a source on that. Several things seem really questionable about it.

 

Me too!

 

sorry wrong answer P, not sure where you are coming up with this text but it must be back from the early 1960's, about as good as the myth that the TA 152 was created to take on the B-29 when it came to Europe

 

With the possible exception of the ancedotial story this is completely untrue. While the Ta 152H had... when it was working right which wasn't often... an advantage over the P-51D it is no better, and in many ways markedly inferior, to the P-51H and only about equal to the P-47N. Of course, these two aircraft didn't see combat in Europe during the war having gotten into service just a bit too late. But, both were had become operational in fighter group strength by the end of the Pacific war even if they saw little service there. On the other hand, the Ta 152 production amounted to a mere handful of what were essentially prototype aircraft pressed prematurely into operational service by the Germans in the last desperate weeks of the war. Many of those "produced" were actually just rebuilt and re-serialed Fw 190D airframes as well.
The Ta 152 as a result was riddled with bugs and unreliablity whereas the P-51H and P-47N were both reliable and fully tested operational aircraft. I doubt you can find any cases of P-51 pilots deliberately avoiding combat with any German fighter in the last months of the war let alone the Ta 152 in particular. I doubt most Allied pilots could have told it from a Fw 190D in combat.
I think Erich could shed some details and light on the Ta 152 as well.

 

Sure:

Monogram Close-Up 24

 

What does this have to do with attacking Dresden or nuclear weapons. Aside from that, it proves only that a Ta 152H if forced hard could exceed 40,000 in altitude. The practical service ceiling is far closer to 35,000.

 

??? I asked for a source for this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peisander
In fact USA warned Germany via Lisbon in July 1944 that unless Germany sued for peace and abandoned it's nuclear weapons project that Dresden would be nuked and this implied use of the B-29.....



Which as far as I can tell isn't addressed at all by your link and certainly not by your quote.

 

Completely and utterly untrue.

At no point did the USA ever warn Germany it was developing a nuclear bomb, nor did it ever warn Germany not to try and develop a nuclear bomb itself, as both would have given Germany every reason to try and develop a nuclear weapon as quickly as possible

 

The B-29, as I noted early in this thread was rejected for European service on two grounds:

Range: The B-17 and 24 were already more than adequite in range for targets in Europe. No need for the B-29 on that account. This was a necessity in the PTO / CBI theaters.

Suitable airfields: 8th and 12th AF airfields were not constructed to operate the B-29. This would require that either existing fields be upgraded (expensive and disruptive to current operations) or new ones built (expensive). Building the same airfields in the PTO/ CBI would cost essentially the same so there was no real additional cost incurred there. But, the B-29 could not operate on a regular, sustained basis from existing aifields in Britain and Italy.

As far as it goes, the Lancaster was capable of hauling a nuclear weapon and the US had already gone so far as to engineer the necessary changes if that capacity was needed. But, I think a Lancaster would have had some difficulty escaping after a drop as this was a difficult maneuver even for the much higher flying and faster B-29.

As for nuclear weapons: The Germans weren't even close to getting one in 1945. They had yet to even operate a sustained nuclear reaction in a reactor. Their 1945 design using 1 kg blocks of unenriched uranium on "necklaces" in a tank of heavy water was not going to work. So, they would have still had several more years in just getting a sustained reaction going so they could get the basic research necessary to continue with bomb development.
The US and Britain were at least vaugely aware that that was about where the Germans were in this process and the US knew it had a bomb coming online in a few months. There was no reason to tell the Germans anything which is exactly what they did.

 

It might actually have been cheaper; the Seabees generally used crushed coral and Marsden Matting on many of the airstrips in the Pacific, considerably cheaper than all-weather asphalt or concrete as in the ETO.

 

Actually, the runways in the Marianas were asphalt or concrete when completed. The USN brought in 6 production asphalt plants and another half dozen concrete batch plants to produce the required pavement. They also brought in several dredging machines that allowed them to dredge the coral while at the same time improving atoll harbors.

 

I could easily be incorrect here Terry, but wasn't the air field on Tinian the world's largest at the time when it was completed? Seems like I read that somewhere, but I'll be darned if I can remember where!