Hitler may have successfully tested nuclear warhead during WWII: report
The report said while Hitler's scientists failed to engineer a real nuclear bomb, a rudimentary warhead may have been tested in 1944.
Washington: Recently declassified documents from American archives have said that Hitler may have tested an operational nuclear bomb before the end of World War II.
According to a Daily Mail report, the file APO 696 which was declassified from the National Archives, documented the progress of the Third Reich scientists in producing an atomic bomb.
The file included statements from four German experts -- two chemical physicists, a chemist and a missile expert.
All of them concurred in stating that while Hitler’s scientists failed to engineer a breakthrough in nuclear technology, a rudimentary warhead may have been tested in 1944.
The statement of German test pilot Hans Zinsser mentioned him seeing a ‘mushroom cloud’ in the sky during a test flight near Ludwigslust.
'A cloud shaped like a mushroom with turbulent, billowing sections (at about 7000 metres) stood, without any seeming connections over the spot where the explosion took place. Strong electrical disturbances and the impossibility to continue radio communication as by lighting turned up,' he was quoted as saying.
A different pilot in a separate machine which also took off from Ludwigslust, witnessed the same phenomenon.
Reiterating the claim, Italian correspondent Luigi Romersa was also quoted to have observed the same explosion from ground.
Other archival documents claimed that Romersa was sent by Dictator Benito Mussolini to see the ‘test’ of a new German weapon.
The testimony of the four German scientists also mentioned a top-secret meeting held in Berlin in 1943 called a ‘nuclear summit.’ Hitler’s favourite and Albert Speer was also present for the discussion, the report mentioned.
While the report claimed that the Third Reich scientists couldn’t trigger the chain reaction that would result in a nuclear blast, it could not explain what caused the smoke in Ludwiglust in 1944.
It is well known that Hitler was fascinated by nuclear technology and wanted to use it to destroy the UK.