Patton pushes on (what if)

[Sarmatian]

The atomic bombs were "dumb" bombs using standard gravity drop for deployment. They were delivered to their target area by B-29 "superfortresses." These bombers had a combat range of more than 5,000 km (standard there-and-back sortie). They had good speed (topping 350mph unloaded)and a service ceiling in excess of 10km. Thus, the B-29 could have delivered the atomic bomb to the USSR, penetrating past Moscow from bases in occupied Germany (and possibly reaching some of the Ural factories?). Soviet fighters would have been hard-pressed to stop them, at least at first, since most of their fighters did not operate at their best at such altitudes and Soviet air doctrine emphasized the low-level and the tactical. How rapidly the Yak's could have been re-worked or new designs deployed as a counter is questionable. We would have been capable of producing roughly 1 a-bomb a month From October 1945 through the end of 1946 (and possibly more as they got better at generating fissionable material).

The early a-weapons might be triggered accidently by impact, so they were armed in flight. Prior to arming, any aircraft shot down or brought down by an accident could do no more than scatter some radioactive material over a fairly small area. Once armed however.....

Thanks. Basically, it could have been used effectively. 5000 km range is quite enough to reach the Urals from Germany, even from France and Britain... How politically convenient it would be because of relative proximity of other current/potential allies, that's another issue.

Would the weight of the bomb (4-5 tons) have any effect on maneuvering/altitude/range of a B-29? I vaguely remember a documentary saying that getting off the ground was extremely tricky for pilots carrying the bomb dropped on Hiroshima because of the weight, but I somehow doubt that a B-29 would have troubles with 4-5 tons of weight...