← Back to the front page

Fabricated Stories About World War II Still Known by Many

Khalid Elhassan November 15, 2019 35 min

Einstein’s letter to FDR, giving him a heads up about the potential of atomic weapons, and the danger if Germany got them first. Wikimedia

18. Germany Surrendered Before America Had The Bomb

America’s atomic program began with a letter from Albert Einstein to FDR advising him of German research into atomic weapons, and the danger should Hitler get an atomic bomb first. So throughout the war, the US saw its atomic program as a life-and-death race to beat Germany to the atomic punch. The entire goal of the Manhattan Project was to develop atomic bombs to drop on Germany before Germany developed atomic bombs to drop on America and her allies.

However, Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8^th, 1945. The first atomic bomb was successfully tested on July 16^th, 1945, more than two months after Germany’s surrender. Germany was fortunate to have surrendered before the Manhattan Project bore the fruits that had been intended for Germany all along.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.