In Summer 1945, the Nazis planned to use nuclear weapons against the USSR
At least, that's what SA Gruppenführer Werner Wächter, one of the Third Reich's propaganda chiefs, believed after being interrogated by Soviet state security agencies on October 10, 1945.
Wächter had good connections among industrialists and secret weapons developers. Several months before Germany's capitulation, they allegedly convinced him that "intensified work was underway to produce the latest weapons, which would soon be used at the front."
According to the Gruppenführer, in Spring 1945, "aircraft of the latest design, with a long range”, were ready to enter service. They "were intended for the bombing of the industrial centers of the Soviet Union, located in the Urals and Central Asia, with atomic bombs".
During interrogation, Wächter stated that he did not know the exact timing of the use of nuclear weapons against the USSR, but believed it was to have occurred in June 1945. However, he had not personally visited any secret facilities and based all his conclusions on conversations with specialists.
The extent of Nazi Germany's advancement in weapons of mass destruction remains a contentious issue. However, the prevailing view is that, at the time of the collapse of the ‘Thousand-Year Reich’, the Nazis were still far from creating anything resembling an atomic bomb.
