Nuclear Weapons help

[nbcman]

Not the case here, this is not OTL war, as per the OP.

No need for Uboats, no need for bunkers at the Atlantic Coast, no need for Panzer 3s (if you cant ship them anywhere...).

I read the two factions as the following:

I'm currently writing a TL where WW2 is between Fascist USA, Italy, Japan and a Militaristic Authoritarian Germany and (versus) the UK + Empire/Dominions, France + Empire, the USSR, Mexico and assorted others like Brazil and China

The multiple ands without a versus or a similar word makes the scenario described in the first post confusing. Can the OP clarify it please?

 

[King_Arthur]

Its USA/Italyish/Japan/Germany vs France/UK/USSR/Mexico

 

[McPherson]

Too much handwavium being thrown around. I think the German power grid is incapable. Others have pointed out the coal issues. I disagree savagely about Fermi. He would not cooperate with Germans, whether of the bent cross variety or iron cross retreads. America? M.O.N.E.Y. Might be bitten by the emigration bug.

Teller would follow the money. Oppenheimer is American, he's not going to England and we still come back to the organizational skills needed and expertise colluded. Not seeing it outside Russia, ITTL. It was a miracle America gathered it together.

 

[anotherlurker]

The ambiguity of the English language strikes again i suppose.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

So no-one gets it in the 39-45 time period?

Reviewing some of what was actually accomplished to 1939 OTL...

The French had the Curie institute, where a lot of Practical experience had been acquired. The French were far enough along that in 1939 they started collecting the refugee physicists from Germany, Hungary, ect... and putting them back to work. They also contracted for all of Norsk Hydros Heavy Water Production. Its outside the OP, but in March 1940 all the Heavy Water at Norsk Hydro was shipped to France. The Belgian Uranium mining company had also shipped 1,300 tons or raw ore from the Congo to Belgium. Apparently most or all of that was destined for the Curie Institute. Draw your own conclusions.

In the US the Dept of the Navy authorized the Navy Bureau of Propulsion to stat a research project on atomic power. Funds were budgeted. In 1942 the Navy research was rolled into the MANHATTAN Project. I've not run across and descriptions of how much progress was made at the Philidelphia Navy Yard.

Given how late practical work was started in Germany & Britain, and the limited resources of Japan and Italy I'm making the wild guess France and the US get to experimental reactors well ahead of anyone else in the 1940s. The USSR is the unknown here. I have no information on how far along their research was.