PeterN wrote:

Snip


Based upon past history, the USSR would not have entered the war had we
not been on the point of invading Japan.

The war against Japan that is.

If Japan had greater front line
capability, it would have taken us longer to get to that point. Whether
we would have dropped the bomb anyway, is speculative. Remember we only
had two of them.


Only having two bombs in August 1945 was not quite true, and has become
part of the mythology of the end of the war. In actuality the 509th
Composite Group, the B-29 Group lead by Paul Tibbets only had two assembled
bombs on Tinian. However, there were additional spare assemblies on Tinian,
and the three unused assemblies, F101, F102, and F103 were shipped back to
Los Alamos in September 1945. All other components were dumped in the
mid-Pacific.

Those were not the only available bombs as the Group had 15 additional bomb
assemblies ready for shipment to the Pacific at Wendover Army Airfield,
Utah, and material for more at Hanford, by the time "Fat Man" and "Little
Boy" were dropped on Japan.

Bomb assembly was part of "Project Alberta" which started at Wendover in
March 1945. This was a sub-project of the Manhattan Project and was also
headed by General Leslie Groves. It also played a part in shipping the
bombs to Tinian, the assembly there, and the in-flight arming of the bombs
in the air on the way to the targets.


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Regards,
Savageduck