By all the accounts i am aware of it was never considered as an option while they were developing it, except for Roosevelt floating the idea once. Turns out making part of one of the richest cities in europe radioactive was unpopular with the Russians and Brits.

Alex Wellerstein discusses the evidence here, but the bottom line is that it was clear long before May 1945 that the war in Europe would be over before the bomb would be ready.

It wasnt. Not until the last couple of months...mostly following Battle of Remagen. All besides the point. They discounted nuking Berlin because of the projected radioactivity taking out one of europes cultural centers and all that loot well before the bomb was completed.

Plus Stalin would have been **pissed**

Did that discounting of using a nuke on Germany come prior to D-Day? I'm wondering if there was the same line of thought of losing men on an invasion vs. using a nuke as there was w/ Japan

Ehhh, D-Day was probably way too early for them to be considering that compared to when the bomb project was actually completed now that I think about it.

That line of thought is a post-war rationalisation. The plan was to bomb Japan with everything they had until a ground invasion was ready, then invade. It wasn't either/or, it was everything and the kitchen sink until Japan surrendered.

I think that's rational, though. If the bombs didn't do it what other option was there? A blockade would take too long, kill a huge # of people, and give the Soviets a chance to enter.

*They already were under blockade - I mean to just sit and wait for them to completely starve

It was clear before the Yalta conference. Tbh, even in the counterfactual where the bomb is ready in time, it's not hard to see why Berlin itself would be an unlikely target by looking at a map. But who is the "they" you talk about, and when and where did they make this decision you describe?

Generals, Admirals, those in charge of actual strategy and deployment, instead of the politicians. This is all moot regardless, the point is that outsourcing your understanding of a topic to a machine that lies to you is not how you earn the right to have your opinions,or self, taken seriously

Ah, I was hoping for some specific historical data, but never mind.

Goddammit autocorrect turned "slopbots" into "slope" This is why you can't have machines doing things humanity can do better. Like think.

I suppose i could go look up specific names and locations, but really not the point. Like I said FDR is on the record floating it well before completion I'm sure the advisors who dissuaded him at the time are there in the record also. I wouldn't ask the slope though. I prefer actual sources.