Did Hitler test a nuclear bomb in World War 2? Secret files describe ‘mushroom cloud’

The Nazis raced to develop a nuclear weapon during World War 2 – but recently declassified files hint they may have got closer than anyone believed.

A recently declassified file APO 696 from the National Archives in Washington obtained by the German newspaper Bild suggests that a basic warhead was tested in 1944.

The American report, prepared by scientists after the war, includes eyewitness reports from a test pilot, hans Zinsser, who claims to have seen a mushroom cloud near Ludwigslust in 1944.

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An Italian journalist Luigi Romersa also witnessed an explosion – after having been sent by Mussolini to watch the test of what was described as a ‘new weapon’.

Zinsser’s report, delivered to Allied investigators, says, ‘In early October 1944 I flew away 12-15 km from a nuclear test station near Ludwigslust (south of Lübeck).

‘A cloud shaped like a mushroom with turbulent, billowing sections (at about 7000 metres) stood, without any seeming connections over the spot where the explosion took place.

‘Strong electrical disturbances and the impossibility to continue radio communication as by lighting turned up.’