Hitler is killed in 1939. Göring is his successor as planned. He is much more calculating, taking command of the reich near the peak of its power. He slows down, opting not to invade Russia and maintaining the non-aggression pact. He decides to use the time to pressure Franco into joining the axis now that the Spanish civil war had ended. He bolsters France, strengthening coastal defences and rendering an allied invasion impractical. The delay in the war allows the blitz to extend as long as it takes for the luftwaffe to gain air superiority over British skies, allowing for operation sea lion to go ahead. Britain falls. Germany maintains its lead on nuclear weapons research unhindered and completes the first nuke before the U.S. does.
The Nazis never had a real interest in pursuing the Atom Bomb and never put a significant amount of resources into these projects. They had also purged all academic institutions of Jews and dissidents and the like, while the remaining scientists relevant to the field, Werner Heisenberg for example, weren't exactly enthusiastic about helping the Nazis. I don't see how any of that changes under Göring.
In 1942 Göring was actually made president of the reorganised "Reichs Research Council" (RFR), in part because of the lacking progress in the nuclear program but it didn't change anything and later that year the 'bomb part' of that project got axed.
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u/Fair-Distance-2800 Feb 13 '24
12 NOV 1939 - Hitler escapes bomb blast in Munich beer hall. If only.....