> [The atomic bomb] could well have been put in the
> hands of Germany, but America beat them to the punch.

From what I've read, one of the reasons the Nazis failed to get a working Bomb was that the limited amount of fissionable material available was split between multiple groups, each of which was tasked separately with building a Bomb. Happily for the Allies, no one German group had enough uranium for a sustained chain reaction to take place.

As for beating them to the punch: By the time the Allies had a couple of working Bombs to hand, Germany had surrendered. So they used them anyway, partly to find out what happened, but mainly as demonstration atrocities.* Somehow I doubt that the Russians have ever forgiven the West for that.

* ObReference: Isaac Asimov, "The Finger of God", collected in The Sun Shines Bright.