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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the RIP dept.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-roenneberg/man-who-foiled-nazi-nuclear-plan-dies-aged-99-idUSKCN1MV0R1

Joachim Roenneberg, serving behind enemy lines in his native Norway during the German occupation, in 1943 blew up a plant producing heavy water, or D2O, a hydrogen-rich substance that was key to the later development of atomic bombs.

Picked by Britain's war-time Special Operations Executive to lead the raid when he was only 23 years old, Roenneberg was the youngest member of Operation Gunnerside, which penetrated and destroyed key parts of the heavily guarded Norsk Hydro plant.

The subject of books and documentaries as well as movies and a TV drama series, the attack took place without a single shot fired.

https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/operation-gunnerside

At the very least, Operation Gunnerside should be recognized as one of the most successful SOE missions during World War II. For a mission that Rønneberg and his squad frequently imagined as a one-way trip, the operation experienced no casualties and succeeded in temporarily destroying the Germans' single source of heavy water at the time. During wartime, time is of the essence and any kind of setback has disadvantages. Rønneberg later commented that London could have suffered a different fate and ended up 'looking like Hiroshima' if his team had failed.


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  • (Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:38AM (1 child)

    by qzm (3260) on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:38AM (#752718)

    The German scientists involved (those who had stayed) were very very certain that a chain reaction would not stay contained long enough to create any form of explosion.
    To the point that they engaged in public arguments (via scientific journals) claiming it was not possible.
    Their research was all aimed at slow reactors for energy production.
    But hey, why let actual facts get in the way of a good story .

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:09AM

    by Rich (945) on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:09AM (#752741) Journal

    Heisenberg apparently not only knew a bomb would work, but he also knew that reactor-produced plutonium ("Eka-Osmium") might be a viable explosive. From a 1967 print of "Der Spiegel": "Dann, so Heisenberg am 26. Februar 1942 in Berlin-Steglitz, erhalte man einen Sprengstoff "von ganz unvorstellbarer Wirkung": Im Bruchteil einer Sekunde würde Energie von 15 Billionen Kalorien pro Tonne frei." ; "am 4. Juni 1942 ... ... kam Heisenberg sogleich auf die militärischen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der Kernspaltung zu sprechen -- auf Uran 235 und auf Plutonium. Heisenberg: 'Etwa so groß wie eine Ananas.' Er bezog sich auf die Explosivladung und demonstrierte ihren Umfang mit den Händen." (cf. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46251967.html [spiegel.de])

    Weirdly, the main reason the Germans didn't get the atomic bomb first probably is a mis-measurement of the neutron diffusion length in graphite done by Walther Bothe in Göttingen. It would probably also have helped not to force their anti-semitic lunacy on the Italians, in turn causing Enrico Fermi to emigrate, because he had a jewish wife - the guy was a member of the Italian Fascist Party in the first place!