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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.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:14AM (2 children)
My understanding is the Germans either forced all the Jews (read: people who could make the bomb) out of the country in the 30's, or killed them in the 40s. I've never before heard from a reputable source that Hitler was anywhere near making a nuke.
IMHO, it's a sad footnote to our nations history that we turned back the ships full of jews from Europe in '39 and thereabouts.
/ caravan of poors from south of Mexico heading north?
// no comment.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:38AM (1 child)
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 .
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:09AM
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!