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193-482: The Alsos Mission was an organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during World War II . Its chief focus to investigate the progress that Nazi Germany was making in the area of nuclear technology , and to seize any German nuclear resources that would either be of use to the Manhattan Project or worth denying to

386-637: A Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron , promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria , again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on

579-439: A Thompson submachine gun was purposely left behind to indicate that this was the work of British forces and not the local resistance. When the fuses were about to be lit, the caretaker was worried about his spectacles (which were somewhere in the room; during the war, new eyeglasses were nearly impossible to obtain). A frantic search ensued; the spectacles were found, and the fuses lit. The explosive charges detonated, destroying

772-564: A cautious French probe into the Saarland . The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany , which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic . On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw . The Polish counter-offensive to

965-622: A byproduct of nitrogen fixing ), with a capacity of 12 tonnes per year. Before the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, the French Deuxième Bureau removed 185 kilograms (408 lb) of heavy water from the Vemork plant in then-neutral Norway. The plant's managing director agreed to lend France the heavy water for the duration of the war. The French transported it secretly to Oslo , then to Perth, Scotland , and then to France. The plant

1158-407: A large cascade of electrolysis chambers, and consumes large amounts of power. Since excess power was available, heavy water could be purified from the existing electrolyte. Norsk Hydro became the heavy-water supplier for the world's scientific community, as a by-product of fertilizer production for which the ammonia was used. Hans Suess , a German adviser on the production of heavy water, had assessed

1351-467: A meeting with Lieutenant General Bedell Smith and Major General Harold Bull of SHAEF ; Major General Elbridge Chapman , the commander of the U.S. 13th Airborne Division ; Pash, Furman, and Goudsmit of Alsos; and Brigadier General Reuben E. Jenkins from the Sixth Army Group. The plan, codenamed Operation Effective , called for the 13th Airborne Division to occupy the area to prevent its capture by

1544-587: A nuclear reactor, and eight tons of uranium oxide. Scientists captured at Göttingen and Katlenburg-Lindau included Werner Osenberg, the chief of the planning board of the Reichsforschungsrat , and Fritz Houtermans , who provided information about the Soviet atomic bomb project . At Celle , the Alsos Mission uncovered an experimental centrifuge for separating uranium isotopes, the result of work undertaken at

1737-518: A number of the barrels was too small to be of value to a weapons program, however, which might explain the lack of tight security around the shipment and why the ferry was not searched for bombs. In the film The Heroes of Telemark , the locomotive and train is shown covered with German soldiers; according to Ray Mears ' BBC Television coverage, the general in command had ordered this disposition of troops. Recent investigation of production records at Norsk Hydro and analysis of an intact barrel which

1930-402: A planned glider-borne landing on the frozen lake Møsvatn near the plant. Two Airspeed Horsa gliders, towed by Handley Page Halifax bombers (each glider carrying two pilots and 15 Royal Engineers of the 9th Field Company, 1st British Airborne Division ), took off from RAF Skitten near Wick, Caithness , Scotland . The towing of gliders, always hazardous, was worse in this case because of

2123-402: A practical process for uranium enrichment . For the first time the Alsos Mission was able to categorically report that a German nuclear weapon was not a threat, as it had never gotten to a production phase. As Goudsmit put it later: "The conclusions were unmistakable. The evidence at hand proved definitely that Germany had no atom bomb and was not likely to have one in any reasonable time." When

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2316-514: A pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte . The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of

2509-765: A pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig , and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson , Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as

2702-649: A production phase. After the defeat of Japan, an Alsos mission was sent in to evaluate its nuclear program as well. The Manhattan Project was the Allied nuclear weapons research-and-development program, operated during and immediately after World War II, led by the United States with contributions principally from the United Kingdom and Canada. Brigadier General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers became its director in September 1942. The project operated under

2895-428: A project in 1933 (the year heavy water was first isolated). It was accepted by Norsk Hydro, and production began in 1935. The technology is straightforward. Heavy water (D 2 O) is separated from normal water by electrolysis, because the difference in mass between the two hydrogen isotopes translates into a slight difference in the speed at which the reaction proceeds. To produce pure heavy water by electrolysis requires

3088-549: A sealed drum of documents was retrieved from a cesspool, and three drums of heavy water and 1.5 tons of uranium ingots were found buried in a field. The uranium and heavy water were loaded onto trucks. The apertures in the cellar were blown up with minor explosions to prevent their capture by the French. Werner Heisenberg, "Germany's Oppenheimer " according to Gregg Herken , remained at large, having left Hechingen on 19 April. On 1 May, Pash set out in pursuit of Heisenberg with ten men in

3281-469: A secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland , Finland, Estonia , Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of

3474-543: A similar conclusion, and had procured additional heavy water from Vemork in January 1940. The German firm IG Farben , a partial owner of Norsk Hydro, had ordered 100 kg (220 lb) per month; Norsk Hydro's maximum production rate was then limited to 10 kg (22 lb) per month. The Deuxième Bureau (French military intelligence) directed three French agents (Captain Muller and Lieutenants Mossé and Knall-Demars) to remove

3667-743: A similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory . In June 1940,

3860-728: A small team jointly staffed by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), the Manhattan Project, and Army Intelligence (G-2). Its assignment was to investigate enemy scientific developments, including nuclear weapons research. Groves was not pleased with the codename (derived from ἄλσος , the Greek word for " grove "), but decided that changing it would only draw unwanted attention. The Chief of Army Intelligence, Major General George V. Strong , appointed Lieutenant Colonel Boris Pash to command

4053-433: A substantial portion of the German research effort's surviving records and equipment. They also took most of the senior German research personnel into custody, including Otto Hahn , Max von Laue , Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker . By November-December 1944, they had concluded that there was no threat of a German atomic bomb, and that the German nuclear program had only reached an experimental phase, not

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4246-518: A tight blanket of security lest its discovery induce Axis powers , particularly Germany, to accelerate their own nuclear projects or to undertake covert operations against the project. Allied work on nuclear fission had been motivated by scientists, many of whom were refugees from Nazi Germany , who feared a German atomic bomb program was underway. The discovery of fission had taken place largely in Otto Hahn 's Berlin laboratory, and many scientists in

4439-413: A total of about 5 t (5.5 short tons) of heavy water to operate a nuclear reactor, and the manifest indicated that there was only 500 kg (0.55 short tons) of heavy water being transported to Germany. The Hydro was carrying too little heavy water to supply one reactor, let alone the 10 or more tons of heavy water needed to make enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon. The historical consensus about

4632-462: A two-front war, as it had in World War   I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it. In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as

4825-515: A twofold assignment: search for personnel, records, material, and sites to evaluate the above programs and prevent their capture by the Soviet Union . Alsos personnel followed close behind the front lines in Italy, France, and Germany, occasionally crossing into enemy-held territory to secure valuable resources before they could be destroyed or scientists escape or fall into rival hands. The Alsos Mission

5018-622: Is a first-hand account by Knut Haukelid , one of the Gunnerside raiders who remained behind. Jens-Anton Poulsson (Swallow and Grouse) wrote The Heavy Water Raid: The Race for the Atom Bomb 1942–1944 ( ISBN   9788245808698 ), a 2009 book. Operation Freshman is covered in two books: Richard Wiggan's 1986 Operation Freshman: The Rjukan Heavy Water Raid 1942 ( ISBN   9780718305710 ) and Jostein Berglyd's 2007 Operation Freshman: The Actions and

5211-546: Is more prevalent in the residue of water used as an electrolyte . An analysis of residues from the Vemork hydroelectric plant , a large-scale nitrate production plant using the Haber process , showed a hydrogen-to-deuterium ratio of 48 (most of the deuterium bound in HDO molecules). Norwegian Institute of Technology lecturer Leif Tronstad and Jomar Brun , head of the hydrogen plant, proposed

5404-558: Is the subject of Assault in Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program ( ISBN   9781585747504 ), a 2002 book by Thomas Gallagher based on interviews with many of the commandos. An account of Operation Gunnerside is part of Neal Bascomb's 2016 The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb ( ISBN   9780544368057 ). Damien Lewis 's book Hunting Hitler's Nukes: The Secret Race to Stop

5597-503: The Reichsforschungsrat (National Research Council) in 1942; by Abraham Esau , who had been in charge of nuclear physics under the Reichsforschungsrat ; and by Walter Gerlach , who had replaced him in January 1944. Other German physicists who had used the facilities included Kurt Diebner , Walther Bothe , and Erich Bagge , all of whom were known to be associated with the German nuclear project. Meanwhile, T-Force had moved into

5790-581: The Airborne Museum at Aldershot , which became part of the Imperial War Museum Duxford . After the failed Freshman attempt, the Germans placed mines, floodlights, and additional guards surrounding the plant. Although the mines and lights remained in place, security at the plant had weakened over the winter. The 75 m (246 ft) bridge spanning the deep ravine 200 m (660 ft) above

5983-775: The Allies , and was now head of the Italian Provisional Military Government, who gave him a letter of introduction addressed to Italian civil and military authorities. Alsos interviewed the Italian Minister for Communications, the Chief of Naval Ordnance, the staff of the Italian Naval Academy, and Italian scientists at the University of Naples , and examined what captured technical documents could be found. There

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6176-588: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression . The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had

6369-556: The Battle of the Bulge cast doubts on the Alsos Mission's own findings. A four-man team under Eckman was sent to investigate a suspiciously devastating V-2 explosion near Antwerp, and Fred Wardenburg had to confirm that it was not a small nuclear explosion. Rumors that Germany had an atomic bomb persisted as late as March 1945, but all signs pointed to the lack of a production program. On March 16, Groves wrote to Bissell that "the most complete and factual information we have obtained bearing on

6562-662: The British Empire , with fighting in the Balkans , Mediterranean, and Middle East , the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz , and naval Battle of the Atlantic . Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy , Japan , and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of

6755-566: The German Revolution of 1918–1919 , and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic , was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into

6948-766: The German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France 's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria , on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor , who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and

7141-509: The German nuclear weapons program is that it was a long way from producing a bomb, even if the Norwegian heavy water had been produced and shipped at the maximum rate. However, the unsuccessful Operation Freshman and the efforts of the saboteurs in Swallow, Grouse and Gunnerside made the secret war on heavy-water production internationally known. Joachim Rønneberg , the last surviving member of

7334-773: The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research , the Institute for Materials Research , Tokyo Shibaura Denki ( Toshiba ), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science , the National Research Council, and the Board of Technology. The mission, which included Karl Compton , interviewed over 300 Japanese scientists and produced reports on Japanese research into radar , rockets, and other developments, including chemical and biological warfare. The Manhattan Project Intelligence Group, under

7527-567: The Italian mainland , and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy , while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled

7720-537: The Japanese Navy and captured key islands . The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories ; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide ; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 . Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration ,

7913-682: The League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant . The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria . When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to

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8106-693: The Nationalist rebels , led by General Francisco Franco . Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic . More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades , also fought against

8299-822: The Petit Palais . The main body of the Alsos Mission soon followed, and the Mission opened an office at the Place de l'Opéra . On 5 September, word was received that the British 21st Army Group was about to enter Brussels . There were two important Alsos Mission objectives in Belgium: the corporate headquarters of Union Minière du Haut Katanga , the world's largest supplier of uranium ore, in Antwerp , and its uranium processing plant in Olen . A six-man Alsos Mission team set out to secure them, led by Pash and

8492-510: The Rome–Berlin Axis . A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact , which Italy joined the following year. The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords . In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan , which had long sought influence in China as

8685-491: The Soviet Union . It also investigated German chemical and biological weapon development and the means to deliver them, and any other advanced Axis technology it was able to get information about in the course of the other investigations (such as the V-2 rocket program). The Alsos Mission was created after the September 1943 Allied invasion of Italy as part of the Manhattan Project 's mission to coordinate foreign intelligence related to enemy nuclear activity. The team had

8878-409: The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border. Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that

9071-421: The Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation ; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe , drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact

9264-523: The Sudetenland , an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement , which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed

9457-428: The Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria , and Chahar and Suiyuan . After the 1936 Xi'an Incident , the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with

9650-466: The Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia. Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded

9843-506: The Treaty of Craiova . The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu , with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden , which

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10036-472: The U.S. Eighth Air Force dropped 1,500 tons of high explosive and 178 tons of incendiary bombs on the plant. On 30 March, the Alsos Mission reached Heidelberg , where important scientists were captured including Walther Bothe , Richard Kuhn , Philipp Lenard , and Wolfgang Gertner . Their interrogation revealed that Otto Hahn was at his laboratory in Tailfingen, while Werner Heisenberg and Max von Laue were at Heisenberg's laboratory in Hechingen, and

10229-401: The United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , in which they had agreed on " spheres of influence " in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania . After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and

10422-450: The University of California, Berkeley , who knew the leading Japanese physicists personally, there were too few Japanese qualified to work in the area. In December 1943, the Alsos Mission reached Algiers , where Pash reported to the Chief of Staff at Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ), Major General Walter B. Smith , and his British Chief of Intelligence, Brigadier Kenneth Strong . This was awkward as Pash's instructions were not to give

10615-459: The University of Hamburg by a team under Paul Harteck . The problem with the targets in the Württemberg area was that they not only lay in the path of the French First Army 's advance, but were also in the occupation zone allocated to France . Groves attempted to get the occupation boundaries changed, but the State Department wanted to know why first, and Groves refused to provide this information. Groves, Marshall, and Stimson then decided that

10808-444: The University of Rome and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche , to be secured. The Alsos Mission to Italy was reconstituted under the command of Pash's deputy, Major Richard C. Ham, and Johnson and Major Robert R. Furman were sent from the United States to join him. They reached Rome on 19 June, and over the next weeks interviewed scientists including Edoardo Amaldi , Gian-Carlo Wick , and Francesco Giordani . The picture that

11001-402: The University of Strasbourg , as was Eugen Haagen  [ de ] , an expert on viruses whose work was of great concern to the Alsos Mission's Biological Warfare section. The Naval section was interested in the torpedo research being carried out there, and jet engine development was being undertaken at Strasbourg's Junkers plant. On 22 November, the U.S. Sixth Army Group notified

11194-426: The Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment. On 10 June, Italy invaded France , declaring war on both France and

11387-451: The aftermath of World War I and the rise of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan . Key events leading up to the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria , the Spanish Civil War , the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland . World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany , under Adolf Hitler , invaded Poland , prompting

11580-412: The railway ferry Hydro . The Real Heroes of Telemark: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Stop Hitler's Atomic Bomb , a 2003 book by Ray Mears ( ISBN   0-340-83016-6 ), emphasises the Norwegian commandos' unique survival skills. The book is a companion volume to The Real Heroes of Telemark , a BBC television documentary series. Skis Against the Atom ( ISBN   0-942323-07-6 )

11773-404: The reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War   II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 , which also restored full diplomatic relations between them. World War I had radically altered

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11966-605: The strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths , more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides , including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany , Austria , Japan , and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders . The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in

12159-764: The 1269th Engineer Combat Battalion at Freudenstadt . The intact bridge over the Neckar River at Horb was crossed and Haigerloch was occupied without opposition on 22 April. The main body of Task Force A arrived on 23 April. In a laboratory in a cellar they found a German experimental nuclear reactor shaped like a cylinder and made of graphite blocks, but the uranium and heavy water were missing. The scientists immediately began dismantling it. Pash left Hambro in charge, while he led troops of Task Force A to Bisingen , and then on to Hechingen, where 25 scientists were captured, including Weizsäcker, Laue, Karl Wirtz , Horst Korsching and Erich Bagge. At Tailfingen they took Otto Hahn and nine members of his staff into custody. At Haigerloch,

12352-513: The Aftermath ( ISBN   9789197589598 ). Richard Rhodes 's Pulitzer Prize -winning book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb , includes details of the events. Leo Marks ' 1998 book, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's Story 1941–1945 ( ISBN   0-684-86780-X ), also details the story. Marks (SOE's cryptographer) knew the Norwegian team, trained them in cryptography so they could communicate with SOE in England, and followed their progress after they were dropped in Norway. The raid

12545-409: The Allies were attempting to cut off . Denmark capitulated after six hours , and despite Allied support , Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10   May 1940. On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France . To circumvent

12738-448: The Allies' own efforts. In its appropriation of the accomplishments of European science, the Alsos Mission played a small part in the wartime and subsequent scientific and technological developments that characterized and transformed the postwar world. World War II Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945)

12931-419: The Alsos Mission built up indicated that the German effort was not far advanced. In December 1943, Groves sent Furman to Britain to discuss the establishment of a London Liaison Office for the Manhattan Project with the British government, and to confer over coordinating the intelligence effort. Lieutenant Commander Eric Welsh , the head of the Norwegian Section of MI6 , was unimpressed with Furman's grasp of

13124-399: The Alsos Mission detachment also met up with the detachment that had been sent to Italy, which now rejoined them. The remaining 49 tons of the original shipment to France were never found. Information gathered in Rennes, Paris, and Eindhoven pointed to Strasbourg as a place of particular interest. Physicists Rudolf Fleischmann and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker were known to be working at

13317-467: The Alsos Mission had returned to the United States. The Alsos Mission had gathered little of value about nuclear matters, but submitted detailed reports about German rockets and guided missiles. Rome fell on 4 June 1944. When the news came that its fall was imminent, Pash was ordered from London to Italy. He flew back to Italy and entered the city with S-Force on 5 June. Pash took key scientists into custody and arranged for sites targeted by Alsos, including

13510-433: The Alsos Mission that the capture of Strasbourg was imminent, and it should join T-Force in Saarburg , where it was preparing to enter the city. The Alsos Mission joined T-Force in Strasbourg on 25 November. The German nuclear laboratory was discovered on the grounds of the Strasbourg Hospital, where the physicists attempted to pass themselves off as medics. Fleischmann was taken into custody, but Weizsäcker and Haagen had fled

13703-591: The Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, at ETOUSA , Colonel G. Bryan Conrad . On reaching Brussels, they made contact with Lieutenant Colonel David Strangeways , the commander of R Force , who provided them with an escort of Royal Air Force armored vehicles. They entered Antwerp on 7 September and found the office of Union Minière. They discovered that over 1,000 tons of refined uranium had been sent to Germany, but about 150 tons still remained at Olen. They set out for Olen, where they located 68 tons, but another 80 tons were missing, having been shipped to France in 1940 ahead of

13896-518: The Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union . In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta , a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt . In October, Italy attacked Greece , but the attack

14089-521: The Blitz , but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy , using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic . The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27   May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck . In November 1939,

14282-547: The British tramp steamer Broompark (one of the many merchant ships involved in saving over 200,000 troops and civilians in the three weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation ). The ship already had industrial diamonds, machinery and a number of British evacuees aboard. The Broompark delivered its passengers and cargo, including the global stockpile of heavy water, to Falmouth, Cornwall on 21 June. The award of an OBE to Captain Paulsen

14475-437: The British information about the Alsos Mission, but it turned out that Strong was already fully aware of it. It was arranged that Pash would deal with Strong's American deputy, Colonel Thomas E. Roderick . The Alsos Mission then moved on to Italy, where it was assigned to Major General Kenyon A. Joyce 's Allied Control Commission . Pash met with Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio , the man who had negotiated Italy's surrender to

14668-659: The European Axis declaring war on the US. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia , but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway ; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and

14861-675: The French possessions of Syria and Lebanon , assisted by the Free French . With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia , the two powers signed

15054-636: The French, and seize an airfield that could be used to fly in an Alsos Mission team, and later to fly it out, along with captured German scientists. Operation Effective was scheduled for 22 April. Meanwhile, Devers took steps to delay the French advance. The Alsos Mission had learned that the uranium ores that had been taken from Belgium in 1944 had been shipped to the Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft (WiFO) plant in Staßfurt . The 83rd Infantry Division captured this on 15 April. As it

15247-617: The German Operation Nordwind offensive threatened Strasbourg, Pash ordered all captured documents to be removed. Papers indicating the nature of the Alsos Mission were removed or destroyed. Although Strasbourg was not abandoned by the Allies, and ultimately did not fall, the Alsos Mission departed the city on 8 January 1945. Pash even ordered an evacuation plan to be prepared for the Alsos Mission's main headquarters in Paris. The embarrassing series of intelligence failures that had led up to

15440-651: The German force, which numbered about 700, offered to surrender. Pash returned on 3 May with the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Infantry , which took them prisoner, while Pash and his Alsos Mission team took Heisenberg into custody. By VE day , the Alsos Mission had a strength of 114 men and women. It was officially disbanded on 15 October 1945. German scientists that had been captured by the Alsos Mission were held in several camps, separate from other prisoners of war . After VE Day, SHAEF decided to concentrate them in an internment camp at Kransberg Castle , codenamed "Dustbin", as part of Operation Epsilon . At Welsh's instigation, ten of

15633-481: The German invasion of Belgium. The capture of Eindhoven by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division allowed early access to another high priority target, the Philips plant there. Brigadier Edgar Williams , the 21st Army Group's Chief of Intelligence, facilitated the Alsos Mission's detour to Eindhoven, where it was able to interview Dutch scientists. Williams also furnished a detachment of Royal Engineers to transport and move

15826-563: The German plan to remove the heavy water, and was advised to muster support and destroy the shipment. Haukelid recruited two people, and they decided to sabotage a ferry which would be carrying the heavy water across Lake Tinn on the Tinnsjø railway ferry . One of his recruits recognized a ferry-crew member and spoke with him, taking an opportunity to slip into the bottom of the ship, plant the bomb and slip away. Eight-and-a-half kilograms of plastic explosives (with two alarm-clock fuses) were fixed to

16019-420: The Germans had spent on their whole project. In the end, the Alsos Mission contributed little to the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany, because the German nuclear and biological weapons programs that it had been formed to investigate turned out to be smaller and less threatening than had been feared. In the field of nuclear weapons development at least, the underfunded and disorganized German program lagged far behind

16212-458: The Germans to Allied interest in their heavy-water production. The surviving Norwegian Grouse team had a long wait in their mountain hideaway, subsisting on moss and lichen until they captured a reindeer just before Christmas. British authorities, aware that the Grouse team was still operational, decided to mount another operation with them; by this time, the Grouse team was known as Swallow. On

16405-606: The Germans west of the Rhine . Pash, who was promoted to colonel on 6 March, led an Alsos Mission detachment into Cologne on 7 March, but little additional information was found. The interrogation of German prisoners indicated that uranium and thorium were being processed in Germany, mostly at the Auergesellschaft plant at Oranienburg , so Groves arranged for the plant to be bombed on 15 March 1945. Some 612 B-17 Flying Fortresses of

16598-480: The Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6   October . Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of

16791-493: The Germans. They searched the University of Rennes and found some documents there on 21 August. The rest of the advance party of the Alsos Mission moved to Normandy in August 1944, where it joined T-Force , a similar formation to S-Force, at Rambouillet , where it was preparing for the liberation of Paris . An Alsos Mission team including Pash and Calvert reached Joliot-Curie's house in the Paris suburbs on 24 August to find that he

16984-400: The Gunnerside team, died on 21 October 2018 at age 99. A statue of him, along with a plaque commemmorating Operation Gunnerside, stands near the harbour in his hometown of Alesund. The New York Times reported that at 95, Rønneberg was "still mentally sharp ... and possessed of the unflappable calm that so impressed British military commanders more than 70 years ago." Einar Skinnarland

17177-588: The Halifax pilot decided to abort the operation and return to base. Shortly afterward, the tug and glider experienced heavy turbulence and the tow rope broke. The glider crash-landed near the crash site of the other glider, killing and injuring several more people. The Norwegians were unable to reach the crash sites in time; the survivors were captured by the Gestapo , who tortured and later had them executed under Adolf Hitler 's Commando Order . The unsuccessful raid alerted

17370-505: The Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War   II but generally favoured the Axis . His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front . In July 1937, Japan captured

17563-539: The Nazi Bomb ( ISBN   9781786482082 ), also published that year, details the raid and the sinking of the SF Hydro . The 2018 book, Heroes of Telemark; Sabotaging Hitler's atomic bomb, Norway 1942–44 by David Greentree ( ISBN   9781472827678 ), describes the operation's planning, execution and aftermath. The Swedish power metal band Sabaton wrote the song "Saboteurs" on their 2010 album Coat of Arms about

17756-554: The Norwegian Grouse team were delayed in contacting SOE team; the Norwegians had been dropped at the wrong place, however, and had gone off course several times. The secret question was, "What did you see in the early morning of (a day)?" The Grouse team replied, "Three pink elephants." The British were ecstatic at the success of Grouse, and the next phase of the operations began. On 19 November 1942, Operation Freshman followed with

17949-681: The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Major William Allis , originally from MIT although then serving on the War Department scientific staff. The Manhattan Project intelligence staff believed that the Japanese atomic program was not far advanced because Japan had little access to uranium ore , the industrial effort required exceeded Japan's capacity, and, according to American physicists at

18142-505: The Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto , and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan . Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel 's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged

18335-584: The Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region . In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to

18528-735: The Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains. Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific , and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China . In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific , including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii , which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and

18721-520: The Soviet Union and Mongolia . The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron , which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed

18914-738: The Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine , the Baltic states and Byelorussia . However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued

19107-539: The U.S. 1269th Engineer Combat Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Wilbur White, less its Company B. Sir Charles Hambro decided to accompany the Alsos Mission with a British group that included Michael Perrin, David Gattiker, Eric Welsh, and Rupert Cecil. Lansdale accompanied Task Force A as Groves' representative, and Brigadier General Eugene L. Harrison , the G-2 from the Sixth Army Group, as Devers' representative. The Alsos Mission set out on 20 April and rendezvoused with

19300-451: The US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago , the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria , Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945 , marking

19493-568: The United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence ; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece . Shortly after the Franco - British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel . Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced

19686-489: The United Kingdom attacked on 3   July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany. The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours . The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain . The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in

19879-455: The United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14   June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany ; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones , and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime , which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which

20072-496: The United States held the work of German scientists, especially Werner Heisenberg , in high regard. Fear that they were in a "race" for the atomic bomb was one of the main reasons for the establishment of the Manhattan Project and acceleration of the Allied effort. The Chancellor of Germany , Adolf Hitler , frequently claimed that Germany was developing secret weapons, and it was feared that these might include nuclear weapons. Reports of German nuclear activity were taken seriously. At

20265-640: The United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased . In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases . Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in

20458-448: The Vemork plant as incapable of producing militarily-useful quantities of heavy water in less than five years at its capacity at the time. French research considered the production of Pu using reactors moderated by heavy water and graphite. Preliminary French research indicated that the graphite then available commercially was not pure enough to serve the purpose, and heavy water would be required. The German research community had reached

20651-590: The Yellow River ; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan , but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war. In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with

20844-530: The area would have to be secured by American troops that would carry off what they could and destroy everything else. Pash was sent to ask General Jacob Devers , the commander of the U.S. Sixth Army Group , if the zones of the French First Army and the U.S. Seventh Army could be swapped around. He was informed that the matter would have to be taken up with Eisenhower. Groves dispatched Lieutenant Colonel John Lansdale Jr. to Europe, where he participated in

21037-456: The capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese . In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang , but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding

21230-592: The city. Documents discovered in Weizsäcker's office, Fleischmann's laboratory and the Strasbourg Hospital pointed to nuclear activities taking place at Stadtilm , Haigerloch , Hechingen , and Tailfingen . After establishing its headquarters in Haagen's office Alsos staff uncovered documents concerning secret medical experiments at Natzweiler concentration camp. These indicated the Germans had been unable to develop

21423-524: The college, where they found Joliot-Curie in his office. Goudsmit interviewed Joliot-Curie in Paris on 27 August. Accompanied by Calvert, Joliot-Curie was flown to London where Perrin and Goudsmit interviewed him about the activities of German scientists. Joliot-Curie recalled visits to the College, which had a cyclotron , by German scientists including Erich Schumann , who had initiated the German nuclear project, and controlled it until it had been handed over to

21616-449: The command of Philip Morrison , arrived in Japan in September 1945 and examined Japan's wartime nuclear weapons program. The group concluded that lack of uranium ore and low priority had doomed the Japanese effort. They reported that, contrary to American belief, Japan's nuclear physicists were competent. After seeing the German project at Haigerloch , Goudsmit wrote that: It was so obvious

21809-403: The conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an " arsenal of democracy " and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it

22002-515: The creation of a " New Roman Empire ". Adolf Hitler , after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of

22195-547: The deputy commander. Captain Henry A. Schade was appointed as the head of the naval contingent. Groves and Vannevar Bush , the head of OSRD, selected the scientific staff, and appointed Samuel Goudsmit , a University of Michigan physicist with a good command of several western European languages, as its head. Goudsmit had not been working on the Manhattan Project, and therefore could not reveal any of its secrets if captured. The British considered creating their own rival mission, but in

22388-558: The directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union. Norwegian heavy water sabotage Finland Iceland Norway The Norwegian heavy water sabotage ( Bokmål : Tungtvannsaksjonen ; Nynorsk : Tungtvassaksjonen ) was a series of Allied-led efforts to halt German heavy water (deuterium) production via hydroelectric plants in Nazi Germany-occupied Norway during World War II , involving both Norwegian commandos and Allied bombing raids. During

22581-443: The discovery spread quickly among physicists and it was realized that if chain reactions could be controlled, fission might be a new source of great power. What was needed was a substance which could moderate the energy of the secondary neutrons emitted by fission, so they could be captured by other fissile nuclei. Heavy water and graphite were the prime candidates for moderating neutron energy. When Nazi Germany investigated

22774-739: The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference . The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament , as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration. Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War   I , irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of

22967-505: The electrolysis chambers. The raid was considered successful. The entire inventory of heavy water produced during the German occupation, over 500 kg (1,102 lb), was destroyed with equipment critical to the operation of the electrolysis chambers. Although 3,000 German soldiers were dispatched to search the area for the commandos, all escaped; five commandos escaped by skiing 322 km (200 mi) to Sweden, two proceeded to Oslo (where they assisted Milorg ), and four remained in

23160-451: The end agreed to participate as a junior partner. Three Dutch and one Norwegian officer also served with the Alsos Mission. By the end of August it had seven officers and 33 scientists. On 5 August, Pash received a secret message from Washington, D.C., reporting that the French physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie had been sighted at his holiday home at L'Arcouest in Brittany . Joliot-Curie was at

23353-683: The end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia , which continued until the end of the war. In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria . Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied

23546-463: The end of the war. World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming

23739-505: The experimental natural uranium reactor that Heisenberg's team had built in Berlin had been moved to Haigerloch. Henceforth, the main focus of the Alsos Mission was on these nuclear facilities in the Württemberg area. As the Allied armies advanced into Germany in April 1945, Alsos Mission teams searched Stadtilm, where they found documentation concerning the German nuclear program, components of

23932-566: The first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia , staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo . China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai , Rehe and Hebei , until

24125-843: The former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident , which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany . From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan , engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou , and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan . Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai , but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing

24318-458: The front-line troops, the Alsos Mission would operate behind enemy lines. The Alsos Mission had taken delivery of two armored cars, four jeeps with machine gun mounts, and two .50 caliber machine guns . The other two jeeps would carry captured German machine guns. They would be accompanied by three unarmed jeeps. For the operation, codenamed Operation Big , Pash would command a special force called Task Force A, built around his Alsos Mission team and

24511-606: The instigation of the Manhattan Project, Norwegian saboteurs and Allied bombers attacked heavy-water infrastructure in German-occupied Norway in late 1942 and early 1943. Following the September 1943 Allied invasion of Italy , Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer , Chief of Staff of Army Service Forces , was concerned that intelligence activities related to foreign nuclear energy programs were not being properly coordinated. He feared that important items might be overlooked unless those responsible were properly briefed, yet at

24704-512: The invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia ) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy ( Regno d'Italia ), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea . The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of

24897-601: The keel of the SF ; Hydro , which would transport railway cars with drums of the heavy water across Lake Tinn. The ferry and its cargo sank in deep water shortly after its departure around midnight on 20 February 1944. Witnesses reported seeing steel drums floating after the ferry sank, leading to speculation that they did not really contain heavy water; an examination of records after the war showed that some barrels were only half-full, however, and would have floated. A few may have been salvaged and transported to Germany. Despite

25090-506: The long flight distance to Norway and poor visibility. One of the Halifax tugs crashed into a mountain, killing all seven aboard; its glider cast off but crashed nearby, resulting in several casualties. Although the other Halifax arrived at the vicinity of the landing zone, the zone could not be precisely identified because the link between the Eureka (ground) and Rebecca (aircraft) radar beacons failed. After many tries and with fuel running low,

25283-563: The main problem is securing sufficient weapons-grade material; it is particularly difficult to acquire fissile isotopes of uranium -235 ( U) or Pu. Weapons-grade uranium requires mining, extracting and enriching natural ore. Plutonium can be "bred" in reactors fueled by unenriched uranium, which requires chemical separation of the Pu produced. Although the most common isotope of uranium, uranium-238 ( U), can be used as secondary fissile material in hydrogen (fusion) bombs , it cannot be used as

25476-536: The military gliders (and one of their tugs , a Handley Page Halifax ) crashed short of their destination. Except for the crew of one Halifax bomber, all the participants were killed in the crashes or captured, interrogated and executed by the Gestapo . In February 1943, a team of SOE-trained Norwegian commandos destroyed the production facility in Operation Gunnerside; this was followed by Allied bombing raids. The Germans ceased operations, and attempted to move

25669-433: The mining and stockpiling of uranium and thorium ores. Little thorium was available in Germany or German-occupied Europe , and attention soon centered on the mines at Joachimsthal in Sudetenland (the German-annexed part of Czechoslovakia ). Aerial reconnaissance was carried out periodically, and production was measured by assessing the size of the piles of tailings . Groves warned General Dwight D. Eisenhower of

25862-400: The mission's intention to minimize casualties, 18 people were killed; 29 survived. The dead were 14 Norwegian crew and passengers and four German soldiers. A 2005 expedition retrieved a barrel, numbered "26", from the bottom of the lake. Its heavy-water contents matched the concentration noted in German records, confirming that the shipment was not a decoy. The concentration of heavy water in

26055-450: The nature of the German effort in our field"— the results of the Strasbourg mission — "tends to confirm our conclusion that the Germans are now behind us." A new forward headquarters, Alsos Forward North (AFwdN), was opened at Aachen , and on 8 February the Alsos Mission reopened its forward headquarters in Strasbourg as Alsos Forward South (AFwdS). In March, the U.S. Twelfth Army Group launched Operation Lumberjack , an offensive to clear

26248-427: The new head of G-2, Major General Clayton L. Bissell , at the urging of Groves and Furman, decided to create a new, even larger Alsos Mission for western Europe in March 1944. Pash assumed command of the new unit upon its official creation by the Secretary of War , Henry L. Stimson , on 4 April. The military staff for the new mission were selected by Bissell on Pash's advice. Lieutenant Colonel George R. Eckman became

26441-429: The news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , when they struggled to comprehend how the Allies had done what they could not. Plans for the invasion of Japan incorporated an Alsos Mission. Japanese fire balloon attacks on the United States had aroused fears that the technique might be used in combination with biological agents, which the Japanese Unit 731 was known to be experimenting with. In March 1945,

26634-477: The night of 16 February 1943, in Operation Gunnerside (named after the village of Gunnerside , where SOE head Charles Jocelyn Hambro and his family used to shoot grouse), an additional six Norwegian commandos were dropped by parachute by a 138 Squadron Halifax bomber from RAF Tempsford . They landed successfully, and found the Swallow team after a few days of searching on cross-country skis. The combined team made final preparations for their assault, scheduled for

26827-413: The night of 27–28 February 1943. Supplies required by the commandos were dropped with them in special CLE containers . One container was buried in the snow by a Norwegian patriot to hide it from the Germans; he later recovered it, and gave it to an officer of the British Army Air Corps (which was conducting exercises in the area) in August 1976. The container was brought back to England and displayed at

27020-564: The nuclear physicists, Bagge, Diebner, Gerlach, Hahn, Harteck, Heisenberg, Korsching, von Laue, von Weizsäcker and Wirtz, were brought to England. They were accommodated between 3 July 1945 and 3 January 1946 at Farm Hall , a house in Godmanchester , near Cambridge . The premises were thoroughly bugged to determine how close the German nuclear project had been to constructing an atomic bomb by listening in to their conversations and transcripts of their conversations were sent to Groves. The most interesting conversations occurred after they received

27213-447: The permanent members of its security council . The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers , setting the stage for the Cold War . In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia . Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion . World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with

27406-408: The physicist and seismologist L. Don Leet was appointed as head of the scientific section of the Alsos Mission to Japan. Leet had previously worked with the Manhattan Project on the Trinity nuclear test . Plans were drawn up to prepare and equip a T-Force along the lines of the one in Europe, but made up of personnel already in the Pacific. The mission differed from its European counterpart in that it

27599-438: The plant itself ( Operation Freshman ). On 18 October 1942, a four-man team of Special Operations Executive (SOE)-trained Norwegian commandos parachuted into Norway. Since they had to ski a long distance to the plant from their drop point in the wilderness, considerable time was allotted for Operation Grouse. Unlike previous failed plans, Grouse required the team to memorize blueprints. The British were suspicious, because

27792-432: The plant out of production in early 1943. In Operation Grouse , the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) successfully placed an advance team of four Norwegians on the Hardanger Plateau above the plant in October 1942. The unsuccessful Operation Freshman was mounted the following month by British paratroopers, who were to rendezvous with the Operation Grouse Norwegians and proceed to Vemork. This attempt failed when

27985-488: The plant who supplied detailed plans and schedules. The demolition party used this information to enter the main basement by a cable tunnel and through a window. The only person they encountered in the plant was a Norwegian caretaker named Johansen, who was very willing to cooperate with them. The saboteurs then placed explosive charges on the heavy-water electrolysis chambers, and attached a fuse which allowed sufficient time for their escape. In an attempt to prevent reprisals,

28178-411: The political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers —including Austria-Hungary , Germany , Bulgaria , and the Ottoman Empire —and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia , which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I , such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of

28371-427: The port of Tobruk . By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact ; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece , commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at

28564-444: The possibility that the Germans might disrupt the Normandy landings with radioactive poisons, and sent Major Arthur V. Peterson to brief his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Walter B. Smith . Under the codename Operation Peppermint , special equipment was prepared and Chemical Warfare Service teams were trained in its use. The British forces made similar preparations for their beaches. The precautions were unnecessary. Meanwhile,

28757-408: The primary fissile material for an atomic (fission-only) bomb. U can be used to produce Pu through the fission of U, which produces neutrons (some of which will be absorbed by U, creating U). The U will decay after a few days, turning into weapons-usable Pu. The Germans found that a chain reaction could not be sustained if graphite was used as a moderator, and abandoned it. Unaware that this

28950-464: The production of an atomic bomb , a range of options was identified. Although historical records provide limited detail on the German decision to pursue the heavy water approach, it became clear after the war that they had explored that option. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the approach chosen has been demonstrated as technically viable. Plutonium -239 ( Pu) makes effective weapons material, although it requires an implosion-type mechanism rather than

29143-400: The region for further resistance work. The attack halted production for several months, although it did not permanently damage the Vemork plant. The plant was repaired by April; SOE concluded that a repeat commando raid would be extremely difficult, since German security was considerably improved. Almost as soon as production resumed, the USAAF began a series of raids on Vemork. The plant

29336-407: The remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state , the Slovak Republic . Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region , formerly the German Memelland . Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig ,

29529-564: The remaining heavy water to Germany. Norwegian resistance forces then sank the ferry carrying the heavy water, the SF  Hydro , on Lake Tinn . Enrico Fermi and his colleagues studied the results of bombarding uranium with neutrons in 1934. That year, Ida Noddack first mentioned the concept of nuclear fission . In December 1938, four years after the Fermi publication, Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch correctly interpreted Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann 's radiochemical experimental results as evidence of nuclear fission. News of

29722-399: The river Måna , however, was fully guarded. The force decided to descend into the ravine, ford the icy river and climb the steep hill on the far side. The winter river level was very low, and on the far side (where the ground leveled) they followed a single railway track straight into the plant without encountering any guards. Even before Grouse landed in Norway, SOE had a Norwegian agent in

29915-409: The same time wished to minimize the number of personnel with access to such secret information. Having the Manhattan Project itself take over responsibility for coordinating these efforts would address both these concerns. Accordingly, he approached Groves on behalf of General George Marshall , the Chief of Staff of the Army , with that recommendation. In response, Groves created the Alsos Mission ,

30108-446: The shipment, they might have tried to intercept it. The French transported it secretly to Oslo , then to Perth, Scotland , and finally to France. When France was invaded, French nuclear scientist Frédéric Joliot-Curie took charge of the material and hid it in a Banque de France vault and then in a prison. Joliot-Curie moved it to Bordeaux , where it, research papers and most of the scientists (Joliot-Curie remained in France) boarded

30301-410: The significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles . Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions , while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces . The German Empire was dissolved in

30494-404: The simpler gun-type trigger used in the Thin Man uranium bomb. Heavy water has been demonstrated as an effective moderator for Pu production, and may be separated from ordinary water by electrolysis . The German program had already been handicapped by the Nazi purging of German Jewish physicists and the conscription of others and ended in the autumn of 1942. In nuclear-weapon development,

30687-447: The start or prelude to World War II. The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 ( V-J Day ), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia . A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed

30880-415: The strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg . The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics,

31073-629: The subject matter. Groves selected the head of the Manhattan District's security activities, Captain Horace K. Calvert, as head of the London Liaison Office, with the title of Assistant Military Attaché. Working in cooperation with Welsh and Michael Perrin from Tube Alloys , the London Liaison Office consisted of Calvert, Captain George B. Davis, two Women's Army Corps clerks and three CIC agents. The Liaison Office interviewed European refugee scientists and studied German physics journals. It compiled lists of German scientists of interest and possible locations of nuclear research and industrial facilities, and

31266-406: The top of Alsos's wanted list, so Pash and CIC Special Agent Gerry Beatson set out to investigate in the wake of the advancing U.S. Third Army . On 11 August they reached the homes of Joliot-Curie, Francis Perrin , and Pierre Auger in the L'Arcouest area. Pash and Beatson got there the morning of 17 August with Task Force A, and they were directed to Joliot-Curie's house, which had been emptied by

31459-404: The two armored cars and two jeeps. They teamed up with the 36th Reconnaissance Troop of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division and entered Urfeld on 2 May, where Pash found Heisenberg at his home. The Americans became involved in firefights with German troops attempting to enter the town, and the 36th Reconnaissance Troop had to head off on another mission, leaving Pash with just seven men. Fortunately,

31652-415: The two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War   II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as

31845-490: The unit. Pash had served as the head of the Counter Intelligence Branch of the Western Defense Command , where he had investigated suspected Soviet espionage at the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley. Pash's command comprised his executive officer Captain Wayne B. Stanard, four Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) agents, four interpreters, and four scientists: Dr. James B. Fisk from the Bell Telephone Company , Dr. John R. Johnson from Cornell University , Commander Bruce Old from

32038-414: The uranium from Belgium. Conrad persuaded Major General Frank S. Ross to release the U.S. 3342nd Quartermaster Truck Company from the Red Ball Express to retrieve the shipment. The barrels were collected and transported to Marseille , where they were loaded on a ship bound for the United States. During the loading process a barrel fell into the water and had to be retrieved by a Navy diver. In Marseilles,

32231-444: The uranium from Olen. Groves had it shipped to England, and, ultimately, to the United States. The Alsos Mission now attempted to recover the shipment that had been sent to France. Documentation was discovered that said that part of it had been sent to Toulouse . An Alsos Mission team under Pash's command reached Toulouse on 1 October and inspected a French Army arsenal. They used a Geiger counter to find barrels containing 31 tons of

32424-407: The war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian , and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising

32617-403: The war, but Aubert's cooperation with the French aided the company's case. In October 1942, Combined Operations Headquarters began operations to destroy the Vemork plant. There were two operations; the first ( Operation Grouse ) would drop a number of Norwegians in the area as an advance force. When they were in place, a party of British engineers would be landed by military glider to attack

32810-419: The war, the Allies sought to inhibit the German development of nuclear weapons with the removal of heavy water and the destruction of heavy-water production plants. The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was aimed at the 60 MW Vemork power station at the Rjukan waterfall in Telemark . The hydroelectric power plant at Vemork was built in 1934. It was the world's first site to mass-produce heavy water (as

33003-475: The war. Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland ; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland ; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia . On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which

33196-404: The west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht . Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw . On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan , the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to

33389-451: The whole German uranium set up was on a ludicrously small scale. Here was the central group of laboratories, and all it amounted to was a little cave, a wing of a small textile factory, a few rooms in an old brewery. To be sure, the laboratories were well equipped, but compared to what we were doing in the United States it was still small-time stuff. Sometimes we wondered if our government had not spent more money on our intelligence mission than

33582-483: The world order , and soon began a massive rearmament campaign . France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia , which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription. The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed

33775-551: The world's extant supply, 185 kg (408 lb), of heavy water from the Vemork plant in then-neutral Norway in 1940. Norsk Hydro general director Axel Aubert agreed to lend the heavy water to France for the duration of the war, noting that if Germany won the war he would probably be shot. Transportation was difficult, since the Abwehr (German military intelligence) was present in Norway and had been alerted of ongoing French activities in Norway (although they were not specifically warned about heavy water). If they had become aware of

33968-554: Was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers . The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary , Slovakia , and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to

34161-410: Was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers . Nearly all the world's countries —including all the great powers —participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war , blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles , with the latter enabling

34354-500: Was attacked in November by a massive daylight bombing raid of 143 B-17 heavy bombers , which dropped 711 bombs. Although the raid caused extensive damage, at least 600 bombs missed the plant. On 16 and 18 November, 35 B-24 heavy bombers from the 392nd Bomber Group (based at Wendling, Station 118 ) extensively attacked the hydro-electric power station at Rjukan . The missions, the bomber group's longest, lasted 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 and 10 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours respectively. There

34547-452: Was commanded by Colonel Boris Pash , a former Manhattan Project security officer, with Samuel Goudsmit as chief scientific advisor. It was jointly staffed by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), the Manhattan Project, and Army Intelligence (G-2) , with field assistance from combat engineers assigned to specific task forces. Alsos teams were successful in locating and removing

34740-407: Was due to impurities, they did not test ultra-pure graphite (which would have been suitable). Instead, they settled on a heavy-water-based reactor design. A heavy-water-moderated nuclear reactor could be used for nuclear-fission research and, ultimately, to breed the plutonium with which a bomb could be made. In normal water, there is only one deuterium atom for every 6,400 hydrogen atoms; deuterium

34933-435: Was in the occupation zone allocated to the Soviet Union at the Yalta Conference , the Alsos Mission, led by Pash and accompanied by Lansdale, Perrin and Air Commodore Sir Charles Hambro , arrived on 17 April to remove anything of interest. Over the following ten days, 260 truckloads of uranium ore, sodium uranate and ferrouranium weighing about 1,000 tons, were taken away by an African-American truck company. The uranium

35126-413: Was less need for ground assaults than a year earlier, since night bombing (previously unrealistic due to German air cover) was now an alternative. The Germans, convinced that air raids would result in further serious damage, decided to abandon the plant and move its remaining stocks and critical components to Germany in 1944. Knut Haukelid (the only trained commando in the immediate area) was informed of

35319-487: Was little information about developments in northern Italy and Germany. The Alsos Mission was attached to Colonel George Smith's S-Force. Built around a Royal Air Force ground reconnaissance squadron equipped with armored cars, this unit contained American, British, French, and Italian technical specialists of various kinds who would enter Rome on the heels of the advancing Allied forces. The expectation that Rome would soon be captured proved premature, and by March 1944 most of

35512-413: Was not there, but at his laboratory at the Collège de France . The next day they reached the Porte d'Orléans where they encountered troops of the French 2e Division Blindée , who were engaged in liberating the city, and came under small arms fire from the German defenders. The Alsos Mission replied with their M1 carbines and Thompson submachine guns as they made their way through the back streets to

35705-403: Was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather. After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign

35898-469: Was recorded in The London Gazette of 4 February 1941. Crucial to the success of the mission was the role played by Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk , the British liaison to the French scientific establishment. Although the supply of heavy water had been removed, the plant was capable of producing more. The Norsk Hydro management's collaboration with the Germans was examined during investigations of collaborationism begun by Norwegian authorities after

36091-657: Was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean. In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa . The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with

36284-441: Was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement . In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed

36477-484: Was salvaged in 2004 indicated that although the barrels in this shipment contained pH  14 water (suggestive of the alkaline electrolytic-refinement process), they did not contain high concentrations of D 2 O. Despite the apparent shipment size, the total quantity of pure heavy water was limited; most barrels contained only 0.5–1.0 percent heavy water, confirming the success of Operation Gunnerside in destroying higher-purity heavy water. The Germans would have needed

36670-560: Was solely American and consisted of only one intelligence agency. Responsibility for nuclear matters was subsequently handled by a separate Manhattan Project Intelligence Group organized by Groves. Leet's group reached Manila in July 1945, where they met with the intelligence staff of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur 's Army Forces, Pacific . Following the surrender of Japan the mission traveled to Japan and visited various research establishments including Tokyo Imperial University , Waseda University , Tokyo Institute of Technology ,

36863-411: Was still capable of producing heavy water, however, and the Allies were concerned that the Germans would use the facility to produce more heavy water. Between 1940 and 1944, a series of sabotage actions by the Norwegian resistance movement and Allied bombing ensured the destruction of the plant and the loss of its heavy water. These operations — code-named Grouse, Freshman , and Gunnerside — knocked

37056-465: Was taken to Hildesheim and most of it was flown to the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force; the rest had to be moved to Antwerp by train and loaded onto a ship to England. On 20 April, the French First Army captured an intact bridge over the Neckar River at Horb and established a bridgehead. It was decided to send in a force on the ground instead of Operation Effective, which was cancelled on 19 April. This time, instead of following or accompanying

37249-450: Was the first agent inside. After interviewing Nielsen and Helberg, Barbara Wace of the Associated Press filed a news article on the sabotage in May 1945. Wartime censorship delayed publication until after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. But For These Men ( ISBN   0705700453 ), a 1962 book by John D. Drummond, recounts two dramatic raids: on the Norsk Hydro heavy-water factory at Vemork and another

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