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The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb Paperback – Illustrated, May 16, 2017
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In 1942, the Nazis were racing to complete the first atomic bomb. All they needed was a single, incredibly rare ingredient: heavy water, which was produced solely at Norway’s Vemork plant. Under threat of death, Vemork’s engineers pushed production into overdrive. If the Allies could not destroy the plant, they feared the Nazis would soon be in possession of the most dangerous weapon the world had ever seen. But how would the Allied forces reach the castle fortress, set on a precipitous gorge in one of the coldest, most inhospitable places on earth?
Based on a trove of top-secret documents and never-before-seen diaries and letters of the saboteurs, The Winter Fortress is an arresting chronicle of a brilliant scientist, a band of spies on skis, perilous survival in the wild, Gestapo manhunts, and a last-minute operation that would alter the course of the war.
“Riveting and poignant . . . The Winter Fortress metamorphoses from engrossing history into a smashing thriller . . . Mr. Bascomb’s research and, especially, his storytelling skills are first-rate.”—Wall Street Journal
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMariner Books
- Publication dateMay 16, 2017
- Dimensions5.31 x 1 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100544947290
- ISBN-13978-0544947290
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A New York Times Espionage Bestseller "Weaving together his typically intense research and a riveting narrative, Neal Bascomb's The Winter Fortress is a spellbinding piece of historical writing." –Martin Dugard, author of Into Africa and co-author of the "Killing" series "Neal Bascomb's The Winter Fortress is a riveting, high-action World War II thriller with nothing less than the fate of Planet Earth on the line. Just imagine the horror if Hitler had gotten the atomic bomb? Written with great verve and historical acumen, Bascomb hits the mark of excellence. Highly recommended!" –Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Deluge and Cronkite "This book is a must read! A small band of spies commit themselves, their lives, and their family's lives to literally saving the world from the Nazis. An exciting and accurate story detailing a very dark time in world history, when the world pendulum could have tipped either way. If you liked Bridge of Spies, you are going to love this!” –Scott McEwen, #1 New York Times Bestselling Co-Author of American Sniper. "What would have happened if Hitler had managed to develop nuclear weapons? In The Winter Fortress, Neal Bascomb brilliantly tells the extraordinary true story of arguably the most important and daring commando raid of WWII: how an amazing band of men on skis made sure Hitler never got to drop the ultimate bomb." –Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Longest Winter “Brilliantly written, The Winter Fortress cinematically captures a commando team’s efforts to destroy one of the most important secret facilities in World War II. Bascomb’s riveting prose puts the reader into one of the more daring missions of the war and the Allies’ efforts to sabotage a crucial aspect of Germany's nuclear program. An excellent read.” –Patrick K. O’Donnell, bestselling author of First Seals and Washington’s Immortals "This well-told and deeply researched account sheds light on an aspect of World War II that is little known or remembered, creating a valuable history that will be beneficial for most collections."–Library Journal? "An exciting, thorough account . . . Featuring excellent characterization and exquisite detail concerning a theater of the war (Norway) not well-mined, this will make a terrific addition to World War II collections.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Bascomb, a WWII historian and former journalist, thrillingly recounts the commando effort to destroy the Norwegian Vemork hydroelectric plant . . . A fascinating read about how a small group of Norwegians refused to submit to the brutal occupation of their country and contributed significantly to Allied victory." --Publishers Weekly "Gripping . . . Parts of the book read like an adventure novel, others like straightforward history, but the combination will appeal to readers of both WWII fiction and nonfiction." --Booklist, starred review "An authoritative account . . . Vivid and gripping." --Foreign Affairs “Bascomb brings this overlooked tale of wartime nuclear sabotage to life while taking care to explain the science behind the story.” --Scientific American "A spellbinding account of the quest to stop Germany from building an atomic bomb….The Winter Fortress
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Nazi-occupied Norway, February 27, 1943 In a staggered line, the nine saboteurs cut across the mountain slope. Instinct, more than the dim light of the moon, guided the young men. They threaded through the stands of pine and traversed down the sharp, uneven terrain, much of it pocked with empty hollows and thick drifts of snow. Dressed in white camouflage suits over their British Army uniforms, the men looked like phantoms haunting the woods. They moved as quietly as ghosts, the silence broken only by the swoosh of their skis and the occasional slap of a pole against an unseen branch. The warm, steady wind that blew through the Vestfjord Valley dampered even these sounds. It was the same wind that would eventually, they hoped, blow their tracks away.
A mile into the trek from their base hut, the woods became too dense and steep for them to continue by any means other than on foot. The young Norwegians unfastened their skis and hoisted them to their shoulders. It was still tough going. Carrying rucksacks filled with thirty-five pounds of survival gear, and armed with submachine guns, grenades, pistols, explosives, and knives, they waded, slid, and clambered their way down through the heavy, wet snow. Under the weight of their equipment they occasionally sank to their waists in the drifts. The darkness, thickening when the low clouds hid the moon, didn’t help matters.
Finally the forest cleared. The men came onto the road that ran across the northern side of Vestfjord Valley toward Lake Møs to the west and the town of Rjukan a few miles to the east. Directly south, an eagle’s swoop over the precipitous Måna River gorge, stood Vemork, their target.
Despite the distance across the gorge and the wind singing in their ears, the commandos could hear the low hum of the hydroelectric plant. The power station and eight-story hydrogen plant in front of it were perched on a ledge overhanging the gorge. From there it was a six-hundred-foot drop to the Måna River, which snaked through the valley below. It was a valley so deep, the sun rarely reached its base.
Had Hitler not invaded Norway, had the Germans not seized control of the plant, Vemork would have been lit up like a beacon. But now, its windows were blacked out to deter nighttime raids by Allied bombers. Three sets of cables stretched across the valley to discourage low-flying air attacks during the day as well.
In dark silhouette, the plant looked an imposing fortress on an icy crag of rock. A single-lane suspension bridge provided the only point of entry for workers and vehicles, and it was closely guarded. Mines were scattered about the surrounding hillsides. Patrols frequently swept the grounds. Searchlights, sirens, machine-gun nests, and a troop barracks were also at the ready.
And now the commandos were going to break into it.
Standing at the edge of the road, they were mesmerized by their first sight of Vemork. They did not need the bright of day to know its legion of defenses. They had studied scores of reconnaissance photographs, read reams of intelligence, memorized blueprints, and practiced setting their explosive charges dozens of times on a dummy model of the target. Each man could navigate every path, corridor, and stairwell of the plant in his mind’s eye.
They were not the first to try to blow up Vemork. Many had already died in the attempt. While war raged across Europe, Russia, North Africa, and in the Pacific, while battalions of tanks, squadrons of bombers, fleets of submarines and destroyers, and millions of soldiers faced off against each other in a global conflict, it was this plant, hidden away deep in the rugged Norwegian wilds, that Allied leaders believed lay on the thin line separating victory and defeat.
For all their intricate knowledge of Vemork, the nine were still not exactly sure how this target could possibly be of such value. They had been told that the plant produced something called heavy water, and that with this mysterious substance the Nazis might be able “to blow up a good part of London.” The saboteurs assumed this was an exaggeration to ensure their full commitment to the job.
And they were committed, no matter the price, which would likely include their own lives. From the start, they had known that the odds of their survival were long. They might get inside the plant and complete their mission, but getting out and away would be another story. If necessary, they would try to fight their way out, but escape was unlikely. Resolved not to be captured alive, each of them carried a cyanide pill encased in rubber, stashed in a lapel or waistband.
There were nerves about the operation, for sure, but a sense of fatalism prevailed. For many months now they had been away from their homes, training, planning, and preparing. Now at least they were about to act. If they died, if they “went west,” as many in their special company already had in other operations, so be it. At least they would have had their chance to fight. In a war such as this one, most expected to die, sooner or later.
Back in England, the mastermind of the operation, Leif Tronstad, was awaiting news of the operation. Before the commandos left for their mission, he had promised them that their feats would be remembered for a hundred years. But none of the men were there for history. If you went to the heart of the question, none of them were there for heavy water, or for London. They had seen their country invaded by the Germans, their friends killed and humiliated, their families starved, their rights curtailed. They were there for Norway, for the freedom of its lands and people from Nazi rule.
Their moment now at hand, the saboteurs refastened their skis and started down the road through the darkness.
1
The Water
On February 14, 1940, Jacques Allier, a middle-aged, nattily dressed banker, hurried through the doors of the Hotel Majestic, on Rue la Pérouse. Situated near the Arc de Triomphe, the landmark hotel had welcomed everyone from diplomats attending the Versailles peace talks in 1919 to the influx of artists who made the City of Light famous in the decade that followed. Now, with all of France braced for a German invasion, likely to begin with a thrust through Belgium, and Paris largely evacuated, a shell of its former self, conversation at the hotel was once again all about war. Allier crossed the lobby. He was not there on bank business but rather as an agent of the Deuxième Bureau, the French internal spy agency. Raoul Dautry, the minister of armaments, and physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie were waiting for him, and their discussion involved the waging of a very different kind of war.
Joliot-Curie, who with his wife, Irène, had won the Nobel Prize for the discovery that stable elements could be made radioactive by artificial or induced methods, explained to Allier that he was now in the middle of constructing a machine to exploit the energy held within atoms. Most likely it would serve to power submarines, but it had the potential for developing an unsurpassed explosive. He needed Allier’s help. It was the same pitch Joliot-Curie had given Dautry months before, one made all the more forceful by the suggestion that the energy held within an ordinary kitchen table, if unlocked, could turn the world into a ball of fire. Allier offered to do whatever he could to help the scientist.
Joliot-Curie explained that he needed a special ingredient for his experiments? — ?heavy water? — ?and that there was only one company in the world that produced it to any quantity: Norsk Hydro, in Norway. As an official at the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, which owned a majority stake in the Norwegian concern, Allier was ideally positioned to obtain whatever supplies Norsk Hydro had at its Vemork plant as quickly and discreetly as possible. The French prime minister himself, Édouard Daladier, had already signed off on the mission.
Product details
- Publisher : Mariner Books; Reprint edition (May 16, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0544947290
- ISBN-13 : 978-0544947290
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #84,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Norway History
- #108 in German History (Books)
- #693 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Neal Bascomb is the author of ten award-winning, national, and international bestselling books, including most recently FASTER, a tale of the greatest upset in motorsports history. He is also a critically acclaimed young adult writer. His book NAZI HUNTERS (Scholastic) won the YALSA Non-fiction Award for young adults, as well as a number of other national and state-level awards. Also from Scholastic, SABOTAGE and THE GRAND ESCAPE were breakout hits. A former international journalist and book editor, he has also written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.
Bascomb is also the creator of the popular newsletter WorkCraft/Life (www.workcraftlife.com). Illuminating stories of people and the work they do. One feature profile, once a week, that will inspire, inform, infuriate, or just make you say wow. Sign up for free.
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A review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book “The Winter Fortress” written by Neal Bascomb
I purchased this hardbound book through Amazon which is a history book about World War II in an area of the world I was totally unfamiliar with, namely Denmark, and it involved the Dane partisan activities along with British commandoes. Many of these nationally committed Danes escaped to England when the Nazi’s invaded Denmark and trained to be partisan soldiers to engage in sabotage efforts to slow down any progress’ the Nazi’s were hoping for in the development of their hoped for Atomic bomb. Prior to the invasion by the Nazi’s, the Danes operating a hydroelectric dam on the Rjukan River near Vemork Denmark, were producing “heavy water” which was primarily used to further scientific experiments that was used by academic institution. It had no real value and was sold off at minimum prices to universities.
With the advent of World War II, the Germans (as well as the American scientists) discovered that heavy water was an essential medium for centrifuges and the splitting of the atom. The German had been working on the development of an Atomic bomb during the war and the invasion of Denmark was for access to the hydroelectric facilities at Vemork where the heavy water was harvested in rather small amounts. The Germans saw this as an opportunity to manufacture heavy water on a large-scale basis necessary for their developmental hopes
.
The Allies aware of the German intentions vis a vie Vemork, through intelligence efforts soon decided that this facility became a target for destruction. They had to strike a balance between total-destruction and surgical elimination of the Heavy water parts of the hydroelectric facilities. Total destruction would have adversely affected the Danish population and the free Dane partisans, including the king of Denmark, in exile, who were part of the allied efforts.
Many Danes escaped to England to receive training for partisan purposes. A select group of these young men were selected for a commando raid to destroy the heavy water facilities while keeping the interests of the Danish public in mind.
This book was superbly written and kept my interest focused during the entire read, involving the topping of the Germans from developing an Atomic bomb. It was difficult to put down even though it was a small glimpse of World War II we never hear about. The book was a complete thriller, though the names of people and locations took a bit of an effort as I started reading but quickly adjusted.
This was one of the best historical presentations I have read and consequently I gave it a FIVE STAR rating.
Over the course of two years, many brave British and Norwegians worked to destroy Vemork's plant. One operation, involving British commandos, ended in disaster, while later, a team of Norwegian guerrillas managed to get inside.
The efforts to destroy the plant at Vemork was one of the most high-priority efforts of the war. If the Germans managed to keep receiving supplies of heavy water, then the odds were good that they would have been able to build an atomic bomb. The efforts of the British, Norwegians, and the American Eighth Air Force were tasked to make sure this didn't happen.
"The Winter Fortress" offers an interesting view into the German pursuit of the atomic bomb. Author Neal Bascomb has done a very good job of describing how heavy water was so important to the German efforts as well as the urgency faced by the Allies to destroy the plant. He also describes how the Americans had begun their own atomic bomb program with the Manhattan project. The Vemork mission drastically altered the outcome of the war. Highly recommended.
The lengths to which the Norwegian patriots endured hardships, severe deprivations and dangers, while employing subterfuge to sabotage and destroy the Nazi war machine in Norway was indeed inspiring and thought provoking. How would I or my family members behave under a similar oppression and threats? Could I withstand all of that while daily placing the salvation of my country and others over self?
At 40% of the book the actual mission to destroy the Nazi heavy water (a key element in the development of an atomic bomb in the Nazi mind) was underway. I have to say that there was an excruciating amount of detail, I guess to illuminate the people in this real-life drama. It may act as a personalized accurate historical account by some of the operators but eight pages about bagging a caribou was a bit much. Thankfully the book is interesting enough to propel one through the pages of minutia. The content of author Neal Bascomb’s book ends at 66%. There is an Acknowledgement, footnotes and an index after that. I think the detailed treatment of this account complete with scores of footnotes makes this book a must have for anyone interested in the history of WWII.
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The book that we ordered from Amazon was given to a friend who had recently sustained serious injuries in an accident. He is overwhelmed by the story.