Hunting the Nazi Bomb

Name: Hunting the Nazi Bomb
Rating: 4.7 (1226 reviews)

by Damien Lewis

First published 2016

Amazon

4.7(1,226)

Hunting the Nazi Bomb examines the Allied effort to prevent Nazi Germany from exploiting heavy water produced at the Vemork plant in occupied Norway for nuclear research. British intelligence and the Special Operations Executive supported a sequence of missions, including Grouse, Freshman and Gunnerside, aimed at disrupting production and denying Germany access to material considered important to an atomic programme.

Damien Lewis combines the sabotage operations with the wider intelligence struggle over scientists, industrial facilities and intercepted information. Norwegian agents had to survive winter conditions, move across occupied territory and coordinate with Britain while avoiding German security forces. The book follows both the operational failures and the successful destruction of equipment, showing how scientific uncertainty and clandestine warfare came together in the Allied determination to ensure that Germany could not obtain an atomic weapon before the war ended.