Lise Meitner turned down many invitations to work on the Manhattan Project. But facing the wolf-like Gestapo, she was just a weak woman with no power to restrain a chicken. With this thought in her mind, the female reporter took action immediately. Through her accumulated contacts, she was able to contact many famous physicists in Europe.
The results are clear.
French physicist Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie, German physicist Kurt Diebner, Hans Geiger, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Gerhard Hoffmann, Josef Mattauch, Georg Stetter…
The female reporter confirmed one by one. These famous European physicists were all invited to Berlin by one person.
"Who?" War Girl Danielle's expression was equally serious.
"Walther Gerlach, the new director of the Physics Department of the Imperial Research Council and plenipotentiary for nuclear physics." The female reporter looked up from the dense interview notebook: "Sisters, these famous physicists in Europe are all once Member of the First Uranium Club' and now the 'Second Uranium Club'."
Therefore, the "Third Reich's nuclear weapons program" corresponding to the "Manhattan Project" was accelerated due to plot derivation.
“These physicists also included Paul Harteck, head of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Hamburg, who was also an advisor to the Army Ordnance Office (Heerswaffenamt, HWA). In April 1939, he and the Reichskriegsministerium (RKM) ) officials to draw their attention to the huge potential of nuclear chain reactions for military use. At about the same time, a number of other physicists made similar suggestions to German officials.
In April 1939, a small group of scientists known as the 'Uranverein' began unofficial research into the potential of nuclear weapons at the University of Göttingen (Georg-August). This first research group only existed for a few months, and was disbanded when some of its members were drafted into the German army in preparation for the invasion of Poland.
By mid-1939, the Berlin Electrical Engineering Group had stockpiled large quantities of uranium, which at the time was considered nothing more than a waste product from the radium production process. Nikolaus Riehl, the group's scientific director, realized the huge market potential of these large quantities of uranium after reading an article that uranium could be used as a potential raw material for nuclear energy resources. He contacted the Army Ordnance Service, which supported him in establishing a uranium production facility at the Berlin Electrical Engineering Group plant in Oranienburg. Early experimental nuclear reactors at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutfür Physik (KWIP) and the Army Ordnance Service test station at Gottow provided uranium crystals for the experimental uranium reactors.
On September 1, 1939, the 'Second Uranium Club' was formed after the Army Ordnance Service took control of the German nuclear energy program. The first meeting was held in Berlin on September 16, 1939, chaired by Kurt Dibner, advisor to the Army Ordnance Department. Those invited to the meeting included: Walther Bothe, Siegfried Flugge, Hans Geiger, Otto Hahn, Paul Hartke, Geha De Hofmann, Joseph Matauch, George Stettle.
A second meeting was held shortly afterwards, attended by: Kaus Clusius, Robert Döpel, Werner Heisenberg, Carl Friedrich Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. At the same time, the Army Ordnance Service effectively took control of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute of Physics, appointing Kurt Dibner as director, tightening control over the nuclear research program.
It was obvious that the nuclear research project could not make a decisive contribution to Germany's rapid victory in the war. In January 1942, the Ordnance Office returned control of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellechaft to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellechaft (KWG). ). In July 1942, the Army Ordnance Office relinquished control to the Reich Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat, RFR). However, the Army Ordnance Department retained the Gottov test station and continued research under advisor Kurt Dibner until the end of the war. Since then, the nuclear energy project has maintained its positioning as 'important to the war effort' and has continued to receive support from the military. Despite this, the management of research projects at that time was divided into a number of areas - mainly uranium and heavy water production, uranium isotope separation and nuclear reactors.
It is said that by 1943, Germany already had a large amount of radioactive material and could design a delivery system. In March 1943, Germany designed a central payload bay for the new V-2 missile, which is located near the tail and can throw the cabin as far as possible when attacking the target. This missile is likely to be a 'dirty bomb' containing nerve agents or radioactive waste. The next design is more obvious in its content. In September 1944, Germany developed a similar plan for an improved V-1 missile (called the D-1). The most important feature of D-1 is the use of a new warhead called a "canned nuclear waste container." The new warhead is equipped with an external detonator that blows it apart when it explodes, spreading nuclear waste as widely as possible over the target area.
Dirty bombs are the simplest military application of radioactive materials, but Germany likely developed a more sophisticated atomic bomb in late 1943. At that time, a Luftwaffe research team produced a map of lower Manhattan showing the projected detonation range of a weapon that matched an atomic bomb with a yield in the 15-17 kiloton range, as powerful as the U.S. bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The 'Little Boy' atomic bomb is similar. This meant that Germany was already planning to use an American bomber program such as the Messerschmitt Me264 or the Junkers Ju390 (both aircraft were included as part of the American bomber program approved by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring in May 1942). , under development) such ultra-long-range aircraft to carry out bombing.
The Me264 made its first flight in December 1942, and the prototype Ju390 V1 also flew in October 1943. According to the aviation log of the former test pilot of the Junkers aircraft, in November 1943, the Ju390 V1 was driven to Prague for a series of tests, including testing of aerial refueling equipment and refueling procedures. ”——Adapted from "CHEMICAL AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS" of the Third Reich.
"The most critical figure here is Professor Werner Heisenberg." War Girl Danielle thought for a moment and said, "It is rumored that he is one of the few anti-Nazi scientists."
"Rumors are not necessarily credible, Danielle." The female reporter with too much first-hand material revealed a historical secret: "When Hitler visited Linz, Austria, on April 4, 1943, Professor Werner Heisenberg Probably one of the four nuclear scientists surrounding Hitler. His small nuclear power reactor would have been in Berlin at the time."
"According to Werner Heisenberg's self-clearing statement after the war, the German nuclear project should have been largely abandoned in 1942. Then he had no reason to be here on April 4, 1943." War Girl Dani You nodded slightly.
Worry about the Nazis taking the lead in building the atomic bomb has always been the Allies' biggest worry. Many physicists, especially those who fled Nazi rule, were particularly worried. After all, nuclear fission was first discovered by German scientists in 1938, and German experts such as Heisenberg and Weizsäcker are considered leaders in the field. Many people judge that Germany may be as much as two years ahead in the development of nuclear weapons. It is no secret that Heisenberg was deeply involved in Germany's nuclear weapons development. As early as two years ago in 1942, because they were really worried that Germany would be the first to build an atomic bomb, two of Heisenberg's former colleagues suggested to the Allies that they kidnap him while he was giving lectures in Zurich at the end of that year, or at least interrogate him face to face." "Extract" some information about the progress of Germany's nuclear weapons development.
The July 15, 1937 issue of Das Schwarze Korps published an article by physicist Johannes Stark, describing Heisenberg as a so-called "white Jew" (that is, although he was not physically Jews, but their inner souls are)" and compiled a series of accusations, including publishing an article in the party journal defending the teaching of relativity, Heisenberg refusing to sign a letter of allegiance when Stark wrote a letter of allegiance in 1934, and continuing to employ Jews in the institute etc. Even more frightening is the subtitle of the article, which calls Heisenberg "the Ossietzky of physics" (Osietzky was arrested in 1933 for opposing the Nazis, was awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize, and was tortured and tortured in a concentration camp. Tortured, he died of illness in a Berlin hospital in 1938. After Ossietzky won the Nobel Prize, Hitler subsequently banned Germans from receiving the Nobel Prize). Heisenberg, who was forced into a corner, chose to directly pay Heisenberg, Minister of Education and National Leader of the SS, Heisenberg. Heinrich Himmler wrote a letter asking them to vindicate themselves and restore their reputation. At the same time, he was prepared to leave Germany if he did not receive support from the authorities. In a letter to his mentor Arnold Sommerfeld, he wrote: "Now, I really see no other choice. If my actions to defend my reputation are not supported, I have no choice but to resign. However, , I think I’d better ask you first. You know how painful it would be for me to leave Germany, and I won’t do it unless I have to. However, if you are a second-class person, there is no point in living here.”
After a year-long investigation, on July 21, 1938, Heisenberg received a letter from Himmler stating that he disagreed with the accusations in the article and forbade any further attacks on him. Shortly after experiencing this turmoil that could lead to his "loss of reputation", World War II broke out. On September 25, 1939, when his former assistant Erich Bagge came to the door and hoped that he would participate in Germany's nuclear weapons development, Heisenberg could not find any reason to refuse. He happily went there, and in just three months he went all out to complete the first half of the theoretical analysis report, drawing a blueprint for Germany's nuclear weapons development. He knew very well that trust was needed to survive, and how difficult it was to gain trust.
"So, you feel like it's like the Alsos Mission in wartime. The Allied Forces are composed of a small number of intelligence personnel, soldiers and scientific experts. They work with the frontline combat troops to search for any information related to military scientific research. property, scientists, and the plan to complete the destruction or transfer before the Soviet Union or even the Allies came into contact)' and the postwar Operation Paperclip (Operation Paperclip, a plan launched by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in 1945 to remove more than 1,600 Like the Nazi scientists and engineers who defected to the United States, Professor Werner Heisenberg’s position was in 1943 before the Nazis fell. It's not obvious." Danielle, the war girl, already knew exactly what the female reporter was thinking.
"Yes." The female reporter's judgment based on first-hand interview data is quite convincing.
