Blood and Water: Sabotaging Hitler's Bomb
As the blitzkrieg raged in Europe during World War II, a covert battle was being waged in laboratories as both the Allies and the Nazis raced to create the first atomic bomb. Although the Manhattan Project is now well known, Dan Kurzman chronicles an obscure yet vitally important episode that helped deny the Nazi's the A-bomb.Soon after the Germans invaded Norway in April of 1940, they began using the Norsk Hydro electrochemical and hydroelectric plant to produce deuterium oxide--"heavy water"--a principal element needed to create atomic weapons.Blood and Water: Sabotaging Hitler's Bombfollows the two-year clandestine mission conducted by the British and Norwegian commandos who braved rugged, high-mountain terrain to defuse a situation that could have changed the course of the war. This is a textbook case of fact being more exciting than fiction; the story has the pace and feel of a well-orchestrated thriller. Based on interviews with the Norwegian and British saboteurs, war diaries, and recently declassified documents, Kurzman's book brings history alive, revealing the real men behind this heroic chapter of the Allies' victory.