Newsgroup: it.cultura.storia.militare
Titolo: U-234 & U-235

Hello ICSMmmers.
Babbo Natale - un po' in anticipo - mi ha appena portato un nuovo
pacco da Tuttostoria. Dentro c'era, tra l'altro, il libro "The Japanese
Submarine Force and World War II" (Boyd-Yoshida, 1996).
Vi ho trovato la seguente chicca, che ignoravo totalmente:
Il sommergibile U-234 (type XB), partito da Kristiansand 16.04.45
con destinazione Estremo Oriente, ed arresosi il 12.05.45 al largo
delle Azzorre, trasportava a bordo, a parte questa panoplia:
- Due Me 262 smontati
- Un generale tedesco (tale Kessler. Parente? Nuovo addetto
aeronautico a Tokyo)
- Due ufficiali giapponesi
- "aircraft drawings, arms, medical supplies, instruments, mercury,
caffeine, steel, optical glass, brass"
anche 550 kg di U-235 (notare il curioso rapporto con il pennant!).
"...Five hundreds and fifty kilograms of uranium, U-235, the most
deadly consignment for the Imperial Japanese Army, was secretly
loaded aboard the U-234 at Kiel in late February 1945. The exact
characteristics of the U-235 prepared for the Japanese remain
unknown and open to speculation, but almost certainly the uranium
was not weapon-grade quality..."
"...Two japanese technical officers (...) painted the inscription U-235
on each of the fifty or so 9-by-9-by-9-inch radioisotope lead cubes
before they carefully stored them in cargo hatches forward on the
large minelayer U-boat..."
"...After the submarine was moored in Portsmouth, American
scientists using Geiger counters confirmed that the boat's cargo
included uranium, and the material was carefully removed. The
story, unfortunately, ends there, for as a recent author demonstrates,
even fifty-year-old matters relating to atomic energy affairs retain a
high-security classification, and no further information of any nature
has ever been elicited from US Government sources in respect
of the uranium..."
Nel testo c'č inoltre un riferimento al libro "Hitler's Nuclear Weapons:
The Development and Attempted Deployment of Radiological
Armaments by Nazy Germany" (Geoffrey Brooks, London 1992)
da cui sono state tratte le info di cui sopra.
Solo parzialmente correlato, ma cmq interessante: il libro riporta
alcune interessanti statistiche sul materiale trasportato sui sub
(Jap, tedeschi e nostri) dalla Francia verso Singapore durante la
guerra. Ad esempio:
- 8x radar Wurzburg FuSe 62 (4x affondati)
- 26x "code machines and accessories" (20x affondati)
- 325 tonnellate di piombo (130 affondate)
- "one ball bearing polishing machine (arrived safely)"
- 2x Set ECM Naxos Borkum (affondati)
Con un 50% di arrivi che, considerando i pericoli di attraversare
due oceani controllati dal nemico, risulta una percentuale piů che
soddisfacente.
"...It is clear, however, that the Germans were prepared to send
much more important military material, and it would have reached
the japanese if fully reliable east-west transport system could
have been established. Allied investigations of warehouses and
factories in Bordeaux revealed that vast quantities of German
technical aid intended for the Japanese were awaiting shipment..."
Davide
"From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were - I have not seen
As others saw - I could not bring
My passions from a common spring."
Edgar Allan Poe

 was not weapon-grade quality..."
Ciao.
550 kg di U-235?!?
Ti confesso che la notizia mi pare poco credibile, se non inverosimile.
Tralaltro, quel "not weapon-grade quality" induce a pensare a ben piu'
normale U-238, ma anche qui mi sento dubbioso....
Se fai ulteriori ricerche su questa notizia, fammi sapere.
Beppe