The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission To Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb

At the outbreak of World War II, both the Allies and Axis powers were involved in building an atomic weapon. For the Germans, a key ingredient in their research was heavy water (or deuterium oxide), which was essential for creating a nuclear reaction; Norway possessed a significant heavy water manufacturing plant at Vemork. By spring 1940, the Nazis had taken control of Norway and the Vemork plant. Between 1940 and 1943, British Special Forces, working with underground Norwegian fighters, established a small group of saboteurs, who snuck into the Vemork facility in February 1943 and set off explosives to help wreck its operations. Bascomb, who has also crafted a well-regarded history of the capture of Adolf Eichmann, Hunting Eichmann, has plumbed numerous archives and secondary sources, as well as interviewed the families of the men who took enormous risks to limit German bomb-making capabilities during the conflict.