The Winter Fortress

March 28, 2016
Bascomb (The Nazi Hunters), a WWII historian and former journalist, thrillingly recounts the commando effort to destroy the Norwegian Vemork hydroelectric plant that was the source of heavy water, a necessary requirement for the Nazi Germany’s atomic bomb program. The book chronicles four major attacks: an unsuccessful British commando raid, a successful Norwegian commando raid, a U.S. Air Force bombing attack, and the final efforts to demolish the remaining heavy water supplies. Bascomb’s novelistic depiction focuses on the efforts of the Norwegian commandos and resistance fighters, who braved the threat of Gestapo torture and execution while showcasing the skiing and wilderness skills that helped them survive and operate in the arctic conditions of Norwegian winter. He contextualizes events by explaining the importance of heavy water to nuclear fission and reminding readers that the extent of the Nazi nuclear program was unknown at the time. Bascomb’s meticulous research draws on U.S., British, German, and Norwegian archives, as well as interviews with surviving veterans. Much of the information Bascomb shares has been detailed elsewhere, but this is still a fascinating read about how a small group of Norwegians refused to submit to the brutal occupation of their country and contributed significantly to Allied victory.

March 1, 2016

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. VERDICT This well-told and deeply researched account sheds light on an aspect of World War II that is little known or remembered, creating a valuable history that will be beneficial for most collections.--Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

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