by Sam Kean
Irène Joliot-Curie and her husband, Frédéric, in 1935, the year they shared the Nobel Prize. (Photo courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale de France)
Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn codiscovered nuclear fission in December 1938. (Chemist Otto Hahn with Physicist Lise Meitner in the Laboratory, OPA at National Archives, author unknown, PD-1923)
Coach Boris Pash was already a two-war veteran by the time he joined the staff at the legendary Hollywood High. (Photo courtesy Hollywood High)
Dutch physicist Samuel Goudsmit as a young man. He would later lead the Alsos atomic espionage mission in Europe. (Photo courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Crane-Randall Collection)
Dozens of world-renowned physicists gathered in Ann Arbor in the summer of 1939 for the University of Michigan’s annual physics camp, including Samuel Goudsmit (far left), Werner Heisenberg (center), and Enrico Fermi (second from right). (Photo courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Crane-Randall Collection)
Joe Kennedy Jr., his sister Kathleen, and his brother John (the future U.S. president) make their way to the House of Commons in London in September 1939 to hear the British prime minister ask for a declaration of war. (Photo courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum)
Lovelorn German physicist Walther Bothe, who bungled the graphite experiments. (Portrait of Walther Bothe, Mondadori Publishers, author unknown, PD-1996)
Pathetic, striving German physicist Kurt Diebner, who helped found the Uranium Club. (United States Department of Energy)
German physicists Werner Heisenberg (left) and Carl von Weizsäcker were best friends and fellow members of the Uranium Club. (Photo courtesy Universitätsarchiv Leipzig, DC 2280)
The Vemork power plant in Norway produced heavy water for the Nazi atomic bomb project. It sat next to a mighty waterfall and overlooked a steep gorge. (Photo courtesy National Library of Norway)
Charles Henry George Howard, the 20th of Earl of Suffolk, better known as “Mad Jack.” (John Oxley Library, author unknown, PD-1996)
Joe Kennedy Jr. as a U.S. Navy pilot. (Photo courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum)
Cutaway drawing of a V-1 “flying bomb.” (Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force)
Crater left by a V-1 strike in 1944 in Belgium. (Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada)
The heavy-water cells in the basement of the electrolysis building at the Vemork power plant. (Photo courtesy Norsk Hydro/NIA)
The first self-sustained chain reaction in history was achieved in an unused squash court at the University of Chicago. (Photo courtesy Chicago History Museum, ICHi-033305; Gary Sheahan, artist)
A Chianti bottle signed by the physicists present at the first self-sustained chain reaction in Chicago. (Photo courtesy Argonne National Laboratory)
The Gunnerside commando team that raided the heavy-water plant in Norway, including Joachim Rønneberg (front, far right). (Photo courtesy Norway’s Resistance Museum)
Heavy-water cells damaged with explosives in the Gunnerside commando raid. (Norsk Industriarbeidermuseum)
Moe Berg’s application for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the CIA. (Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library, Moe Berg collection)
Reconnaissance photo of Wernher von Braun’s rocket testing grounds at Peenemünde. Disagreements over tiny, ambiguous details, like the features labeled here, provoked plenty of heated arguments within British intelligence. (NASA, author No. 540 Squadron RAF Flight Sergeant E. P. H. Peek, PD-1996)
Drawing of the V-3 high-pressure pump gun (a.k.a., the “Busy Lizzie”) planned for Mimoyecques. (United Kingdom Government, author T. R. B. Sanders)
The landscape around Mimoyecques, heavily scarred by bomb craters. The ominous concrete bunker is the fan-shaped object in the upper middle. (Photo credit Imperial War Museum)
Moe Berg in Italy. A note on the back says, “Days after the fall of Rome. Only pictures I have seen of Moe in any kind of uniform.” (Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library, Moe Berg collection)
The type of plane that Joe Kennedy Jr. flew, a PB4Y-1 Liberator. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
Last known picture of Joe Kennedy Jr., from August 12, 1944. (author Earl P. Olsen)
The Curie family cottage in L’Arcouest (a.k.a., Port Science). (Photo courtesy Musée Curie, ACJC collection)
Parisians tossed so many flowers at the Lightning-A advanced scout team that Boris Pash (far left) said their cars resembled floats in the Rose Bowl parade. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
The Lightning-A advanced scout team adopted this puppy, named Alsos, as their “mascot” on the dash into Paris. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
A brochure advertising Doramad radioactive toothpaste. It promises “double defense against the enemies of teeth.” (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Inc.)
Samuel Goudsmit in an armored car near Stadtilm, Germany. (Photo courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Goudsmit Collection)
Exterior of the “atom cellar” cave in Haigerloch that housed the final Nazi Uranium Machine. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
Fearing booby traps, Alsos members had German prisoners start to dig up the Uranium Club’s cache of uranium outside of Haigerloch. Inset: the uranium cubes. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
Alsos members dismantle the Nazi reactor core in the “atom cellar” in Haigerloch, Germany. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
Cartoon of the “Nazi donkey” that kicked Boris Pash and broke his ribs during the pursuit of Werner Heisenberg. (Photo courtesy Hoover Institute, Boris Pash papers)
Boris Pash dancing up a storm during a party to celebrate the end of the war in Europe. (Photo courtesy U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
A Thank-You and a Bonus
I hope you enjoyed The Bastard Brigade and its colorful characters. And if you want to learn more about these bastards—or just read some fascinating and amusing anecdotes—check out the bonus material on my website at samkean.com/books/the-bastard-brigade/extras/notes/. There are bonus photographs as well, at samkean.com/books/the-bastard-brigade/extras/photos/.
If so moved, you can also drop me a line at samkean.com/contact. I love hearing from readers…
Acknowledgments
This book was a departure for me, requiring much more archival and historical research than anything I’ve ever done. It was an intimidating world to jump into, and I never could have pulled it off without the support of several people.
First, a big thanks to all the archivists and librarians across the country who put up with my ill-formed questions and vague inquiries into obscure topics. They were the pluckiest, most helpful bunch I could have hoped for. I’m especially grateful to the staffs of the American Physical Society, Princeton University Library, the Hoover Institute, the Library of Congress, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
As always, I owe more than I can say to my friends and family. My mom and dad, Jean and Gene [sic], have always supported me as a writer and kept me in good spirits. My brother Ben has become a great friend as well, and I wish him and Nicole luck in their new home. My sister Becca has been a constant source of fun and love throughout the years; I look forward to revisiting Ken’s Korner soon. I hope someday that my books can give as much delight to my niece Penny and my nephew Harry as they’ve given me. And to my friends in Washington and South Dakota and across the world—some of whom I’ve known for decades now—you’ve made my first forty years wonderful. I look forward to forty more.
This is my fifth book with Rick Broadhead, who’s continued to be a wise and vigilant agent. And it’s my first of hopefully many books with my editor Phil Marino, who guided the manuscript with a deft touch. Kevin Cannon delivered, on shor
t notice, the illustrations that punch up the text. I also want to thank everyone else in and around Little, Brown who worked with me on this book and others, including Anna Goodlett, Chris Jerome, and Michael Noon.
A few words on a page aren’t enough to express my gratitude, and if I’ve left anyone off this list, I remain thankful, if embarrassed.
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Major characters
Moe Berg – An ex–Major League Baseball catcher turned atomic spy. Berg attended Princeton University and spoke (some people claimed) a dozen languages. An enigmatic man, he was once called the strangest fellow to ever play professional baseball, which is saying something.
Samuel Goudsmit – A Dutch-born American physicist with a cynical sense of humor. He peaked too early in his career and spent the rest of his life feeling like a scientific has-been. In addition to hunting down the Nazi atomic bomb, he spent his time in Europe searching for his parents, who’d been swept into a concentration camp. In many ways the emotional core of this book.
Werner Heisenberg – One of the most brilliant physicists in history, and one of the most maddening. Worked on “uranium machines” for the German atomic bomb project, which infuriated many of his dearest friends, including Samuel Goudsmit. Was the number one target of the Alsos mission.
Frédéric Joliot-Curie – Nobel Prize–winning physicist and the husband of Irène Joliot-Curie. Although a pioneer in nuclear science, he bungled several major discoveries in the 1930s. Eventually became an underground resistance fighter in Paris during the war.
Irène Joliot-Curie – Nobel Prize–winning physicist and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie; also the daughter of the legendary Marie Curie. A brave and outspoken critic of the Nazis, although ill health limited her active resistance. Sometimes overshadowed by her more personable, more extroverted husband, but she was every bit his equal as a scientist.
Joe Kennedy Jr. – A navy pilot, and the older brother of future president John F. Kennedy. Joe spent most of the war trying to one-up his little brother, which led him to volunteer for several ridiculously dangerous missions, including one to wipe out a supposed atomic missile bunker on the northern coast of France.
Colonel Boris Pash – A hard-charging and somewhat reckless soldier who led the Alsos mission to capture members of the Nazi atomic bomb program. Had Russian roots and fought in the White Army against the communists during the Russian Revolution.
Minor characters
Edoardo Amaldi – Assistant to Enrico Fermi; used to race him down the hallways of their institute in Rome. Top target of the Alsos mission in Italy.
Niels Bohr – Legendary physicist and brave critic of the Nazi regime during the war. Had a major falling-out with Werner Heisenberg over the latter’s work on atomic fission.
Walther Bothe – Lovelorn German physicist whose bungled graphite experiments convinced the Uranium Club to use heavy water. Later worked in Joliot’s cyclotron lab in Paris.
Dirk Coster – Dutch physicist who helped smuggle Lise Meitner out of Berlin. Later helped Samuel Goudsmit track down his parents in a concentration camp.
Kurt Diebner – German military physicist whom most of the Uranium Club dismissed as a pathetic, striving loser. He nevertheless proved a dynamic nuclear scientist.
William “Wild Bill” Donovan – Head of the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA. Equal parts inspiring and incompetent. Managed Moe Berg at OSS.
Enrico Fermi – Virtuoso theoretical and experimental physicist. Born in Italy, he emigrated to the United States in 1938 and produced the world’s first self-sustaining chain reaction in Chicago.
General Leslie Groves – The blustering, bullying, and remarkably effective head of the Manhattan Project. Started Alsos as a way to spy on, and potentially kill, German nuclear scientists.
Otto Hahn – German chemist and scientific partner of Lise Meitner. Their work on nuclear fission alerted the world to this dangerous new force. The military implications of fission left Hahn so distraught that he considered killing himself, but did eventually work for the Uranium Club.
Lise Meitner – Austrian physicist who interpreted Otto Hahn’s confusing chemistry experiments and thereby discovered nuclear fission. After being run out of Berlin, she spent the balance of the war in exile in Stockholm and never got full credit for her work.
Robert Oppenheimer – Debonair physicist who led the weapons design lab at Los Alamos. Clashed with Boris Pash over his long history of supporting communist causes.
Paul Rosbaud – Scientific editor who hurried Otto Hahn’s first fission paper into print. A dedicated foe of the Nazis, he spied for the Allies in Berlin under the nom de guerre the Griffin.
Wernher von Braun – Legendary German engineer who designed the deadly V-rockets at Peenemünde. Later became the driving force behind the Apollo moon-landing program.
Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker – Patrician German physicist on the Nazi atomic bomb project and close friend of Werner Heisenberg. Son of a major Nazi diplomat.
Sources
In putting together The Bastard Brigade, I consulted several thousand books, articles, and primary source documents—far too many to list individually. The list below contains only the most important sources, followed by the archives and libraries whose materials proved especially helpful.
Books
Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era, by Craig Nelson, Scribner, 2015
Alsos, by Samuel Goudsmit, Tomash, 1947 (1983)
The Alsos Mission, by Boris Pash, Charter, 1969 (1980)
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Knopf, 2005
Aphrodite: Desperate Mission, by Jack Olsen, Putnam, 1970
Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, by Diana Preston, Walker Books, 2005
Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and The Bomb, by David C. Cassidy, Bellevue Literary Press, 2009
Blood and Water: Sabotaging Hitler’s Bomb, by Dan Kurzman, Henry Holt & Company, 1997
Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists, by Robert Jungk, Mariner, 1970
Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller, by Gregg Herken, Holt, 2007
The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, by Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage, 1995
The Civilian Bomb-Disposing Earl: Jack Howard and Bomb Disposal in WW2, by Kerin Freeman, Pen and Sword, 2015
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, by Richard Rhodes, Simon & Schuster, 1996
The Deadliest Colonel, by Thomas N. Moon, Vantage Press, 1975
Devotion to Their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity, by Marelene F. Rayner-Canham and Geoffrey W. Rayner-Canham, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 1997
Donovan: America’s Master Spy, by Richard Dunlop, Skyhorse Publishing, 2014
First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb, 1939–1949, by Jim Baggott, Pegasus Books, 2011
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, St. Martin’s Press, 1991
Frédéric Joliot-Curie: A Biography, by Maurice Goldsmith, Lawrence & Wishart, 1977
Frédéric Joliot-Curie: The Man and His Theories, by Pierre Biquard and Geoffrey Strachan, Fawcett Premier, 1966
German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, by Mark Walker, Cambridge University Press, 1993
The Giant-Killers: The Story of the Danish Resistance Movement, 1940–1945, by John Oram Thomas, Taplinger Publishing Company, 1976
Grand Obsession: Madame Curie and Her World, by Rosalynd Pflaum, Doubleday, 1989
The Griffin: The Greatest Untold Espionage Story of World War II, by Arnold Kramish, Houghton Mifflin, 1986
Heavy
Water and the Wartime Race for Nuclear Energy, by Per Dahl, Institute of Physics Publishing, 1999
The Heavy-Water Raid, by Jens-Anton Poulsson, Orion Forlag AS, 2009
Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project, 1939–1945, by Paul Lawrence Rose, University of California Press, 2002
Heisenberg’s War: The Secret History of the German Bomb, by Thomas Powers, Knopf, 1993
Hitler’s Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall, by Jeremy Bernstein, Copernicus, 2000
Hollywood High, by John Blumenthal, Ballantine Books, 1988
Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics, by Ruth Lewin Sime, University of California Press, 1997
Lost Destiny: Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Doomed WWII Mission to Save London, by Alan Axelrod, St. Martin’s Press, 2015