APPENDIX
The German Small Scale Atom Bomb
The bomb design was similar to Heisenberg’s B-III experiment at Berlin-Dahlem in early 1942 which involved alternating layers of uranium powder and paraffin inside an aluminium sphere. The neutron source was a radium-beryllium preparation dropped into the centre of the apparatus by way of a chimney.
The laboratory-built device in the diagram would have given a low-yield atomic explosion when compressed uniformly at Mach 3.5 if the uranium powder had been enriched with plutonium by leaving it to breed in a sub-reactor for some months.
That seems to have been the purpose of Heisenberg’s experiment at Leipzig commencing 2 June 1942. The bomb would be about two feet in diameter. The paraffin prevented the premature fission of the material caused by the energetic Pu240 isotopes.
Tests to prove the reaction probably using a lead-jacketed bomb were almost certainly carried out in the Baltic and in Norway during late 1944. These would have had almost negligible fallout and no significant blast. Hitler was against using the atom bomb operationally on doctrinal grounds.
Heisenberg’s bomb
The Leipzig Experiment starting on 2 June 1942 had an outer aluminium sphere 740 mms in diameter filled with 750 kgs uranium metal powder. A concentric inner sphere contained 220 litres heavy water. A radium-beryllium neutron source was introduced through a central chimney to begin the reaction.
The neutrons from the centre were slowed on passing through the heavy water before radiating into the uranium powder where they fissioned U235 isotopes to release more neutrons or combined with U238 resonances to form plutonium. Left to work for several months this is a subtle means of uranium enrichment and plutonium production. The irradiated powder, assembled in alternate layers with paraffin in a spherical casing, would then serve as a low-yield atom bomb if detonated with an effective implosion fuse.
Goudsmit’s Version of Heisenberg’s Bomb
From his book Alsos - The Failure in German Science published in 1947, Professor Goudsmit provided this sketch of what he suspected was the German atom bomb. Above is a drawing from a photograph of the experimental assembly “which they believed could make a bomb” and (right) a diagram of the “experimental bomb” which consisted of layers of uranium and paraffin. Goudsmit might have been joking, but he was right. What he may have been hinting was that (1) if the plutonium-enriched U-powder is layered with paraffin in the top hemisphere and the lower hemisphere filled with iron ballast and (2) fitted as the warhead in a V-2 rocket, the speed of impact replaces the tons of HE to detonate the weapon. The paraffin disperses and the fissile material smashes into the ballast to form a non-symmetrical critical mass resulting in a small “fizzle” explosion with meltdown and fallout.
GERMANY’S “ATOM BOMB”
Drawn from a photograph of the German experimental “uranium pile,” which they believed would make a bomb.
Diagram for the experimental “bomb” which consisted of layers of uranium and paraffin.
The German Flying Saucer
During the spate of UFO sightings over the US in midsummer 1947, a flying crescent was often seen. It was suspected by USAF Intelligence to be man-made and of German origin. A declassified secret report identified it as approximating the 1942 designed Ho VI Parabola, the plan form of which is shown here. Reimar Horten disappeared to Argentina at the war’s end.
NOTES
1. Bariloche Nazi – Guia de Sitios Relacionados al Nacional Socialismo unpublished anonymous manuscript registered in Argentina at the Registro Propiedad Intelectual, File 132840 (5.6.2001).
2. Burrowed into the chalky rock of the Kohnstein mountain, and originally designed as a chemical storage facility, Nordhausen comprised of two parallel tunnels 2½ kilometres long, 200 metres apart and wide enough for a double railway track in each, with 46 connecting chambers. A third tunnel at the level of the eighteenth chamber ran at a right angle to the main corridors. Floor area amounted to 125,000 square metres. The available space was million cubic metres. Heating was maintained at 17°C with low humidity. All corridors and chambers were equipped with strong electric lighting.
3. Needless to say, the conditions for the prisoners at SS-Mittelwerk were barbarous. Initially the mortality rate was 15%, although admittedly this was better than the 84% rate at Auschwitz for forced labourers. When Wernher von Braun visited the tunnels in January 1944, where he saw 10,000 inmates at labour, he walked the corridors in silence and left despondent. Following the intercession of Speer in the wake of a visit in December 1944, food and living conditions improved beyond measure and the prisoners were eventually lodged in barracks outside the caves. Hitler’s Luftwaffe ADC von Below stated in At Hitler’s Side, Greenhill Books, 2001, that when he visited in January 1945 “the prisoners seemed well-treated and were in good physical condition as far as I could determine” but he was not there on the day in March 1945 when guards hanged fifty-two slave labourers in Gallery 41, tying a dozen at a time to a beam which was then pulled up by a crane while those next in line were forced to watch.
4. Nick Cook:The Hunt for Zero Point: One Man’s Journey to Discover the Biggest Secret Since the Invention of the Atom Bomb, Century Books, 2001, wherein the author, a leading writer for Britain’s most authoritative military journal, Jane’s Defence Weekly, advances the theory that Kammler gave the Americans “Nazi anti-gravity technology” in exchange for his own security. Mr Cook invokes this line of reasoning to explain “the thousands of sightings of UFOs that have occurred since the Second World War”, i.e. there are no UFOs but American UFOs. Sightings of flying saucers and so forth are not a modern phenomenon and go back to at least the time of the Ancient Greeks. Persons claiming close contact with a UFO are invariably given a medical examination which will include a routine check for radiation. Two Government-documented contactee cases in South America are those of Villas Boas (Brazil, 15.10.1957) who was found to have genital radiation poisoning and bodily evidence of abnormal healing after claiming to have been kidnapped by the female crew of a UFO, and 71-year old Ventura Maceiras (Argentina, 30.12.1972, radiation sickness after claiming to have approached a UFO which landed near his shack: began to grow his third set of teeth in February 1973.) The documented medical evidence in the multiplicity of similar cases is overwhelming. The United States is unlikely to have been responsible for either of the quoted incidents, and fought off an action brought by Mrs Betty Cash and others claiming $20 million damages for exogenous radiation poisoning necessitating a mastectomy following an incident at Houston on the night of 29 December 1980. A US court threw out the application in August 1986 after accepting pleadings on behalf of the US Government, armed forces and NASA that they neither owned nor operated “a large oblong flaming object with a rounded top and pointed lower half”.
5. Konrad Heiden:The Führer, first published London, 1944: reprinted H. Pordes, London 1967; Robinson Publishing reprint, 1999, page 591.
6. Hermann Rauschning:Hitler Speaks, A Series of Political Conversations with Adolf Hitler on his Real Aims, Thornton Butterworth, London, 1939.
7. Henry Picker:Hitlers Tischgespräche im FHQ Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart, 1976.
8. Erich Gröner:Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1815–1945, Band III, Bernard & Graefe, 1985.
9. Wilfred von Oven:Finale Furioso, Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende, Tübingen, 1974.
10. Public Record Office, PREM 3/89.
11. Günther Gellermann:Der Krieg der nicht stattfand, Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz, 1986.
12. Jürgen Michels:Peenemünde und seine Erben in Ost und West:Bernard & Graefe 1997.
13. Otto Skorzeny:Wir kämpften, wir verloren, Helmut Cramer, 1973.
14. OSS Report A44 316 Report 5958 7 November 1944.
15. Jüngen Michels, op cit.
16. Jürgen Michels, op. cit.
17. Rudolf Luhser:Die deutschen Waffen und Geheimwaffen des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 1958.
18. Günther Hessler:The U-boat War in th
e Atlantic 1939–1945, HMSO.
19. Philip Henshall:Vengeance, Alan Sutton, Stroud, 1995.
20. Musée Nationale d’Histoire Militaire, Diekirch-Luxembourg.
21. Hermann Rauschning:Hitler Speaks, Thornton Butterworth, 1939.
22. See Dr Ernst Weisz:Augenzeuge, 1939, a thinly fictionalized account of Hitler’s miracle cure, and William Bramley:The Gods of Eden.
23. Hermann Rauschning, op. cit.
24. The original German version of this booklet under the title Der Bolschewismus von Moses bis Lenin: Ein Zweigespraech zwischen Adolf Hitler und mir can be read at: http://www.abbc.com/berlin/moses.htm The English translation published by the Historical Review Press (Tr. William L. Pierce) can be read at: http://www.ety.com/HRP/booksonline/mosestolenin/mosesfw.htm
25. John Blofeld:Taoism, Mandala Books, 1986.
26. Nora Waln:Reaching for the Stars, Crescent Press, London 1939. A Chinese-American historian and translator, Nora Waln spent the pre-war period in Germany.
27. OSS Interrogation Archive document #12678 Nazi Occult Organizations.
28. Michael Talbot:Mysticism and the New Physics, Arkana, 1993.
29. Albert Speer:Erinnerungen, Polypropylaen Verlag, Ullstein, Berlin, 1969.
30. Albert Speer, op. cit.
31. Die Wissenschaften, 28.1.1939.
32. C. F. von Weizsäcker:Atomenergie und Atomzeitalter, Fischer, 1957.
33. Heereswaffenamt=Army Weapons Bureau.
34. Werner Heisenberg:Individual Behaviour in the Face of Disaster, essay. Where not specifically referenced, Heisenberg’s reports and commentaries mentioned in the text can be found in W. Heisenberg and K. Wirtz:Grossversuche zur Vorbereitung der Konstruktion eines Uranbrenners in FIAT Review of German Science 1939–1945 republished in Series B:Gesammelte Werke von Werner Heisenberg (Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg and New York, 1984) and in Series A, the Original Works under the title Atomenergiegewinnung.
35. Robert Jungk:Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Gollancz, 1982.
36. Karl Wirtz:Im Umkreis der Physik, KFZ Karlsruhe, 1987: Joseph J. Ermenc:Atomic Bomb Scientists: Memoirs 1939–1945, Greenwood Press CT, 1989.
37. Armin Herrmann:Heisenberg, Rohwohlt Verlag, Rheinbek, 1976.
38. Die Möglichkeit der technischen Energiegewinnung aus der Uranspaltung, Paper G-39, KFZ Karlsruhe. The German wartime uranium project reports are filed on microfilm at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Centre (KFZ), from where photocopies may be obtained. Each document of the series is listed with the prefix G. Many of Heisenberg’s reports have been reproduced in the various volumes of his lifetime’s work Gesammelte Werke (Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 1989).
39. Margaret Gowing:Britain and Atomic Energy 1939–1945, UKAEA and Macmillan, 1964.
40. Leslie Groves:Now It Can Be Told, Harper, New York, 1962, pp 336–340.
41. C. F. von Weizsäcker:Atomenergie und Atomzeitalter, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 1957.
42. Die Wissenschaften, Vol. 27 pp. 402–410.
43. Joseph J. Ermenc:Atomic Bomb Scientists 1939–1945, Greenwood Press, CT, 1989.
44. David Irving:The Virus House, Wm Kimber, London, 1967.
45. Karl Wirtz:Im Umkreis der Physik, Karlsruhe, 1987.
46. Re Sengier see Harald Steinert:The Atom Rush, Man’s Quest for Radioactive Materials, Thames & Hudson, London 1958: Gowing, op. cit.;Groves:op. cit.
47. Ermenc, op. cit.
48. Karlsruhe KFZ report G-55.
49. Die Absorption thermischen Neutronen im Elektro-graphit, KFZ report G-71.
50. Ermenc, op. cit.
51. Über den Nachweis von Boron und Kadmium in Kohle, G-46 and G-85, Karlsruhe KFZ.
52. Bestimmung der Diffusionslänge thermischen Neutronen im Schwerem Wasser, KFZ report G-23.
53. Bestimmung der Diffusionslänge thermischen Neutronen im Präparat 38, KFZ report G-22.
54. Bericht über die Versuche mit Schichtenanordnungen von Präparat 38 und Paraffin, KWI Berlin-Dahlem, 18.4.1941, KFZ report G-93.
55. Zur Frage der Auslösung von Kernkettenreaktionen, G-94 Karlsruhe KFZ, August 1941 and amendment G-267, August 1944.
56. Armin Herrmann, op. cit.
57. Weizsäcker.
58. Bohr was not anti-Bomb when it suited him and collaborated in the theoretical work on the Manhattan Project. He was indiscreet to the extent that after a meeting with Churchill arranged in 1944 by the President of the Royal Society, Sir Henry Dale, Churchill wrote that Bohr should either be locked up or at least be made aware that he was very close to committing a hanging offence. This seems to have been the only ex-officio attempt made to interest Churchill in the atom bomb. It was a term of the Roosevelt-Churchill Tube Alloys Deal of 19 September 1944 that “enquiries should be made regarding the activities of Professor Bohr and steps taken to ensure that he is responsible for no leakage of information particularly to the Russians.”.
59. Versuche mit einer Schichtenanordnung von D2O und Präparat 38, 28.10.1941: KFZ paper G75.
60. Ermenc, op. cit.
61. Die Energiegewinnung aus der Atomkernspaltung, document G-217 Karlsruhe KFZ, presented by Heisenberg on 5 May 1943 at a meeting assessing problems in nuclear physics in Berlin.
62. Jungk, op. cit.
63. Klaus Hoffmann:Otto Hahn, Verlag Neues Berlin, 1978, p.227.
64. Die Neutronenvermehrung in 38-Metall durch rasche Neutronen, Döpel and Heisenberg, document G-137 KFZ Karlsruhe.
65. Vorläufiger Bericht über Ergebnisse an einer Schichtenkugel aus 38-Metall und Paraffin(BIII) by F. Bopp, E. Fischer, W. Heisenberg, C.F. von Weizsäcker and K Wirtz: 6.1.1942, document G-126 at Karlsruhe.
66. Der experimentelle Nachweis der effektiven Neutronenvermehrung in einem Kugel-Schichten System aus D2O und Uran-Metall:R. and K. Döpel and W. Heisenberg, G-136 Karlsruhe KFZ. This is undated but had a covering letter marked July 1942.
67. G-217 above.
68. G-136 above.
69. Albert Speer: The Slave State, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981.
70. Albert Speer: Erinnerungen, op. cit.
71. Picker, op. cit.
72. Albert Speer, Erinnerungen, op. cit.
73. Philipp Lenard: Erinnerungen eines Naturforschers, Heidelberg 1943, p.202.
74. Hoffmann, op. cit., p.227.
75. Soldatenzeitung, East Berlin, 16 March 1962: a copy of the article was reproduced in the autobiography of Manfred von Ardenne, op. cit.
76. Field Marshal Milch was Jewish by his mother and obtained Aryanization by having her sign a disclaimer of parenthood. He owed his spectacular career to the protection of Hermann Goering who declared of Milch: “I decide who’s Jewish.” Professor Rose points out that in a speech to RFR and KWG leaders on 6 July 1942, Goering reported that after a recent discussion with Hitler, he had determined that “he will make exceptions gladly if it is a question of an important research project or researcher”. Another example of how it was done appears in The Ochre Robe by Swami Agehananda Bharati (Leopold Fischer), an Austrian who served in the Wehrmacht Indian Legion in southern France during the war and later became a Hindu wandering monk: “It seemed that there was something wrong with one of my grandmothers. Of course, in those days there were lawyers who specialized in the provision of non-kosher forbears and it was easy to buy yourself one.”.
77. Manfred von Ardenne, op. cit.
78. Charles Gibson: Death of a Phantom Raider, Robert Hale, London, 1987, p.172.
79. Nicholaus von Below: Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937-1945, Koehlers Verlag 1980: English version At Hitler’s Side, Greenhill Books, 2001.
80. Otto Skorzeny, Meine Kommandounternehmen Universitas, 1993.
81. Jungk, op. cit.
82. RSHA=Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Headquarters.
83. Samuel Goudsmit: Alsos – The Failure in German Science, Sigma Books, London, 1947.
84. Franz Kurowski: Von der bedingungslosen Kapitulation bis zur Mondorfer Erklärung in GFP eV Kongress Protokoll 1985, Potsdam und Jalta, B
assum, 1985.
85. Renato Vesco: Intercept UFO, Pinnacle Books, 1976. Vesco (1924–1999) held a doctorate in aeronautical engineering and aerospace development. He was a Professor at the University of Rome and in the 1930s studied aeronautics at the German Institute. When war broke out he worked for the Germans in their secret subterranean Fiat factory near Lake Garda in Italy. In the 1960s his experiences had qualified him for a post with the Italian Ministry of Defence as a technical agent investigating the UFO phenomenon, which he considered to be of terrestrial origins. He wrote several books about his wartime collaboration with his country’s ally and from these emerges a picture of a strange technology which had veered in a direction far from that anticipated by Allied intelligence.
86. William Stevenson (also Stephenson): A Man Called Intrepid, Sphere Books, 1977, at page 414.
87. Private confidential papers pertaining to former Commanding General, SS Weapons Engineering School and made available to the author for inspection.
88. Picker, op. cit.
89. Skorzeny, op. cit. at pp150/151.
90. von Below, op. cit.
91. Valentin Falin: Die zweite Front – Die Interessenkonflikt der Anti-Hitler Koalition, Knaur 1997.
92. Thomas Powers: Heisenberg’s War, 1996.
93. Edgar Mayer: Die Hochtechnologie-Lüge, Amun Verlag, 2001.
94. Harald Fäth: 1945 Thüringens Manhattan Projekt, CTT Verlag, Suhl, 1998.
95. The V-4 Doomsday Bomb was not ready for use operationally until March 1945 and according to Schaub was under SS control. Probably the plotters had no knowledge of its existence at that stage.
96. cf. Ward Price: I Know These Dictators, Harrap, 1937 quoting Hitler: “I was messing in the trench with some comrades. Suddenly I had the impression that a voice was saying to me Get up and go over there. The voice was so clear and distinct that I obeyed mechanically as if it were a military order.” A short while afterwards a shell landed where he had been sitting and his comrades were all killed.
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