In this episode we’re looking at the attempts to disrupt and destroy Germany's access to heavy water, which was essential for their atomic research.
If that sounds familiar that could be because you’ve seen the film “The Heroes of Telemark” or watched one of the many documentaries on the operations against the Norsk Hydro plant at Vemork.
I talk to Neal Bascomb, his new book “Winter Fortress” is painstaking researched, with access to the diaries of some of the men involved. It sheds light on a remarkable series of operations in Norway where the weather was as big a threat as the Nazi's
In this episode we’re look at Nazi war criminals and those that tracked them down.
I’m joined by Andrew Nagorski.
Andrew is an award winning journalist who for three decades served as a foreign correspondent, and editor for Newsweek. He has written a number of books focusing on the Second World War and his latest is The Nazi Hunters (if you're in the UK the title is In Pursuit).
As the war closed many lower ranking Nazi’s escaped capture, scattering across the world, blending in with the millions of displaced people. In the following decades a small band of individuals would devote themselves to tracking down and highlighting these former Nazi’s. The search would see Adolf Eichmann being discovered in Argentina and snatched by Mossad, though to uncovering former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim’s attempt to cover up his wartime history.