[inaudible conversations] welcome, everybody, to the International Spy museum. I am mark stout, former historian of the museum, the current historian is out of town on a secret mission which he will hear about in the future, i am always delighted to come back to my old haunt and step in when necessary. I think it will be a Wonderful Program we are putting on in cooperation with the Norwegian Embassy because this story we are hearing tonight is about a world war ii famous and dramatic world war ii raid into norway conducted by norwegians. It was obvious to partner up with the Norwegian Embassy so i would like to say by way of introduction to our friends from the Norwegian Embassy, specifically, minister, counselor for communications, Cultural Affairs and education at the royal Norwegian Embassy. He has been serving in washington for 10 months on this particular tour. He served previously a decade or so ago, preceding in oslo at the foreign minister where he has been a number of times but also served in good diplomatic fashion in mozambique, poland, switzerland and morocco. The entire Norwegian Embassy are good friends of the International Spy museum. We have done some fun and interesting events with them as we are delighted to work with them tonight and have them here. Perhaps a few words from our norwegian friends. [applause] good evening, everyone, we are delighted to work at the spy museum. Thank you for hosting this program. We will hear about an event that is part of the history of my own country. I am happy it does not take a bigger part in shaping the worlds history because that might have been the same thing. The embassy is pleased to be a partner. A few days ago norway celebrated the 71st anniversary of the surrender of the Nazi Occupying forces of the first second world war. It is a long time, long enough for people to forget. Long enough for new generations never to learn what happened, not to speak of reflecting on the significance of what happened. Historians know they should never ask hypothetical questions. What would have happened, they are supposed to explain what led to certain outcomes. In the case of the heavy water operation in norway, it is a little bit tempting to speculate what would our societies have looked like if the nazis had succeeded in their ambitions to produce an atomic bomb . In norway the germans were producing a key ingredient to such a bomb. Some of the production is here in the room. Im sure you will hear about that later. Two initial attempt to stop the production failed. 41 young commandos lost their lives as a result. The third attempt was successful and we all look forward to hearing neal bascomb talk about this. In particular, i know that there is a young man sitting right here, 7 years old and he is here because his grandmothers brother was the last of the commandos to leave the plant after they planted the bomb for the kaiser. He is no longer alive i understand. This is part of their family history. Thank you and i look forward to listening to neal bascombs presentation. [applause] a few words about neal bascomb, neal bascomb is the New York Times bestselling and awardwinning author of quite a number of books, all nonfiction which tend to focus on Inspiring Stories of adventure and achievement, Brad Meltzer Neal bascomb studied economics and English Literature and worked as a journalist in europe for a number of years and an editor at st. Martins press, makes his living writing books which makes him a rare individual and very successful in this endeavor. His first book was a historic race to the sky and making of the city, about new york city. That was selected for the barnes noble discover great new writers award and was featured on a History Channel documentary. He wrote a book called the perfect mile about Roger Bannister and ultimately successful effort to break the four minute mile. His third book was read mutiny about the 1905 mutiny on the battleship attempt in in the late days of czarist russia. His fourth book which i believe you can find alongside the winter fortress was about israeli intelligences mission to find Adolf Eichmann and bring him to israel, the story about a rendition. The story was so successful. A young adult addition called nazi hunters was put out and won a number of awards. Neal bascombs work has been translated into 15 languages, featured in several documentaries and options for film and television projects. Neal bascomb is not only able to make his living as a writer but live in seattle, washington. As you imagine from someone who lives in seattle he is an avid skier and coffee drinker and as a coffee the other resident he is definition a good guy and we are glad to have him. Neal bascomb. [applause] it is taller than i am. One second. Trying to find my notes. I will be saying that speech again. I want to thank International Spy museum for cosponsoring this event, thank you all for coming this evening. Last week i was driving in seattle listening to npr in this interview with Chris Anderson and over the course of the interview i was listening avidly and chris said the longest you can maintain an audiences attention is 18 minutes. You guys will be here for roughly 2 and a half hours. So hold tight. I have written quite a few different kinds of books. Skyscrapers, four minute mile, czarist russia, people often ask me what is going on here, what is the theme, why the disparate kinds of books. My wife says, i think an generously, i choose my books based on where i want to travel next. Norway is a lovely place to travel so that may be slightly accurate but i choose my books, focus on stories and this may be a cliche but the stories that grab me, stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. This story of the atomic sabotage classifies within that. This is a story about atomic sabotage, heavy water, should have heavy stuff in it. I dont want to lose sight of what was important in this story. I would like to read a letter by a norwegian scientist, chemist who orchestrated the sabotage and devoted the rest of his life to it. He was in london, went to london and worked with the british and wrote a series of letters to his family who was still back in norway, many to his young daughter, his son was too young to read but in one of these, written in 1943, he tried to explain why he was away, was very upset. I would like to read a part of it here. We would like to do everything to make it free again. When we say our fatherland we dont just mean the land that is beautiful the we also love but Everything Else we love, mother, little boy and you and fathers and mothers and children, and wonderful memories of from the time we ourselves were small and when we had children of our own, home villages with lakes and ponds and rivers and streams and waterfalls and the smell of new hey, spring and the forest, even the lighting winter cold, everything. Norwegian songs and music and so much more. That is the fatherland, that is what we struggle to get back, that is why i am here. Lets turn to atomic physics. You guys are all very excited i can see. It is important to describe what heavy water is, why it is important, regular h2o, you have water, you can drink, it has hydrogen, hydrogen has a single electron and a single proton. Heavy water, deuterium is the variance or isotope of hydrogen. It has a neutron within the nucleus, makes it heavier. Why that is important, in the course of the war the germans and americans were attempting to build heavy water reactors, sustaining Nuclear Reactors and they needed a moderator, heavy water with graphite where you have neutrons within the reactor and you need to slow them down to foster the decision. The thing h2o does if you have neutrons flinging around, it might slow them down but it absorbs those neutron stealing them away from a potential chain reaction. Heavy water doesnt absorb them. They bombard, they flow the neutrons move on. This fosters a change reaction chain reaction. Heavy water reactors, the idea, the germans knew this and americans knew this by 1942. If you have a heavy water reactor, if you have plutonium you have the basic for an atomic bomb. This is the atomic bomb explosion over nagasaki, a plutonium bomb. When many people talk about the german Atomic Bomb Program they talk about werner heisenberg, the gentleman on the far left. At the start of the war the americans and germans were in the same place, they both knew after the first splitting of the atom that the potential for the atomic power or atomic weapon is very viable. They both move forward on programs, heisenberg was part of that program, he was a genius, a theoretical physicist who won the nobel prize in his early 30s but he wasnt the key man of the german Atomic Bomb Program. The gentleman on your far right was, doctor even her, he worked in the Army Ordinance department and for years through the mid30s was telling his bosses we should focus on atomic physics. The reason we are here tonight is heavy water. And there was a single plant in all the world that produced it in any quantity a placeed located about 100 miles and sat on the edge of of a place about 3500 square miles which is a plateau of ice and rock and most often snow. Now, its very hard to make heavy water. They were doing it so you need cheap electric power. It was the perfect placed to build a heavy water factory. The norweian, the 1940s germans said we want all your heavy water as much as you can give us. What do you need that for . The germans, engineer said, well, we cant tell you. No heavy water for the germans until the spring of 1940 when the germans occupied norway rather quickly. They went and sent engineers and scientists, told them to ramp up production, first twofold, five fold and then tenfold, as much heavy water as could be produced, they wanted. The problem with heavy party plant, he needed what he said was five tons for selfsustaining reactors. I will introduce and as background, he was raised by single mother with several sibling, he was very smart and didnt have much money, he pulled himself up in the american way, studied in germany, studied in england, was very well regarded as a student, came back and was ready to start his life with his childhood sweet heart, he asked i can do one of two things and you need to help me decide, i can be a teacher which is what i love to do or i can make as much money as you want me to make and i can work to industry and do quite well and she said i want you to be a teacher. His dad was a vigorous man, couldnt sit still, constantly working and doing and so he turns out to mick a lot of money too and he did that by consulting can industrial concerns, in the mid 30s he decided that heavy water had recently been discovered. No one was able to produce quantity and he had the electric plant and wouldnt be it great to have something that produces in great quantity, and he does it. It is a financial and utter economic disaster, nobody wants it, nobody is interested, obviously until the splitting of the atom until people realized what its worth is. Ambition with it was a pure science, to see if it could be done, first experiment Practical Application later. Im not sure how norris would react about that. It froze at slightly higher temperature. The germans goes underground and starts buying on the germans, what they are doing, particularly spying on increase in production and why they are doing, the gestapo discovers what hes doing, he hears theyre come for him, he escapes by train, puts his family at childhood home, goes to london and quite quickly although the brittic Scientific Community said, well, what we want you to do to develop Scientific Technology for you and what he said was, i want to fight, i want to fight for my country. Now, the reason i know this is because i was able thanks his son to assemble the dairies that life wrote from the time he got on that train, the first entry is on that train when hes going down to the moment of his death. Daily interests of what he was thinking, doing and he wanted to fight. Here he is in his uniform. The british soe, the special Operations Executive as some of you may know most famously the ministry of ungentlemenly warfare. So what is his role and high on his risk is attacking and partners up with a man named colonel wilson and the head of the british soe in norway and they start hashing out plans to go, now this is about april of 1942 and by 19 42 allies are advancing and theyre realizing that this is possible, this can happen and they also realize that with the german science, they will also be in the same place and they know that heavy water is critical and they also know that it will be used contentionly for plutonium. This is one of my favorite letters in the story because its so bland since experiments confirmed element 94 thats plutonium would be good for military Services Since its prepared in systems involving the use of heavy water, the Committee Recommends that attempt should if possible be made to stop production. Summer 1942, Wilson Roosevelt sit down and discuss two things, one the invasion of mainland europe, and two what to do about the Atomic Bomb Program. It is here where first discussions move forward that the americans will take over and the british will advise but this is the beginning of the manhattan project. At this very meeting they discussed water and what was happening. And churchill writes in memoirs of this term named heavy water. What is determined by 1942 by churchill is we need to hit it, we need to do whatever we can to hit it and the mission is on. If the british had a secret weapon, einer was born beside the dam at lake which provide it had water for the hydroelectric plant. This is a place where its a necessity, if something is broken, you fix it. He was born with expert skis on his feet. Now, here is einer, this is the cheeriest picture i could find of einer, he looks very happy and i love this picture because if i identify one thing is toughness. Something very different from the face you see here. He was probably the toughest person i read about research over the course of the story. He we wanted to fight when germans came and occupied his village, and so one day he took those to his mother and said im going to go on a skiing trip. Im going to go hunting reindeer, i will see you in three weeks, instead of going north he goes southwest to the coast on his way he crashes while skiing, i dont know how that happens. He didnt record it. And he hurts his knees badly and they have the ambition to highjack a steamer by gunpoint and reach scottland. Decent plan, the problem is his knee is worst and worst and injured terribly, he goes to the doctor and says i need surgery on this need, will you perform it today, they said, we will. Youll seed a week or two to recover and he said, today, now, no. No anethetic, not 24 hours later he was in commander with another couple of other je. They reached scottland and einer is thinking, im going to become a train soldier and then then ill be able to fight. Who is in town and so sends a man to get einer on the train directly to london and brings him to his office and says, youre leaving in a week. Youre going to be my spy on the ground. Youre going to provide information to me on the plant and einer, of course, said yes. He gets one week of training, one week of parachute training mixed with wireless radio training. And then einer is on a bomb esh across the north sea and over norway. Theres a hole in the bottom of the plane that hes going to jump through and the problem is that einer is afraid of heights. [laughter] i love history and theres books written on this and he curls himself through that hole. The reports the british i love the british. They keep dispatch reports of dropped operations. The dispatch writes about shoving eineer through the hole to get him down, but einer jumps down and lands on the knee and skis home, hello, mother, back from my skiing vacation. [laughter] and begins to spy, he begins to live the double life, but einer was a spy for over three years, probably one of the long est soviet spies and provided an absolute wealth of information. He provided guard rotations, profession quotas, what locks were on the doors, where the stairwell, everything you need to know. They joked that they had so much information that they could build it themselves in britain. Thats what einer and the people who helped him produced for life. But what to do about it, what operation, how do we destroy, how do we perform what churchill and roosevelt want us to do. Now, the allies, particularly the americans, maybe this is an american thing, they wanting to the fast course, they want to bomb it. Just destroy it from the air. Here is this plan and he says, no. He says no for two reasons. One, there are a lot of civilians that live around that area. North town, theres over 5,000 People Living there. Any bombing operation is going to kill a number of civilians. And two, this plant is tens of thousands of con credit, stone, steel and the heavywater facility is in the basement. Now said you could bomb that thing day and night and youre not going to touch that heavy water plant. And so the allies back off that plant and he says, what i think we should do is send no norewegians, no offense but they did not trust to do it properly. They just didnt have the xerpdz at that point, they thought to performed such an operation. So they decide something else. They decide to send two teams to go into this area, land by glider plane, they would release them over the drop site and float down and land in this Welcome Country side called the vita. [laughter] hes informing them that we should talk about this and, you know, this is a hard place to land and hard place to be. I will give you an idea of how lit it will british knew of this area. This operation was scheduled to hap