- 14 Mar 2002
- 14,988
- 7,928
- 749
Yesterday I watched a docu about Germany's and Japan's wartime efforts to produce the atomic bomb. German research programs were far more advanced than Japan's, at times even more advanced than American programs (Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassman and the Austrian Lise Meitner discovered nuclear fission in 1938).
When it became obvious to the Japanese army command that the war was lost, efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction increased. Since Japan did not dispose of sufficient amounts of uranium, they put pressure onto Hitler to provide them with resources. The difficulty was how to transfer uranium from Germany to Japan. Japan had sent several cargo submarines to Germany, but all of them were sunk by the Allies.
In January 1945 - Germany herself was already at the brink of total destruction - German GC decided to send one of their subs to Japan to provide the Japanese with uranium oxide and the latest German technology. U-234 departed from Kiel in the end of March 1945 loaded with uranium, components for jet fighters and V-2 missiles, blueprints and other sensitive material. Two Japanese naval officers, German experts and Nazi top brass were also on board. Since British intelligence had decoded German encryption techniques in 1943 the Allies knew of these plans and tried to stop U-234 by all means. They were unable to sink the boat, but managed to slow down the sub significantly. On May 8 1945 Germany agreed to an unconditional cease-fire, two days later all sub crews were ordered to abort their missions and to give up. U-234's position was off Nova Scotia, so the captain decided to head to the U.S. instead of handing the boat over to Canada. The two Japanese officers committed suicide (they took barbiturates, as they didn't intend to "soil the boat" with their seppuku).
U-234 surrendered to the destroyer USS Sutton on May 14 and was escorted to Portsmouth. The 560kg of uranium oxide were personally inspected by Oppenheimer, later enriched and transferred to Alamo. To the U.S. the German uranium was a gift from heaven, it was used for their own nuclear program. It is a bitter irony of history that the nuclear material intended for Japan finally reached Hiroshima on August 6 1945 on board the "Enola Gay".
More about U-234's final mission
=> http://www.ussvance.com/Vance/nazisub.htm
Below: U-234 after surrender
When it became obvious to the Japanese army command that the war was lost, efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction increased. Since Japan did not dispose of sufficient amounts of uranium, they put pressure onto Hitler to provide them with resources. The difficulty was how to transfer uranium from Germany to Japan. Japan had sent several cargo submarines to Germany, but all of them were sunk by the Allies.
In January 1945 - Germany herself was already at the brink of total destruction - German GC decided to send one of their subs to Japan to provide the Japanese with uranium oxide and the latest German technology. U-234 departed from Kiel in the end of March 1945 loaded with uranium, components for jet fighters and V-2 missiles, blueprints and other sensitive material. Two Japanese naval officers, German experts and Nazi top brass were also on board. Since British intelligence had decoded German encryption techniques in 1943 the Allies knew of these plans and tried to stop U-234 by all means. They were unable to sink the boat, but managed to slow down the sub significantly. On May 8 1945 Germany agreed to an unconditional cease-fire, two days later all sub crews were ordered to abort their missions and to give up. U-234's position was off Nova Scotia, so the captain decided to head to the U.S. instead of handing the boat over to Canada. The two Japanese officers committed suicide (they took barbiturates, as they didn't intend to "soil the boat" with their seppuku).
U-234 surrendered to the destroyer USS Sutton on May 14 and was escorted to Portsmouth. The 560kg of uranium oxide were personally inspected by Oppenheimer, later enriched and transferred to Alamo. To the U.S. the German uranium was a gift from heaven, it was used for their own nuclear program. It is a bitter irony of history that the nuclear material intended for Japan finally reached Hiroshima on August 6 1945 on board the "Enola Gay".
More about U-234's final mission
=> http://www.ussvance.com/Vance/nazisub.htm
Below: U-234 after surrender
Attachments
Last edited:
Wow, I didn't know about that. It changes a lot my view on the turn of events in the WWII. What if the crew hadn't follow the order and continued to Japan ? Would the world be as we know it today ?
