Tag: Moe Berg

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Heavy Water

Toward the end of World War II, Hitler and his generals were anxiously waiting for the “miracle weapons” to turn the tide of war in their favor. There were two new weapons that the Nazis had developed which ultimately proved ineffective: a jet fighter and the electro-U-boat. How close did they come to using them against the enemy? More than one thousand jet planes, the Messerschmitt Me 262, were produced and put into action by mid-1944. The Allied fighter planes were no match for the Me 262 in the air. However, very few of the jets ever left the ground. German oil refineries were destroyed thereby limiting the availability of jet fuel. Second, runways had to be extended to accommodate the jets. When they saw the altered runways, Allied bomber and attack plane pilots knew the jets were parked nearby and went out of their way to target them. So, most of the Me 262s were destroyed on the ground and the jets never had any significant impact on the course of the war. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891−1980) promised Hitler that 126 new electro-U-boats would be put out to sea to once again wreak havoc on British/American shipping lanes. Only two were ever launched and like the jet, never lived up to expectations.

Hydroelectric plant where heavy water was manufactured and stored underground. The building was demolished in 1971. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Gausta Telemark Norway. www.gausta.com.
Site of the former hydroelectric plant where heavy water was manufactured underground. The building which stood in front of the plant facility, was demolished in 1971. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Gausta Telemark Norway. www.gausta.com.

The third “miracle weapon” and the one that worried Roosevelt and Churchill the most was the development of the German atomic bomb. After Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie wrote that atomic fission was possible and could be used to develop a powerful weapon, Hitler decided to begin his atomic weapons program in 1939. It needed two very important components to be successful: uranium and heavy water. The problem for the Nazis turned out to be heavy water was very scarce and hard to produce. That problem was soon solved after Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940. The Vemork Norsk Hydro plant near Rjukan, Norway was capable of producing heavy water. Read More Heavy Water

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Explosive Rats

I know you’re thinking this blog might be a continuation of our story about Parisian rats (read Paris Therapy Rats here) but it’s not. The rats in this blog post are far deadlier than those running around Paris. I introduced you to Duško Popov in a previous blog (read The Double Cross System here). Double agent Popov was likely the model for Ian Fleming’s fictional character, James Bond. Today, you’ll learn about the secret group set up by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and run by movie film and art directors. As you’ll see, the Camouflage Section might just be the model Fleming used for Q Branch.

One of the Camouflage Section’s spy workrooms. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Museum - London.
One of the Camouflage Section’s spy workrooms. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). National History Museum – London.

Did You Know?

Did you know that a professional baseball player was a spy? Most of us are familiar with the war efforts of players like Ted Williams but I’ll bet you don’t know the real story of Moe Berg (1902-1972), a catcher who played for the White Sox, Indians, Red Sox, and finally, the Washington Senators. He retired from baseball in 1939 after a career which saw him bat .243 as a reserve player ⏤ hardly an Allstar performance. Yet, in 1934, Moe traveled to Japan on an All-Star team which included Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Lefty Gomez. Why would they include a reserve player on a team like this? It was because Moe spoke fluent Japanese and he was a government spy. For most of the trip, he slipped away to take movies and pictures of Tokyo which were used eight years later for the preparation of the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo. It also marked Moe’s entrance into the world of espionage. He joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 and was given covert assignments such as traveling around Europe assessing Germany’s progress in developing the atomic bomb. The purpose of one trip to Italy was to attend a lecture given by Werner Heisenberg, the German scientist in charge of the bomb development. Moe’s instructions included being given the “green light” to assassinate Heisenberg if Moe felt the Germans were close to producing a bomb. They were not and Heisenberg’s life was spared. Moe was awarded the American Medal of Freedom, but he turned it down. After his death, Moe’s sister accepted the medal on his behalf.

Special Operations Executive 

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was officially formed on 22 July 1940 when Winston Churchill ordered Hugh Dalton to “set Europe ablaze.” Churchill loved the idea of spies, espionage, and guerilla warfare. At the time, the British military leaders were against it as it represented irregular warfare tactics, but Churchill knew that undercover covert operations within the occupied countries would be necessary to accomplish the Allied goals, including the eventual invasion of Europe. Each occupied country was represented by a separate SOE department ⏤ France was represented by “F Section.” Approximately 13,000 people worked for the SOE, of which 3,200 or 25% were women. Most of the agents were people who had been driven out of their countries and could blend in easily with the locals. Although the SOE was headquartered at 64 Baker Street, hundreds of properties were requisitioned throughout England and Scotland for training its agents in hand-to-hand combat, parachuting, demolition techniques, commando tactics, and radio-related skills. Read More Explosive Rats