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Why Nazis Failed In Atom ResearchAlong with the invasion troops that entered France in 1944 went a mysterious group of American scientists known as “Alsos.”' Few officers knew its purpose, says Newsweek Some speculated that the i word had been coined to include “SOS” for “Services of Supply/3 But those learned in ancient languages might have guessed otherwise, for “alsos” is the Greek word for -“groves,” and Major-General Leslie R. Groves headed the then secret Manhattan Project., The Alsos mission was out to gather intelligence on how the German’s then issuing ominous threats about secret weapons, might be doing in the development of an atomic bomb.,The mission’s leader, Prof, S, A., Goudsmit, now of Northwestern University, was a native of Holland . and was well acquainted with many of the European scientists who chose to work for Hitler, Scientists at an American Physical Society session recently heard this unusual story,* * *At first there was a scare when the mission learned that all of France’s thorium had been stolen by a Ger-I man firm. But it turned out that the Germans wanted it for toothpaste. By December, 1944, the Alsos mission knew definitely that the Germans were not on the track.Once the mission got into Germany they found out why the Germans failed:German physicists repeatedly tried to impress the Nazi leaders with the importance of atomic energy but they went about it in the wrong way, inviting the top brass to highly complicated physics lectures which they could not understand. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel once wrote a polite note saying he enjoyed the talks, butreally wasn’t interested just then,* * *When - the leaders finally became interested ,they. put the program in charge of men who were good Nazis put poor scientists.Various scientific groups working on the project, wouldn’t co-operate, and occasionally stole uranium from each other.Despite their difficulties, the . German scientists continually assured the General Staff that they were years ahead of the fJnited States. When they first heard about Hiroshima, they dismissed it as ‘nonsense” and “propaganda.”
Newspaper Details
Orono Weekly Times
Orono, Ontario, CA
Thu, Jul 03, 1947
Page 6
Full Page
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CA 09 Dec 2024
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