Read WWII Spy Messages
- By Peter Tyson
- Posted 11.08.05
- NOVA
Who was behind the Allied effort to stop the Nazis from possibly building an atomic bomb? One person was a Norwegian Resistance fighter named Einar Skinnarland, who was hiding out near the Nazi-occupied Vemork heavy-water plant in southern Norway. In late January 1944, Skinnarland received a telegram from the London-based Special Operations Executive (SOE), for which he worked: The Germans were preparing to ship a supply of heavy water—which could be used to make an atomic bomb—to Germany. Could it be stopped? Thus began a flurry of wireless transmissions between Skinnarland and his spy chief about his ultimately successful sabotage mission. Here, see the original messages as translated from the Norwegian by the SOE.
Launch Interactive
Printable Version
Telegrams reveal a secret mission to sink a Nazi shipment of a substance useful in the making of atomic bombs.
Editor's note: Several of the telegrams have been slightly altered to remove the original Norwegian and to tighten elements on the page.
This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Hitler's Sunken Secret.
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