Issue 50.16
History is filled with examples of singular people making a difference. By force of will, logic or persuasion, they change the course of things for better or for worse. On the one hand there are people such as Plato, Socrates, Jesus, Martin Luther, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Payne, Nathan Hale and Mahatma Gandhi. On the other, Nero, Caligula, Hitler, Stalin, Marx, and many others. Without these people and others that may even be unknown to us, our world would look much different. There is even a branch of speculative fiction that seeks to examine what our lives would be like if some specific event, triggered by a specific individual, had occurred differently.
One of the stories that has interested me concerns the fact that Hitler and Germany were actively pursuing a way to create weapon’s grade plutonium which in turn would have allowed them to win the war with one or two well placed rockets with nuclear weapons attached. They had the science and the scientists. In fact, our own nuclear research would have taken much longer if not for a few scientists we grabbed and brought to the U.S. from Germany near the close of the war in Europe.
A key element in Germany’s research was the use of “heavy water” which is rich in deuterium. The production and action of heavy water is a little too technical for a short article, but you can read about it online. It is a complicated and difficult process but would likely have eventually succeeded in creating a reactor that could have produced the weapon’s grade plutonium Germany needed to create atomic weapons.
We do not have the names (as far as I have been able to find) of the German scientist that decided to pursue this approach to weapons development nor of the person on the allied side that saw the danger and convinced the leadership of the imperative importance of stopping them from succeeding. The allies used at least three special operations aimed at stopping production of heavy water and keeping it from being transported from Norway (where it was produced) to Germany to be used in their research. The first operation was partially successful in slowing the production, the second mission was a failure and the third was successful in sinking the ship carrying heavy water towards Germany and a possible change in the outcome of the war.
Analysts today have doubts if Germany could have succeeded in time to avert losing the war. However, if you take into account that the scientists that helped us create nuclear weapons were then working for Germany, there is some doubt whether we would have achieved results before they did had we not succeeded in stealing those scientists. The story of the third raid is chronicled (at least somewhat factually) in a movie called “The Heroes of Telemark”. A much more accurate account was later done by the BBC called “The Real Heroes of Telemark” but both showed the urgency of stopping the Germans and the sacrifices and skill of those who did the job.
I also have been enjoying a video series that shows what one author’s vision of America could have been like if the German’s had succeeded in detonating a nuclear weapon in Washington D.C. and forcing a U.S. surrender, much as we did to Japan. The series is produced by Amazon video and is loosely based on the book by Philip K. Dick, a noted science fiction writer. This Emmy Award winning series is a harsh and sometimes graphic look at how our history might have turned out but for a few individuals.
Sometimes individuals make a difference. If you are one of them, make sure it is a good difference.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.