I have known for a long time that the Nazis were working on an atomic bomb during WW II but it is believed that they never actually built one. A team of Norwegian commandos were instrumental in slowing down the Nazi nuclear program. Their exploits were celebrated in the 1965 movie, "The Heroes of Telemark."
The Nazis had a fertilizer plant in at Vemork, in southern Norway, that was manufacturing heavy water which was critical to their nuclear research. It was their only source of heavy water. Attempts had been made to destroy the plant in 1942 and thirty five men had been killed. The British Special Operations Executive organized a raid by Norwegian commandos in 1943.
Joachim Ronneberg is a ninety six year old Norwegian who is the only member of the Norwegian commando team who is still alive and was recently interviewed about his part in stopping the Nazis from getting an atomic bomb as part of a Norwegian mini-series that reignited interest in the WW II commando raids on the plant. He had been told that it was critical to the war effort that a set of pipes in the Norwegian plant be destroyed. He was not told what was so important about that plant.
Ronneberg's team of commandos parachuted into Norway to carry out the raid. Once inside the plant, the team of commandos quickly planted two strings of explosives provided for the mission. The fuses were originally intended to burn for two minutes but Ronneberg decided to cut them down to thirty seconds. He wanted to have enough time for the commandos to get out of the plant but he wanted them to be close enough to hear the explosions.
Ronneberg did not know anything about nuclear physics or the Nazi work on creating an atomic bomb. As far as he knew, the Norwegian plant was just a fertilizer factory. It was only years later that he discovered what the true purpose of the mission was.
The Norwegian commando raid on the Norwegian plant slowed down the Nazi nuclear research but did not stop it. The Nazi rebuilt the plant after the raid and the Allies repeatedly bombed it. The Nazis finally gave up on the plant and tried to move all the remaining heavy-water to Germany but Norwegian commandos blew up the ferry carrying the heavy-water.
There is a dispute over how close the Nazis came to creating an atomic bomb. There have been books published that claim that the Nazis actually tested some nuclear devices but the general consensus is that even thought they started work on a bomb before the U.S. Manhattan project, they failed because of the inferiority of German science and the effectiveness of Allied saboteurs. The choice of heavy-water as a moderator instead of graphite proved to be a costly mistake because it made the Nazis dependent on the Norwegian plant. It is interesting to note that some of the scientists who worked on the U.S. nuclear program were Jews who fled persecution in Germany before WW II.
If the Nazis had successfully manufactured atomic bombs and attached them to their advanced missiles, England would be a radioactive wasteland today and we might all be living in a Nazi empire. We managed to avoid this fate but recent international tensions have galvanized political movements of a distinct fascist orientation. Even in the U.S., there are groups and politicians who openly support many of the hallmarks of past fascist governments. Some of the countries where this is happening have nuclear weapons. The "demons" of WW II are awakening across the world and WW III looms on the horizon.
Vemork plant where the Nazis manufactured heavy-water:
