Nuclear security

The Secret World War II Mission to Kidnap Hitler's A-Bomb Scientists

One of the Allies' greatest fears during World War II was that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi forces would unleash so-called Wunderwaffen, or “wonder weapons.” Some of the rumored weapons were outlandish, such as earthquake generators and death rays. But others, like bacterial weapons, rockets and new deadly gasses, were entirely feasible. Most concerning? The possibility that the Germans would manufacture—and detonate—an atomic bomb.

At the outset of World War II, Germany far outpaced other countries in atomic research. In 1938, German scientists discovered nuclear fission. The Germans had even organized a special scientific unit headed by quantum physicist Werner Karl Heisenberg to develop an atomic weapon, amassing stockpiles of uranium for the effort.

To learn the truth, the Americans organized a covert special-ops unit in 1943, tasked with discovering Nazi nuclear secrets and capturing their top scientists. Code-named the Alsos Mission, and nicknamed “Lightning A,” the unit consisted of a small force of scientists and counterintelligence troops, headed by Colonel Boris T. Pash. A counterintelligence officer who had run security for America’s own nuclear-weapons efforts, the Manhattan Project, Pash had uncovered a ring of communist spies trying to steal U.S. nuclear secrets.