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Critical Mass: How Nazi Germany Surrendered Enriched Uranium for the United States’ Atomic Bomb
On May 19, 1945, eleven days after the surrender of Nazi Germany in Europe, a U-boat was escorted into Portsmouth Naval Yard, New Hampshire. News reporters covering the surrender of U-234 were ordered, contrary to all previous and later U-boat surrender procedures, to keep their distance from crew members and passengers of U-234, on threat of being shot by the attending Marine guards. Why the tight security? Buried in the nose of the specially-built mammoth boat, sealed in cylinders “lined with gold,” was 1,120 pounds of enriched uranium labeled “U235”the fissile material from which atom bombs are made. Critical Mass documents how these Nazi bomb components were then used by the Manhattan Project to complete both the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki, to defeat the Japanese and win World War Two and global domination in the modern age.
432 pages, Paperback
First published June 4, 2003
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About the author
Carter Plymton Hydrick
1 book5 followersInteresting things about me (I think--I may be too close to the subject matter to be objective), and why I think they may be important:
1) I am one of only two people I know who was officially thrown out of the Boy Scouts and kept out--by order of Boy Scout Headquarters. The story is too long to tell here but the facts include a search-and-rescue team--complete with helicopters--and TV, radio and newspaper media. All were the results of doing what I thought then--and still think today--was right, and I would do it again today. (Having written this, it's only fair to add that one of my sons is an Eagle Scout, the other almost got his--both with my blessing).
2) I grew up in a family of eight children, with five boys all in a row, none of us further than two years from the next. I learned one can be lonely in a crowd but also that, no matter how badly we fought, there was always someone there who had my back. Also, that ADD is not new--nor necessarily bad. It's a condition of those who want to get things done. It shouldn't be blunted, it should be focused.
3) My mother showed me she loved me by talking with me--despite the fact she had 7 other kids to talk with--about the things I loved and what I wanted to do with my life. Besides giving me life, she formed my life more than any other person. She also showed me by example that truth is important above all. I love her and am proud to admit I'm a "momma's boy."
4) I married my high school sweetheart, Kris, six weeks after I turned 18 and we are still married almost 45 years later. She is responsible for pretty much every moment of happiness I've experienced in my adult life--and some in my childhood, since we were married then. The tapestry of a lasting marriage is woven by thousands, perhaps millions, of threads, and that's what makes it beautiful and valuable--not whether it's perfect or not, which we all know can't be achieved in this life, anyway. Even the frayed, dirty and broken threads take their place and help establish the character of the whole. The main thing is to give it a good airing every now and then, but always cherish it.
5) Kris and I have four children, and I've learned more from them than they ever learned from me--probably because I was still a child when I started being their father.
Eli, the oldest, decided at 35, with a wife and 4 children, to go to medical school. He now holds an MD and DO. He's not afraid to do hard things, like his dad; and he sometimes does them the hard way, also like his dad. Both are okay--better than doing nothing.
Ashley is quiet, nice to be around, mild mannered, wise beyond her years, and strong as a rock inside. She's my example for keeping balanced in a storm while being strong.
Yurii is a wonderful combination of analytical capacity and creative force--something I've always tried to be but haven't achieved to his extent. For a fun example, google "Scott Sterling soccer goalie." He edited it.
Fleming is effervescent, bold and courageous, and yet soft. By observation of her I've learned to do things even when I'm afraid--by so doing new treasures come into my life.
Researching and writing "Critical Mass" took a little bit of everything I've learned above to complete, so it shouldn't be surprising that I list those above as the most important contributors to its existence.
Cheers.
Carter Hydrick
1) I am one of only two people I know who was officially thrown out of the Boy Scouts and kept out--by order of Boy Scout Headquarters. The story is too long to tell here but the facts include a search-and-rescue team--complete with helicopters--and TV, radio and newspaper media. All were the results of doing what I thought then--and still think today--was right, and I would do it again today. (Having written this, it's only fair to add that one of my sons is an Eagle Scout, the other almost got his--both with my blessing).
2) I grew up in a family of eight children, with five boys all in a row, none of us further than two years from the next. I learned one can be lonely in a crowd but also that, no matter how badly we fought, there was always someone there who had my back. Also, that ADD is not new--nor necessarily bad. It's a condition of those who want to get things done. It shouldn't be blunted, it should be focused.
3) My mother showed me she loved me by talking with me--despite the fact she had 7 other kids to talk with--about the things I loved and what I wanted to do with my life. Besides giving me life, she formed my life more than any other person. She also showed me by example that truth is important above all. I love her and am proud to admit I'm a "momma's boy."
4) I married my high school sweetheart, Kris, six weeks after I turned 18 and we are still married almost 45 years later. She is responsible for pretty much every moment of happiness I've experienced in my adult life--and some in my childhood, since we were married then. The tapestry of a lasting marriage is woven by thousands, perhaps millions, of threads, and that's what makes it beautiful and valuable--not whether it's perfect or not, which we all know can't be achieved in this life, anyway. Even the frayed, dirty and broken threads take their place and help establish the character of the whole. The main thing is to give it a good airing every now and then, but always cherish it.
5) Kris and I have four children, and I've learned more from them than they ever learned from me--probably because I was still a child when I started being their father.
Eli, the oldest, decided at 35, with a wife and 4 children, to go to medical school. He now holds an MD and DO. He's not afraid to do hard things, like his dad; and he sometimes does them the hard way, also like his dad. Both are okay--better than doing nothing.
Ashley is quiet, nice to be around, mild mannered, wise beyond her years, and strong as a rock inside. She's my example for keeping balanced in a storm while being strong.
Yurii is a wonderful combination of analytical capacity and creative force--something I've always tried to be but haven't achieved to his extent. For a fun example, google "Scott Sterling soccer goalie." He edited it.
Fleming is effervescent, bold and courageous, and yet soft. By observation of her I've learned to do things even when I'm afraid--by so doing new treasures come into my life.
Researching and writing "Critical Mass" took a little bit of everything I've learned above to complete, so it shouldn't be surprising that I list those above as the most important contributors to its existence.
Cheers.
Carter Hydrick
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September 20, 2016
What if the Americans didn't build the Atomic Bomb in time? Would the US and Allies have fought it out with the Japanese in a gruesome land battle? Would they have continued to set cities on fire as had been done with Tokyo? What if Japan had beaten them to the punch? Carter Hydrick has dedicated a portion of his years to researching a captured German U-Boat that may have held the Uranium needed to complete the Manhattan Project. The Nazis have been written about for over 70 years, their brutality, bureaucracy, personalities explored ad nauseum. The majority of the existing literature gives little credence to the Nazi's attempt to build an Atomic bomb. The author feels differently and has done the research to provide a compelling argument to the contrary. A non-fiction book that reads as excellent mystery. Hydrick pokes holes in the established history of the Manhattan Project along with the mystery of the whereabouts of Nazi enigma Martin Bormann. Bormann lay at the heart of the story and the author does the investigative journalist proud in his work....A must read in alternative history.
Displaying 1 of 1 review