Hitler's nuclear weapons : the development and attempted deployment of radiological armaments by Nazi Germany

It is a reassuring feature of history that even the most brutal and immoral regimes contain the seeds of their own downfall. Moreover, success or failure in warfare rarely depend on a single event or person, and there is always the element of chance, but Werner Heisenberg, the top physicist in Nazi Germany, was almost solely responsible for delaying the successful development of a German nuclear weapon and thereby changing the course of history. 'Heisenberg sacrificed his place in history for the sake of humanity... to ensure that he headed an atomic programme that failed. This was the German Pimpernel, and his opposition to the National Socialist regime was probably the most destructive, continuous act of resistance to Hitler. Heisenberg's contribution to the ultimate defeat of Hitler was greater than that from any person on either side. Against the advice of all the world's great physicists, he remained behind to work against the Nazi regime from within, and thus prevented the unimaginable catastrophe of a Nazi victory.'. For their part, Hitler and his colleagues seemed not to understand the full possibilities of nuclear power, and Hitler himself feared retaliation by the Allies if Germany were to have used an atomic weapon. Finally, the production of uranium by the Germans, its dispatch to Japan and subsequent capture by the Americans towards the end of the war, made the atomic bombing of Japan inevitable. Here is a clear and thorough account, often by eyewitnesses, of people and events in an unfamiliar, yet vitally important, area of the Second World War, and of the moral dilemmas and responsibilities faced by leading scientists of the time. There are warnings, too, for readers now at a time when both nuclear scientists and weapons are still available in a dangerously unstable world. Includes bibliographical references and index. 212 pages ; 24 cm