Post by Catsmate on Jan 26, 2022 13:23:23 GMT
The French Heavy Water Saga.
An oddity from my notes, with some ideas for gaming.
I'm sure most of you have heard of 'heavy water', technically deuterium oxide. It looks (and tastes1) like normal water but the molecules are composed of two atoms of 'heavy hydrogen' (deuterium) rather than the usual light isotope (protium).
Isotopes are variants of an atom with differing numbers of neutrons in the nucleus. The generally have the same chemical and gross physical properties but differ in their behaviour at the nuclear scale (radioactivity, stability et cetera).
Different isotopes are difficult to separate2. The Manhattan Project spent thirty million dollars on making heavy water and hundreds of millions separating the different isotopes of uranium (which don't have names).
Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors, to 'slow down' neutrons so they tend to react with 235U.
Anyway, on to the story.
In the 1930s basically the only producer of heavy water was Norsk Hydro at their plant at Rjukan (about 10-12 litres per month). Ironically this plant had previously produced nitrates by the electric-arc technique, but was rendered obsolete by the Haber-Bosch process. But the late 1930s most larger powers were interested, to varying degrees, in nuclear research. Most of this was actually for power production, rather than the fission bomb.
Fast forward a little to March 1940. The Germans wanted Norsk Hydro to sell them heavy water and step up production but the company was effectively owned by the French, or rather the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas, and the offer was refused and the French managed to heavy restrict sales to Germany.
Enter Lieutenant Jacques Allier of the Deuxieme Bureau who was sent to get the heavy water. He travelled to Stockholm on a false passport with a few colleagues, equipped with specially built 'suitcases' that were really aluminium canisters (specially constructed to be free from potential contaminants like barium, boron, cadmium et cetera).
The Nazis knew Allier was there and were hunting for him but on 09MAR1940 he and a few colleagues started back to France, pausing in Oslo to arrange an aircraft.The heavy water had been split into two shipments, Allier accompanied teh larger one (about 130 litres in 26 canisters).
The next day they headed to Amsterdam but the plane was forced down by the Luftwaffe in Hamburg.
Luckily Allier has switched the cases and the heavy water was still in Oslo; hiring a plane to fly to Scotland they left later that day (possibly assisted by either MI6 officially or an agent named Frank Foley acting on his own; certainly he was around the airport and seems to have helped load the 'suitcases'). Their plane was followed by another aircraft, but Allier, telling the pilot some of the truth, that they were spies on a vital mission, persuaded him to lose their tail in high cloud. There the lack of cabin pressurisation caused the French party to pass out.
In Edinburgh there were a surprising lack of customs and other formalities (which supports the MI6 suggestions). The rest of the shipment arrived on a second flight early on 11MAR, carrying the remainder of the heavy water.
The French party spent the night at a hotel and after merging their cargo caught the express to London the following day (11MAR), followed by the boat train to France.
In the end all the heavy water made it safely to France, specifically to the College de France in Paris.
But wait! That's not the end of the journey of theNorwegian French heavy water.
On 16MAY1940, while the Battle of France was raging, the remaining stock of heavy water was removed from the College de France in Paris and taken to a bank in Clermont Ferrand where they were secured, under armed guard, in the vaults. A week or so later they were transferred, oddly enough3, to a women’s prison in the Auvergne region, near Monts Dore. A few days after that the canisters were moved to the Central Prison in Riom.
Enter, stage right, Lieutenant (I think4) Allier again!
He was instructed to transport the "l'eau lourde" to London. Unfortunately the prison governor was reluctant to release the canisters without documentation but Allier persuaded him (at gunpoint). With the aid of a group of prisoners the canisters were loaded onto a military truck and headed to Bordeaux. Arriving at their temporary accommodations around midnight, a requisitioned school, they waited for instructions.
The next day they were told to transport the heavy water to the docks to be loaded on a collier named SS Broompark for the trip to Britain.
At the docks another interesting character enters the story: described as "moustached, short sleeved, arms covered with tattoos, two revolvers in shoulder-holsters and swinging a riding crop". This was, of course, the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire.
The heavy water was loaded (the canisters were tied to a life raft on deck, just in case) and the ship waited for a shipment of diamonds, that had been taken from Antwerp by Paul Timbal6. While waiting Mad Jack had a poke around and stole some six hundred tonnes of machine tools that were waiting for collection, persuading the French dockers to load them on the Broompark.
The ship sailed on 18JUN1940 with about thirty scientists and their families, and a few other refugees (against orders but the Earl was persuasive).
The Broompark docked in Falmouth on 21JUN. It had been spotted by German aircraft but probably wasn't considered important enough to attack. A special train, under heavy guard, transported the canisters and diamonds to London. Mad Jack sat on it personally until they reached Paddington.
On 22JUN the shipment arrived and was broken up; the diamonds were locked in the vaults of the Diamond Corporation (and may have been used industrially). The heavy water was stored (for no reason I can find) under guard in a condemned cell in Wormwood Scrubs prison, until it was taken to Windsor Castle and placed in the care of Owen Morshead (the King’s Librarian) who arranged for it to be stored with the Crown jewels.
The heavy water was used during the war, some at Cambridge and more was shipped to Chalk River in Ottawa where the experimental heavy water plant was being built. Eventually it was returned to France (or at least other heavy water was).
Game Uses.
Let's see: two desperate mission, Nazi agents, options to switch the containers, mysterious pursuers, nerve wracking voyage on a slow, unarmed, cargo ship during wartime, slightly insane compatriots, diamonds, French dockworkers, really it has it all. And even the Tower of London if Thomas Blood is around for another try.
Who might be trying to stop/intercept the heavy water? Nazi agents? Time travelling Nazi agents? Someone trying to help the Nazis? Though Nazi nuclear research was scattered and poorly managed, they'd need more than the heavy water to get anywhere.
Is someone trying to obliquely sabotage the Manhattan Project? They'd have better luck in New York.
Now, imaging the PCs have to shadow a group of paranoid French agents across Europe, keeping them safe from other time travellers. And, for a sequel, deal with Mad Jack.....
Comments?
1. Don't drink it. It's not actually toxic but is rather expensive.
2. Without the Tragellan method anyway.
3. This would not be the heavy water's last time in a prison.
4. I can't confirm his rank at this stage.
5. Not to be confused with any other 'Mad Jack' knocking around.
6. Worth around three million pounds at the time.
An oddity from my notes, with some ideas for gaming.
I'm sure most of you have heard of 'heavy water', technically deuterium oxide. It looks (and tastes1) like normal water but the molecules are composed of two atoms of 'heavy hydrogen' (deuterium) rather than the usual light isotope (protium).
Isotopes are variants of an atom with differing numbers of neutrons in the nucleus. The generally have the same chemical and gross physical properties but differ in their behaviour at the nuclear scale (radioactivity, stability et cetera).
Different isotopes are difficult to separate2. The Manhattan Project spent thirty million dollars on making heavy water and hundreds of millions separating the different isotopes of uranium (which don't have names).
Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors, to 'slow down' neutrons so they tend to react with 235U.
Anyway, on to the story.
In the 1930s basically the only producer of heavy water was Norsk Hydro at their plant at Rjukan (about 10-12 litres per month). Ironically this plant had previously produced nitrates by the electric-arc technique, but was rendered obsolete by the Haber-Bosch process. But the late 1930s most larger powers were interested, to varying degrees, in nuclear research. Most of this was actually for power production, rather than the fission bomb.
Fast forward a little to March 1940. The Germans wanted Norsk Hydro to sell them heavy water and step up production but the company was effectively owned by the French, or rather the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas, and the offer was refused and the French managed to heavy restrict sales to Germany.
- The Norwegians it seems weren't paying much attention to atomic research as they didn't know why people were so interested in their heavy water.
Enter Lieutenant Jacques Allier of the Deuxieme Bureau who was sent to get the heavy water. He travelled to Stockholm on a false passport with a few colleagues, equipped with specially built 'suitcases' that were really aluminium canisters (specially constructed to be free from potential contaminants like barium, boron, cadmium et cetera).
- Before Allier left for Norway Hans von Halban had given him a metal tube containing cadmium salts with instruction to contaminate the heavy water in the event of an enemy threat to it.
The Nazis knew Allier was there and were hunting for him but on 09MAR1940 he and a few colleagues started back to France, pausing in Oslo to arrange an aircraft.The heavy water had been split into two shipments, Allier accompanied teh larger one (about 130 litres in 26 canisters).
The next day they headed to Amsterdam but the plane was forced down by the Luftwaffe in Hamburg.
- Curiously enough, the French 'safe house' in Oslo was next door to an office that was an Abwehr front.
Luckily Allier has switched the cases and the heavy water was still in Oslo; hiring a plane to fly to Scotland they left later that day (possibly assisted by either MI6 officially or an agent named Frank Foley acting on his own; certainly he was around the airport and seems to have helped load the 'suitcases'). Their plane was followed by another aircraft, but Allier, telling the pilot some of the truth, that they were spies on a vital mission, persuaded him to lose their tail in high cloud. There the lack of cabin pressurisation caused the French party to pass out.
In Edinburgh there were a surprising lack of customs and other formalities (which supports the MI6 suggestions). The rest of the shipment arrived on a second flight early on 11MAR, carrying the remainder of the heavy water.
The French party spent the night at a hotel and after merging their cargo caught the express to London the following day (11MAR), followed by the boat train to France.
In the end all the heavy water made it safely to France, specifically to the College de France in Paris.
- There's a book, film, or RPG scenario in there.
But wait! That's not the end of the journey of the
On 16MAY1940, while the Battle of France was raging, the remaining stock of heavy water was removed from the College de France in Paris and taken to a bank in Clermont Ferrand where they were secured, under armed guard, in the vaults. A week or so later they were transferred, oddly enough3, to a women’s prison in the Auvergne region, near Monts Dore. A few days after that the canisters were moved to the Central Prison in Riom.
Enter, stage right, Lieutenant (I think4) Allier again!
He was instructed to transport the "l'eau lourde" to London. Unfortunately the prison governor was reluctant to release the canisters without documentation but Allier persuaded him (at gunpoint). With the aid of a group of prisoners the canisters were loaded onto a military truck and headed to Bordeaux. Arriving at their temporary accommodations around midnight, a requisitioned school, they waited for instructions.
The next day they were told to transport the heavy water to the docks to be loaded on a collier named SS Broompark for the trip to Britain.
- The SS Broompark was a year old,Clyde built, collier. Curiously her captain was a Norwegian by birth though Captain Olaf Paulsen had left when he was fourteen and lived in Leith. He'd previously been forced to retire in 1938 after a grounding.
At the docks another interesting character enters the story: described as "moustached, short sleeved, arms covered with tattoos, two revolvers in shoulder-holsters and swinging a riding crop". This was, of course, the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire.
- Also known as Mad Jack5 Howard (with good reason, he later was justifiably famed for his bomb disposal work).
- He'd been forced to resign from the Scots Guards (Lethbridge-Stewart's regiment) for his 'wild ways' (which says something), had worked in Australia, had acquired a degree in chemistry (and an offer to work with explosives). He worked as a Scientific Liaison Officer to the British Government and was (in 1940) attached to the embassy in Paris.
- He would die, aged 35, on 12JUL1941 while defusing a bomb.
The heavy water was loaded (the canisters were tied to a life raft on deck, just in case) and the ship waited for a shipment of diamonds, that had been taken from Antwerp by Paul Timbal6. While waiting Mad Jack had a poke around and stole some six hundred tonnes of machine tools that were waiting for collection, persuading the French dockers to load them on the Broompark.
The ship sailed on 18JUN1940 with about thirty scientists and their families, and a few other refugees (against orders but the Earl was persuasive).
- There is a dubious story that some of the heavy water was cached near the shoreline and collected later via submarine but this is utterly unverified.
The Broompark docked in Falmouth on 21JUN. It had been spotted by German aircraft but probably wasn't considered important enough to attack. A special train, under heavy guard, transported the canisters and diamonds to London. Mad Jack sat on it personally until they reached Paddington.
On 22JUN the shipment arrived and was broken up; the diamonds were locked in the vaults of the Diamond Corporation (and may have been used industrially). The heavy water was stored (for no reason I can find) under guard in a condemned cell in Wormwood Scrubs prison, until it was taken to Windsor Castle and placed in the care of Owen Morshead (the King’s Librarian) who arranged for it to be stored with the Crown jewels.
- I think we're into sequel territory here. Or perhaps a mini-series.
The heavy water was used during the war, some at Cambridge and more was shipped to Chalk River in Ottawa where the experimental heavy water plant was being built. Eventually it was returned to France (or at least other heavy water was).
Game Uses.
Let's see: two desperate mission, Nazi agents, options to switch the containers, mysterious pursuers, nerve wracking voyage on a slow, unarmed, cargo ship during wartime, slightly insane compatriots, diamonds, French dockworkers, really it has it all. And even the Tower of London if Thomas Blood is around for another try.
Who might be trying to stop/intercept the heavy water? Nazi agents? Time travelling Nazi agents? Someone trying to help the Nazis? Though Nazi nuclear research was scattered and poorly managed, they'd need more than the heavy water to get anywhere.
Is someone trying to obliquely sabotage the Manhattan Project? They'd have better luck in New York.
Now, imaging the PCs have to shadow a group of paranoid French agents across Europe, keeping them safe from other time travellers. And, for a sequel, deal with Mad Jack.....
Comments?
1. Don't drink it. It's not actually toxic but is rather expensive.
2. Without the Tragellan method anyway.
3. This would not be the heavy water's last time in a prison.
4. I can't confirm his rank at this stage.
5. Not to be confused with any other 'Mad Jack' knocking around.
6. Worth around three million pounds at the time.