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The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb QUOTES

The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb QUOTES

1 " Making history was never the aim of the Norwegian saboteurs, nor of the British sappers who were sent before them. After the war, the sacrifice of the British Royal Engineers and RAF crews of the ill-fated Operation Freshman was not forgotten. Thirty-seven bodies were recovered and buried at gravesites in Norway. Bill Bray’s headstone reads, "To live in the hearts of those that loved me is not to die. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

2 " Our home villages with the hills, mountains and forests, the lakes and ponds, rivers and streams, waterfall and fjords. The smell of new hay in summer, of birches in spring, of the sea, and the big forest, and even the biting winter cold. Everything . . . Norwegian songs and music and so much, much more. That’s our Fatherland and that’s what we have to struggle to get back. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

3 " Finally, Rønneberg, the leader of Gunnerside and the last surviving saboteur, who was ninety-six years old in 2016, often spoke eloquently about why he braved the North Sea to be trained in Britain and why he then returned, twice, by parachute, to Norway. “You have to fight for your freedom,” he said. “And for peace. You have to fight for it every day, to keep it. It’s like a glass boat; it’s easy to break. It’s easy to lose. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

4 " When you have a chest of jewels, you don’t walk around it. You plant yourself on the lid with a weapon in your hand. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

5 " In mid-1944 Hitler, increasingly deluded and desperate, proclaimed Axis victory was imminent. “Very soon I shall use my triumphal weapons, and then the war will end gloriously . . . Then those gentlemen won’t know what hit them. This is the weapon of the future, and with it Germany’s future is likewise assured. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

6 " He found rabbit-fur-lined underpants "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

7 " Foremost, they proposed building a plant to separate rare U-235 from its cousin U-238. This plant would cost as much as a battleship. In July 1941 the group delivered a road map for an atomic bomb program. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

8 " He held the post until the end of the war, an end that Leif Tronstad did not see for himself. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

9 " Other reports chronicled a mysterious September 1941 meeting where Werner Heisenberg admitted to Niels Bohr, who was living in Nazi-occupied Denmark, that a bomb could be made, “and we’re working on it. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

10 " The best intelligence the British received came through German activity at Vemork. As early as April 1940 Jacques Allier had alerted his British allies to Nazi efforts in uranium research using heavy water from the plant. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

11 " The winter fortress was prepared for an all-out assault. All these heightened defenses signaled the importance of the atomic program to the Nazi war effort, "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

12 " In January, Hole sent a message, detailing recent attempts in Berlin to separate uranium isotopes with centrifuges. He also reported an outright statement by a German physicist involved in the program that his countrymen “intended to make uranium bombs.” Tronstad shared none of these conflicting reports with Rønneberg and his team. Vemork was the single identifiable target open to them in their effort to stop the Germans from obtaining a bomb that could annihilate a city in a single strike. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

13 " Rønneberg was suddenly lifted up and back, as if a giant had grabbed the back of his jacket. Then he was flying, head over heels off the roof, tossed away by a gust of wind. He landed in a snowbank. When he staggered to his feet, the cabin had vanished. All was white, swirling white, around him. Heading into the wind that had knocked him away, he eventually found the cabin. Climbing onto the roof a second time, he managed to fix the chimney pot, only to be hit by another gust of wind that sent him flying into the snow. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

14 " The storm raged with renewed power. Visibility was zero. The general lassitude of all members of the party was still very much in evidence.” All the world was snow and wind, and there appeared no escape from its hold. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

15 " You have to fight for your freedom,” he said. “And for peace. You have to fight for it every day, to keep it. It’s like a glass boat; it’s easy to break. It’s easy to lose. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

16 " In August 1939 Albert Einstein, in contact with a group of scientists who had recently emigrated from Europe, sent a letter to Roosevelt warning of the need to exploit the explosive potential of fission before the Germans did. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

17 " They had been told that the plant produced something called heavy water, and that with this mysterious substance the Nazis might be able “to blow up a good part of London. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

18 " From the start, they had known that the odds of their survival were long. They might get inside the plant and complete their mission, but getting out and away would be another "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

19 " Dressed for the minus-thirty-degree temperatures at high altitude (wool underwear, two pairs of wool socks, a wool sweater, a brown leather jacket lined with sheep’s wool, and heavy trousers), Roane crossed the cold, fog-ridden airfield and gathered with the other pilots and aircrews in the huge Nissen hut used for briefings. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb

20 " They were there for Norway, for the freedom of its lands and people from Nazi rule. "

― Neal Bascomb , The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb