The Shinkolobwe Mine in the Belgian Congo was described by a 1943 Manhattan Project intelligence report as the "most important deposit of uranium yet discovered in the world." So long as the U.S. remained in control of this mine and its supply, it had a world monopoly on the primary material needed to build an atomic bomb. The uranium from this mine was used to build the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Given the possibility that the Germans were also working on an atomic bomb, it was a priority for the U.S. to prevent Congo's uranium from being smuggled to Germany. This task was given to the newly created Office of Strategic Services, later known as the CIA. Although much has been written about ALSOS, the secret intelligence mission created to investigate the German atomic project, so far nothing has been written about the intelligence mission at the source of uranium-the Belgian Congo. Spies in the Congo is based on a mass of newly released (and formerly top secret) archive material in the U.S., the U.K., and Belgium; personal testimonies; and a range of audio visual materials, including a set of eight mm films taken by the lead spy.

Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II

History

Williams, Susan

Africa

Tantor Audio

In the 1940s, the brightest minds of the United States and Nazi Germany raced to West Africa with a single mission: to secure the essential ingredient of the atomic bomband to make sure nobody saw them doing it Albert Einstein told President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 that the world's only supply of uniquely high-quality uranium orethe key ingredient for bomb could be found in the Katanga province of the Belgian Congo at the Shinkolobwe Mine. Once the US Manhattan Project was committed to developing atomic weapons for the war against Germany and Japan, the rush to procure this uranium became a top priorityone deemed vital to the welfare of the United States.” But covertly exporting it from Africa posed a major risk: the ore had to travel via a spy-infested Angolan port or 1,500 miles by rail through the Congo, and then be shipped by boats or Pan Am Clippers to safety in the United States. It could be poached or smuggled at any point on the orders of Nazi Germany. To combat that threat, the US Office of Strategic Services sent in a team of intrepid spies, led by Wilbur Owings Dock” Hogue, to be America's eyes and ears and to protect its most precious and destructive cargo. Packed with newly discovered details from American and British archives, this is the gripping, true story of the unsung heroism of a handful of good menand one womanin colonial Africa who risked their lives in the fight against fascism and helped deny Hitler his atomic bomb.

PublicAffairs

Spies in the Congo is the untold story of one of the most tightly-guarded secrets of the Second World War: America's desperate struggle to secure enough uranium to build its atomic bomb.The Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo was the most important deposit of uranium yet discovered anywhere on earth, vital to the success of the Manhattan Project. Given that Germany was also working on an atomic bomb, it was an urgent priority for the US to prevent uranium from the Congo being diverted to the enemy - a task entrusted to Washington's elite secret intelligence agents. Sent undercover to colonial Africa to track the ore and to hunt Nazi collaborators, their assignment was made even tougher by the complex political reality and by tensions with Belgian and British officials. A gripping spy-thriller, Spies in the Congo is the true story of unsung heroism, of the handful of good men -- and one woman -- in Africa who were determined to deny Hitler his bomb.

Spies in the Congo: The Race for the Ore That Built the Atomic Bomb

Americas

C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

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Books by Williams, Susan

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Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II

Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II

Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II

Spies in the Congo: The Race for the Ore That Built the Atomic Bomb