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

By: Neal Bascomb

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of Hunting Eichmann and The Perfect Mile, an epic adventure and spy story about the greatest act of sabotage in all of World War II.

It's 1942 and the Nazis are racing to be the first to build a weapon unlike any known before. They have the physicists, they have the uranium, and now all their plans depend on amassing a single ingredient: heavy water, which is produced in Norway's Vemork, the lone plant in all the world that makes this rare substance. Under threat of death, Vemork's engineers push production into overdrive.

For the Allies, the plant must be destroyed. But how would they reach the castle fortress set on a precipitous gorge in one of the coldest, most inhospitable places on Earth?

Based on a trove of top secret documents and never-before-seen diaries and letters of the saboteurs, The Winter Fortress is an arresting chronicle of a brilliant scientist, a band of spies on skies, perilous survival in the wild, sacrifice for one's country, Gestapo manhunts, soul-crushing setbacks, and a last-minute operation that would end any chance Hitler could obtain the atomic bomb - and alter the course of the war.

©2016 Neal Bascomb (P)2016 Neal Bascomb

Style vs. sound

Not every writing style works well as an audiobook. In the first half of Winter Fortress the author uses names only sparingly, preferring to refer to his subject as "he" or "him" until the topic shifts to another person, whose name will then be mentioned once .As a result, listeners unable to fully concentrate for extended periods of time will have particular difficulty following the story, and separating one Norwegian saboteur from the others. The story picks up midway, as members of the Grouse and Swallow teams battle starvation, needing to use stone-age survival skills in order to carry out their orders to delay or prevent the start of the atomic age. Once Operation Gunnerside kicks into gear, the story picks up speed, and maintains it until the end of the book. Had the publisher assigned an editor with a greater sensitivity to the needs of audiobook listeners, minor changes could have been made that would have made it much less tempting to switch to another book before the most dramatic action really begins.

Heroism and bravery on an epic scale

Awesome true story of incredibly brave and women in impossibly difficult circumstances trying to save their nation and much much more. Norway just went on my bucket list.

Excellent and clear descriptions of these heroes' experiences moment to moment.

Sometimes the narration had an ennui tone to it but I was impressed at how he managed Norwegian names without butchering them.

simple people become great heros

the tragedy of war and the quality in humans that arise from it... very well written, you feel like your there.

If not for such men, we may not be here

We so easily forget how lucky we are. How great men fought to stop the axis powers from acquiring the materials and know how to build an atomic bomb, at great cost to themselves, their families, and their country. If they had not succeeded, we either would not be here, or surely would not be speaking English. This is an excellent book about the exploits of excellent men, and a number of audacious missions. I think you will enjoy it.