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

By: Neal Bascomb

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Extraordinary Story, Known By Few

Neal Bascomb has unpacked and presented an heroic adventure that quite possibly changed world history. The importance of heavy water to the Germans was paramount for their nuclear weapons program. This is the story of how Norweign commandos (chiefly) disrupted the German pursuit of heavy water at a plant in Norway and as this "liquid gold" was being transported to Germany. The tenacity and heroics of the commandos is simply epic.

Bascomb writes well. The narrator, however, has a strange drop in his voice at the end of many sentences. It's distracting. That said, the story itself and the detail developed by Bascomb make the book a great listen. I couldn't wait to walk in the morning so I could hear the next installment.

Great story and insight into the heart of norwegia

I really enjoyed the story and insight into the importance of the secret missions. moat impressed by their determination and foresight to see it through.

Amazing story

Get past the beginning and the story is great, highly recommend
The beginning is a bit slow or odd not bad though

Forgotten battle epic

The story dragged at places— bogged in too much detail. Readers voice always ends on same “beat”—snoozy- but so much ground to cover!!! Thnx!

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.

Remarkable and important book

This is quite an story. You are transported to Norway during World War 2. The individuals are heroic and interesting. It is a story about the Nazis quest for an atomic bomb and the allies fight to keep resources from them. Excellent read!

Captivating

Reading some of the other reviews, I was concerned that I wouldn't like the book. I'm glad I listened to it. The story of sacrifice some Norwegians made for the sake of the entire world is phenomenal. The book reads like a spy novel. Chapters often end with cliffhangers. If it wasn't true, it works be unbelievable. Fantastic story. The prose is also excellent with each character very well fleshed out.

There are many negative comments regarding the narrator. Maybe not the best but does a competent job. Not distracting. If you like history, espionage or adventure, definitely get this book.

Great story

I really enjoyed this book which gives the full story of the allies effort during WW2 to sabotage the Nazi regime heavy water production in Norway (in general) and more specifically about the crazy commando mission undertaken by a group of Norwegians to destroy one of the plants! The description of the Vida and the harsh conditions they had to battle through even before their mission is really hard to imagine, especially at this day and age.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

Unfortunately I found the narration to be a bit poor, a better narrator would have improved the listening experience significantly