M.A.D. Scientists

A Love Story

It was a man’s world, and that world was at war. That didn’t mean, though, that women couldn’t be heroes…

December 1941: The U.S. enters the war after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Hitler declares war on the U.S. What was a European conflict and a regional war in Southeast Asia becomes a true world war, the second in a century that was not yet half over.

In the North Atlantic, the war is being lost. In 1942, the first full year of World War II, over six million tons of shipping are sunk in the North Atlantic. Britain is starving. Losses are staggering. U-boats on night patrol see the lights of Times Square and Miami Beach. All along the East Coast, Nazi torpedoes send crews and precious cargo to the bottom.

Viola and Otto Schmitt persevere through it all: threats to their marriage, challenges to their professional reputations, and actual brushes with death as they develop a weapon that will turn the tide of war.

In the end, the M.A.D. system works. U-boat losses skyrocket. The Battle of the North Atlantic is won, paving the way for the invasion of North Africa and, later, D-Day. President Roosevelt acknowledges their critical contribution.

This remarkable love story and its impact on history have remained top secret, hidden from public view, and largely unknown.

Until now…