The French connection
Meanwhile the French (with allied cooperation) had succeeded
in removing the only source of heavy water (a key component in the production
of enriched Uranium 235) from Norway due to fears that it may be captured by
the Germans.
The only place where heavy water (deuterium oxide) could be
isolated was at the Norsk Hydro Ryukan plant in Norway. By the end of 1939,
Ryukan was receiving orders from the German chemical giant I.G. Farben for up
to 100 kg of heavy water a month. Lieutenant Jacques Allier, a Deuxième Bureau
agent French intelligence became aware of the increased German demand, and
managed to spirit the entire Ryukan 185 Kg of heavy water, in 26 five-litre
containers, out of the country.
In March 1940, the "Deuxième Bureau" (French
military intelligence) directed three French agents, Captain Muller and
Lieutenants Mossé and Knall-Demars, to remove the world's extant supply, 185 kg
(408 lb) of heavy water from the Vemork plant in then-neutral Norway. The Norsk
Hydro General Director, Axel Aubert, agreed to “lend” the heavy water to France
for the duration of the war, observing that if Germany won the war he was
likely to be shot. Transportation was difficult as German Military Intelligence
(the Abwehr) maintained a presence in Norway and had been alerted of ongoing
French activities in Norway (although they had not been specifically warned
about heavy water). Had they become aware of the shipment, they might have
attempted to intercept it. The French transported it secretly to Oslo, to Perth
in Scotland, and then on to France.
After an entertaining early life the Earl of Suffolk from
Charlton House near Malmesbury, became an undergraduate at Edinburgh in 1934,
aged 28. By 1937 he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the next
year got the first Honours degree in Pharmacology. At the start of the war as
well as being Malmesbury's Chief ARP Warden he joined the Ministry of Supplies
Scientific Research Dept. He was sent to Paris as British Scientific Liaison
Officer from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to the French
government. As France was collapsing he went round the city armed with 2 .45
automatic pistols 'persuading' jewellers and bankers to give him diamonds for
transport to England. Escaping just ahead of the Germans he raced off to
Bordeux. With Major Ardale Golding and their secretaries, Eileen Beryl Morden
and Marguerite Nicolle, they had left Paris on 10 June. They escorted
thirty-three eminent scientists and technicians, including Lew Kowarski and
Hans Halban, along with their families, from Clermont Ferrand to Bordeaux, and
arranged for their passage to England on Broompark.
On 13 June 1940, the SS Broompark entered Bordeaux harbour
with a load of coal. The ship's master was Captain Olaf Paulsen. Born in
Christiania, Norway. In 1878, he had left when he was 14 and made his home in
Leith, Scotland, becoming a British citizen in 1904. After starting out with
Christian Salvesen as a cook, he had earned his master's certificate, and
joined the Denholm line. Broompark had
sailed as part of convoy OG-33F in company with SS Earlspark, another vessel of
the Denholm line also carrying coal, but Earlspark had been sunk en route by a
German U-boat, U-101 on 12 June. Paris had fallen the previous day, and Paulsen
agreed that once his cargo was discharged, he would take on refugees and carry
them to England.
About a hundred people took up his offer. Amongst those who
boarded was the Earl of Suffolk, who had been the British Scientific Liaison
Officer from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to the French
government. With Major Ardale Golding, his secretary Marguerite Nicolle, Eileen
Beryl Morden, Suffolk’s secretary, and they left Paris on 10 June. When France
was invaded the French nuclear scientist Frédéric Joliot-Curie took charge of
the material, hiding it first in a Banque de France vault and then in a prison.
Joliot-Curie then moved it to Bordeaux, where it, plus research papers and most
of the scientists (Joliot-Curie remained in France).
The scientists brought with them the 26 cans containing
heavy water worth £22,000. The managing director of the Antwerp Diamond Bank,
Paul Timbal, joined them, bringing with him between £1 million and £3 million
in diamonds. They also discovered 600 long tons (610 t) of machine tools in
wagons on the quay, which were loaded on board. The diamonds and the heavy
water were strapped to the deck on wooden pallets, so that if the ship was sunk
they might float free, and possibly be recovered. On 19 June, Broompark weighed
anchor and sailed down the Gironde estuary without the assistance of a pilot or
tug boats, and made its way safely to Falmouth, arriving on 21 June.
A special train took the passengers & cargo to London.
Arriving at the Ministry at 0400 the porter was not keen to allow the strangely
dressed man (Earl of Suffolk ) admittance but the .45s
seem to have done the trick again. In Herbert Morrison's absence Harold
Macmillan saw him and arranged for a destroyer to collect the rest of his
booty.
The diamonds were placed in the vaults of the Diamond
Corporation and most of the heavy water was sent to Windsor Castle, where it
was stored alongside the Crown Jewels, until needed.
The award of an OBE to Captain Paulsen was recorded in the
London Gazette of 4 February 1941. Crucial to the success of the mission was
the role played by Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk. The SS Broompark was
one of 120 or so merchant ships that went to western France to save troops and
equipment during Operation Aerial. The Earl of Suffolk went on to be the
foremost bomb disposal expert but was killed on 12 May 1941, being awarded the
GC. In all these adventures he was accompanied by his Secretary, Eileen Morden
and his 'man Friday' Fred Hards - the Holy Trinity. They all perished together.
It went to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in small
consignments; possibly the balance was sent to Canada for the Chalk River
project.
Because of the key element (no pun) in this being Uranium,
immediate action was taken: the Ministry of Economic Warfare was asked to
secure stocks of uranium oxide in danger of being captured by the Germans.
At the time the only source of Uranium was a
mine in the Belgian Congo. Lord Chartfield, Minister for Coordination of
Defence checked with the Treasury and Foreign Office, and found that the
Belgian Congo uranium was owned by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga company,
whose British vice president, Lord Stonehaven, arranged a meeting with the
president of the company, Edgar Sengier. Since Union Minière management were friendly
towards Britain, it was not considered worthwhile to immediately acquire the
uranium.
