General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
U-234\'s cargo
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: July 08, 2001 05:56PM
<HTML>John:
the Uranium oxide found on U-234 (unenriched natural uranium) was part of Germany\'s technical exchange program with Japan. Germany hoped, by aiding the Japanese technically, to help draw allied, and especially American power, into the Pacific theater. Electronics, jet engines, airplane designs etc were given. Trade was mostly by sub at this late stage of the war. The Me-262 was slated to go into liscensed production with Mistubishi in Jan 1946...... This trade is one of the obscure corners of the U-boat war, but one of the best uses of the extremely long range variants of the Type IX...
how much the Japanese could, and chose, to absorb German technology into their very different needs and design philosophies is another subject.
Japan had a small nuclear weapon research lab in tokyo - looking at thermal diffusion to enrich natural uranium to weapons grade status (a method the US abandoned as useless). They requested some Uranium from Germany, which was on the U-234. By the time the U-235 was captured, the Japanese research site was already burned down and destroyed, but no one on the U-234 knew that.
It is usually speculated that the uranium captured on U-234, which dissappeared without an officially acknowledged trace, went into the US post war nuclear weapons program, and was probably enriched at Oak Ridge and used in weapons production. This is detailed more in Richard Rhodes\' \'The making of the Atomic Bomb\'. Clay Blair also discusses this in \'The Hunted\', though I think he is mostly drawing on the former\'s work on this subject.
Unfortunately, the extreme secrecy of the US regarding nuclear weapons has led to all sorts of rumors over the years...
Did we trade posts on this subject a few months back? It has come up before.
Kurt.
P.S. Glad you\'ll stay on the forum, John. Though I\'d recommend just letting some flammers get away with it rather than sink to their level in a tit for tat.... (Maybe I should try that, too)</HTML>
the Uranium oxide found on U-234 (unenriched natural uranium) was part of Germany\'s technical exchange program with Japan. Germany hoped, by aiding the Japanese technically, to help draw allied, and especially American power, into the Pacific theater. Electronics, jet engines, airplane designs etc were given. Trade was mostly by sub at this late stage of the war. The Me-262 was slated to go into liscensed production with Mistubishi in Jan 1946...... This trade is one of the obscure corners of the U-boat war, but one of the best uses of the extremely long range variants of the Type IX...
how much the Japanese could, and chose, to absorb German technology into their very different needs and design philosophies is another subject.
Japan had a small nuclear weapon research lab in tokyo - looking at thermal diffusion to enrich natural uranium to weapons grade status (a method the US abandoned as useless). They requested some Uranium from Germany, which was on the U-234. By the time the U-235 was captured, the Japanese research site was already burned down and destroyed, but no one on the U-234 knew that.
It is usually speculated that the uranium captured on U-234, which dissappeared without an officially acknowledged trace, went into the US post war nuclear weapons program, and was probably enriched at Oak Ridge and used in weapons production. This is detailed more in Richard Rhodes\' \'The making of the Atomic Bomb\'. Clay Blair also discusses this in \'The Hunted\', though I think he is mostly drawing on the former\'s work on this subject.
Unfortunately, the extreme secrecy of the US regarding nuclear weapons has led to all sorts of rumors over the years...
Did we trade posts on this subject a few months back? It has come up before.
Kurt.
P.S. Glad you\'ll stay on the forum, John. Though I\'d recommend just letting some flammers get away with it rather than sink to their level in a tit for tat.... (Maybe I should try that, too)</HTML>
