Opereration 'Alsos' - the (un)-Holy Grail under the Crypt
Date(s): 2008. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 36 of 36 Total. 6563 Visits.
1 Haigerloch Haigerloch, the other Los Alamos: The former Hohenzollern principality Hechingen-Sigmaringen (general shape and map color of New Zealand, filled in Cook Strait, but only the surface area of the Fiji Islands), had its own railway company, the HZL (Hohenzollerische Landesbahn) which still exists. The rather challenging terrain required much tunneling. The Haigerloch branch line, inaugurated 1901, never passed under the castle mountain but a dead end gallery was blasted there for whatever reason. The unused gallery was later leased or sold to a local inn keeper, the Schwanenwirt (mentioned in the rental agreement of 1944, pic #30). It served as beer cellar before and after the war. Interesting idea for the utilization of shut down nuclear reactors.
2 Haigerloch landscape between Haigerloch and Hechingen
3 Haigerloch Schlossfeld vista. Far horizon, Trillfingen.
4 Haigerloch View from the Kapffels, the local vantage point. On the outcrop of the opposite side of the Eyach the 'Roman tower'. Honorific title, the tower dates only back to the 12th century. The only remaining structure of South side counterpart of the present Haigerloch castle on the Northern rock spur. The octagonal 'penthouse' is an 18th century addition.
5 Haigerloch Kapfels view. House front on one of the two dovetailing limestone spurs. Minor landmark: The rather unimposing, slate roofed Lutheran church. There is no dearth of church buildings. Usual confessional manifold. The range of mountains at the far horizon should be the Swabian Jura, 'Hohenzollern section'.
6 Haigerloch Eye to eye view with the Northern castle tower (a tower is of doubtful value as defensive structure if you can look down on it.) 17th century upgrade in octagonal fashion.
7 Haigerloch The signpost in the courtyard of privately owned Haigerloch castle. 'Atomkeller Museum' is nearly self explanatory. A shoemaker workshop is likewise traditionally located in the basement. There is also a 'Schlossfeld' pointer, at a right angle. The boxes of uranium were hastily buried there.
8 Haigerloch Castle courtyard. Convention in progress. The car park speaks for itself. (I guess you can always pretend to be Nash, just sprung free.) - Pseudo heraldic window shutters, some optical flip-flop trickery to add depth. - Picture could be better balanced.
9 Haigerloch Historic picture, undated (50ties?). Westering sun. Backdrop, far right, a patch of Schlossfeld (highland mesa).
10 Haigerloch The Baroque church and Haigerloch castle (privately owned). Tour guide picture against blue summer sky. The white arrow points at the gallery entrance. (Tabloid sum up: Dean manipulates reactor rods from the mess table.) - Less sensational: The contrast between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb (Swabian Jura) is rather marked. The Black Forest has its water power and monasteries, the Swabian Jura has its limestone bluffs, custom tailored for ancestral castles, its rather flat highland and its 'Carlsbad' caves (washed out by percolating waters). Will skip the seismic 'overtones'. Haigerloch lies halfway between the two regions but the limestone cliffs are already prominent.
11 Haigerloch The Holy Trinity Church. The Southward oriented choir is a terrain concession.
12 Haigerloch Baroque with Rococo upgrades. Sensory overload nearly a must.
13 Haigerloch The high alter dates from 1609. The tabernacle in the very center.
14 Haigerloch Picture was taken through the rood screen. The tabernacle is realized as 'templum Salomonis'. (A highly imaginary recreation - Santa Maria Majore influence? - and not based on any actual blueprints).
15 Haigerloch Plaster putto, nearly airborne. The Rococo special effects department was one of the best of its time.
16 Haigerloch Off hand: Wedding cake moldings in toothpaste color. Minor levity effect. Inner quadrant frescoes depict scenes from the life of Saint Christopher. (Thought at first that John the Baptist material was also spliced in, royal command beheadings are not all that frequent. Apparently just parallels.)
17 Haigerloch Colonel Boris T.Pash, one of the protagonist of the unfolding events, looks sound and hale in this picture. Not sure where the snapshot was taken. Haigerloch does not boast an airport. Vertical take off and landing only. - [All operation Alsos pictures as displayed in the Haigerloch cave museum.]
18 Haigerloch Usual scene: tykes aggregating, women passing (the more daring ones). No too many male faces. Anyone of conscription age understandably rather skittish. Not that there was anything to fear at this occasion. This particular task force had bigger fish to fry.
19 Haigerloch In front of the Armageddon factory (the shoestring budgeting is showing - no Carrara marble portico, not even a time honored Nordic truss roof. We all have to make ideological sacrifices at the scrag end of world war.) Tableau vivant of the fateful April day in 1945. Colonel Boris T. Pash and his merry men have just secured the perimeter of the installation. Only casualty so far, one swooned milkmaid. Don Camillo, actual name and title, dean M.Gulde, was made of sterner stuff. The raised arm is apocryphal. Most of the dickering (probably not the appropriate word) took place in the Baroque church (Church of Holy Trinity) on top of the reactor. Suitable setting one should assume. It was initially planned to blow up everything after the completion of the mission, possibly the whole mountain, church and all. Exactly what it takes to wind down a clandestine, low profile operation (French occupation zone but the latter were not invited). The pleading of dean M.Gulde was successful. Only some...
20 Haigerloch The dismantling. Slabs of graphite from the outer reactor mantle are removed. The uranium and the heavy water had been spirited away. The research logbook was probably the biggest catch. - Some British observes were invited but the particular mix of helmets could also be due to the presence of civilian experts. The technical expert of the task force was Dr.Samuel Goudsmit. - The cave is rather cold, even in April. I am surprised to see someone in shirtsleeves.
21 Haigerloch Picture may show a minor communication problem. You can translate 'heavy water' literally (au pied de la lettre) into whatever idiom you want and some potential eye witnesses may still not fathom out what you actually mean. Will file it as foiled translation magic. (I am not sure if there is actually a farmer in the picture, but the adjacent countryside was scoured and low level interrogation took place. The missing heavy water was finally discovered in a nearby mill house. (Hardly too original even by superannuated Infocom standards.)
22 Haigerloch The uranium cache in the Schlossfield.
23 Haigerloch Fun on the Schlossfeld. Uranium pyramid and an uranium cube water bucket chain. All 664 uranium cubes were recovered.
24 Haigerloch The blown up outer mantle of the reactor. Looks suspiciously like one of those truck mounted milk containers. Probably one of these cases were a destroyed object tells you more than a restored one. [Possible debriefing, East of the Elbe: Let me get that straight - so they did go berserk on one of their commando raids and suddenly started to total milk containers in a two horse town. And you are absolutely sure that it was no wedding-eve party of Southern Baptists.]
25 Haigerloch The whole mobile of suspended uranium cubes (actually replicas) will start to rotate once enough updraft heat is generated. One way to distinguish avant-guard uranium chandeliers from their lesser kin. Wind charms and beyond.
26 Haigerloch The rusty chain hoist of the 'chandelier'. The scientists did probably draw straws to decide who had to operate it. Some secret training with replacement motor blocks was probably permitted. (A factotum is likely although none is mentioned.)
27 Haigerloch Original uranium cube and notched slab. Both will have crossed the pond more than once. [Not sure where it was mined. Possibly the Czech Republic. Some of the uranium for the Manhattan project originated in the Congo, not exactly a People's Republic at the time.]
The experiments were carried out with natural uranium, a mix of various uranium isotopes (238,235,234). The 'cracking' of uranium into its constituent isotopes is rather tricky. Oak Ridge type processing facilities were apparently not available. Outsourcing to Switzerland (where most of the chemical talent had emigrated) apparently not an option. Not sure if a particular neutron source [spark plug] would have been required if cubes of the 235 isotope had been available. Spontaneous decay is a fact of life. The total weight of the suspended uranium cubes was about 1,5 tons. The actual radioactive effect was produced by the 1 to 2 kg of the fissile 235 isotope contained in that mélange. (2 to 3kg o...
28 Haigerloch Diagram of the experiment series B8.
29 Haigerloch The guide board says that the heavy water and the graphite 'hold the neutrons together'. I believe such a formulation is unnecessarily vague if not somewhat misleading. It is hardly necessary to specify that the heavy water does not absorb neutrons. That would be the task of cadmium rods (not yet required in Haigerloch). In general: stepping on the brake pedal is rarely the problem, everybody knows how to do that. The question is if you will have enough time. Lightning fast is just a figure of speech. Intuition hardly any help if you deal with neutrons. Worse than rabbits. A large heat sink might help.
Main point: neutron moderation is not the same as shepherding. Neutrons are lost with and without the heavy water immersion. Textbook reminder: The aim of the whole exercise is to slow down the neutrons (momentum peeling) to make them amenable for further fission duty. (The required momentum 'taming' (apprivoisement) is also one of the reasons why natur...
30 Haigerloch The actual rental agreement. The letterhead says Haigerloch/Württ. Württemberg and the much smaller Hohenzollern principality had been lumped together into one administrative unit after 1933. The full spelling at the time did include both names. The date, 12th of Oct 44, does not mean that the scientists did start from scratch at that time. The key word is relocation (Verlagerung). Reason fairly obvious: Above ground facilities were no longer safe at the time. First experiments in Berlin and Leipzig in 1942. I make out two endorsing agencies: the armament bureau, subcommittee Va, and, from academic side, a trustee of a central council, subsection nuclear research (the original is not any more specific), mailing address: Boltzmannstr 20, Berlin). Signed by proxy, building inspector of the government (Zwingauer). Last paragraph, freely, we are in no way responsible for wrongly installed light switches (worst case scenario). - Some of the words have to be half guessed. Typewri...
Download MOV 31 Haigerloch.mov The present day gallery entrance and immediate surroundings (180° pan). The horizontal palisade above the entrance hints at possible rockfall.
32 Haigerloch Against a rock wall, the steeple of the Unterstadtkirche St.Nikolaus, 13th century and later additions. - The 'loch' in Haigerloch could be rendered as 'pit-bottom' (not necessarily locked or covered). 'De profundis' script. It cannot always be as flat as Dimona.
33 Haigerloch Not all the houses in the old center are exactly space age. The building abuts the cemetery of the St.Nikolaus church.
34 Haigerloch the three Magi, different quest
35 Muscari botryoides Common Grape Hyacinth on the slopes of the castle rock. It is unlikely that the task force had much time for flower picking. (Flowers with special magical properties maybe excepted.)
36 Burg Hohenzollern Silhouette of the Hohenzollern castle near Hechingen. No known secret caves under the castle chapel. The present castle is for the most part a Neo-Gothic extravaganza. The Hohenzollern answer to the Neuschwanstein of the Wittelsbacher or vice versa. Guillaume II visited the ancestral manor occasionally. Maybe in search of inspiration. (It is not given to everyone to come up with off the cuff remarks on all subject matters under the political sun.) - Lichtenstein, the much smaller, House of Württemberg version of a historic castle/lodge, Hauff novel inspired, is not far off, next limestone spur down the road. Some small caliber 'plinking' in 1945 just for the shake of it.
