Damien Lewis

In the Spring of 1940, as Britain reeled from defeats on all fronts and America seemed frozen in isolation, one fear united the British and American leaders like no other: the Nazis had stolen a march on the Allies towards building the atomic bomb.

So began the hunt for Hitler's nuclear weapons - nothing else came close in terms of priorities. It was to be the most secret war of those wars fought amongst the shadows. The highest stakes. The greatest odds. Prior to the outbreak of the war the massive German chemicals conglomerate I.G. Farben - the future manufacturers of Zyklon-B, the gas used in the Nazi concentration camps - had started producing bulk supplies of deuterium oxide - heavy water - at the remote Norwegian plant of Vemork. This was the central target of three separate missions - Operations GROUSE, FRESHMAN and GUNNERSIDE - over the ensuing four years.

Lewis's new bestseller which is described by Bear Grylls as ‘an utterly compelling read' intercuts the hunt for the scientists, the raw materials and the plant. He delves into some of the most extraordinarily innovations at the SOE, whereby the enemy were tricked, blackmailed and double-crossed in the name of stopping the Reich from getting the bomb.

Damien Lewis has spent 20 years reporting from war, disaster and conflict zones around the world. He is an established bestseller and the author Churchill’s Secret Warriors and The Nazi Hunters.