Since we have this new off-topic area, thought some here would be interested in this news, being WWII and entertainment related. Who would have thought all these folks were secret agents! Julia Child? The mind reels. I wonder if she ever tried to take down the Nazis with a poisoned coq au vin...
LINK
OSS Documents
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by Maxwell » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:01 pm
My favorite WWII spy was Moe Berg who caught for a few years with the Chicago White Sox. Berg was known for being able to "speak thirteen different languages and not being able to hit in any of them." But he was a good enough catcher to last several years in the big leagues.
Berg went to Japan for some inexplicable reason in the early '30s with a team of real all-stars led by Babe Ruth. He brought a camera with him and managed to get to the top of the tallest building in Tokyo and take pictures of the city. This pictures were used in the Doolittle raid in 1942.
Berg's most interesting mission from my point of view (being a science teacher) was during the war. He was sent to Europe to find out how far along the Germans were in development of a nuclear bomb. The OSS somehow fixed it up to call a meeting of scientists in Switzerland, and invited Werner Heisenberg (of uncertainty principle fame), the head of the German project. Heisenberg accepted the invitation. Berg was sent to assess the situation, after being given a crash course on what he needed to know.
He was sent to the conference, stayed after Heisenberg's presentation, and even finagled a walk back with Heisenberg to his hotel. Berg had a gun and orders to kill Heisenberg if the German project was going anywhere.
They talked, and Heisenberg and Berg parted. We know the rest of the story.
Berg went to Japan for some inexplicable reason in the early '30s with a team of real all-stars led by Babe Ruth. He brought a camera with him and managed to get to the top of the tallest building in Tokyo and take pictures of the city. This pictures were used in the Doolittle raid in 1942.
Berg's most interesting mission from my point of view (being a science teacher) was during the war. He was sent to Europe to find out how far along the Germans were in development of a nuclear bomb. The OSS somehow fixed it up to call a meeting of scientists in Switzerland, and invited Werner Heisenberg (of uncertainty principle fame), the head of the German project. Heisenberg accepted the invitation. Berg was sent to assess the situation, after being given a crash course on what he needed to know.
He was sent to the conference, stayed after Heisenberg's presentation, and even finagled a walk back with Heisenberg to his hotel. Berg had a gun and orders to kill Heisenberg if the German project was going anywhere.
They talked, and Heisenberg and Berg parted. We know the rest of the story.
Putt-Putt-Putt-Cough
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Maxwell - Posts: 552
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