The Armageddon Secret

Robert Burnham

Description

At the dawn of WWII, Hitler's scientists were years ahead in the race for the atomic bomb. Someone had to stop them—or civilizations dies . . .
1938: In a Berlin lab three years before America’s entry into World War II, Hitler’s scientists were first on the planet to release the atom's energy. Suddenly, Germany was the only nation racing to find the secret to the ultimate weapon. If the Nazis’ quest couldn’t be checked, civilization would vanish. German general Ludwig Beck’s heroic Black Orchestra Underground fighters swore to topple Hitler before he extinguished humanity. That much is history.
In the heart of the terror-slammed German capital, Alex Drake, an American expat journalist with an old and very personal hatred of the Nazis, is recruited by Black Orchestra. Their network of spies has uncovered the existence of Hitler’s atom bomb project, but no German atomic scientist can be trusted to help them disrupt it. They must have a channel to America to piece together the knowledge essential to block this menace as they battle the Gestapo, betrayal from within, and their own demons to stop the German atomic bomb.
Success or failure of their struggle to derail Hitler’s ultimate weapon lies with the widow of a fallen Black Orchestra member. Her courage and intelligence will ultimately decide the fate of humanity. The keystone for creating the atomic bomb: The Armageddon Secret.

Sujets

• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• German nuclear energy project
• Schwarze Kapelle
• World War II
• Nazi Germany
• Adolf Hitler
• Ludwig Beck
• Fiction
• Berlin
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 14 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781665711548
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

THE ARMAGEDDON SECRET
A NOVEL INSPIRED BY ACTUAL EVENTS
 

 
 
ROBERT BURNHAM
 
 

 
Copyright © 2021 Robert Burnham.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Cover mushroom cloud image: Getty Images.
New York World’s Fair image: Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y.). Used with permission of the Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.2.7882, slightly modified for publication with permission of the Museum.
Albert Einstein quotations are used with permission of
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Einstein Archives (34-347).
Wood engraving illustration of subway tunnel via Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index .php?search=pneumatic+subway&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image
Library of Congress. Public domain.
 
The Armageddon Secret is a work of historical fiction, using well-known historical and public figures. All incidents and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogue concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
 
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
 
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-1155-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-1156-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-1154-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021917894
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 08/16/2022
CONTENTS
About the Book
Historical Note
Acknowledgments
PART 1 : RISE FROM DARKNESS
Chapter 1       Underground
Chapter 2       Ribbon of Darkness
Chapter 3       Black Orchestra
Chapter 4       Invaliden Strasse
Chapter 5       Intruders
Chapter 6       Shockwave
Chapter 7       The Rubicon
Chapter 8       Ignition
Chapter 9       Pure Uranium
Chapter 10     A Supernatural Element
Chapter 11     Doctor Szilard
Chapter 12     Heart
Chapter 13     Testimony
Chapter 14     The Watcher
Chapter 15     The Hermit
Chapter 16     Poland
Chapter 17     Bürgerbräukeller
Chapter 18     Savant
Chapter 19     Questions
Chapter 20     Deception
Chapter 21     Fury
Chapter 22     Strength
Chapter 23     Heavy Water
Chapter 24     Institut du Radium
Chapter 25     Chain Reaction
PART 2 : THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
Chapter 26     Trylon and Perisphere
Chapter 27     Confrontation
Chapter 28     Virus House
Chapter 29     Discovery
Chapter 30     Brink
Chapter 31     Destination
Chapter 32     New York Rocket
Chapter 33     Treachery
Chapter 34     A Plan of Action
Chapter 35     Carbon
PART 3 : TESTS
Chapter 36     Temptation
Chapter 37     Energy
Chapter 38     Diversion
Chapter 39     Sunburst
Chapter 40     Telegram
Chapter 41     Substitute
Chapter 42     Strike
Chapter 43     Diamond
Chapter 44     Demons
 
Author’s Notes
About the Author
ABOUT THE BOOK
1938: In a Berlin lab three years before America’s entry into World War II, Hitler’s scientists were the first on the planet to split the atom. Suddenly, Germany was the only nation closing in on the secret to possessing the ultimate weapon. If the Nazis’ quest couldn’t be checked, civilization would vanish. German general Ludwig Beck’s heroic Black Orchestra Underground fighters swore to topple Hitler before he extinguished humanity. That much is history.
In the heart of the Nazified, terror-slammed German capital, Black Orchestra recruits an American expat journalist with an old and very personal hatred of the Nazis for a momentous quest. Their network of spies has uncovered the existence of Hitler’s atom bomb project, but no German atomic scientist can be trusted to help them disrupt this menace. They must have a channel to America to piece together the knowledge essential to block the route as they battle the Gestapo, betrayal from within, and their own demons to stop the German atomic bomb. Success or failure of their desperate final struggle to derail Hitler’s ultimate weapon lies in the hands of a young German widow. Her courage and intelligence will decide the fate of not just the war but of all humanity.
The Second World War still commands attention seven decades later. Yet, our collective knowledge of this devastating conflict lacks the comprehension of how narrow our planet’s escape was from an unspeakable outcome. The keystone for creating the atomic bomb was The Armageddon Secret.
 
Dedicated to the Memory of
Sandra Campbell Burnham
Miss Canada
Loving Wife of 34 Years


HISTORICAL NOTE
Long ago, English writer H. G. Wells imagined a super-powerful atomic explosive he called “carolinum.” This concept became a reality with an artificial element, eventually known as plutonium. The first steps in creating this new element from nature’s uranium were made secretly inside Nazi Germany more than three years before America began the Manhattan Project.
Many of the people and events described in the following pages were real, while some are fictional. Combined, they portray incidents that may have spared the planet from Nazi destruction.

We may be destroyed, but if we are,
we shall drag a world with us . . . a world in flames.
—Adolf Hitler, 1934
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This novel is the culmination of my fascination with the early development of the atomic bomb dating back to my student days at the University of Michigan. On an autumn Ann Arbor afternoon that I will never forget, I was walking through the Undergraduate Library when I saw a black hardbound book titled The German Atomic Bomb lying on a table . I sat down to read and was soon astonished to learn of civilization’s narrow escape from a Nazi Armageddon. I later read other accounts of the liberation of nuclear energy by the Germans during the period before the Second World War had begun, years before America’s successful development of the atomic bomb. Somehow, humanity avoided Nazi atomic weapons despite Germany’s colossal head start and well-known engineering prowess. I began a correspondence with Willian L. Shirer, CBS Radio Berlin Correspondent of the 1930s and author of the bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. He encouraged me to write about this astounding near miss. Still, my many years of intense career focus didn’t allow sufficient time until recently for the total immersion needed to complete the project. Although this is a work of fiction, one must believe that something like this must have happened to bring about what was nothing short of a miracle.
Accuracy in depicting people and events of the pre-war Nazi era could not have been attained without the resources I uncovered and the multiplicity of locations I visited during research for the manuscript. These included investigations at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and various other Nazi-era locales in Berlin, in Munich the Deutsches Museum and the location of the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall , the Imperial War Museum in London, the Institut du Radium in Paris, the 1939 New York World’s Fair location at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York, and the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Among the principal reference works employed in the writing of this novel were: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, 1986 (the Pulitzer Prize-winning gold standard for comprehending the history of atomic energy); Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934–41 by William L. Shirer, 1941; The German Atomic Bomb by David Irving, 1968; Before the Fallout by Diana Preston, 2005; Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb by Stephane Groueff, 1968; Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes, 2016; The Origins of the Second World War by A. Offner, 1975; and The Mind of Adolph Hitler by Walter Langer, 1972.
Thanks to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Museum of the City of New York for allowing the use of certain images and quotations contained in this novel.

PART ONE

RISE FROM DARKNESS
CHAPTER 1
UNDERGROUND
“Power. More power than has ever existed in the whole world, all inside one round ball.
Power—to set all men free . . . or destroy them.”
H. G.