(Autocollimator) wrote:

From: Chad Irby

The big problem for the German program was Heisenberg. Before the war,
he'd calculated some fission cross-sections incorractly, and apparently
never recalculated them. He thought the mass for a chain reaction was
something on the order of forty *tons*. If he'd had a somewhat smaller
ego, he might have done some recalculation of his assumptions and gotten
it right.

Even after the war, he insisted that the Americans hadn't actually built
a uranium fission bomb until he was shown the correct cross-section
calculations.

There is a rather extensive body of thought that maintains that
Heisenburg was deliberately obstructionist.

I've also heard that some of the lesser lights among his staff fed him
"confirmed" numbers that went in the wrong direction.

Heisenberg was a known patriot, though he wasn't a Nazi by any stretch.

Once he realized what the end product could do, he might have done the
sabotage himself, though (it was a very small calculation error,
overall).

--


Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.