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Dear Ed,
What is the source book for the quote:
"U.S. National Archives II, a green, hardback ledger book with the title "CASH" printed on the front lists a multitude of drawings and parts carried on board U-234, and is marked as such inside, including 'pressurized cabin parts,' various pages, RG 38/370-15-05-07 box 3; Robert Wilcox, Japan's Secret War, p. 141."
It looks like someone is quoting a book by Wilcox, but wonder who is citing it.
There seem to be conflicting lists of what was aboard the U-234. One such list is shown as Appendix 2 in Philip Henshall's The Nuclear Axis: Germany, Japan and the Atom Bomb Race 1939-45. In this list, also taken from NARA RG 38, but box 13, there are listed 10 cases, 56 kg, of uranium oxide, the cases bing marked for the Japanese Army. The only mention of fuses is "Fuses (for munitions)". While the list shown is incomplete, I would think that Henshall would have listed "Atomic bomb components, including fuses". The term "Atomic bomb components" conjures up actual hardware, not cases of uranium oxide. That's a completely different level of progress.
I am not averse to a scholarly discussion, backed up with primary documentation, discussing Germany's nuclear ambitions, such as found in Henshall's book. But, I find the style and material used in Georg's first book to be awful, lacking in scholarly depth or prose.
Also not mentioned in Henshall's book list is the oft mentioned Me 262 supposedly transported aboard U-234. Up until reviewing Joseph Mark Scalia's Germany's Last Mission to Japan: The Failed Voyage of U-234, I was, frankly, skeptical. A historian by education, Scalia's book is an outgrowth of his master's thesis. I have often referenced this particular book as a model for others to follow for a truly well-researched and documented history. Scalia changed my skepticism into belief, with adequate referencing to a broken down and crated Me 262 having been aboard U-234. Why it wasn't in any list I've seen to date, remains a mystery. Nor, is there a trail of where it went after it was unloaded from U-234, although it may simply have been shipped that way to Wright or Freeman Field and set aside for use as a spares store. It is known that the nose of Me 262 T-2-711 had to be replaced part way through its test evaluation, so perhaps U-234's Me 262 was the source of this spare nose.
There appears to be a recent huge thirst for information pertaining to anything to do with Germany's nuclear plans. The area of Jonhanisthal is frequently mentioned as being an area of nuclear interest, one that the Allies quickly sealed off after capture. What truth there may be in this I don't know. Both scholars and those pandering to the general public are likely to publish works on the nuclear program and, considering it is one of those fringe topics, I think it will invite fringe authors, i.e., of the German flying saucer type ilk.
Regarding the overseas rocket plane, that sounds like the Sänger anti-podal bomber, one of many paper projects. A bit more possible was the A9/A10 combination.
As you can see by my purchase of Henshall's book, I, too, have an interest in this area, albeit peripheral. That's why I bought Georg's book. But, when I received it, I was quite disappointed.
Regards,
Richard
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