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reviews the project's mission to bring up a barrel from the lake
bottom and test its contents.
-
notes that at the time of the ferry's sinking, Allied forces
believed that the barrel's supposed contents—heavy
water—were key to German attempts to build a nuclear bomb.
-
relates that since World War II, secret documents have come to
light casting doubt on whether the sabotage was necessary.
-
shows scientists using a remotely operated vehicle to locate the
ferry.
-
summarizes the history of the Norsk factory that created heavy
water as a by-product of its ammonia fertilizer production.
-
conveys how physicists began to understand the importance of
heavy water in the creation of a nuclear bomb.
-
relates how the Allies teamed up with members of the Norwegian
Resistance to destroy the Norsk factory.
presents the three attempts to sabotage the factory.
-
reports how Allied forces decided to sink the Hydro ferry
that they believed contained a half-ton shipment of heavy water.
-
recounts how the ferry was sabotaged on February 20, 1944, a
sinking that resulted in the deaths of 14 Norwegian civilians
and four German guards.
-
reviews documents found after World War II that called into
question whether the downed ferry was actually carrying heavy
water.
-
details the raising of a barrel from the lake depths and the
subsequent testing of its contents.
-
revisits the mission with one of the men involved in the
sabotage and some survivors of the sinking.
NOVA follows a team of underwater archeologists to the bottom Lake
Tinn in Norway to locate and determine the historically significant
contents of a ferry sabotaged in World War II.
