Chapter 343 Weed Eradication Plan (1)

Upon hearing the news of Marshal Mannerheim's death, Wilhelm hadn't even had two minutes to celebrate when another report from Reinhard made his expression change. "What?! Dr. Albert is going to the United States? Why?!"

"He said he wants to meet some friends."

Wilhelm was somewhat speechless. He had invited the old man so warmly, and now he's planning to play tricks on him? What a waste of my emotions! "Let him go to hell!"

"...," Reinhard didn't immediately understand what His Highness meant by that statement—whether he really wanted Dr. Albert to die or if it was just an exclamation in anger.

But Wilhelm clearly wasn't just expressing anger. "Since he's unwilling to serve Germany, does that mean we should let him go to other countries to work against us?" Even if he went to China, it would be fine, but he had to choose the United States. After going there, he might suggest to that crippled Roosevelt to create atomic bombs, and then the United States would initiate the Manhattan Project.

In the original timeline, the United States took only three years from initiating the Manhattan Project to creating the world's first atomic bomb. This was because they gathered the best nuclear scientists from Western countries (excluding Germany) and mobilized over 100,000 people for the project.

However, in this timeline, due to Wilhelm's existence, not only those scientists but many American scientists and talents were "abducted" to Germany and worked for the German cause.

As for those American scientists and talents who were unwilling to come to Germany... If there were a book on "assassination," black, white, yellow, or blue, Wilhelm would undoubtedly top the list.

Over the years, Germany's intelligence agencies, under Wilhelm's direct instructions, executed over a hundred assassination operations in the United States under the name "Weed Eradication Plan."

Car accidents, fires, home invasions resulting in murder, drug overdoses, suicides, gas poisoning, falling from buildings, railway suicides... German intelligence personnel almost exhausted every method they could think of to simulate various causes of death.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer; American physicist of Jewish descent, leader of the Manhattan Project. In the original timeline, in 1943, Oppenheimer established the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and served as its director. In 1945, he led the manufacturing of the world's first atomic bomb, earning him the title "Father of the Atomic Bomb."

In this timeline, in 1936, Oppenheimer pursued a female student named Jean Tatlock, who was a member of the American Communist Party. Shortly afterward, Oppenheimer and the female student were found dead with multiple stab wounds in a small motel. The walls were painted with various insulting statements about the American Communist Party using bright red blood.

The local police never managed to solve the case, ultimately categorizing it as the work of some extremist anti-communist lunatic.

Ernest O. Lawrence; renowned American physicist who, in the original timeline of 1932, designed and built the first cyclotron, a high-energy particle accelerator, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939. He participated in the Manhattan Project, overseeing the electromagnetic separation of uranium-235 for the production of atomic bombs. Additionally, he invented the color television tube and obtained a patent. Due to Lawrence's outstanding contributions, element 103 in the periodic table is named Lawrencium, and two U.S. national laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, are named in his honor.

However, in this timeline of 1931, a major fire engulfed Lawrence's laboratory, resulting in Lawrence and his students Edelson and Livingston perishing in the flames.

Leslie Richard Groves, a U.S. Major General.

In the original timeline during World War II, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Construction Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and as the commanding officer of the Manhattan Project's construction area, among other positions.

While overseeing security in the Manhattan Project area, a special counterintelligence group was established. By the fall of 1943, this intelligence group was responsible for receiving all intelligence related to atomic energy collected by the Army Intelligence Division, Naval Intelligence Division, and the Office of Strategic Services. Groves also took on this "additional responsibility."

Throughout the entire Manhattan Project, Germany's scientific developments were generally closely monitored. Thus, Groves' intelligence work primarily aimed to quickly determine the extent to which the Germans could produce atomic weapons if they were fully committed to doing so. Among the Axis powers, they ruled out the possibility of Japan establishing an atomic industry. Groves' intelligence group speculated that only the Germans were interested in atomic energy. Before the war, Norway had a joint Vemork hydroelectric and chemical plant 75 miles west of Oslo. After Germany occupied Norway in 1940, they requested the responsible party at the Vemork plant to sign a contract with them, producing heavy water for them and shipping it to Berlin for experimental use in developing atomic bombs. Groves had suggested and urged the bombing or sabotage of the Vemork plant.

In February 1943, three Norwegians specially trained in sabotage techniques, including Noot Hauglid, dressed in British military uniforms, parachuted into Norway. They joined local guerrilla forces and, after about a week of arduous cross-country skiing, reached Vemork. On February 28, 1943, they attacked the Vemork joint factory.

However, over five months later, these factories resumed operations. Groves again suggested carrying out aerial bombings on this target. On November 16, 1943, 140 American bombers conducted a large-scale air raid in broad daylight, causing Germany to abandon the idea of repairing the plant and instead relocate all equipment for heavy water production and the heavy water itself to Berlin. By the end of January 1944, Norwegian guerrilla forces sniped along the route of heavy water production equipment and transport, successfully destroying many pieces of equipment. Hauglid's resistance group, with secret assistance from factory engineers, sank a ferry carrying most of the heavy water to the seabed, shattering all hopes of Germany continuing its atomic energy experiments.

At the same time, Groves advocated utilizing the favorable conditions of the U.S. military landing on the Italian Peninsula, the Normandy landings, and the advance into German territory to open up intelligence sources. The "Alsos" scientific intelligence group dispatched by the Army Intelligence Division to Italy obtained intelligence, sabotaged laboratories and factories, and captured research personnel.

In January 1944, Groves sent Major Herres Carlford to the Manhattan Liaison Office in London. Using the intelligence networks of the U.S. and UK, they collected all available information on the various works related to atomic energy in European countries, particularly the ongoing efforts by Germans. All names of German scientists were meticulously listed in the reconnaissance files of the U.S. and UK intelligence agencies, along with the locations of relevant laboratories, factories, and warehouses. By the late months of 1944, all intelligence confirmed that Germany's work on developing atomic bombs was still in the experimental stage. At this point, Groves concluded that the possibility of any sudden nuclear attack from Germany was almost nonexistent.

In this timeline, Groves, who had furthered his studies at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College from 1935 to 1936, was hit by a falling brick from a nearby building while passing through a street during a thunderstorm. He died on the spot. Due to neighbors testifying that the old building frequently experienced falling bricks and detached walls, the police attributed the incident to an accident and had the uninhabited, dilapidated building demolished.