7. The search for Frederic Joliot-Curie
In early August 1944, OSS operatives in Washington informed Colonel Pash in London that the French physicist Joliot-Curie had been located in Brittany. With Brittany not yet under Allied control, Colonel Pash and a CIC Special Agent traveled to France and moved with Patton’s Third Army until the Americans secured L’Arcouest. Joliot-Curie owned a vacation home in the seaside area. When Pash and the agent, Gerry Beatson, arrived they found the home empty. They obtained nothing of the Frenchman’s papers, nor the physicist himself. The former had been removed by the Germans, and no information regarding Joliot-Curie could be found. A search of the records at the nearby University of Rennes provided some documentation regarding his work, but no clues to his whereabouts. The Alsos Mission team joined its operational support group, known as T-Force, at Rambouillet, preparing to enter Paris in late August.
T-Force joined in the liberation of Paris on August 24, 1944, and raced to Joliot-Curie’s suburban home. He was not there, but the Alsos team learned he could be found in his laboratory at the College de France in Porte-d’Orleans. The area at the time had not been fully secured from the Germans, and upon arrival, T-Force joined in the fighting being led by the Free French 2d Armored Division. The Alsos mission advanced to the college under fire from the Germans, which they returned with their small arms. When they arrived, they found Joliot-Curie in his laboratory and conveyed him to safety before the Germans could seize him. The Frenchman underwent brief interrogation in Paris before being flown to London for further conversations with Alsos senior scientists. He provided a great deal of information regarding the extent of the German atomic weapon programs.