Futility Closet

  During World War II, the Allies feared that Germany was on the brink of creating an atomic bomb. To prevent this, they launched a dramatic midnight commando raid to destroy a key piece of equipment in the mountains of southern Norway. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll remember Operation Gunnerside, "one of the most daring and important undercover operations of World War II." We'll also learn what to say when you're invading Britain and puzzle over the life cycle of cicadas. Intro: Hundreds of students overlooked an error in a Brahms capriccio; a novice found it. Hesiod's Theogony gives a clue to the distance between earth and heaven. Sources for our feature on Operation Gunnerside: Ray Mears, The Real Heroes of Telemark, 2003. Knut Haukelid, Skis Against the Atom, 1954. John D. Drummond, But for These Men, 1962. Neal Bascomb, The Winter Fortress, 2016. Thomas B. Allen, "Saboteurs at Work," MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 26:2 (Winter 2014), 64-71. Ian Herrington, "Th