Operation Harborage

Part of the Allied Alsos Mission,[1] Operation Harborage[note 1] was led by Manhattan Project intelligence division chief Col. John Lansdale, Jr. on behalf of project head General Leslie Groves,[2] under the direction of Alsos commander Col. Boris Pash.

[citation needed] Shortly after the liberation of Paris it was decided to bomb German nuclear facilities wherever they lay in order to deprive the Soviet Union of their technology and personnel, unless American troops could get to them first.

[2] In late April 1945 Harborage teams were directed toward the Black Forest cities of Hechingen, Bisingen and Haigerloch.

These centers of the relocated German effort were all scheduled to be seized by the French and occupied by them post-war.

[citation needed] By cutting ahead of the French First Army's forward troops and operating behind enemy lines American technical intelligence units swept the area clean, seizing and transporting what they could and destroying the rest.