operated an atomic weapons facility on Bornholm. Rivet claimed the Soviets captured scientists involved in the project and had taken them back to Russia. Rivet also claimed that Germany had had the nuclear bomb since June 1944, but had no delivery system for the weapon. Bornholm's role is rumored to have been in adapting the atomic weapon to V-1 and V-2 flying projectiles and other weapon systems.
References were made in newspapers both in 1946 and 1948 to the mining of large uranium deposits on Bornholm by the Nazis during World War 2. The exact location is not clear but there are rumoured to be uranium mines beneath Hammershus Castle in the northwest of the island.
Liberation by the Soviet Army and occupation 1945–1946
Bornholm was heavily bombarded by Soviet forces in May 1945. German garrison commander Gerhard von Kamptz refused to surrender to Soviets, as his orders were to surrender to the Western Allies. The Germans sent several telegrams to Copenhagen requesting that at least one British soldier should be transferred to Bornholm, so that the Germans could surrender to the western allied forces instead of the Russians. When von Kamptz failed to provide a written capitulation as demanded by the Soviet commanders, Soviet aircraft relentlessly bombed and destroyed more than 800 civilian houses in Rønne and Nexø and seriously damaged roughly 3000 more on 7–8 May 1945.
During the Russian bombing of the two main towns on 7 and 8 May, Danish radio was not allowed to broadcast the news because it was thought it would spoil the liberation festivities in Denmark. On 9 May Soviet troops landed on the island, and after a short fight, the German garrison (about 12,000 strong) surrendered. Soviet forces left the island on 5 April 1946.
After the evacuation of their forces from Bornholm, the Soviets took the position that the stationing of foreign troops on Bornholm would be considered a declaration of war against the Soviet
