The Griffin

""Griffin'' was the code name for a man the author believes was the British Secret Service's most important spy in World War II. Paul Rosbaud was the editor of Nazi Germany's leading scientific periodical and probably more fully informed about overall war-related scientific developments there than anyone. Kramish, a scientist who has served on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, maintains that Rosbaud, through his spymaster Eric Welsh, passed valuable information on jet aircraft, radar, V-1 and V-2 rockets, and the efforts of German scientists to develop the first atomic bomb. The most significant contention in the book is that the Germans did not come close to developing the first atomic bomb, as has been generally supposed. Kramish also reveals that Rosbaud was the author of the 1939 ``Oslo Report,'' a detailed description of German arms and technology, at first assumed even by the British government to be a hoax. Photos. (October 29)