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Operation Grandslam

This is Auric Goldfinger’s codename for his scheme that involves “knocking off” the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Through the use of a nerve agent (GB, also known as Sarin), Goldfinger plans to poison the water supply at Fort Knox, killing everyone at the base. From there, Goldfinger would use an atomic bomb designed for a Corporal Intermediate Range Guided Missile that he had purchased for one million USD in Germany, to blow open Fort Knox’s impregnable vault. With the help of American gangsters, Goldfinger would then remove roughly 15 billion dollars in gold bullion by truck and train, and escape to the Soviet Union on a cargo boat.

(After publication of the novel, the details of “Operation Grand Slam” were questioned, with critics noting it would have taken hours if not days to remove 15 billion dollars from Fort Knox, during which the US Army would inevitably intervene. The issue of getting every soldier on the base to drink the poisoned water without an alarm was also raised. A final problem that was the “clean” atomic bomb, tactical or not, in all likelihood would not only have annihilated the door vault, but would also have taken all the gold behind with it. (Careful placement would be needed.) Consequently, the film uses a different plan: The bomb is dirty, and the destruction and contamination of the gold is the objective, so that the value of Goldfinger’s own gold would increase tenfold. The film even points out a couple of the flaws in the novel’s original plan during a confrontation between Goldfinger and Bond).

Bond foils Goldfinger’s plan by getting word to Felix Leiter of the impending operation, by means of a message taped inside an airliner toilet. With the help of The Pentagon, Leiter is able to stop Goldfinger and foil the operation. Goldfinger escapes, however.

 
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