Churchill's Bomb

by Graham Farmelo

  18CHDOCS, Vol. 13, p. 1587.

  19WSC to Sir Kingsley Wood, 13 August 1939, AIR 19/26, NA. See also the copy in CHAR 25/17. Harrod (1959: 174).

  20Note by D. R. Pye on 17 August 1939, AIR 19/26, NA. See also the notes in CAB 21/1262, NA.

  21Jenkins (2001: 553, 559).

  22Manchester (1988: 552–3).

  23ADM1/10459, NA.

  24Harrod (1959: 179).

  25Harrod (1959: 179), Fort (2004: 233).

  26Zimmerman (2001: 177).

  27Fort (2004: 179–180) Comments on Lindemann’s ideas on aerial mines in the memorandum, 2 October 1939, CHAR 25/17.

  28Tizard to Lindemann, 10 September 1939, LIND D243/32.

  29Lindemann to Tizard (draft), 11 September 1933, LIND D243/33.

  30LIND E21/8, undated document.

  31Manchester (1988: 554).

  32Zuckerman, ‘Scientific Advice During and Since World War II’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 342, No. 1631, pp. 465–80, see p. 478.

  33Jenkins (2001: 561–2).

  34WSC to Wells, 11 September 1939, WELLS c238.20; WSC invited Wells to join the Club five years before: WSC to Wells, 1 March 1934, CHAR 2/233/2–4.

  35Eliot (1940: 237). Smith (1998b: 235–55) See, in particular, Wells’s letter to The Times, 23 October 1939.

  36Manchester (1988: 606).

  Chadwick doubts that the Bomb is viable

  1Aileen Chadwick to Feather, 30 August 1974, FEAT 13/2.

  2Letter from Chadwick to Bohr, 9 April 1961, NBA.

  3Brown (1997: 153).

  4Chadwick interview, 17 April 1969, AIP: http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/3974_3.html.

  5Peierls to Andrew Brown, 2 December 1991: Lee (ed.) (2009: 1013).

  6Holt (1988).

  7Brown (2012: 22).

  8Chadwick interview, 16 April 1969, AIP: http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/3974_2.html.

  9Brown (1997: 39–44).

  10‘The Voice of Science’, Nature, 9 September 1939.

  11Chadwick to Feather, 15 October 1939, FEAT 23/6.

  12Chadwick to Appleton, 31 October 1939, CAB 104/186, NA.

  13Holt (1999).

  14Brown (1997: 174).

  15Brown (1997: 175).

  16Chadwick to Appleton, 5 December 1939, CAB 21/1262, NA.

  17Lord Hankey to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, 12 December 1939: ‘I gather that we may sleep fairly comfortably in our beds.’ CAB 21/1262, NA.

  18G. P. Thomson, text of ‘Atomic Energy’ lecture, 1945, GPT F154.

  19Elliot, W. to Bridges, E., c.27 December 1939, CAB 21/1262, NA.

  20Clark (1965: 184–6). Tizard to G. P. Thomson, 2 October 1957, and G. P. Thomson to Tizard, 5 October 1957, GPT D25.

  21Hopkins (1939: 2).

  22Rowlands (2001: 19–20); Brown (1997: 181–7)

  23Chadwick to Cockcroft, 8 January 1940, CKFT 20/5. A few weeks later, on 24 February, Chadwick made a similar comment in a letter to his former colleague Norman Feather: ‘I am very much afraid the [centre of gravity] will move to the USA.’ FEAT 23/6.

  24AIP interview with Weisskopf, 21 September 1966, pp. 12–14.

  FDR receives a nuclear warning

  1Bernard Baruch to WSC, c.30 March 1954, CHUR 2/210A/349.

  2FDR to Lord Tweedsmuir (formerly the author John Buchan), 5 October 1939, quoted in Roosevelt, E. (ed.) (1950: 934).

  3Kimball (1991: 7).

  4FDR, 3 September 1939: http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3315.

  5‘Only Five Per Cent Favour Sending US Army to Fight Nazis’, Boston Globe, 7 October 1939, p. 3.

  6Kimball (ed.), Vol. 1 (1984: 24–5).

  7FDRLIB: WSC dates his dedication 8 October 1933.

  8FDR: Day by Day – The Pare Lorentz Chronology, 11 October 1939, FDRLIB. See also ‘The Day in Washington’, New York Times, 12 October 1939, p. 16.

  9Entry for Sachs in Dictionary of American Biography, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994.

  10Weart and Szilard (eds) (1978: 15–17).

  11‘Einstein Chats About Sea’, New York Times, 26 January 1934, p. 15.

  12Lanouette (1992: 198–204).

  13Rhodes (1986: 313–14).

  14FDR to Einstein, 19 October 1939: http://www.mphpa.org/classic/COLLECTIONS/MP-PFIL/Pages/MPP-PFIL-020.htm.

  15Ferrell (1998: 168).

  16Pottker (2004: 156).

  17During FDR’s first year at Harvard (1900–1), he took Geology 4: Elementary Geology and Geology 5: Elementary Field and Laboratory Geology. In the following year, he took Geology 14: General Palaeontology. I thank David Woolner and his colleagues at the FDR library for this information.

  18FDR talk, 5 December 1938: Roosevelt (1941: 615).

  19WSC article ‘Europe’s Plea to Roosevelt’, Evening Standard, 10 December 1937.

  20Kevles (1995: 252–66), see p. 258 for FDR’s quotation.

  21FDR’s second inaugural address: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=90.

  22Hewlett and Anderson (1962: 20–1).

  23Zachary (1992: 24–5).

  24Zachary (1992: 26).

  25Zachary (1999: 108–14).

  26Ratcliff (1942: 28).

  27Zachary (1999: 189–90).

  Frisch and Peierls discover how to make the Bomb

  1From the first part of the Frisch–Peierls memorandum, AB 1/210, NA.

  2Bernstein (2011: 440); Arnold (2003: 112).

  3‘The Scientist Works for Industry’, Birmingham Gazette, 6 July 1938, BHMPHYS.

  4‘£60,000 to Split Atom’, Daily Express, May 1939; ‘Physics Department’s Needs’, Birmingham Post, June 1938, BHMPHYS.

  5‘They Will Split the Atom to Save Lives’, The Referee, May 1939, BHMPHYS.

  6Frisch to Oliphant, 27 May 1939, FRISCH A48/11.

  7Chadwick to Feather, 15 October 1939, FEAT 23/6.

  8Frisch to Margaret Hope, 10 October 1939, FRISCH F61/9.

  9Frisch to the Aliens’ Department of the Home Office, 27 January 1940, FRISCH A116/10.

  10Ministry of Labour to Frisch, 28 November 1939, FRISCH A53/11.

  11Frisch (1979: 76–9).

  12Frisch to Margaret Hope, 10 October 1939 and 5 February 1940, respectively FRISCH F61/9 and F62/3.

  13Documents in FRISCH A86/2 and A116/5.

  14Peierls (1985: 130–5).

  15This was recalled by Sir Charles Darwin in an intelligence report on Peierls after the war: KV2/1661, f. 285a, NA.

  16Peierls to the Home Office, 31 August 1939, and letter from Peierls to Appleton, 13 September 1939: Lee (ed.) (2007: 678, 682).

  17Peierls (1985: 63).

  18Frisch to Margaret Hope, 10 October 1939, FRISCH F61/9.

  19‘Great Britain in War-time, Birmingham and District’, The Times, 10 February 1940, p. 3.

  20Frisch to T. Bjerge, 29 February 1940, FRISCH B96/2.

  21Peierls (1985: 145).

  22Frisch to T. Bjerge, 29 February 1940, FRISCH B96/2.

  23UK Home Office to Frisch, 13 February 1940, FRISCH A116/23.

  24Lee (ed.) (2007: 701).

  25This account of the inception of the Frisch–Peierls memorandum is taken mainly from Peierls (1985: 154–5) and from Frisch (1979: 125–6). For information on the approximate dates on which the memo was written, see letter from Peierls to Mr Murphy, 2 May 1995, D110, and letter from Peierls to T. E. Allibone, 5 January 1983, D15, both in PEIERLS.

  26For Peierls’s assessment of his contribution see his letter to Margaret Gowing, 30 October 1961, Lee (ed.) (2009: 647–52).

  27Peierls (1985: 154–5).

  28Peierls (1985: 154–5).

  29Clark (1965: 218).

  30Pais (1991: 476). See, for example, the report ‘The Nazi Invasion’ in the Manchester Guardian, 10 April 1940, p. 7.

  31‘Mr Lloyd George’s Onslaught on the Prime Minister’, Manchester Guardian, 9 May 1940, p. 7.

  32Autobiographical notes of G. P. Thomson, GPT, A7, p. 18.


  33Weart (1979: 136–7); Gowing (1964: 49–50) and G. P. Thomson’s draft memoir, GPT A7.

  34Thomson to Chadwick, 16 April 1940, CHAD I 19/7.

  35Peierls (1985: 155).

  36Interview with Peierls by Charles Weiner, AIP, 12 August 1969, p. 96.

  37Letter from Peierls to the chairman of the ‘U-bomb’ committee, 22 April 1940: see Lee (ed.) (2007: 702–3). On Peierls’s being granted British nationality: letter from Peierls to the Academic Assistance Council SPSL 335/9, 28 March 1940.

  38A copy of G. P. Thomson’s letter, written on 3 May 1940, is in KV2/2421, NA.

  39Frisch to Genia Peierls, 30 April 1978, FRISCH F94/9.

  40Peierls (1985: 157).

  41Cockburn and Ellyard (1981: 86–7, 163).

  42Hartcup and Allibone (1984: 95).

  43Meacham (2003: 51).

  Churchill has more pressing problems

  1Mallalieu, J. P. W., ‘Churchill Commentary’, The Tribune, 8 September 1950.

  2Jenkins (2001: 606–10).

  3Quoted in Cannadine (1994: 130). See also Ironside (1962: 301–2).

  4Diary of Harold Ickes, XXXI, 12 May 1940, LIBCON.

  5Muller (ed.) (2012: 358–68), see p. 367.

  6Jenkins (2001: 632).

  7Hinsley, F. H., ‘Churchill and the Use of Special Intelligence’, in Blake and Louis (eds) (1996: 407–26), see p. 411.

  8Quoted in Reynolds (2004: 166).

  9Reynolds (2004: 179).

  10Churchill’s radio speeches during this era are available at http://archive.org/details/Winston_Churchill.

  11Wenden, D. J. ‘Churchill, Radio and Cinema’ in Blake and Louis (eds) (1996: 215–239), see p. 216.

  12Jenkins (2001: 591).

  13Birkenhead (1961: 210).

  14Fort (2004: 227). Desmond Morton to WSC, 30 May 1940, PREM 7/2, NA; see also the draft of this note, with Lindemann’s annotations, 29 May 1940, LIND G 526/9.

  15Birkenhead (1961: 215); Best (2001: 200).

  16Macdougall (1987: 26, 36).

  17Harrod (1959: 180–237).

  18Macdougall (1987: 26) and Birkenhead (1961: 216–17).

  19‘A New Source of Power’, The Times, 7 May 1940, p. 5.

  20‘Vast Power Source in Atomic Energy Opened by Science’, New York Times, 5 May 1940, p. 1; Pimm to Lindemann, 7 May 1940, LIND D230/1.

  21Clark (1961: 105).

  22Macrae (1971: 144).

  23Edgerton (2011: 260). See a similar story in Fort (2004: 227).

  24Jenkins (2001: 597).

  25Jenkins (2001: 610). Draft attached to note from Morton to WSC, 30 May 1940 PREM 7/2, NA.

  26Meacham (2003: 51).

  27Colville (1985: 109).

  28J. H. Peck to J. J. Balfour, 11 May 1940, FO 371/24255, NA; Zimmerman (1996: 61–70).

  29Lindemann’s private secretary to A. V. Hill, 21 June 1940, LIND G 319/19.

  30Memo dated 8 May 1940, ADM 116/4302, NA.

  31WSC to Archibald Sinclair, 30 June 1940, responding to Sinclair to WSC, 25 June 1940, both FO 371/24255, NA.

  32Reynolds (2004: 172).

  33Crozier (1973: 178). See also the comments of Churchill’s colleague Sir Archibald Sinclair (Crozier: 1973: 172).

  34Soames (ed.) (1998: 454).

  35Comments in John Martin’s diary, May and June 1940, MART 1.

  36Colville (1985: 98–125).

  37Clark (1965: 227).

  38Jones (1998: 92–105), WSC to R. V. Jones, 14 December 1946, RVJO B.216.

  39Churchill (1949: 339–40).

  40Zimmerman (1996: 67), see reference 48.

  41G. P. Thomson to Sir Harold Hartley, concerning C. P. Snow’s ‘Science in Government’, 29 May 1961, GPT G112.

  42R. V. Jones (from Aberdeen) to Mr Kelly, 16 May 1950, RVJO B.219.

  Thomson and his MAUD committee debate policy on the Bomb

  1MAUD minutes are in AB 1/8, NA.

  2Cockcroft to his wife, 18 April 1940, CKFTFAMILY.

  3Cockcroft to his wife, 13 January 1941, CKFTFAMILY.

  4BMFRS of Thomson, September 1975, pp. 531, 549–50.

  5Gowing (1964: 80–9).

  6G. P. Thomson officially requested permission to consult with the ‘enemy aliens’ Frisch and Peierls on 3 May 1940 but then had to wait for it to be granted: KV 2/1658.

  7Interview with Peierls by Charles Weiner, AIP, 12 August 1969, p. 94.

  8Cockcroft to his mother, 24 May and 16 June 1940, CKFTFAMILY.

  9‘How I Became a Member of Parliament in 1940’, in Memories and Reflections, Vol. 2, unpublished and undated (in the Roskill Library of Churchill College, Cambridge).

  10Zimmerman (1996: 52–3); Hill to Roskill, 16 January 1973, ROSK 7/13. ‘Letter from A. V. Hill’, undated, HTT 706.

  11Memo by A. V. Hill: ‘Uranium – “235”’, 16 May 1940, AB1/9, NA. See also HTT 241.

  12It is not clear if Hill met Szilárd; if he did, there is no evidence of Szilárd’s views in Hill’s correspondence.

  13Autobiographical notes of G. P. Thomson, GPT A7, pp. 25–6.

  14Sime (1996: 284–5).

  15Fowler to Tizard, 24 May 1940, HTT 241.

  16Peierls to Frisch, 31 July 1940, FRISCH B125/1.

  17Gowing (1964: 47, 54–5).

  18Gowing (1964: 49–51).

  19Autobiographical notes of G. P. Thomson, GPT A7, p. 17.

  20Letter from Max Born to Lindemann, 9 July 1940, LIND D24/7.

  21Home Office file F.962 on Frisch, KV2/2421, NA.

  22Hill (1962: 231–2).

  23Clark (1965: 244–5).

  24Macrae (1971: 9–10).

  25Nature, 11 January 1941, pp. 35–6, see p. 35.

  26Jenkins (2001: 630).

  27Zimmerman (1996: 83–4).

  28WSC had asked Ismay a few days before, ‘Are we going to throw our secrets into the American lap, and see what they give us in exchange? If so, I am against it.’ WSC to Ismay, 17 July 1940, PREM 3/475/1 NA.

  29Zimmerman (1996: 88–94).

  30Kevles (1995: 302–3).

  31Hartcup and Allibone (1984: 98).

  32Clark (1965: 298).

  33Bowen (1998: 155).

  34See, for example, ‘Blast Rocks London, Toll Feared Great’, Washington Post, 6 September 1940, p. 1.

  35Clark (1965: 269).

  36Fowler to Hill, 11 September 1940, and Hill to Fowler, 4 October 1940, AVHL I 3/19.

  37Chadwick to Lindemann, 20 June 1940, LIND D 230/8. Gowing (1964: 47).

  38Gowing (1964: 47); Peierls to T. E. Allibone, 5 January 1983, PEIERLS D.15.

  In his finest hour, Churchill begs America for help

  1Wells (1940: 57, 17).

  2Colville (1985: 315); CHBIO, Vol. 6, p. 1038. Tennyson’s poem: http://theotherpages.org/poems/tenny02.html.

  3Description taken from ‘Nazi Bombers Stage Longest Raid of the War’, Washington Post, 6 September 1940, p. 1.

  4Wells (1901: 213).

  5Hall, D. J. (2000) ‘Bulldog Churchill’, Finest Hour, No. 106, pp. 18–20.

  6 Cannadine (ed.) (1989: 4).

  7Edgerton (2011: 68–9).

  8A second blitz was rendered virtually impossible by 1944 by the advent of radar-controlled guns firing shells with proximity fuses.

  9Jenkins (2001: 630–1).

  10Jenkins (2001: 641).

  11Wells (1934: 99–100).

  12Smith (1986: 470–1).

  13Sherborne (2010: 342–3). ‘The Illusion of Personality’, Nature, 1 April 1944, pp. 395–7. Example of correspondence with WSC: WSC to Wells, 17 September 1940, c.238.19 WELLS.

  14For descriptions of Hankey, see the press cuttings in HNKY 2/5. See Daily Express, 31 May 1938. Roskill (1974: 656).

  15WSC to Neville Chamberlain, 27 September 1940, CAB 21/829, NA.

  16McGucken (1978: 112).

  17During the Tizard mission, from 9 September to 30 November 1940, there appear to have been only three discussions about nuclear weapons; see ‘Activities of British Technical Mission’, HTT 706.r />
  18Tizard to WSC, 19 October 1940, PREM 3/475/1, NA.

  19‘WM (40), Cabinet minutes, 293rd conclusions’, 21 November 1940, AVIA 22/2286, NA.

  20Charles Lindemann to Frederick Lindemann, 16 December 1940, LIND D146/9.

  21War Cabinet minutes, 2 December 1940, CAB 65/10, NA, p. 152.

  22‘President’s Call for a Full Response on Defense’, New York Times, 30 December 1940, p. 6.

  23‘Hopkins Given London Task by Roosevelt’, New York Times, 4 January 1941, p. 3.

  24Report by W. Ridsdale, 25 January 1941, FO 371/26179, NA.

  25Note by Alex Cadogan, 29 January 1941, FO 371/26179, NA.

  26Hershberg (1993: 142).

  27‘Conant: Man of the Week’, Akron Beacon Journal, 5 November 1941, see Box 155 CONANT.

  28Conant’s first national radio broadcast was on 29 May 1940, CONANT, Box 26. ‘Conant Urges Aid to Allies at Once’, New York Times, 30 May 1940, p. 24.

  29The lunch was on 6 March 1941. Conant (1970: 253–5); Hershberg (1993: 145).

  30Conant (1970: 262).

  31Wenden, D. J., ‘Churchill, Radio and Cinema’, in Blake and Louis (eds) (1996: 215–39), see p. 233. See also Dilks (ed.) (2010: 402).

  32Conant (1970: 252–6, 266). ‘Conant Urges That the US Take Place Beside England in War’, Atlanta Constitution, 5 May 1941, p. 1.

  33Churchill’s nomination papers: http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=ImageView.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqImage=EC_1941_21.jpg; Nature, 21 June 1941, p. 772; Nature, 7 June 1941, p. 704.

  34See, for example, letter from A. V. Hill to Sir Henry Dale, 17 September 1941, HTT 58.

  35Clark (1965: 271).

  36Colville (1985: 344–5).

  37Clark (1965: 293).

  38Reynolds (1994: 249).

  39Halifax to WSC, c.15 June 1941, HLFX, A.4.7.

  40Churchill and Roosevelt had met once before, in 1918, though this escaped Churchill’s memory.

  41Colville (1985: 368).

  42Muller (2009: 262).

  Chadwick believes Britain should build its own Bomb

  1Interview with Chadwick, 20 April 1969, AIP: http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/3974_4.html.

  2Interview with Chadwick’s daughters, 10 May 2012. See also Brown (1997: 204).

  3Peierls to G. P. Thomson, 14 May 1941, AB 1/580, NA; Peierls to Andrew Boyle, 13 November 1978, PEIERLS D.53.

  4Fuchs officially joined the MAUD team on 28 May 1941. Report on Fuchs by Chief Constable of Birmingham, 6 May 1942, KV 2/1246, NA; Gowing (1964: 53n).