Atomic Story 3

3  - The War and the Bomb

In as early January 1940 the team from Birmingham put their research to Sir Henry Tizard. Interesting ly the scientists were Rudolf Peierls and Otto Robert Frisch, two physicists who were refugees from Nazi Germany working at the University of Birmingham under the direction of Mark Oliphant. As early as April 1939, an approach had been by the team at Cambridge made concerning the feasilibity of an Atomic bomb. They approached Sir Kenneth Pickthorn, the local Member of Parliament, who took their concerns to the Secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, Major General Hastings Ismay. Ismay in turn asked Sir Henry Tizard for an opinion. Like many scientists, Tizard was sceptical of the likelihood of an atomic bomb being developed, reckoning the odds of success at 100,000 to 1

Even at such long odds, the danger was sufficiently great to be taken seriously, but Tizard's Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Warfare (CSSAW) was directed to continue the research into the feasibility of atomic bombs.

The French connection

Meanwhile the French (with allied cooperation) had succeeded in removing the only source of heavy water (a key component in the production of enriched Uranium 235) from Norway due to fears that it may be captured by the Germans.

They also heard from Jacques Allier of the French Deuxieme Bureau, who had been involved in the removal of the entire stock of heavy water from Norway. He told them of the interest the Germans had shown in the heavy water, and in the activity of the French researchers in Paris. Because of the key element (no pun) in this being Uranium, immediate action was taken: the Ministry of Economic Warfare was asked to secure stocks of uranium oxide in danger of being captured by the Germans.

At the time the only source of Uranium was a mine in the Belgian Congo. Lord Chartfield, Minister for Coordination of Defence checked with the Treasury and Foreign Office, and found that the Belgian Congo uranium was owned by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga company, whose British vice president, Lord Stonehaven, arranged a meeting with the president of the company, Edgar Sengier. Since Union Minière management were friendly towards Britain, it was not considered worthwhile to immediately acquire the uranium