Atomic Bomb Legacy 4

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.

The only place where heavy water (deuterium oxide) could be isolated was at the Norsk Hydro Ryukan plant in Norway. By the end of 1939, Ryukan was receiving orders from the German chemical giant I.G. Farben for up to 100 kg of heavy water a month. Lieutenant Jacques Allier, a Deuxième Bureau agent French intelligence became aware of the increased German demand, and managed to spirit the entire Ryukan 185 Kg of heavy water, in 26 five-litre containers, out of the country.

In March 1940, the "Deuxième Bureau" (French military intelligence) directed three French agents, Captain Muller and Lieutenants Mossé and Knall-Demars, to remove the world's extant supply, 185 kg (408 lb) of heavy water from the Vemork plant in then-neutral Norway. The Norsk Hydro General Director, Axel Aubert, agreed to “lend” the heavy water to France for the duration of the war, observing that if Germany won the war he was likely to be shot. Transportation was difficult as German Military Intelligence (the Abwehr) maintained a presence in Norway and had been alerted of ongoing French activities in Norway (although they had not been specifically warned about heavy water). Had they become aware of the shipment, they might have attempted to intercept it. The French transported it secretly to Oslo, to Perth in Scotland, and then on to France.

After an entertaining early life the Earl of Suffolk from Charlton House near Malmesbury, became an undergraduate at Edinburgh in 1934, aged 28. By 1937 he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the next year got the first Honours degree in Pharmacology. At the start of the war as well as being Malmesbury's Chief ARP Warden he joined the Ministry of Supplies Scientific Research Dept. He was sent to Paris as British Scientific Liaison Officer from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to the French government. As France was collapsing he went round the city armed with 2 .45 automatic pistols 'persuading' jewellers and bankers to give him diamonds for transport to England. Escaping just ahead of the Germans he raced off to Bordeux. With Major Ardale Golding and their secretaries, Eileen Beryl Morden and Marguerite Nicolle, they had left Paris on 10 June. They escorted thirty-three eminent scientists and technicians, including Lew Kowarski and Hans Halban, along with their families, from Clermont Ferrand to Bordeaux, and arranged for their passage to England on Broompark.

On 13 June 1940, the SS Broompark entered Bordeaux harbour with a load of coal. The ship's master was Captain Olaf Paulsen. Born in Christiania, Norway. In 1878, he had left when he was 14 and made his home in Leith, Scotland, becoming a British citizen in 1904. After starting out with Christian Salvesen as a cook, he had earned his master's certificate, and joined the Denholm line. Broompark  had sailed as part of convoy OG-33F in company with SS Earlspark, another vessel of the Denholm line also carrying coal, but Earlspark had been sunk en route by a German U-boat, U-101 on 12 June. Paris had fallen the previous day, and Paulsen agreed that once his cargo was discharged, he would take on refugees and carry them to England.

About a hundred people took up his offer. Amongst those who boarded was the Earl of Suffolk, who had been the British Scientific Liaison Officer from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to the French government. With Major Ardale Golding, his secretary Marguerite Nicolle, Eileen Beryl Morden, Suffolk’s secretary, and they left Paris on 10 June. When France was invaded the French nuclear scientist Frédéric Joliot-Curie took charge of the material, hiding it first in a Banque de France vault and then in a prison. Joliot-Curie then moved it to Bordeaux, where it, plus research papers and most of the scientists (Joliot-Curie remained in France).

The scientists brought with them the 26 cans containing heavy water worth £22,000. The managing director of the Antwerp Diamond Bank, Paul Timbal, joined them, bringing with him between £1 million and £3 million in diamonds. They also discovered 600 long tons (610 t) of machine tools in wagons on the quay, which were loaded on board. The diamonds and the heavy water were strapped to the deck on wooden pallets, so that if the ship was sunk they might float free, and possibly be recovered. On 19 June, Broompark weighed anchor and sailed down the Gironde estuary without the assistance of a pilot or tug boats, and made its way safely to Falmouth, arriving on 21 June.

A special train took the passengers & cargo to London. Arriving at the Ministry at 0400 the porter was not keen to allow the strangely dressed man (Earl of Suffolk ) admittance but the .45s seem to have done the trick again. In Herbert Morrison's absence Harold Macmillan saw him and arranged for a destroyer to collect the rest of his booty.

The diamonds were placed in the vaults of the Diamond Corporation and most of the heavy water was sent to Windsor Castle, where it was stored alongside the Crown Jewels, until needed.

The award of an OBE to Captain Paulsen was recorded in the London Gazette of 4 February 1941. Crucial to the success of the mission was the role played by Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk. The SS Broompark was one of 120 or so merchant ships that went to western France to save troops and equipment during Operation Aerial. The Earl of Suffolk went on to be the foremost bomb disposal expert but was killed on 12 May 1941, being awarded the GC. In all these adventures he was accompanied by his Secretary, Eileen Morden and his 'man Friday' Fred Hards - the Holy Trinity. They all perished together.

It went to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in small consignments; possibly the balance was sent to Canada for the Chalk River project.

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.

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

Atomic story 2

Splitting the Atom

Well before WWII in the early 20th Century scientist were working on Nuclear (Atomic) Physics and chemistry.

The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in February 1932. In April 1932, his Cavendish colleagues John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split lithium atoms with accelerated protons. Enrico Fermi and his team in Rome conducted experiments involving the bombardment of elements by slow neutrons, which produced heavier elements and isotopes. Then, in December 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at Hahn's laboratory in Berlin-Dahlem bombarded uranium with slowed neutrons, and discovered that barium had been produced, and therefore that the uranium nucleus had been split. Hahn wrote to his colleague Lise Meitner, who, with her nephew Otto Frisch, developed a theoretical justification for the process, which they published in Nature in 1939. By analogy with the division of biological cells, they named the process "fission".

The discovery of fission raised the possibility that a very powerful bomb could be produced. A few hundred pounds of say Uranium or so could produce an explosion the equivalent of many thousands of tons of high explosive. At this time no one was sure.

A very sinister story begins in WWII

i want to begin with how we think we have a "special relationship"

Legacy of WWII

I’m going to tell you story, a true story. What I can’t tell you, are the gaps! You see we only know actually what we are allowed to know. Unlike the USA we don’t have “Freedom of Information”. You might think so but we don’t. Although people don’t sign the Official Secrets act any more the reason is that they don’t have to, the Law still applies even if you haven’t signed it. It’s implicit.
Only certain documents have been declassified in Britain, many of them are “lost”, so can’t be shown any more (likely story, many have been destroyed, deliberately).
Anyway what we have are records of what did happen and if you add together what happened in US which is still documented and now declassified I think you can see the parallels and fill in the gaps. Actually I think that’s what science is about, you have a theory and adding up the evidence that you have you carry on finding evidence to prove your theory. It’s not Hype and hysteria it’s based on true facts and science. As I said I have a theory and you may agree with my conclusions. What we are left with is still unexplainable and in my opinion needs a thorough investigation by the relevant authorities and people. NOT a cover up.
If nothing else I think this is a fascinating story. Let’s start with some background, the development of Nuclear power and the Atom bomb.

Baby killer parents jailed

I feel so sorry for this couple. Yes they were responsible for her death and justly are punished but this won't help. Where on earth were Social Services? They should haver protected the baby. They didn't just accidentally live there and they were alcoholics. I suppose they felt shgasring their bed with the bvaby they were protecting it but falling unconscious in an alcoholic stupor they didn't know what was happening. Squalid conditions to live in, is there no help for people like this? I despair.

Yes they are jailed. Where were Social Services? They were known to the authorities yet they left them in these squalid conditions to look after this baby. At the very least they should have saved the baby?