The First War of Physics (79 page)

Silva, Peer de.
American counter-intelligence operative with Army G-2.

Simon, Franz Eugen.
German émigré chemist. Worked on the gaseous diffusion technique for separating U-235 as part of the MAUD Committee and Tube Alloys project. Knighted in 1954.

Skinnarland, Einar.
Norwegian SOE operative. Wireless operator for the commando raids on the heavy water plant at Vemork.

Slater, John Clarke.
American physicist. Contributed to the National Academy review group.

Slotin, Louis Alexander.
Canadian physicist. Suffered a fatal dose of radiation in an accident at Los Alamos in 1946.

Smyth, Henry DeWolf.
American physicist. Author of the Smyth report, the first official history of the Manhattan Project.

Snow, Charles Percy.
British physicist and novelist. Held several technical positions in the British government from 1940–60. Knighted in 1957 and made a life peer in 1964.

Sørlie, Rolf.
Norwegian engineer. Assisted the Gunnerside team in their successful raid on the heavy water plant at Vemork. Involved in sabotage of the
Hydro.

Speer, Albert.
German architect and Minister for Armaments and War Production.

Stimson, Henry Lewis.
American politician. Secretary of War in both the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, 1940–45.

Storhaug, Hans.
Norwegian commando. Member of the successful Gunnerside team.

Strassman, Friedrich Wilhelm ‘Fritz’.
German chemist. Discovered (with Otto Hahn) evidence for nuclear fission in uranium.

Strauss, Lewis Lichtenstein.
American businessman, Naval officer and administrator. Became chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission in 1953.

Strømsheim, Birger.
Norwegian commando. Member of the successful Gunnerside team.

Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatolyevich.
Soviet NKVD lieutenant general. Responsible for ‘special tasks’, including sabotage and assassinations, 1941–44. Appointed to lead Department S, a joint NKVD–GRU atomic intelligence-gathering operation in 1945.

Suzuki, Kantaro.
Japanese Prime Minister April–August 1945.

Szilard, Leo.
Hungarian émigré physicist. Anticipated the development of atomic weapons and worked to alert US President Franklin Roosevelt to the danger in 1939. Involved in the fledgling American bomb project, he joined the Met Lab in early 1942. In 1945 he vigorously campaigned against the first use of atomic bombs by America.

Tamm, Igor Yevgenyevich.
Soviet physicist. Studied the theory of the Super thermonuclear bomb. Won the Nobel prize for physics in 1958.

Tatlock, Jean.
American psychologist and physician. Former fiancée and lover of J. Robert Oppenheimer. She committed suicide in 1944.

Teller, Edward.
Hungarian émigré physicist. Involved in the American atomic bomb project from its inception. Worked at Los Alamos on the theory of the Super thermonuclear bomb. Co-founded the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore (subsequently called the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) in 1952. He remained an advocate of strong American military security, inspiring Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. Teller is another possible model for Peter Sellers’ portrayal of Dr Stangelove.

Terletsky, Yakov Petrovich.
Soviet physicist. Scientific adviser to Department S, a joint NKVD–GRU atomic intelligence-gathering operation. Visited Niels Bohr in 1945.

Tibbets, Paul Warfield.
American pilot. Commander of the 509th Composite Group. Piloted the B-29 Superfortress bomber
Enola Gay
which dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima.

Tizard, Henry Thomas.
British chemist and administrator. Chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, responsible for the development of radar during the war.

Thomson, George Paget.
British physicist and Nobel laureate. Son of J.J. Thomson. Chairman of the MAUD Committee. Knighted in 1943.

Togo, Shigenori.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Toyoda, Soemu.
Japanese Imperial Navy admiral and Navy Chief of Staff.

Tronstad, Leif.
Norwegian chemist. Developed the process for heavy water production at the Vemork plant. Joined the Norwegian resistance in 1941 and, following his escape to England, advised the SOE on sabotage operations. Killed in Norway in 1945 while on a mission to protect local power plants and industrial facilities from the retreating Germans.

Tsukerman, Veniamin Aronovich.
Soviet physicist. Developed techniques for the X-ray radiography of explosions used to investigate implosion at Arzamas-16.

Tuck, James Leslie.
British physicist. Expert on armour-piercing shaped charges. Joined the British delegation to the Manhattan Project in late 1943. Suggested implosion using explosive lenses as a method for assembling a super-critical mass of plutonium in the Fat Man bomb design.

Turner, Louis A.
American physicist. Independently concluded that neutron capture by U-238 could lead to the production of a fissionable isotope of plutonium.

Ulam, Stanislaw Marcin.
Polish mathematician. Worked on the hydrodynamics of implosion and the theory of the Super thermonuclear bomb at Los Alamos. Proposed the Teller–Ulam design in 1951.

Umezu, Yoshijiro.
Japanese Imperial Army general and Army Chief of Staff.

Urey, Harold Clayton.
American chemist and Nobel laureate. Worked on gaseous diffusion.

Van Vleck, John Hasbrouk.
American physicist. Contributed to the National Academy review group and Oppenheimer’s summer study group at Berkeley. Won the Nobel prize in 1977.

Vannikov, Boris Lvovich.
Soviet politician. People’s Commissar of Munitions. Joined the Special State Committee formed in 1945 to develop the Soviet atomic bomb.

Voznesensky, Nikolai Alexeyevich.
Soviet politician. Head of the Soviet State Planning Committee (Gosplan). Joined the Special State Committee formed in 1945 to develop the atomic bomb.

Wahl, Arthur.
American chemist. Worked with Glenn Seaborg to isolate plutonium.

Weinberg, Joseph.
American physicist. Worked on electromagnetic isotope separation at the Rad Lab until 1943. Was caught betraying atomic secrets to the Soviet Union by an FBI bug. Acquitted in 1953 when HUAC refused to make evidence available in court.

Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich Freiherr von.
German physicist and philosopher. Son of Ernst von Weizsäcker and brother of Richard von Weizsäcker, German President 1984–94. Joined the Uranverein in 1939 and independently concluded that neutron capture by U-238 could lead to the production of a fissionable isotope of neptunium (and, subsequently, plutonium). Close friend of Werner Heisenberg. Captured by the Alsos mission and detained at Farm Hall.

Weizsäcker, Ernst Freiherr von.
German diplomat. Secretary of State under Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Welsh, Eric.
British SIS agent. Supervised atomic intelligence-gathering and sabotage of the heavy water plant at Vemork. Followed the Alsos mission into Germany.

Wheeler, John Archibald.
American physicist. Elaborated the origin of nuclear fission in uranium with Niels Bohr in 1939. Joined the Met Lab and worked on the first full-scale nuclear reactors at Hanford. Subsequently made many contributions to quantum theory, relativity and cosmology.

Wigner, Eugene Paul.
Hungarian émigré physicist. Part of the ‘Hungarian conspiracy’ that helped to raise the profile of atomic energy in America in 1939. Worked on reactor design at the Met Lab in Chicago. Subsequently directed research and development at the Clinton laboratory (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Tennessee. Won the Nobel prize for physics in 1963.

Wirtz, Karl Eugen Julius.
German physicist. Worked on reactor design as part of the Uranverein. Captured by the Alsos mission and detained at Farm Hall.

Yatskov, Anatoly Antonovich.
Soviet diplomat and NKVD spy. Senior case officer for a number of Soviet spy rings in New York. Supervised the handling of key atomic spies, including Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall and David Greenglass.

Yonai, Mitsumasa.
Japanese Imperial Navy admiral and Navy Minister.

Zabotin, Nikolai.
Military attache at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa and GRU spy. The boss of cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko, who defected in 1945.

Zarubin, Vasily Mikhailovich.
Soviet diplomat and NKVD spy. Third secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, 1941–44. Recalled to Moscow following allegations made in a letter to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Zavenyagin, Avram Pavlovich.
Soviet politician. Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs 1941–50. Led the Soviet search mission into Germany in 1945. Joined the Special State Committee formed later that year to develop the Soviet atomic bomb.

Zeldovich, Yakov Borisovich.
Soviet physicist. Worked on the theory of nuclear chain reactions with Yuli Khariton. Joined the Soviet atomic weapons laboratory Arzamas-16 in 1946. Worked on the design of the ‘classical’ Super thermo-nuclear bomb.

Zernov, Pavel Mikhailovich.
Deputy People’s Commissar of the Tank Industry. First head of the Soviet atomic weapons laboratory Arzamas-16.

NOTES AND SOURCES

4 ‘The most momentous visit of my whole life’: Frisch, p. 114.

7 ‘I don’t believe it …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 257.

7 ‘But in nuclear physics …’: Sime, p. 235.

8 ‘A very wobbly, unstable drop …’: Frisch, p. 116.

9 ‘Oh what idiots we have all been …’: Frisch, p. 116.

13 ‘Instantly pronounced the reaction impossible …’: Alvarez, p. 75.

14 ‘What kind of crazy thing is this …’: Wheeler, p. 27.

15 ‘Yes it would be possible to make a bomb …’: Wheeler, p. 44.

16 ‘We take the liberty of calling your attention to …’: Irving, p. 32.

18 ‘When things got too bad.’: Lanouette, p. 112.

19 ‘Entered history as Szilard’s chauffeur.’: Goodchild,
Edward Teller
, p. 52.

19 ‘Extremely powerful bombs of a new type.’: Einstein letter to Roosevelt, 2 August 1939. The letter is reproduced in Snow, p. 178. See also
www.atomicarchive.com

24 ‘How secure the “White Jews” feel …’: Heisenberg, Elisabeth, p. 47.

25 ‘Now I actually see no other possibility …’: Cassidy, p. 384.

25 ‘We mothers know nothing about politics …’: Cassidy, p. 386.

26 ‘Heisenberg is decent …’: Cassidy, p. 393.

27 ‘I believe that the war will be over …’: Heisenberg, Werner, p. 170.

27 ‘People must learn to prevent catastrophes …’: Heisenberg, Werner, p. 171. Heisenberg attributes his comment to a conversation he had with Enrico Fermi.

28 ‘We must make use of warfare for physics …’: Cassidy, p. 427.

32 ‘The only method of producing explosives …’: Irving, p. 53.

34 ‘Say that our company will accept …’: Irving, p. 65.

38 ‘Had Nazis in the Institute.’: Irving, p. 57.

41 ‘Bombs of hitherto unenvisaged potency and scope …’, and ‘can only hope …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 314.

42 ‘Alex, what you are after …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 314.

42 ‘My friends blamed me …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 316.

43 ‘Gentlemen, armaments are not what decides war …’: Szanton, p. 203.

43 ‘If that is true …’: Szanton, p. 203.

46 ‘You wouldn’t put boron into your graphite, or would you?’: Lanouette, p. 222.

46 ‘Fermi and I had disagreed …’: Lanouette, p. 218.

51 ‘It seems as if it was wild enough …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 346.

51 ‘With this remark of Turner …’: Lanouette, p. 220.

53 ‘Undoubtedly a fascist …’ and further quotations: Lanouette, p. 223.

54 ‘At that time …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 335.

55 ‘You who are scientists …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 336.

55 ‘I had the obligation …’: Goodchild,
Edward Teller
, p. 56.

56 ‘Before this war is over …’: Lanouette, p. 224.

58 ‘Just like any tourist.’: Frisch, p. 120.

59 ‘The most valuable English scientific innovation …’: Snow, p. 105.

59 ‘If you were faced with the problem …’, and ‘Oliphant knew that Peierls knew …’: Frisch, p. 123.

59 ‘The result would be no worse …’: Frisch, p. 125.

61 ‘The work of Bohr and Wheeler …’: Peierls, p. 154.

61 ‘At that point we stared at each other …’: Frisch, p. 126.

61 ‘I had no doubt that the Nazis would not hesitate …’: Preston, p. 213.

62 ‘It was a terrible time for me …’: quotation taken from the profile of Joseph Rotblat on the Peace Pledge Union website:
www.ppu.org.uk

63 ‘Practically irresistible …’ and other quotations from the Frisch–Peierls memorandum, see:
www.atomicarchive.com

65 ‘Why start on a project …’: Frisch, p. 126.

66 ‘With cheerful intelligence …’: Frisch, p. 130.

68 ‘Met Niels and Margrethe recently …’: Sime, p. 284.

71 ‘His infectious good humour …’: Howard, p. 142.

72 ‘Not only had our report started the whole thing …’: Frisch, p. 131.

78 ‘Only for special applications …’: Irving, p. 97.

81 ‘About ten million times’: Karlsch and Walker, p. 17.

82 ‘Please say all this …’; Powers, p. 107.

83 ‘For heaven’s sake keep this under your hat …’: Kramish, p. 158.

84 ‘If you can assure us that it is of immediate importance …’: Kramish, p. 159.

85 ‘It was from September 1941 that we saw an open road …’: Irving, p. 114.

87 ‘It might be a good thing …’: Heisenberg, Werner, p. 181.

87 ‘Grave consequences in the technique of war’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 384.