The First War of Physics (80 page)

87 ‘[Heisenberg] had agreed to sup with the devil …’:
Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 386.

88 ‘In Tisvilde, the beautiful vacation home of the Bohrs …’: Heisenberg, Elisabeth. p. 77.

88 ‘Here I am once again in the city which is so familiar to me …’ and subsequent quotations: Heisenberg, letter to Elisabeth Heisenberg, September 1941. A facsimile, transcription and English translation of this letter can be viewed online at
www.werner-heisenberg.unh.edu

90 ‘[Heisenberg] stressed how important it was …’: Pais,
Niels Bohr’s Times
, p. 483.

91 ‘In vague terms you spoke in a manner …’: reproduced in Dörries, p. 109. The Bohr drafts can also be viewed online at
www.nba.nbi.dk

91 ‘It had to make a very strong impression on me …’: reproduced in Dörries, p. 163. See also
www.nba.nbi.dk

91 ‘And that it was, so to speak, the natural course in this world …’: Helmut Rechenberg, ‘Documents and Recollections of the Bohr–Heisenberg Meeting in 1941’, in Dörries, p. 69.

92 ‘You know, I’m afraid it went badly wrong.’: Rechenberg in Dörries, p. 70.

92 ‘Our relations with scientific circles in Scandinavia …’: Rechenberg in Dörries, p. 69.

93 ‘The first test of theory …’: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 67.

99 ‘Put a question in, and you get an answer out …’: Moss, p. 48.

100 ‘We have now reached the conclusion …’ and subsequent quotations from the MAUD Committee Report: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 394. See also
www.atomicarchive.com

101 ‘I would not bet more than two-to-one against …’: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 96.

101 ‘Although personally I am quite content …’: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 106.

101 ‘We have been impressed by the unanimity …’: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 100.

102 ‘VADIM has relayed a report …’: from Report No. 6881/1065 of 25 September 1941, from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia. This report is available as Document No. 1 in Appendix Two of Sudoplatov, p. 437. In this memoir, it was claimed that Gorsky’s source was LEAF and incorrectly attributed to Donald Maclean. This was either a possible mistranslation of LIST or deliberate misinformation.

103 ‘The Chiefs of Staff Committee …’: from Report No. 6881/1065 of 25 September 1941, from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia. See Sudoplatov, p. 437.

104 ‘If Congress knew the true history of the atomic energy project …’: quoted in Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 372.

105 ‘Light a fire under the Briggs Committee’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 360.

106 ‘Energetic but dispassionate review …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 362.

108 ‘If large amounts of element 94 were available …’: quoted in Compton, p. 50.

108 ‘This inarticulate and unimpressive man …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 372.

109 ‘Said “bomb” in no uncertain terms …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 373.

109 ‘Ernest, you say you are convinced …’: Compton, p. 8.

110 ‘A fission bomb of superlatively destructive power …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 386.

111 ‘V.B. OK – returned – I think you had best keep this in your own safe. FDR.’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 388.

112 ‘Assist one another with all political, economic and military means …’: the text of the Tripartite Pact can be viewed on the Yale Law School Avalon Project website –
www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon

113 ‘When this war is over …’: quoted by Dennis Showalter, ‘Storm over the Pacific: Japan’s Road to Empire and War’ in Marston, p. 29.

119 ‘Only if there is a certainty …’: Irving, p. 117.

120 ‘A million times greater than the same weight of dynamite’ and ‘10 to 100 kilograms of fissionable material’: Powers, p. 136.

122 ‘As I will not be in Berlin at the time in question …’: Irving, p. 119.

122 ‘The behaviour of neutrons in uranium …’: Irving, p. 120.

122 ‘Pure uranium-235 is thus seen to be an explosive of quite unimaginable force.’: Irving, p. 121.

123 ‘Realm of atomic destruction’: Mark Walker,
German National Socialism
, p. 58.

124 ‘With the aid of Norwegian compatriots …’: Gallagher, p. 28.

124 ‘So we have at last succeeded in building a pile configuration …’: Irving, p. 131.

125 ‘I have confidence in you …’: Speer, p. 276.

125 ‘Annihilate whole cities’: Speer, p. 314.

126 ‘Given the positive results achieved up until now …’: Karlsch and Walker, p. 16.

126 ‘About the size of a pineapple’: Irving, p. 134.

127 ‘It was such a ridiculously low figure …’: Irving, p. 349.

128 ‘Rather put out by these modest requests …’: Speer, p. 316.

131 ‘No orders were given to build atom bombs …’: Heisenberg, Werner, p. 183.

131 ‘Hurry up. We are on the track.’: Szanton, p. 241.

131 ‘We have become convinced that there is a real danger …’: Powers, p. 162.

133 ‘The valley is so deep …’: Gallagher, p. 31.

134 ‘We not only learned to force locks …’: Haukelid, p. 43.

135 ‘It was always curious to the Norwegians …’: Haukelid, p. 49.

135 ‘In good weather, it would have taken us a couple of days …’: Mears, p. 61.

135 ‘Lake covered with ice and partly covered with snow …’: Gallagher, p. 53.

137 ‘We’ll have the chain reaction going here [in Chicago] by the end of the year’ and subsequent quotations: Compton, p. 81.

137 ‘Except for this afterthought ….’: Compton, p. 71.

138 ‘Even this piece of information was not to be divulged …’: Fermi, p. 176.

139 ‘We considered names like extremium and ultimium …’: Seaborg, p. 72.

139 ‘I like to say that she was so efficient as a secretary that I began to date her …’: Seaborg, ‘An Early History of LBNL’,
http://acs.lbl.gov

140 ‘At worst in Canada.’: Brown, p. 218.

140 ‘One thing is clear …’: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 131.

141 ‘To embark on this Napoleonic approach …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 407.

142 ‘We must, however, face the fact …’: minute from Sir John Anderson to the Prime Minister, 30 July 1942, reproduced in Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 437.

143 ‘A specialist in the problems of nuclear physics …’: Compton, p. 125.

144 ‘I had had a continuing, smouldering fury …’: Pais, J.
Robert Oppenheimer: A Life
, p. 36.

146 ‘Although Mici and I were both [American] citizens …’: Goodchild,
Edward Teller
, p. 61.

148 ‘At this point something remarkable happened …’: Serber, p. 71.

149 ‘Should have a destructive effect equivalent …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 421.

151 ‘Alternatively, we may take the stand …’: Lanouette, p. 236.

151 ‘Probably the angriest officer in the United States Army.’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 425.

151 ‘If you do the job right …’: Groves, p. 4.

152 ‘The biggest sonovabitch I’ve ever met in my life …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 426.

152 ‘I fear we are in the soup.’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 427.

152 ‘Before German bombs wipe out American cities.’: Lanouette, p. 232.

153 ‘On the night of November 19–20th …’: Haukelid, p. 59.

156 ‘Congratulations? What for?’ and subsequent quotations: Fermi, p. 177.

157 ‘We were in the high intensity regime and the counters were unable to cope with the situation anymore …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 440.

157 ‘Jim, you’ll be interested to know …’: Compton, p. 144.

158 ‘I shook hands with Fermi …’: Lanouette, p. 245.

161 ‘Importance and urgency of the practical utilization …’: Sudoplatov. Beria’s memorandum is reproduced in Appendix 2, pp. 439–41.

163 ‘How can you work with people like that?’: Lanouette, p. 238.

163 ‘There are no experts …’: Pais, J.
Robert Oppenheimer: A Life
, p. 40.

165 ‘He couldn’t run a hamburger stand.’: Alvarez, p. 78.

165 ‘An important weapon that was being developed.’: Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer
, p. 66.

167 ‘Nobody could think straight in a place like that …’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 451.

169 ‘Had thought it best to explain the whole situation to us …’: Haukelid, p. 71.

169 ‘None of us had been to the plant in our lives …’: Mears, p. 118.

172 ‘I almost killed him …’: Gallagher, p. 148.

172 ‘The explosion itself was not very loud …’: Mears, p. 163.

173 ‘The explosion was tremendous …’: Gallagher, p. 160.

174 ‘The finest coup I have seen in this war.’: Gallagher, p. 169.

174 ‘Gives sufficient basis in itself for insistence …’: Kramish, p. 170.

175 ‘Then I decided to give him our intelligence materials.’: Holloway, p. 90.

176 ‘The prospects of this direction are unusually captivating.’: Sudoplatov. Kurchatov’s memoranda are reproduced in Appendix 2, pp. 446–53.

176 ‘They fill in just what we are lacking.’: Holloway, p. 95.

176 ‘In this connection I am asking you to instruct Intelligence Bodies …’: Sudoplatov, p. 453.

CHAPTER 9:

180 ‘Derives from the basic principle that interchange on design and construction …’: Gowing,
Britain and Atomic Energy
, p. 156. Emphasis added.

183 ‘When you know you are being taken advantage of …’: Feklisov, p. 30.

184 ‘Do you know any of the guys or any others connected with it?’: Herken, p. 92.

185 ‘Eltenton’s manner was somewhat embarrassed…’: Chevalier, p. 53.

185 ‘Means of getting technical information to Soviet scientists.’: Pais, J.
Robert Oppenheimer: A Life
, p. 237.

185 ‘I was not, of course, in the kitchen …’: Barbara Chevalier, unpublished diaries. Extracts have been reproduced with notes by Gregg Herken and are available to view at
www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com.
See also Bird and Sherwin, p. 197.

186 ‘To my sorrow, his wife is influencing him in the wrong direction.’: Herken, p. 96.

189 ‘The object of the project …’:
Los Alamos Primer.
A scanned version of the original document is available on the US Department of Energy website,
www.cfo.doe.gov.

191 ‘For example, it has been suggested that the pieces might be mounted …’:
Los Alamos Primer
, p. 22.

192 ‘From the preceding outline we see that the immediate program …’:
Los Alamos Primer
, p. 24.

193 ‘I believe your people actually
want
to make a bomb.’: Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 468.

200 ‘Indeed I have in mind a particular problem …’: Pais,
Niels Bohr’s Times
, p. 486.

200 ‘Professor Bohr should gently file the keys …’: Kramish, p. 192. A photograph of the keys and a facsimile of the instructions are reproduced in R.V. Jones, ‘Meetings in Wartime and After’, in French and Kennedy (eds), p. 279.

200 ‘However, there may, and perhaps in a near future, come a moment …’: Brown, p. 243.

203 ‘Somewhat improved apparatus …’: Irving, p. 202.

204 ‘Oh, I think that is true …’: Bird and Sherwin, p. 238.

205 ‘Could you give me a little more specific information …’ and ‘Well, I might say, that the approaches were always to other people …’: Goodchild, J.
Robert Oppenheimer
, P. 93.

205 ‘Who had a lot of experience in microfilm work …’, ‘I think it would be a mistake and ‘I want to again sort of explore the possibility …’: Bird and Sherwin, p. 240.

207 ‘The writer wishes to go on record …’; Conant, p. 177.

208 ‘The case of Dr J.R. Oppenheimer …’, ‘I’ve made up my mind that you, yourself, are OK’, and ‘I’d better be – that’s all I’ve got to say.’: Goodchild, J.
Robert Oppenheimer
, p. 95.

216 ‘Scores of American bombers were flying across Norway …’: Haukelid, p. 177.

217 ‘Seems out of all proportion …’: Gallagher, p. 211.

217 ‘I would like that very much’ and subsequent quotations: Frisch, p. 145.

217 ‘I will have nothing to do with a bomb.’: Sime, p. 305.

218 ‘Oh, about once a year.’: Kragh, p. 158

219 ‘Some of us got seasick …’: Frisch, p. 147.

CHAPTER 11: UNCLE NICK

224 ‘Someone obviously has it in for you.’: Chevalier, p. 58.

225 ‘Got paralyzed somehow.’: Bird and Sherwin, p. 250.

228 ‘Good evening, Mrs von Halban’ and subsequent quotations: Serber, p. 85. Note, however, that Peierls thought this encounter rather apocryphal. See Peierls, p. 188.