Rare. There is a copy of this document in the Zinman Atomic Energy collection at Penn University (the Penn copy is typewritten) and a copy at the University of Chicago.
A pre-publication “advance release” statement on the development of the atomic bomb published just days after the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 and in advance of a statement by the British Prime Minister, Clement Atlee.
The information contained in this document is largely derived from the Smyth Report, the first official account of the development of the atomic bomb but with an emphasis on the British involvement in the development of the atomic bomb. This early statement – “not for publication before morning papers on Monday, August 13, 1945. Not to be broadcast before 3, p.m. E.W.T. Sunday, August 12” – celebrates the “outstanding” British input into the project but is entirely silent on the mass destruction and devastation caused by the bomb.
The statement begins by outlining the history of “that branch of Physics, known as “nuclear” physics”, and, “the belief that it should be possible to find a way of releasing atomic energy on a significant scale and under controlled conditions” (i). The information is predominantly presented to celebrate and promote the British role in the formulation of the atomic bomb: “It will be seen that scientists of many countries shared in this development and that the contribution of British laboratories was outstanding” (p.1) The dominance of the American input occasionally shows through though: “Consequently no reference is made to the gigantic scale of the American scientific and technical effort the successful outcome of which constitutes, as the Prime Minister has already said, one of the greatest triumphs of human genius of which there is record” (p.2)
The early part of this statement notes that preliminary discussions had taken place between Roosevelt and Churchill over the development of the atomic bomb and an overview of the science behind nuclear physics is provided which covers radioactivity (with emphasis on the work of Ernest Rutherford at Manchester University) and the work of Francis William Aston at Cambridge University. Mention is also made of Sir James Chadwick and his work at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.
The second major section of the document is titled, “The Realization of the Atomic Bomb, British Activities and Organizations” (p.12) and celebrates the work of scientists at Oxford and Birmingham University as well as partners in Industry such as the Vickers Electrical Company and Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd, with the measured statement that the atomic bomb was seen to have the potential for “unprecedented powers of destruction” and the belief that “an atomic explosion would be very large compared with the effect of ordinary bombs” (p.13). The document also outlines exchanges between British and America scientists in 1941 and 1942 and lists members of the Diffusion Committee, the Technical Committee and the “metal Panel” (which dealt with uranium metal production). The document ends by outlining the transfer of much of the research (and many of the scientists) behind the project from Britain to the USA:
“The effect of these transfers and others which were made to the Montreal project was to close down entirely all work in the U.K. on the Electro-Magnetic process and to reduce almost to nothing the nuclear physical research … Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this was the proper course to follow in the light of the decision which has been taken to give the highest priority to the production, in the shortest possible time, of an atomic bomb for use in this war” (p.22).
This statement is issued by the British Information Services (“an Agency of the British Government”) and is marked “Advance Release K.367” and was presumably intended to precede Henry DeWolfe Smyth’s Atomic Energy for Military Purposes (published by Princeton University in 1945) which outlined the development of the atomic bomb for the first time. Smyth writes in his preface to that work that “references to British and Canadian work are not intended to be complete since this is written from the point of view of the activities in this country [USA].”
Smyth’s report was first issued as a shorter mimeographed version in early April 1945 with the majority of those copies being recalled and destroyed shortly after. The covering memo with the mimeographed edition stated: “These parts will be brought to you by Officer Courier, who will wait until you have read them and will then return them to me [General Groves]”. Only two known copies of this printing are known to exist – one of which is at Princeton. A lithoprint of the report was published in a 1000 copies and distributed for release on April 12. Smyth’s work was then published by Princeton UP in September 1945 as, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. The book became a surprising bestseller and was translated into numerous different languages including Russian and Chinese. The first British printing of the report was issued by “His Majesty’s Stationery Office” in 1945 [listed in the TLS “Books Received” at the beginning of November 1945, see Coleman, “A Descriptive Checklist”] Smyth’s book was controversial as it was feared that even outlining the development of the atomic bomb might allow other countries to advance their own nuclear weapons capabilities. Richard Rhodes notes in his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1988) that the Smyth report “appalled the British, enlightened the Soviets on which approaches to isotope separation not to pursue…” (p.750). In Churchill’s Bomb (2013), Graham Farmelo notes that the Smyth report “well and truly wrapped [the American flag] around the Bomb” and left the British scrabbling to nervously lay claim to the development, “After the Americans’ public-relations coup the British response looked tardy, ineffectual and slightly mean-spirited” (p.312) This document therefore provides an important alternative angle on the work done by British scientists in the field of nuclear physics.
A remarkable document which on the surface outlines the ground-breaking British involvement in the development of nuclear physics but is also in part a piece of propaganda attempting to “sell” the idea of the atomic bomb as a great discovery to the British public rather than reflect on the horrific destruction the atomic bomb had just inflicted days earlier on Japan. This official account of the project reads like a roll-call of British scientists working at the cutting-edge of technology in the first part of the 20th-century but could also be seen as a joint statement between the allied forces drawing everyone together in a pact of collective responsibility for one of the most notorious atrocities of the century.
