Churchill's Greatest Secret

The inspiration for this book was the recent discovery, by the author, that by November 1943 a chemical company in England, known then as ICI, had manufactured 2965 lbs. of a metal they code named massive metal. Extensive searches by the author established that massive metal was metal enriched with the uranium isotope 235U, the active ingredient in the atomic bomb dropped by the USA on Hiroshima in August 1945.

There is enough material for several atomic bombs. It is an important historical finding. All previous narratives of World War 2 make no mention of this. It was lost to history. It is truly Churchill's Greatest Secret.

This book explains how this came about and the effect it had on the events of World War 2. Previously unknown facts about World War 2 are published for the first time.

The author describes the work of Nobel Laureates Sir Earnest Rutherford and James Chadwick to show how they laid the ground work for the discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassman and Lise Meitner in Germany in December 1938.

The author was surprised to discover that all the principle players in the story of the atomic bomb were at one time students of Rutherford. This included the discoverers of nuclear fission and even Robert Oppenheimer, the lead scientist in the Manhattan Project. Others included Hans Geiger the inventor of the particle counter that bears his name and Nobel Laureate Werner Eisenberg who led the German atomic bomb project. The author believes Rutherford, who died before the discovery of nuclear fission, is the Grandfather of the atomic bomb.

The author describes how the French became the pioneers in atomic energy. The author shows that publication of the discovery of fission in Nature in early 1939 alerted scientists world wide to the potentialities of atomic energy. Days later French Scientists published a blue print for an atomic bomb based on heavy water and deliverable by boat or road vehicle. The author postulates that this forced Hitler to bring forward his plans for Liebestraum... the German dream and precipitate World War 2 earlier than he wanted.

When France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940 the French expatriated their blue print for a bomb, research records, key scientists and the world's supply of heavy water to England.

The author describes how Frisch and Peierl's discovery of a route to a bomb, deliverable by an airplane, led to the establishment of the MAUD Committee whose final report stated categorically that a bomb was obvious to any physicist, inevitable and must be developed to its fullest potential since it could determine the outcome of the war. Churchill when informed about the bomb adopts his never, never. never ever surrender mantra. The author points out that the audiences watching the movies Dunkirk and Darkest Hour released in 2017 do not know this.

The author discovered lists of patent applications proposed by French and UK scientists that clearly point to a dominant post war patent position. The lists are published for the first time. The author shows how Churchill conceded these patents to he USA in exchange for participation in the USA's atomic bomb program on an equal basis.

Co-operation between the USA and the UK was initially very good but when Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard successfully tested the world's first atomic reactor in December 1942 the author points out the USA did an abrupt about face and severely restricted the UK's access to the USA's programs. This forced Churchill to accelerate ICI's program. The UK persuaded the USA to share atomic bomb secrets and give the UK an equal say in how, when and where the bomb would be deployed, This was formalized in the highly secret Quebec Agreement images of which are published for the first time.

The doctrine of mutually assured destruction is discussed in the context of how to warn Hitler.