I don’t know enough about atomic development to be certain of details but the following should be somewhere near right.
Somwhere around the beginning of the war, British scientists with assistance from European colleagues realised that an atomic bomb was more than theoretically possible, it should be practically possible too. Some research was begun but we had more pressing things to attend to and a shortage of manpower, resources and money.
Churchill convinced Roosevelt of the importance of the project and the research, (and the British scientists), was transferred to America. After Pearl Harbour the project expanded massively with unlimited resources being made available to what became the Manhattan Project.
Shortly after the end of the war a Bill was passed in America, I think the McMahon Act, which prohibited the sharing of nuclear information with any other nation, including us. After a degree of complaining to no avail, Attlee decided we should develop our own nuclear devices. Some knowledge came back with our scientists but it was almost as if we had to start again. I believe the biggest problem came with the design of the detonator.
As I said, some of the details could be wrong but that should be a reasonably accurate summary.
Sign In
