Originally Posted by Fox

Dang, Reiben, you know about WW2 more than me.

Thanks, but I am sure theres lots about WW2 that you know more about than I do.

My question is:

Whos memorandum led to the formation of the Maud Committee during WW2?

What has the task of the Maud Committee?

Clue to first part is two people.

I think it was Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peirerls set up the committe, they worked the basic design for an atom bomb in 1940 and then alerted the US

Thought the question would last longer than that.
Your turn

thats the trouble of being so old, you can remember these things happening

The trouble of being so old LeEnfield is that you forget to post a new question for the rest !!!

In what part of the country was Britains first Atom bomb Built, and why was it built there.

Strictly speaking, this is not a WW II question, but I'll give it a shot. If I am wrong, I'll whine and complain until LeEnfield changes the question!!!


-----Edit-------Edit-------etc.-------

Ok, I checked. I was startled to find that Churchill had authorized nuclear research in Britain, and when the US started the Manhattan Project, they transferred their scientists over there. The US reaction to the post-war election of a Labour government was also troubling; they refused to share the info that they had developped! Man, the things I learn from this quiz. At any rate, the answer to the question: I have found 2 possibilities.
1. Different universities all across Britain. The Brits decided that they wanted to have the research facilities separated because it was easier to do two things. The first was that they could more easily hide its existence from the Germans, and the second was that it made the program impossible to destroy in the course of a single attack.
2. Aldermaston. I know that since Clement Atlee authorized the building of a bomb before 1947, all British bomb building and storage has been at Aldermaston. As to the why, I cannot comment.

Dean.

Sorry about being a year or so away from WW2. I through this question in as there has been very little every put down about this, and it would give a great chance of winning. It was not built at Aldermaston as that place had not been built at this stage. Also it was not built at any University, so tomorrow I will give you the answer, just to see if some clever clogs can get the correct answer.

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

Sorry about being a year or so away from WW2. I through this question in as there has been very little every put down about this, and it would give a great chance of winning. It was not built at Aldermaston as that place had not been built at this stage. Also it was not built at any University, so tomorrow I will give you the answer, just to see if some clever clogs can get the correct answer.

According to the info I've found the first British Atomic bomb, unlike the US bomb, was built in several locations , but the headquarters was based at Woolwich Arsenal in London.



The project was code named Basic High Explosive Research or BHER (later just HER) and was based at Woolwich Arsenal. Unlike the U.S. atomic bomb project which had been centrally located at the custom built facility of Los Alamos, BHER drew on existing groups scattered over several sites. In addition to Woolwich, ARD groups at Fort Halstead and other sites were involved. Furthermore not all aspects of bomb development resided with BHER. Although BHER was responsible for the overall weapon design, and the development and fabrication of the implosion system, the manufacture of the plutonium core initially resided with the plutonium production program under Hinton. This created problems in organization since lines of authority with other research sites were often not clear. By mid 1948 the responsibilities had been settled, and on 1 April 1950 a single site was selected for atomic weapons development at Aldermaston in Berkshire.


http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Uk/UKOrigin.html

.