WWII Quiz

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
 
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The trouble of being so old LeEnfield is that you forget to post a new question for the rest :)!!!
 
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.
 
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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.
 
LeEnfield said:
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.
Click to expand...
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

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Okay lets bring out the Answer...Britains first Atom bomb was built just south of London near Seven Oaks. If you ever drive south along the M25 and you get about 10 miles north of Seven Oaks you should be on top of a place shown on the maps as Polhill and when you are the top of this hill you will see a couple bunker type buildings surrounded by wire fencing with some military signs. There are the entrance to an underground city which was used to manufacture ordnance during WW2 and was completely bomb proof. This place had it's own hospitals and restaurants and ran for many miles underground. Through Polhill runs a railway line and there was even a spur that went into this factory which was used to move all the munitions and even the first atomic bomb for testing from this site. How do I know all this, well lived there near there also the British Government made a film about the construction of Britain's Atomic bomb and they showed you it being constructed there, and I suppose that they felt it was a fairly safe place to build it.
 
That IS interesting!! I never heard about that one... but then again, the British government was hardly going to share that information with the likes of me! So, ummm, Whose turn is it?

If nobody has a question, how is this? At the end of the war, Berlin was attacked by elements of two Soviet fronts, and the few remaining Nazi defenders were fighting a hopeless battle to repuse them. One of the enduring myths that started at that time was that the Russians descended into the tunnels under the city, flooded them, and killed so many people that bodies by the thousands floated out of the tunnels in the days and weeks following the end of the war. While many bodies did indeed come out, the Soviets had little, if anything to do with it. What caused the flood in the tunnels and where did the bodies come from?

Good Luck!!!!

Dean.

(If it's someone's turn, I'll save it for later)
 
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Uh-oh. The last 2 questions that I asked were too easy. Did I make this one too hard?

Dean.
 
It shouldn't be too hard if the proper cause is mentioned somewhere on the net. If I have to calculate the water displacement to flood underground systems, volumes needed etc... it will become harder of course.
It might have to do with capillairy (or how you might write that in English) system, which is the border of ground water and can rise of course, due to all kinds of reasons.
 
Dean said:
What caused the flood in the tunnels and where did the bodies come from?

Good Luck!!!!

Dean.
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Going off memory and without looking it up.
I seem to recall it was the SS who flooded the tunnels, in order to deny their use to the Soviets, who could have used them to bypass the German defence lines.
The bodies I believe, came from the unfortunate people who were using the Tube system (subway) to shelter from the air raids
 
I'll accept that. The Germans did indeed flood the tunnels. However, the interesting part is that there is much doubt as to whether they actually intended to flood them. They were afraid that the Russians would come in with tanks and destroy everything and everyone. (It actually did happen once. One poor T-34 driver never saw an entrance to a subway station, and ended up barrelling down the steps and a bit of the way into the tunnel. I never did find out what happened to them. Backing out must have been... problematic!) In order to deny access to the Russians, they decided to dynamite the largest tunnel. Unfortunately they planted the charge on the roof of the tunnel under the Speer Canal. The roof came down, the water came in and some flooding occured. Now, here is where the reality differs from the myth. Contrary to popular belief, the tunnels did not fill all the way upwith water. According to Beevor's "The Battle for Berlin", some of the tunnels filled up to about waist deep at the deepest points. However, one of the flooded tunnels contained a hospital, and many of the weakened patients were unable to avoid the rising waters, and most of them simply drowned. As most of the patients had been wounded in the battle, many who saw these drowned, wounded bodies came to the conclusion that the Russians did it. While they were far from being Saints in Berlin, they had nothing to do with this one. So, once again, on to you Redcoat.

Dean.
 
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Aircraft one this time ;)


Name the first American built aircraft to shoot down an enemy aircraft while in RAF service.
 
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