Since ancient times, mankind has invented new, increasingly destructive types of weapons. Bows and crossbows were replaced by firearms, along with the development of aviation, bombs appeared. Then chemical and bacteriological weapons were invented. And in 1945, scientists were able to create something fundamentally new: a weapon that can destroy the entire human civilization. Work on the creation of a nuclear bomb was carried out in many countries - Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union. But the Americans were the first to achieve success. The nuclear weapons program was named the Manhattan Project.
The Manhattan Project - How It All Began
The Manhattan project was launched on September 17, 1942, but the work related to the study of radioactive substances was carried out long before that. In particular, since 1939, experiments have been carried out at the Uranium Committee. Works of this kind were classified from the very beginning and remained secret for a long time after the end of the war.
The main reason that the creation of a nuclear bomb has become one of the priority scientific areas was the interest of Nazi Germany in the creation of the latest weapons of mass destruction. 1939, April 24 - the authorities of this country received a letter from the professor of the University of Hamburg Paul Harteck. The letter dealt with the fundamental possibility of creating a new type of highly effective explosive. At the end, Harteck writes: "The country that will be the first to practically master the achievements of nuclear physics will acquire absolute superiority over others."
The main tasks of the project
Absolute superiority was exactly what Adolf Hitler was striving for. So the project participants faced two tasks at the same time. It was necessary not only to create their own nuclear weapons, but also, if possible, prevent the Nazis from developing the same.
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The efforts of the most talented nuclear physicists were needed to solve the first problem. The best of the best were involved in the project. Any nuclear physicist reads the list of participants in the Manhattan Project with respect, to such an extent there are many outstanding scientists of world renown: Rudolf Peierls, Otto Frisch, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Klaus Fuchs, Leo Szilard, John von Neumann, Richard Feynman, Joseph Rotblat, Isidor Rabi, Stanislav Ulem (Yulem), Robert Wilson, Victor Weisskopf, Herbert York, Kenneth Bainbridge, Samuel Allison, Edwin Macmillan, Robert Oppenheimer, John Lawrence, Georgy Kistyakovsky, Hans Bizo, R. Lawrence Roberts, F. Moler, Alexander Sachs, Hans Bethe, Schweber, Busch, Ecker, Halban, Simon, E. Wagner, Philip Hauge Abelson, John Cockcroft, Ernest Walton, Robert Serber, John Kemeny.
Regarding the second task, only the military could solve it. That is why the project management was twofold. It was headed by the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves. The task that faced Groves was not an easy one: while scientists spent sleepless nights trying to develop a "capable" model of a new weapon, he needed not only to find out the achievements of the enemy, but to capture and deliver to America the leading German physicists, stocks of fissile materials and documents and equipment related to nuclear fission.
Mission "Alsos"
1943 a special scientific intelligence unit is formed by Groves. Its leader, General Strong, proposed to send to Italy "a small group of scientists, accompanied by the necessary military personnel." This unit went down in history of the Manhattan Project under the code name of the Alsos mission.
The Italian group of the "Alsos I" mission consisted of 4 officers, headed by Boris Pasha. She arrived in Italy on June 17, 1943. Meetings with the officers of the Italian navy who knew about the German research provided valuable information: the Germans showed a great interest in the heavy water produced in Norway. To slow down the work of German researchers, a heavy water steam was blown up (local partisans distinguished themselves), and the plant for its production was bombarded by British aircraft.
The scouts sought to control any sources of raw materials for nuclear weapons. They kept a close watch on the largest factories in Germany, making a list of those that could be involved in the German nuclear project.
After the Allied landings in Normandy in August 1944, the Alsos II mission arrived in Paris, which had its own scientific unit, headed by the Dutchman Samuel Goudsmit. The powers of the officers of the Alsos mission were extremely high. They could count on unrestricted troop assistance when it comes to the nuclear program.
When it became known that the German city of Hechingen was about to be taken by French units, at the request of Boris Pasha, American troops changed the direction of the offensive and were the first to enter the city. Thanks to this maneuver, it was possible to take out of the city a large German atomic laboratory and send the outstanding German physicist Max von Laue abroad.
Then the Americans learned that the city of Oranienbaum fell into the Soviet zone. The Soviet Union was a possible competitor in the struggle to create atomic weapons. Therefore, at the request of General Groves, General Marshall bombed the plant in this city, along with all the equipment. The mission was also engaged in the search for raw materials: during the work, more than 70 tons of uranium and radium were captured and exported to America.
True, many of the scientists were dissatisfied with Groves's leadership. His attitude towards scientists was extremely dismissive. In addition, physicists were irritated by the methods by which Groves sought to prevent information leakage. Each scientist did his part of the work. They could only exchange thoughts on the progress of the experiments with the employees of their department. If there was a need to transfer information from department to department, special permission was required. This is not to say that these measures were unnecessary: according to the recollections of Soviet intelligence officers, many employees were introduced into the Manhattan project. And the Americans strove not only to create a nuclear bomb, but also to maintain a monopoly on it.
The process of creating the atomic bomb
In the meantime, scientists worked on various versions and experimented. 1942, December 1 - after 17 days of round-the-clock work, the Fermi group completed the creation of the CP-1 reactor capable of carrying out a chain reaction. This reactor contained 36.6 tons of uranium oxide; 5.6 tons of uranium metal and 350 tons of graphite. The next day, the first chain reaction was successfully carried out in it, the thermal power of which was 0.5 watts.
Obtaining radioactive substances with the required qualities was a serious problem. To solve it, reactors for the production of plutonium and an enterprise for its enrichment are beginning to be created in Hanford. And in Oak Ridge, the construction of a large research reactor X-10 is underway, which is supposed to synthesize plutonium for further research.
Since March 1943, the research center in Los Alamos began active work. By 1944, three areas were developing there: the creation of an atomic bomb, the production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239 on an industrial scale, and preparation for the combat use of weapons. The latter formulation conceals the creation of an army unit capable of ensuring the combat use of nuclear weapons. It was clear from the very beginning that nuclear bombs would be dropped by aircraft. It was necessary to slightly change the design of the bombers, to train the crews. For example, when the bomb was created, 17 bombers were modernized in America, ready to deliver a terrible "gift" anywhere in the world.
The process of creating the atomic bomb was not progressing as fast as the military would like. 1944, September - there were two main schemes for creating a bomb: one based on uranium, the other based on plutonium. But the project participants faced an almost insurmountable obstacle. They could not manufacture a detailed version of the uranium bomb, because the total amount of highly enriched uranium-235 at that time was only a few grams, and there were no industrial methods for its production yet. With plutonium, the situation was exactly the opposite: they knew how to produce it in the required quantities, but there was no plutonium-based bomb scheme.
By the middle of 1945, most of the technical problems had been solved. The required amount of radioactive substances was gradually accumulated. Along with this, a potential list of targets for nuclear bombing is outlined - all of them were in Japan. Initially, this list included Tokyo Bay (for demonstration), Yokohama, Nashya, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Kokura, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Sasebo. Later, this list changed several times: part of Japanese cities was destroyed as a result of conventional bombing.
Test of the first nuclear bomb
1945 - July was a watershed moment in the history of the Manhattan Project. Scientists were eagerly preparing to test the world's first nuclear bomb. Initially, they were going to arrange an explosion in a closed metal thick-walled container in order to store as much plutonium as possible in case of failure. But, fortunately, this idea was abandoned. Scientists could not accurately predict how the brainchild they created would behave. Too little was known at the time about the capabilities of the atom. Finally they decided to blow up Trinity (Trinity) on an open range, away from populated areas. After considering several options, the committee finally settled on the Alamogordo area. It was located on the territory of the air base, although the airfield itself was located at some distance.
Trinity atomic bomb
The day of testing has arrived. The bomb was prepared and placed on a 33-meter steel tower. Recording equipment was located around it at a great distance. Three observation posts were set up 9 km south, north and east of the tower deep underground. The command post was located 16 km from the steel tower, from where the last command was supposed to arrive. Due to bad weather, the explosion was postponed twice. Finally, it was decided to detonate the bomb at 5:30 on July 16, 1945.
Later Groves, who personally attended the tests, described his impressions: “My first impression was the feeling of a very bright light that flooded everything around, and when I turned around, I saw a picture of a fireball that is now familiar to many. My first reaction, as well as that of Bush and Conant, while we were still sitting on the ground, watching this spectacle, was a silent handshake. Soon, literally 50 seconds after the explosion, a shock wave hit us. I was surprised at her relative weakness. In reality, the shock wave was not that weak. It's just that the flash of light was so strong and so unexpected that the reaction to it reduced our susceptibility for a while."
After the test, the head of the Los Alamos laboratory, Robert Oppenheimer, quoted an altered verse from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am Death, the destroyer of worlds!" Kenneth Bainbridge, the laboratory specialist in charge of the test, responded to his words. His words were not so poetic: "Now we are all sons of bitches."
In general, the atmosphere at the test site was strange. Some spectators (from among the military) simply could not understand the essence of what was happening, others were frankly happy that they had survived, and others plunged into calculations. The sight of the nuclear mushroom turned out to be so frightening that many of the scientists for the first time thought about what kind of force they had released.
Some time after the explosion, the epicenter was examined by several Sherman tanks, lined with lead plates from the inside. The sight was terrible: dead, scorched earth, on which all living things were destroyed within a radius of one and a half kilometers. The sand had sintered into a glassy greenish crust that covered the ground. In a huge crater lay the twisted remains of a steel tower. To the side lay a twisted, overturned steel box - the same one from which they initially wanted to make a container for testing.
The power of the explosion was estimated at 20,000 tons of trinitrotoluene. It was the most powerful explosion that ever thundered on Earth. To imagine its power, suffice it to say that 2000 of the most powerful bombs of the Second World War could have caused this kind of destructive effect. But Trinity was only the first brainchild of the Manhattan Project. Already preparing for the performance of their terrible task "Fat Man" and "Kid".
At first, the military and politicians were only happy with the appearance of new weapons and looked forward to when they could be used. Ethical issues were of little concern. Much more often it was debated whether to use bombs as they were made, or to stockpile a few bombs to carry out a massive bombing of Japan. After receiving the report on the successful test of Trinity, President Truman presented Japan with an ultimatum, in which he demanded an immediate end to the war.
Why was Hiroshima chosen as the target for the bomb? The project manager explained it this way: “Hiroshima was the most important military facility in Japan.
The headquarters of the army was located in the castle. The garrison of the city numbered 25,000 people. The port of Hiroshima was the main center for all communications between the islands of Honshu and Kyushu. This city was the largest of the cities not affected by American air raids, except for Kyoto. The population, which, according to our data, was more than 300,000 people, was almost entirely employed in military production, carried out in enterprises of a small and very small scale, and even just at home."
The first nuclear explosions. Effects
1945, August 6 - at 09:15 the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Colonel Tibbets flew the B-29 bomber delivering the terrible cargo. Major Firby was the scorer, Captain Parsons was the weapons specialist, and Lieutenant Jepson was in charge of the electronics.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The height of the huge white cloud that covered Hiroshima after the explosion, according to the pilots, reached 13 km. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima matched the force of the explosion to a charge of 20,000 tons of trinitrotoluene. The diameter of the fireball was 17 m, the temperature inside it rose to 300,000 ° C.
It was impossible to photograph what was happening in Hiroshima. Only the next day, the military were able to see the results of the bombing: almost 60% of the city was destroyed, fires blazed, the destruction zone stretched 1,800 meters from the epicenter and covered an area of 4.5 square kilometers. Of the 250,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima, 160,000 were killed and wounded. The bomb that caused this tremendous destruction was called "The Kid" …
After the bombing of Hiroshima, they decided to distribute leaflets in Japan with an appeal to the people and a message that America had become the owner of the most powerful weapon on Earth. They called for an immediate surrender and said that the Japanese were better off being prudent before the US ordered another bomb. Why didn't the Americans stop? Why did they drop the second atomic bomb? Perhaps because the decision to use it was made even before the first batch of leaflets reached Japan. Most likely, the government and the military did not even think of limiting themselves to one bomb.
On August 9, it was the turn of another "brainchild" of the Manhattan Project - the Fat Man bomb. It was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. At the time of the explosion, about 73,000 people died, another 35,000 died after long suffering. Then Japan surrendered.
The Manhattan project was one of the most expensive in the history of mankind. It involved many participants: from 1942 to 1945, up to 130,000 people worked at various sites. The cost of creating nuclear weapons has reached two billion dollars (in today's prices - about 20 billion). At first, the project participants were sincerely convinced that the creation of such a powerful weapon would put an end to all wars. But its appearance led to a nuclear arms race and attempts to invent even more powerful bombs.
Recommended for viewing: "Hack the Manhattan project. Anatoly Yatskov. Documentary"
V. Sklyarenko