Hitler's Uranium Club
The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall, annotated by Jeremy Bernstein
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In September 1939, some of the most important German nuclear physicists were called to a meeting in Berlin. This meeting saw the establishment of several research programmes set up to investigate the possibility of developing atomic weapons. The group called itself, the Uranium Club. As the war progressed, the research programmes got bogged down by various practical and theoretical problems which ultimately stalled the German atomic bomb programme.
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When the war in Europe was almost over, a joint Allied team of military and scientific personnel entered Germany and scooped up many of the German researchers including Werner Heisenberg, the leading theoretician of the Club. Shortly thereafter, ten of the scientists, including Heisenberg, were flown to England and incarcerated in a country house, Farm Hall, in Huntingdonshire. They were held there for exactly six months even though the war in Europe had ended before they arrived in England.
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During their stay at Farm Hall every word the scientists uttered was recorded and extracts of these tapes were sent to American and British Intelligence for analysis. The listeners were trying to establish how near the Germans had been to making atomic bombs. In due course, it was determined that their efforts had failed because of fundamental errors in the theories they had developed. But early on in the process, the listeners noticed that the Germans were developing another version of the story. Although they did not consult over it, they seem to have collectively produced a version that put their failure down to reluctance rather than inability. They implied that they had not wanted to equip Hitler with atomic weapons and so the programmes got no further. After the men were released, this story was embroidered to the point where the leading scientists appear to have convinced themselves that it was true.
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This book is a collection of the transcripts of those taped conversations. It makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in physics, in the history of nuclear warfare and in the psychology of those who provide the weapons. The annotations by Jeremy Bernstein are invaluable for non-specialists and experts alike. He writes lucidly about all of the issues and makes them very accessible. His 'pen portraits' of the ten men are especially revealing
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Hitler's Uranium Club is published by Copernicus Books
RIFLES
During the night of the 29th / 30th of March 1810, at Barba del Puerco, in the borderlands between Spain and Portugal, men of the 95th Rifles skirmished for the first time against seasoned troops of Napoleon's Peninsular forces. Although greatly outnumbered, the Rifles prevented the French from advancing and eventually helped to force their retreat. This first action set the tone. Through five more years of fighting, the Rifles distinguished themselves in action after action and, in the process, became an example to every succeeding generation of British soldiers.
In this wonderfully exhilarating book, Mark Urban, distinguished author, editor and military historian, recounts the exploits of the green-jacketed sharpshooters of the 95th in a campaign that took them from Iberia to Waterloo. Using personal testimonies as well as Army records, he describes the feelings as well as the actions of the soldiers and their sometimes inspired, sometimes awful officers; while his descriptions of the battles they fought are every bit as exciting as those of their fictional counterparts, the riflemen led by Bernard Cornwall's 'Sharpe.'
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Of course no military history of the period would be complete without a description of looting, of desertion and of worse crimes. Mark Urban supplies examples of all of these. Even so, in the end, I was left with an overwhelming sense of admiration for the prowess of these men and for their endurance in conditions that were literally quite dreadful for much of the time.
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As a chronicler and as a writer, Mark Urban is superb. I thoroughly recommend this book
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Rifles is published by Faber & Faber
English Passengers
In 1857 the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, developer of the Theory of Divine Refrigeration, mounts an expedition to find the Garden of Eden; believing it to be located, not in Arabia after all, but in the island of Tasmania. Finding it, he thinks, will finally nail shut the coffin of the atheistic adherents of geology.
But the ship Mr. Wilson charters is actually a Manx smuggling vessel whose Captain and crew agree to take their English passengers to Australia in order to escape the attentions of the British Customs whilst other important members of the expedition; a sinister racial theorist and a feckless ‘cold climate’ botanist have their own secret and non religious reasons for travelling to the other side of the world. Meanwhile, in Tasmania, the aboriginal people are being eradicated by a determined group of genocidal British colonists.
Out of this extraordinary mixture, Mathew Kneale has produced a story full of pathos, comedy and horror. If you like to be made to think and don’t mind having your emotions wrenched in at least two directions at once, read this book. But beware; you won’t be able to put it down once you start it, so take a week off work before you begin.
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English Passengers, published in paperback by Penguin Fiction was the Whitbread Book of the Year 2000.
