After watching Oppenheimer for a second time, I bought this account of the Manhattan Project by the guy who ran it – General Leslie Groves. His dry factual style is offset by the quite astonishing scale, ingenuity, and impact the A-bomb programme had on the world.
The first half is largely the background to the setting up of the enormous industrial processes that were required to convert the raw ores into the weapons grade uranium and plutonium required. Some readers may find this a little involved as it gets into loads of the weeds of site selection, industrial process problems, and some background politics. But set against the complete scientific uncertainty, I thought there was still real drama. Many aspects of the work had to proceed at enormous scale before there was any evidence that they would be effective.
For example, the enrichment of the uranium at the heart of the entire endeavour was tackled in a few different ways as they had no idea which would be practical (if indeed any). Billions of dollars and huge volumes of precious resources were funneled into projects that in any other context would be madness.
The telling of the Trinity test is compelling, and the subsequent dawning realisation that followed of what they had unleashed.
Groves’ absolute single-mindedness flows through the whole book. His simple view was that if the atomic bomb was possible, the Allies must be first, as using it would end the war early and save lives. That the Nazis would be allowed to win the race was unthinkable. As it turns out, as Germany fell, the new scientific intelligence units promoted by Groves discovered that the Nazis were nowhere close to building a bomb. In fact their top nuclear scientists, including Heisenberg, were deeply surprised when the Hiroshima news broke.
The latter half of the book covers the work to select the targets, plan the mission, train the crews, assemble the bomb, and work with the White House on the date. Negotiations with the Japanese were underway and the timing was designed to give opportunity for them to surrender but apply maximum pressure otherwise.
This is an amazing historical narrative, clearly told from Groves’ perspective with all the bias that implies but for anybody with an interest in the subject it’s an incredible book.
