LITMIR.BIZ

      A. V. Hill, as he was generally known, was a physiologist and one of the founders of biophysics and of operational research. A Cambridge graduate, he served in the Army in the First World War undertaking ballistics research; his peacetime work was on muscles, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1922. He was a professor at University College London from 1923 to 1951. In 1935 he worked with Patrick Blackett and Henry Tizard on the committee that gave birth to radar. In 1933, he was a founder member and Vice-President of the Academic Assistance Council (later the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning) which, in particular, assisted refugee Jewish scientists to re-establish themselves in the British academic establishment.

      With Blackett he resigned from Tizard’s Aerial Defence Committee in 1935 because of Lindemann’s manoeuvrings and later was highly critical of his influence on Churchill. Prior to the 1940 Tizard Mission to the USA, Hill went to Washington to sound out his American contacts on their likely reaction to such an initiative; his positive report was a factor in persuading the British Government to proceed with the mission. He knew many leading scientists well, had many influential contacts and, inter alia, recommended Blackett’s appointment to Anti-Aircraft Command. He served as an independent MP for Cambridge University in 1940–45. He took part in many scientific missions to the US. He was appointed OBE in 1918 and also elected FRS; he became a CH in 1946.

      American military science was the responsibility of the National Defense Research Committee, whose establishment was authorised by President Roosevelt after reading a paper by Vannevar Bush, the head of the Carnegie Institution. Bionote in Chapter 10.

      As the USA and UK had a similar approach regarding the scientist-military relationship there was close Anglo-American technical collaboration throughout the war, with nationals from both countries working alongside each other. Often devices developed in the UK were wholly manufactured in the USA; for many weapons and machines this became Britain’s arsenal, with American productive technology manufacturing most of the ships, tanks, aircraft, and armaments that eventually overwhelmed the Axis powers (see Chapter 6).

      The fact that Anglo-American technologists had virtually a free hand to develop novel equipment, coupled with the immense productive capacity of the USA, meant that Anglo-American leaders were blessed with equipment vastly superior to that of their enemies.

      After a mere 21 years of uneasy peace, the world was at war again – a war in which technology would play a crucial role in securing victory for Britain and her allies. Meanwhile in a mansion in Buckinghamshire, many brains were already hard at work trying to decipher the enemy’s messages…

      BLETCHLEY PARK TIMELINE

      The Enigma Encrypting Machine

      1920s German engineer Arthur Scherbius invents the Enigma electro-mechanical encrypting machine. Used commercially and also by several governments, including Germany, to protect military and diplomatic communications.

      1932 Polish mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski partly breaks the German encryption system. French spy working in Germany acquires further information which the French passed to the Poles who are then able to read German messages and build their own replica machines.

      1938 Germans develop a more complex machine which the Poles are unable to read.

      1939 In July the Poles inform French and British cryptologists of their work and, after the outbreak of war, they and their equipment are evacuated to France. They also give one of their replica machines to British cryptologists.

      1940 Following the fall of France, the Poles move first to Vichy, France, and then to Britain in November 1942, where they collaborate with British cryptologists.

      British Decrypting Work

      1938 Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) acquires Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.

      1939 Recruitment of academics, mathematicians etc. by GC&CS. Separate huts established to tackle the different systems used by each of the German armed forces.

      1940 HMS Griffin captures German trawler. Some naval codes temporarily broken.

      1941 The Germans start using the more sophisticated Lorenz cypher machines. The British name deciphered Lorenz messages Tunny.

      Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman develop a Bombe to speed up decoding procedures.

      In May, a RN ship obtains Enigma machine and code books from a sinking U-boat.

      In December Germany declares war on USA and American cryptologists start working with their British counterparts at Bletchley Park.

      1942–43 Post Office engineer Thomas Flowers builds Colossus which implements Turing/Welchman proposals and enables Lorenz signals to be read more speedily.

      1945 Government orders destruction of all machines.