Impossible Bomb

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The remarkable story of the forgotten British scientists who enabled the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb

Atomic weaponry is widely understood as a story of American scientific achievement-but scientists working in Britain played a vital role in its development. Including Nobel Prize winners and Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, these scientists have long since been forgotten. But without their expertise, Robert Oppenheimer's research at Los Alamos would never have succeeded.

Gareth Williams unearths the true story of the top-secret British atomic programme, codenamed "Tube Alloys," established in 1940. These pioneering scientists struggled to convince sceptics in Britain and the USA that an atomic "super-bomb" capable of destroying entire cities was feasible, and could be built in time to influence the outcome of the Second World War. Williams shows how the British atomic programme, despite the often disruptive involvement of political leaders such as Winston Churchill, was vital to the success of the Manhattan Project.

The Impossible Bomb sheds new light on how humanity's deadliest weapons came to exist-and the massive destruction they wrought.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Hardback
ISBN13: 9780300284881
Published: July 2025

Number of pages: 480
Width: 152 mm
Height: 235 mm
Depth: not specified

Publisher: Yale University Press