11-Oct-39: British Increase Mustard Gas Production; Finns Continue Military Preparations; Albert Einstein’s Letter Regarding Nuclear Bombs Reaches Roosevelt
Today is 11-Oct-1939, the 41st day of World War II; there are 2,152 days left in the conflict.
In London, the British War Office orders an increase in the weekly production of mustard gas from 310 to 1,200 tons. British Secretary of War Leslie Hore-Belisha announces that the country now has a total of 158,000 troops on the ground in France.
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax meet with Polish government-in-exile Foreign Minister August Zaleski. And the British and Soviet governments ink a trade agreement which provides for the exchange of Soviet timber for rubber and Cornish tin.
A mistaken German radio report is aired stating that the British government has fallen and that an armistice has been reached; for awhile, Germans joyfully celebrate until the news is corrected.
Further north, the Finns continue their preparations for Soviet military aggression by mounting machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery in some of the largest Finnish cities.
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt notes the Finnish preparations, which have been going on all week, and sends a personal appeal to Soviet President Mikhail Kalinin urging the Soviets to “make no demands on Finland which are inconsistent with the maintenance and development of amicable and peaceful relations between the two countries, and the independence of each.”
Behind the scenes in the White House, the president receives a remarkable an historic letter from scientist Albert Einstein.
The Germans had successfully split the uranium atom the previous December; this plus continued German aggression led some physicists (including Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner) to fear that the Germans might be working on an atomic bomb. However, Szilard and Wigner had no influence or contacts with anyone in the American government. In July 1939, they found someone who did: Albert Einstein. Szilard will claim that Einstein said the possibility of a chain reaction “never occurred” to him, but he grasped the idea very quickly.
A month later, after further consolations, Szilard wrote a letter to President Roosevelt on behalf of Einstein, with Einstein’s signature attached. The letter finally reaches Roosevelt on 11-Oct, delivered by Roosevelt’s friend Alexander Sachs. Einstein would later acknowledge his full responsibility for the consequences of the letter and call it “the greatest mistake” of his life.
The letter to the president states:
“Sir:
“Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations:
“In the course of the last four months it has been made probable through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America — that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium,by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.
“This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable — though much less certain — that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
“The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia. while the most important source of uranium is Belgian Congo.
“In view of the situation you may think it desirable to have more permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group of physicists working on chain reactions in America. One possible way of achieving this might be for you to entrust with this task a person who has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an inofficial capacity. His task might comprise the following:
“a) to approach Government Departments, keep them informed of the further development, and put forward recommendations for Government action, giving particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uranium ore for the United States;
“b) to speed up the experimental work,which is at present being carried on within the limits of the budgets of University laboratories, by providing funds, if such funds be required, through his contacts with private persons who are willing to make contributions for this cause, and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories which have the necessary equipment.
“I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated.
“Yours very truly,
“(Albert Einstein)”
After reading the letter, the president will go on to form the Briggs Committee, which will begin the study of uranium chain reactions. The letter itself may be considered the start of a chain reaction of its own, which will culminate in the twin nuclear annihilations of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost six years later, with further consequences for mankind far into the future.