THE MAN WHO DENIED THE NAZIS THE ATOMIC BOMB

German scientists knew enough about fission to develop the bomb by 1939. But they were unable to build one because a resourceful Belgian mining engineer denied them the raw materials, before providing them to the Allies

- By Danny Connolley

N the winter of 1936, the British secret service uncovered an attempt on the part of Germany to discover Britain’s most deadly secret — the basic theory behind the construction of atomic weapons.

Work had been progressing at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where, in 1932, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton had split the atom.

At the time, no other country possessed the knowledge or expertise to build an atomic bomb. Furthermore, the British had no intention of building one. Right up until the beginning of the Second World War, the research programme was limited to theory rather than practice.

Nevertheless, some figures advising the government, including Sir Henry Tizard, the nation’s foremost defence scientist, had good reason to believe that, if Germany developed atomic weapons, Hitler would have no qualms about using them to intimidate other European powers, or to wage a successful war. It was essential to stop Hitler from doing so at all costs.

An attempt was made to deny Germany supplies of pitchblende — the ore from which uranium is extracted. Without uranium, no atomic bombs could be produced. The only significant source available to Germany, before the war, was a mine at Shinkolobwe, in Katanga, the southernmost province of the Belgian Congo. It was owned by Union Minière, a Belgian corporation, then under the presidency of Edgar Sengier, a noted Anglophile with strong anti-Nazi views.

Accordingly, in the spring of 1938, Tizard approached Sengier in what the latter later referred to as “conditions of the utmost secrecy and urgency”.

Tizard revealed that German scientists were working on atomic fission and might soon be able to produce a devastating new type of bomb. Under no circumstances should Germany be allowed to gain possession of any uranium.

Sengier moved swiftly. He ordered his mine to be closed and flooded. He also collected and secured all the company’s remaining stockpiles of uranium.