Churchill's Greatest Secret

By E. Keith Binnersley

"Churchill's Greatest Secret" is a fascinating account of Winston Churchill's hidden history of creating atomic bombs during World War II. Author E. Keith Binnersley shares a thoroughly researched exploration of how Churchill was able to gain access to enough fissionable uranium to make several atomic bombs before the USA's Manhattan Program began. He dives into the complexities of Churchill's involvement with atomic weapons and how he eventually gained control of the United States' atomic bomb.

Although this book explores the history of scientific concepts, it's not necessary to have a scientific background to follow the gist of the story. This book's original inspiration came from the author recent discovery that by November 1943, a chemical company in England, known then as ICI, had manufactured 2965 lbs. of a metal they code named "massive metal". Extensive searches by the author established that "massive metal" was metal enriched with the uranium isotope 235U, the active ingredient in the atomic bomb dropped by the USA on Hiroshima in August 1945.

An important historical discovery, this is enough material to create several atomic bombs. There is no mention of this in any previous narrative of World War II. This groundbreaking book explains how this came to be and its impact on the events of the war. Until now, all was lost to history, it truly was "Churchill's Greatest Secret". Connecting the dots he identifies the real reason the USA cut off oil supplies to Japan thereby precipitating the war. It was the fear that Japan would beat the USA in the race to the atomic bomb.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098369651

Book preview

Chapter (1)

About the Author

Like many of my generation, I remember the very moment that the United Kingdom declared war against Germany. In September of 1939, I was just over four years old. I remember playing in the street late morning as my mother called me into the house. While standing at the kitchen sink she said We have just declared war on Germany. She was crying and went on to say Your father and my two brothers will be called up and they could be killed. My father was a young police constable in the Staffordshire County Police Constabulary. He was married, and as a policeman with children, he was deferred from service in the armed forces. My mother in her distress did not think of that. My mother’s two brothers were called up, one into the army and the other into the Royal Air Force. Both survived. The one in the Army served in North Africa and Italy and his younger brother did maintenance work on the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters in the UK.

In early 1940, my father was assigned the duty of village constable in Stretton – a small farming village in Staffordshire about four miles North East of Burton on Trent. My family spent all the war years in that village. For me, life was idyllic. When not in school, I roamed the fields and played on farmer Webb’s farm with his youngest son, who was about my age. I do not remember ever being too cold, too hot or hungry. I was very fortunate.

Hitler had no interest in bombing our village. Not a single bomb was dropped in our village. Pirelli, the Italian tire manufacturer, had a factory about 1000 yards from the village Police Station where we lived. The factory, although close, was very well camouflaged. It was never bombed.

The war, for me, became an inherent part of my childhood. My brother and I followed the war’s progress by listening to the radio and keeping our ears open when adults talked about the war. It was a fascinating experience. There are many tales to tell.

Chapter (2)

Surprising Discovery at Kew

After finishing graduate school at the University of Leeds, in Yorkshire, the author, together with his wife and six-week old baby daughter, immigrated to the USA. The author was fortunate to be employed as a chemical engineer by a fortune 100 Chemical Company in Wilmington, Delaware.

Visits to family and friends in the UK were frequent. One year the author visited the National Archives in Kew, which is near Richmond (west of London) to investigate the UK’s atomic bomb program carried out in World War II.

Before continuing, a slight diversion from the main narrative is told here, in hopes of giving the readers useful information about visiting London.

Flight Lieutenant Michael Ashley, a friend of the author, reserved a room for the author in the RAF Officer’s Club, which is in Piccadilly, London. If you are, or have been, an officer in the US Air Force you too can stay at this wonderful location. It is centrally located and when you step out of the front door you face Green Park, to your right about 400 yards away is Buckingham Palace, and on your left 200 yards is Green Park underground station.

The food, service, and accommodations are outstanding. It is like staying in a five- star hotel while paying two-star hotel prices.

Web site: www. rafclub.org.uk. Tel: [phone]. Address: 128, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J7BY UK

In the morning, after a very pleasant evening in the Club, the author took the underground to Kew. The National Archives are located in a purpose built modern building. Figure (1) shows the approach to the building.

The archives contain records going back to the year 800. They take up 85 kilometers of shelf space! The brochure states that any file can be retrieved in 40 minutes. Although, it usually it takes less than 20 minutes.

Tube Alloys was the innocuous name for the UK atomic bomb program. Entering Tube Alloys into the search engine produced over 3500 hits as shown in Fig. (2).

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Fig. (1) National Archives at Kew

After reviewing the files, it became clear that the first 1,000 hits or so covered the British atomic energy project during the war. The remainder covered the development, after the war of the plutonium bomb and a hydrogen