The Tizard Mission, officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission, was a delegation from the United Kingdom that visited the United States during World War II to share secret research and development (R&D) work that had military applications. It received its popular name from the programme's instigator, Henry Tizard, a British scientist and chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, which had orchestrated the development of radar. The mission travelled to the U.S. in September 1940 during the Battle of Britain. They conveyed a number of British technical and scientific secrets with the objective of securing U.S. assistance in sustaining the war effort and obtaining the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of these technologies, which Britain itself could not fully use, due to the immediate demands of other war-related production. Referring to one such British secret, a device known as a resonant cavity magnetron, American historian James Phinney Baxter III later wrote, "When the members of the Tizard Mission brought one to America in 1940, they carried the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores." The mission also opened up channels of communication for jet engine and atomic bomb development, leading to the British contribution to the Manhattan Project, and catalyzed Allied technological cooperation during World War II. The Tizard mission is seen as one of the key events that forged the wartime Anglo-American alliance. After the war, it became the foundation for future cooperation in scientific research at institutions within and across the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
Preparation and objectives Britain made significant scientific advances in military technology, weapons and their components before World War II began in September 1939. After the Fall of France in June 1940, which saw Germany overrun most of the countries of Western Europe, Germany's planned invasion of the United Kingdom, Operation Sea Lion, was preceded by its effort to establish air superiority in the Battle of Britain. Henry Tizard was a British scientist and chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, which had orchestrated the development of radar before the war. He sought to initiate cooperation with the United States to further the research, development and production of radar and other technologies. The U.S. was neutral and, in many quarters, unwilling to become involved in the war, but had greater resources for development and production, which Britain sought to use. The information provided by the British delegation was subject to carefully vetted security procedures, and contained some of the greatest scientific advances made at that time. The technology Britain possessed included the greatly-improved cavity magnetron, the design for the proximity VT fuse, details of Frank Whittle's jet engine and the Frisch–Peierls memorandum and MAUD Report describing the feasibility of an atomic bomb. Though these may be considered the most significant, many other technologies had also been developed, including designs for rockets, superchargers, gyroscopic gunsights, submarine detection devices, self-sealing fuel tanks and plastic explosives. Congress had many proponents of neutrality for the USA and so there were further barriers to co-operation. Tizard decided the most productive approach would be simply to give away the information and use America's productive capacity. Neither Winston Churchill nor the radar pioneer, Robert Watson-Watt, were initially in agreement with these tactics for the mission. Nevertheless, Tizard first arranged for Archibald Hill, another scientific member of the committee, to go to Washington to explore the possibilities. Hill's report to Tizard was optimistic.
Moving the secrets After Churchill's approval of the project, the team began gathering all technical secrets which had potential military uses. At the end of August, Tizard went to the U.S. by air to make preliminary arrangements. The rest of the mission would follow by ship. They were:
Brigadier F.C. Wallace MC (British Army) Captain H.W. Faulkner (Royal Navy) Group Captain F.L. Pearce (Royal Air Force) Professor John Cockcroft (Army Research) – nuclear physicist and Assistant Director of Scientific Research at the Ministry of Supply Edward George Bowen (radar) Arthur Edgar Woodward-Nutt, an Air Ministry official (secretary) All the documents were gathered in a small trunk: a lockable metal deed box, used for holding important valuable documents such as property deeds. Bowen was allowed to take 'Magnetron Number 12' with him. After spending the night under Bowen's hotel bed, the case was strapped to the roof of a taxi to the station. An over-eager railway porter whisked it from Bowen at Euston Station to take it to the train to Liverpool and Bowen almost lost sight of it. Inconsistently, in Liverpool, the magnetron was given a full Army escort. The team arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 6 September on board the CPR Liner Duchess of Richmond (later known as the RMS Empress of Canada), and went on to Washington, D.C., a few days later. The team of six assembled in Washington on 12 September 1940.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
