Introduction to this collection

This collection explores the roles of science and technology during the First and Second World Wars. From impenetrable tanks, to code-breaking computers, to the deadliest bomb ever used, many of the key players were scientists. These were highly driven experts whose early ambitions likely had little to do with military strategy or weaponry, but whose skills and knowledge were used to combat their nation’s enemies.

Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key

When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.

Contents

Source 1 – “They Send Us in Front with a Fuse An’ a Mine”, 1915 (0:55)

Source 2 – Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War, 1915 (5:05)

Source 3 – “To the Rescue in a Land Cruiser”, 1916 (11:50)

Source 4 – The British Navy at War, 1917 (16:25)

Source 5 – The Service of the Chemist, 1918 (17:20)

Source 6 – Turing’s Treatise on the Enigma, c. 1940 (22:00)

Source 7 – Jet Propelled Planes, 1944 (25:23)

Source 8 – Photographs of code talkers and code breakers, 1943–1945 (29:15)

Source 9 – Letter from the Scientific Panel of the Interim Committee, 1945 (32:30)

Source 10 – Response to the atomic bomb from the journal Nature, 1945 (36:50)

Source 1 – “They Send Us in Front with a Fuse An’ a Mine”, 1915 (0:55)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

GAINING ABOUT ONE FOOT OF GROUND PER HOUR: SAPPING TOWARDS THE ENEMY’S LINES AND BLOWING UP A SECTION OF HIS TRENCHES. TO PREPARE FOR AN INFANTRY ADVANCE.

“These very interesting illustrations of the methods used by the Royal Engineers in sapping [trench digging] and mining operations should be studied in conjunction with Colonel F. N. Maude’s article … he writes also as follows: ‘When, as in the present campaign, fire-trenches get very near to one another, the problem arises how to make good a further advance without unnecessary loss of life. This is where the “sapper” comes in. When a spot has been chosen in the trench for the intended advance, under cover of darkness, men rapidly shovel the earth of the parapet away, and the sapper starts digging from the face of the trench a narrow cut only 1 ft. 6 in. wide, and anything up to 6 ft. deep, leading straight for the enemy. After a few hours (five or six), he has cut through the width of the parapet and now turns sharp to the right (or left), and continues to dig his trench for about 20 ft. or so, parallel to the original trench and at right-angles to his first direction. Then he turns another right-angle towards the enemy and advances another 20 ft., when he again turns to his left (or right), and so on. As soon as there is room for a second “man to” work without sticking his pick into his leader in the dark—an accident that is not infrequent—a second man starts digging a similar 8-inch stretch, following the same line as the first man, and after him comes a third; so between the three we get a 4 ft. 6 in. trench, which can be widened out to any required degree. The earth from the excavations is thrown always to the side from which the enemy’s fire comes, so in course of time a series of mounds, called “traverses,” are formed on the tongues of earth [see image labled B], etc., and other parapets arise on the sides from which the enemy’s fire can endanger the men at work. If the enemy is very much live, the men work down to a full 6 ft. depth. If and when it slackens, the leader only goes down half the depth, working in a kneeling position—this is called a “kneeling sap” as soon as the enemy freshens up, the leader goes down to the full depth again. It is a very slow process, but it is very sure, and comparatively safe.’”

Citation

Notes or additional materials

To access a larger image, see this scan at the British National Archives: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/medicine-on-the-western-front-part-two/mining-under-the-enemy/

Source 2 – Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War, 1915 (5:05)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

Ten years ago the dropping of bombs from balloons was still considered an illegitimate form of warfare, involving danger to non-combatants, and was under the ban of the Geneva Convention.¹ At the Hague Peace Conference² the Germans refused to abstain from bomb-dropping, and other nations followed suit. …

…

ACCURACY IN DROPPING BOMBS

The Zeppelins have elaborate bomb-dropping apparatus with which it should be theoretically possible to drop a bomb with great accuracy, but on the occasion when it was tried at Antwerp, the Germans met with no great success. The principle of the bomb dropping device is as follows: A sort of camera, pointed vertically downwards, is used, and an observer notes the speed with which an object on the ground passes across the field, and the direction in which it appears to move. He then reads the height of the airship from the barometer, which gives the time taken by the bomb to fall, say fifteen seconds for 3,500 feet. He has now to calculate, from the data given by the camera- observation, the allowance to be made for speed and leeway for fifteen seconds of fall, and to point his sighting- tube accordingly. The air-ship is steered to windward of the target, and at the moment when the target (say, the second funnel of a dreadnaught) appears on the cross wires, the nine-hundred-pound bomb is dropped, and the ship goes to the bottom.

…

RAPID FIRING

The gun-recoil carriage, as the new invention was called, increases the rate of fire, since there is no delay in running up. The French were quick to develop this new feature, and set to work to make the rate of fire as high as possible. Up till then the ammunition fired from a field-gun had consisted of a shell, a bag of powder, and a friction- tube introduced through the vent to fire the charge. This was called a round of ammunition, and its complexity was increased by the fuse, which was carried separately and screwed into the shell when the round was prepared for loading, and afterwards set with a key to burst the shell at the required distance. The French combined the whole of these separate parts into one, so that a round of “fixed” ammunition, as now used, looks exactly like an enlarged rifle cartridge. (See Fig. 2.)

Further, they did away with the cumbrous process of setting the fuse by hand, and introduced a machine which sets fuses as fast as the shell can be put into it. One of these machines is shown in Fig. 4. … The machine is set to the range ordered by the battery commander, the shell is dropped into it, and a turn of the handle sets the fuse.

…

The result of all these improvements is that the best quick-firing guns (on which the French gun is still reckoned) are capable of firing twenty-five rounds a minute.

Citation

1 The Geneva Conventions are a set of treaties and protocols that are important international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war.
2 International peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands that took place from 1899 to 1907.

Source 3 – “To the Rescue in a Land Cruiser”, 1916 (11:50)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

[excerpts from main body of article] Centuries ago, when the Greeks besieged the ancient city of Troy, they resorted to the far-famed ruse of the wooden horse as a means of gaining entrance to the stubborn city. … It is not a horse but the horse’s modern substitute which is now being used. …

The latest engine of death to appear is appalling by its uncanny invincibleness. … The British have put in the field the new tank tractors, so-called, and, as is the case with most of the new formidable machines, have enjoyed a large measure of success from its use.

…

… [T]he tractor, originally designed to meet some of the difficult problems of modern farming, [has] been turned into veritable land battleships by the ingenious English War Department heads, and have shown high effectiveness in the recent Somme drive.³

From quiet Peoria, Ill., about 1000 tractors were sent to the British Government—for what purpose the manufacturer did not ask nor care to know. …

The tractors, of the “caterpillar” type, have been converted into armored land cruisers. They hurdle trenches, crawl over shell craters, and walk through forest unsalted by intense gun fire. With them the British have charged the trenches of the Germans and obtained signal advantages of positions, otherwise unattainable.

These land cruisers’ chief feature lies in their caterpillar tread. The tractors run on five small-sized railroad wheels. But these wheels never touch the ground. Instead, they run on infinitely jointed rails which are [enclosed] in a wide, corrugated band. The band goes around the wheels, and, on account of its width and lateral strength, forms a road upon which the tractor travels. The bands do not stick in mud and are not liable to find any obstacle to which they cannot adjust themselves and carry the tractor over.

… [T]he tractors can be stopped only by a direct hit from shells of considerable caliber. … Big gun fire directed upon the tractors would imperil the lives of the soldiers whom it was attacking. Machine gun fire is, of course, useless against the ponderous caterpillars which crawl with an uncanny, irresistible determination into the trenches and routs the occupants. …

Citation

3 Somme drive: Also called the Somme offensive. Refers to military actions in Somme, France. The British and the French fought the Germans in this First World War battle from July to November of 1916. It took place on both sides of the river Somme, with more than three million men in the battle. With a million wounded or killed, it was one of history’s deadliest battles.

Source 4 – The British Navy at War, 1917 (16:25)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

Citation

Source 5 – The Service of the Chemist, 1918 (17:20)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

Gas in Warfare

… In the progress of civilization an attempt has been made to reduce the horrors of war and develop rules which would at least give opponents a fair chance for their lives and an opportunity to fight in manly fashion. Because gas does not do this it was agreed at the first Hague convention that it should not be used, but with the German reversion to the brutal characteristics of savage ancestors they had no hesitancy in introducing gas.

Prior to the attack at Ypres, on April 22, 1915, gas had not been used since the fourteenth century. …

Besides killing men gas serves greatly to reduce the efficiency of an army by causing it to work in gas masks, tends to create confusion in ranks and transport, and makes ground untenable under certain conditions. Many gases have been used and developments make it possible to apply all organic chemistry to this problem. …

Chlorine Gas

The first gas used was chlorine and its greatest usefulness besides toxicity was in the complete surprise of the attack. … Pure chlorine reacts very quickly with a number of substances and those who had the presence of mind to bury their faces in earth or even to wrap their faces in their mufflers escaped. … That attack was a cloud of gas obtained by opening steel cylinders holding 40 lbs. of liquid gas placed one to a yard and allowing the contents to flow through lead pipes. The wind did the rest. The difficulty of attacking with any gas lies in the necessity of coordinating favorable meteorological conditions, gas concentration, surprise tactics and large supplies. The wind must not be more than twelve miles per hour and in the right direction, without upward currents. The land should slope toward the enemy or at least be level. Gas must be liberated rapidly enough to give as high a concentration as possible and not less than 1 part in 10,000. This means transporting 100 tons of material for each mile of front to be attacked and the effort is wasted should the wind suddenly change or the enemy be amply protected with efficient masks. …

Mustard Gas

Dichloro-diethylsulfide is the correct name for mustard gas so called probably because of its odor which, however, is said to be more like garlic. … Its effect upon the eyes is sometimes slow in manifesting itself but within a few hours blistering occurs while the membranes of the nostrils and throat are severely affected. The gas volatizes slowly and the vapor has the power to penetrate cloth and even leather. …

In order to provide protection it is necessary to know what the gas is and its reactions with chemicals which may be used in masks. … [I]t then becomes the chemists [sic] task to identify the gas in the laboratory and devise ways to neutralize it.

…

… [T]he chemist has done wonders in reducing the numbers of casualties and continues this good work.

Citation

Source 6 – Turing’s Treatise on the Enigma, c. 1940 (22:00)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

I. A description of the machine.

We begin by describing the “unsteckered enigma”.⁴ The machine consists of a box with 26 keys labelled with the letters of the alphabet and 26 bulbs which shine through stencils on which letters are marked. It also contains wheels. … When a key is depressed the wheels are made to move in a certain way and a current flows through the wheels to one of the bulbs. The letter which appears over the bulb is the result of enciphering the letter on the depressed key with the wheels in the position they have when the bulb lights.

…

… The most important of the phenomena is this. Suppose we are given the alphabets at the positions REA FKA WMA and also at REB FKB WMB then there is a substitution which will transform the alphabet REA into REB, FKA into FKB etc. The substitution is that which transforms letters of the column of the rod square corresponding to position A into the letters on the same rod in column B. When we are given complete alphabets we can box REA with FKA and REB with FKB, and the substitution will have to be one which transforms the first box into the second.

Citation

4 Turing is referring to what would later be called “The Enigma Machine”, a device that could send encoded messages and was used by Nazi Germany in the Second World War. The word unsteckered is unique to this device, and refers to the way the letters were arranged on a plugboard. One of Turing’s triumphs was breaking the codes of the Enigma machine.

Source 7 – Jet Propelled Planes, 1944 (25:23)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

Nazi use of these fighter craft may be the beginning of a new chapter in aerial warfare. Allies are also using jet propelled planes.

The recent announcement by the War Department of the use of jet propelled fighter planes by the Nazi Luftwaffe may be the beginning of a completely new chapter in aerial warfare. If the new Nazi fighter proves valuable in combat, the day of jet propelled military planes is here. On the other hand, if they wash out it may be some time before these planes … are used in air warfare successfully. We already know that the German jet propelled planes have poor maneuverability, which counteracts the effectiveness gained by their speed.

Although developments in jet propulsion in the United States and Great Britain have been shrouded in wartime secrecy, it is an established fact that both countries have perfected jet propulsion planes. Allied j.p. planes have already been employed in this war in England against the flying bomb …

Efforts to achieve supersonic speeds in the air have been intensified in this country since the early days of the war when our military intelligence learned of the plans of the Germans to use jet and rocket propulsion for various weapons.

…

The present jet propulsion engine, which eliminates the necessity for propellers, was originally of British design. It was conceived by Flight Commander Frank Whittle, and built by the British Thomson-Houston Company, LTd., an associate of the General Electric Company. The engine was sent to this country for further development, and Mr. Whittle spent three months here working with American scientists to produce a jet power plant that is now being manufactured by General Electric in the United States for use in Allied j.p. planes.

The basic principle which underlies jet propulsion has been known since the days of Galileo and Isaac Newton. The present day jet power plant is a successful and ingenious application of one of Newton’s laws of motion—the law which says that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Citation

Source 8 – Photographs of code talkers and code breakers, 1943–1945 (29:15)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

Image 1

Figure 1 1945.

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Notes or additional materials

For further reading, see: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/wwii-women-cracking-code and

Mundy, Liza. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. New York: Hachette Books, 2017.

Simon Singh, et al. Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Williams, Jeannette and Yolande Dickerson. The Invisible Cryptologists: African-Americans, World War II to 1956. Military Bookshop, 2011.

Source 9 – Letter from the Scientific Panel of the Interim Committee, 1945 (32:30)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

To the Secretary of War August 17, 1945

Dear Mr. Secretary:

The Interim Committee has asked us to report in some detail on the scope and program of future work in the field of atomic energy. One important phase of this work is the development of weapons; and since this is the problem which has dominated our war time activities, it is natural that in this field our ideas should be most definite and clear … In examining these questions we have, however, come on certain quite general conclusions, whose implications for national policy would seem to be both more immediate and more profound than those of the detailed technical recommendations to be submitted. We, therefore, think it appropriate to present them to you at this time.

1. We are convinced that weapons quantitatively and qualitatively far more effective than now available will result from further work on these problems. This conviction is motivated not alone by analogy with past developments, but by specific projects to improve and multiply the existing weapons, and by the quite favorable technical prospects of the realization of the super bomb.
2. We have been unable to devise or propose effective military counter-measures for atomic weapons. Although we realize that future work may reveal possibilities at present obscure to us, it is our firm opinion that no military countermeasures will be found which will be adequately effective in preventing the delivery of atomic weapons. The detailed technical report in preparation will document these conclusions, but hardly alter them.
3. We are not only unable to outline a program that would assure to this nation for the next decades hegemony in the field of atomic weapons; we are equally unable to insure that such hegemony, if achieved, could protect us from the most terrible destruction.
4. The development, in the years to come, of more effective atomic weapons, would appear to be a most natural element in any national policy of maintaining our military forces at great strength; nevertheless we have grave doubts that this further development can contribute essentially or permanently to the prevention of war. We believe that the safety of this nation—as opposed to its ability to inflict damage on an enemy power—cannot lie wholly or even primarily in its scientific or technical prowess. It can be based only on making future wars impossible. It is our unanimous and urgent recommendation to you that, despite the present incomplete exploitation of technical possibilities in this field, all steps be taken, all necessary international arrangements be made, to this one end.

…

Very sincerely,

J. R. Oppenheimer

For the Panel

Citation

Source 10 – Response to the atomic bomb from the journal Nature, 1945 (36:50)

Guiding question

How did new innovations impact society during and after the era of global conflict?

Excerpt

August 18 THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

[Since nuclear weapons were used against Japan,] [w]ar has now become so terrible, so swift in its march and so indiscriminate in its cutting off of old and young alike, that the greater nations of the world must recoil with horror from the possibility of another major war, lest they court annihilation of whole populations. …

[W]e are more concerned for the moment with the significance of the release of atomic energy in manageable fashion. This … is a landmark in the history of mankind—it marks the beginning of a new era, an era in which the quality of the work of men of science of the world will not only be of immense importance, but will also be acknowledged as such. It is not suggested that men of science should become, as it were, a ruling caste, to whom all others would defer; they themselves would be the first to dispute any such intention, for their training does not of necessity develop the qualities needed for administration. Rather we would anticipate that they will be expected to take a share in the tasks of government, as they have done during the War, at the direct request of the ruling authority and with a conspicuous success which has been generally acknowledged and acclaimed. Gone, it is hoped, are the days when men of science were regarded as useful standbys, to be called in when things go wrong and speedily relegated to the background after use has been made of their knowledge. But scientific workers must also play their part; they must not allow their preoccupation with their particular interests to make them oblivious to their responsibilities as citizens of a world which in becoming increasingly dependent on their efforts, and they must maintain their high standard of integrity.

…

… We must now revert to the broader question of the grand strategy of scientific and technical development. The controlled release of atomic energy applied in the development of the atomic bomb emphasizes once more the importance of scientific research, and its significance for the progress of knowledge and for the material welfare of mankind. …

… The possibilities for good or evil are of such magnitude that individuals cannot fairly be entrusted with their exploration; similarly, none but Governments are likely to be able to provide the continuous expenditure necessary for development. … President Truman’s request to Congress for provision for such research, and the British Government’s announcement of its desire for collaboration, are therefore welcome moves; the Canadian Government is also to push on with investigation.

Citation