The Impossible Bomb: The Hidden History of British Scientists and the Race to Create an Atomic Weapon

The remarkable story of the forgotten British scientists who enabled the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb Atomic weaponry is widely understood as a story of American scientific achievement—but scientists working in Britain played a vital role in its development. Including Nobel Prize winners and Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, these scientists have long since been forgotten. But without their expertise, Robert Oppenheimer's research at Los Alamos would never have succeeded. Gareth Williams unearths the true story of the top-secret British atomic program, codenamed "Tube Alloys," established in 1940. These pioneering scientists struggled to convince sceptics in Britain and the USA that an atomic "super-bomb" capable of destroying entire cities was feasible, and could be built in time to influence the outcome of the Second World War. Williams shows how the British atomic program, despite the often disruptive involvement of political leaders such as Winston Churchill, was vital to the success of the Manhattan Project. The Impossible Bomb sheds new light on how humanity's deadliest weapons came to exist—and the massive destruction they wrought.

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Release date

Audiobook: 4 November 2025