Just over a year before the United States dropped two atomic bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a curiously prescient article appeared in a British Army service newspaper published in Italy. The article, ‘Einstein Behind Deadliest Weapon?’ appeared on page 3 of The Crusader, on Sunday 20th August 1944, written by Arthur Webb. At the time, Operation Olive and the battle for the Gothic Line was in full swing in Italy and the Falaise Pocket was being squeezed in France.
Image: Article from The Crusader service newspaper, 20 August 1944, No. 116, Vol. 11, National Army Museum.
The article reads as follows:
A world-famous refugee from Nazi Germany, Albert Einstein, may be one of the brains trust that has invented the Allies' newest and deadliest secret weapon. The weapon has just been used in the Far East.
It is said to obliterate all life within a radius of 100 feet and to be the most terrifying destructive agency ever used in warfare. What it is and how it works is still a vital secret. Not the slightest hint has yet been given.
But it is recalled that just a year ago it was announced that America's Number One refugee, Albert Einstein had joined the United States Navy. It was then stated that he was a staff member extraordinary of the Ordnance Bureau, and would "seek to determine what laws govern the more obscure waves of detonation, why certain explosives have marked directional effect and other technical theories completed outside the ken of the average layman." Since then there has been a complete silence.
Escaping from Hitler's Germany in 1933, Einstein became an American citizen in 1940. But there is still a price on his head. Einstein, who is today urging intellectuals to organise "to fight for the establishment of a super-political force as a protection against future wars of aggression," is still a teetotaller and smokes only three pipes of tobacco a day.
His formula for success in life is A equals X plus Y plus Z. He explains that X equals work, Y equals play, and Z is just keeping your mouth shut. And he certainly keeps his mouth shut. Requests for interviews are seldom granted. Once he refused 250 pounds a minute for a radio talk. So it is useless to ask him about his part in the newest secret weapon - he is his own censor on such matters.
After closer inspection, Mr Webb’s journalism would definitely qualify as ‘click-bait’ in today’s parlance! No details, no evidence, and pure speculation. I thought the snippets about Einstein’s healthy regime of “only three pipes of tobacco a day” and his formula for life to keep shtum were interesting, but the rest seems to be fluff. True, The Crusader was the tabloid equivalent of the Eighth Army News, and not known as the best source of news based on the collection I’ve read in the National Army Museum. But why was the article published at all, and how did it pass the censor?
Image: Albert Einstein near a blackboard with special relativity formulae, before 1940 - possibly looking worried that he might be asked to build the deadliest weapon.
There were all sorts of rumours circulating in the British press about new, innovative weapons to end the war quickly during 1944-45. For example, the Brisbane Courier Mail from 27 February 1945 carried a British syndicated article stating “‘Death-Rays’ from New Bomb”.[1] It suggested that the new German ‘V-bombs’ would release high-frequency sound rays which would decompose living tissue! The British troops serving in Italy would not have been interested in science fiction, though. German V-1s were falling on London, and the idea that the Allies had their own wonder weapons was comforting. But the timing of the Einstein article is better understood by looking at troop morale during this period.
Secret weapons fed into the growing optimism following the progress being made by the Allies in Normandy. In the Morale Committee Report for The Army Overseas June – August 1944, it was noted that:
"confidence mounting to enthusiasm aroused by the success of the United Nations, particularly in Europe, and concern about the maintenance of morale during the 'transition' period, when it arrives."
People were starting to focus on what would happen after the war with Germany had been won. For the troops in Italy though, two other concerns were top of mind: firstly, the length of time they had spent serving abroad and secondly, the fear of being redeployed to the Far East once Germany was dealt with. Major Sparrow, the Secretary of the War Office Morale Committee wrote in 1944:
"Overshadowing all other topics in the minds of overseas troops - at any rate those who have been abroad for any length of time and are not actually engaged in operations - is the question of length of service overseas."
“When do we get home?” was the first question Sparrow was asked when he spoke to the troops in Italy. In letters home, men who had fought in the North African campaign and now the Italian campaign wrote, “it would be most unfair to expect them to serve in the Far East as well.” The general feeling of men having done their bit pervaded many of the censorship reports during 1944. And it wasn’t just the Other Ranks who were affected, the Army Council War Office Committee on Morale noted that commanders only mentioned the Far East in unfavourable terms in letters home during mid-1944.
Image: In this picture the Prime Minister is seen watching a demonstration of one of our secret weapons at an experimental establishment that he visited recently. Image: IWM (H 10787)
Paranoia had reached levels so high by February 1945 that the AFHQ Morale Report noted rumours were circulating in Italy that men suffering from VD would be sent to Burma as punishment.[2] This rumour was not actively quashed by the authorities, who were struggling to cope with this self-inflicted epidemic; “The present high rate of venereal disease amongst British troops constitutes a menace to the fighting efficiency of the Army.”[3] But it shows how worried men were about missing their turn to go home.
Image: Your RELEASE can be delayed with V.D! by Stacey Hopper, IWM (Art.IWM PST 6166)
The censor may have allowed such articles as ‘Einstein Behind Deadliest Weapon?’ to be published during August 1944 to provide the troops in Italy with a bit of hope. The fact that it was completely spurious was of no consequence.
With hindsight, though, it is rather sobering to think that the ‘deadliest weapon’ that could be imagined in 1944 was something that could ‘obliterate life within a 100 feet’. In less than a year, the blast radius of ‘Fat Man’ dropped on Nagasaki was closer to a mile, with the damage extending much further, not to mention the long-term effects of radiation. Of course, this would have just been completely unbelievable and science fiction if someone had written about that in 1944!
[2] ‘WO 204/6701: A.F.H.Q. Morale Committee Meetings and Reports, 1943 Dec. - 1945 Mar’, TNA [The National Archives], n.d., WO 204/6701: A.F.H.Q. Morale Committee meetings and reports, 1943 Dec. - 1945 Mar.
[3] ‘WO 204-6726 Venereal Disease - Measures for Control’, TNA [The National Archives], n.d., WO 204-6726 Venereal disease - measures for control.