DBWI: An American Atomic Bomb and no Resurrected British Empire

[RiverDelta]

As we all know (well, if you're an atomic history enthusiast like I am), you're likely familiar with the results of Tube Alloys, the British atomic bomb project which benefitted strongly from assistance from the Western Allies, most notably the Americans. American capital, resources, manpower, and scientists all merged with Canadian resources and manpower along with the rest of the great minds of the free world to make the single greatest mistake in all of human history.

Or, well, it's at least debatable.

They gave Britain the atomic bomb. The Merlin test at Maralinga, in South Australia, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after Hitler's suicide, and the UK's refusal to give up its nuclear information to its ally, the United States (leading to a later project, though the bomber gap between the US and British Empire has never been a close race) and the UK's consistent efforts to keep the Empire the only atomic state led to the peculiar situation of a junior war partner suddenly succeeding in asserting power over its former senior partner.

After a failed Atlee government and a general inability to disassemble the empire in such a way to satisfy everyone, the militarists took office once more, especially facing the threat of the Soviet Union, and a slightly more decentralized empire was established. This began the Second Great Game, during which the British Empire and its increasingly alienated comrade the United States would face off against the Soviet Union.

The militarizing effect this would have on the British Empire is hard to overestimate, of course, especially given their often belligerent foreign policy from the very late 40s to the 50s to the present day. In fact, should the Soviet Union fall, many suspect that the Empire and Union might turn on one another.

Orwell, his books largely banned in his homeland by this point, wrote this: War is peace. It's oddly applicable to the current state of the Empire.

But what if Tube Alloys was in American hands? How might that change history?

 

[NHobson]

The big thing is how much equipment the US would allow the British to get. If you'll recall, Dr. Feynman managed to bring back copies of a great deal of Tube Alloys theoretical work despite the best efforts of MI-5 and the rest of it was fairly easily reconstructed because they knew the end result. God alone knows how, all he said about it in his autobiography was "a very large steamer trunk." But the sticking point is making the gear to refine the uranium to the required purity. If you have that, making a Sonny Jim is quite literally as simple as banging two rocks together.

OOC: The Sonny Jim is this universe's Little Boy, a gun type device, and the Uncle Bob is the Fat Man, an implosion type device.

 

[RiverDelta]

The big thing is how much equipment the US would allow the British to get. If you'll recall, Dr. Feynman managed to bring back copies of a great deal of Tube Alloys theoretical work despite the best efforts of MI-5. God alone knows how, all he said about it in his autobiography was "a very large steamer trunk." But the sticking point is making the gear to refine the uranium to the required purity. If you have that, making a Sonny Jim is quite literally as simple as banging two rocks together.

OOC: The Sonny Jim is this universe's Little Boy, a gun type device, and the Uncle Bob is the Fat Man, an implosion type device.

Well, the United States at this time was gunning for power over the atomic bomb, wasn't it? Around the time America got involved, they were trying to get more and more influence over the project, but that was quashed pretty quickly. I think if the US wanted to get more influence on the bomb, they'd have to find some way to realize that Britain was likely to turn on them once they got it and, on top of that, find a way to use Canadian resources and space anyway. So it would have to be a real feat of diplomacy. Feynman was known for being...chaotic, so I'm not surprised by him being the spy.

I really wouldn't say a Sonny Jim's that simple, though.

 

[RiverDelta]

OOC: Bump.

 

[Pyramus]

Would a successful American nuclear program be less infested with Soviet spies than the British one was?

 

[RiverDelta]

Would a successful American nuclear program be less infested with Soviet spies than the British one was?

Probably, given that the British, whose empire was kind of weak at the time and who were largely focused on winning the immediate war, were unable to plug all of the holes that they probably should have. American scientists especially were known for betraying the Empire by the end, with Theodore Alvin Hall being the most well-known of those traitors. In his words: "I was immature, inexperienced, and far too sure of myself. I am no longer that person, but I do not regret his actions. An Imperial monopoly on atomic weapons must be avoided at all costs." The prevailing opinion was that a nuclear-armed America was an inevitability given the resources, manpower, and knowledge the US had, and that that America would likely side with the British, so the only remaining power to be armed that could break an atomic monopoly would be the Soviet Union.