Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico. Louis Hempelmann inserts 1,000 Curies of fissile products from the Hanford nuclear site into 100 tons of TNT stored in the wooden tower. The purpose is to test the resulting distribution of radioactivity before the Trinity experiment. The explosion, the
Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico. Preliminary test with conventional explosives.
The Allied bombing of German cities and military infrastructure resulted in 593,000 civilian deaths, mostly caused by RAF night bombings targeting population centers with more than 100,000 inhabitants. (The technical reason why the British conducted night raids – in which it was more difficult to
Mussolini hanged in a Milan square. Benito Mussolini, the “Duce” of Fascist Italy, is killed in Milan. Upon rising to power, he declared his intention to build a new Roman Empire in Italy, but the country was then crushed by the overwhelming power of Nazi
Around 11am: an American tank, after having travelled along the Via Nonantolana, fires a couple of shots and then returns out of Modena onto the Nonantolana.
Signal Intelligence: After 5,300 hours of bombing, the first Nazi Sonderschlussel code is broken. Only three Sonderschlussels will ever be cracked, and all three by the US Navy’s OP-20-G. The Kriegsmarine had begun distributing special decryption algorithms (Sonderschlussels) for each individual U-Boat in June 1944.
Ohrdurf, American-occupied Germany. General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, visits the concentration camp, a subsidiary of Buchenwald. He is accompanied by Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton. He wants to see every nook and cranny. Shortly thereafter, Nordhausen will be
According to some witnesses, this was the last nuclear test by Kurt Diebner’s group; probably a “dirty” bomb with a core of light elements covered with 100g of (unenriched) uranium and a thick layer of explosives; the whole thing was enclosed in a spherical casing
The vanguard of the 62nd Corps of the Russian Army on the Ukrainian Front entered Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, saving several hundred creatures who no longer possessed anything human and taking on the task of burying a mountain of corpses. Auschwitz is the symbol
Agreement reached in Washington on the division of roles and responsibilities between the Americans and the British in decrypting Japanese codes.
End of the Warsaw Uprising On October 2, 1944, the Warsaw Uprising ended with the surrender of the surviving Polish rebels to German forces. After 63 days, the Poles, now deprived of weapons, supplies, food, and water, were forced to surrender. The Nazis deported Warsaw’s
Otto Hahn wins the Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments conducted in Germany that prove beyond doubt that uranium fissions when bombarded with neutrons, producing radioactive barium. In reality, the experiments were conducted and designed by Lise Meitner, who agreed not to be named in
John Kennedy Jr., brother of JFK, dies while testing a B24 packed with explosives from which he was supposed to parachute and then release the remote-controlled plane to crash into a V2 base on the continent.
The fleeing Germans blow up all the bridges in Florence. Only the Ponte Vecchio survives.
Beginning of the Warsaw Uprising; the Red Army’s advance toward Warsaw prompts the Polish resistance to rise up against the Nazi occupiers. The rebels, supporting the democratic Polish government in exile in London, hope to capture the city before the Soviets arrive to “liberate” it.
John von Neumann frequently visits Bell Labs in New York, Harvard, Princeton, and Aberdeen by train, picking up interesting ideas that would provide important cross-pollination. He absorbed some ideas, took credit for others, but above all, made it clear that for the sake of research,
Fortitude Plan: At noon, the Allied generals assemble at Churchill’s underground headquarters at Storey’s Gate in London. Suddenly, the secretary in charge of Ultra’s intercepts enters and opens the black book of vital communications, reading Hitler’s message revoking the Case IIIA order and withdrawing the
Fortitude Plan: At 7:15 pm, the BBC read, among the personal messages: “Message for little Berthe – Salomon has jumped on his big clogs.” The first part of the message had been broadcast even before the Normandy landings as a message to French partisans who
The Germans abandon the super-gun project with which they wanted to bomb London from France.
Operation “Strangle”: Bologna (the railway station was devastated) and Verona were bombed. Rome and Padua had been bombed a few days earlier as part of the same operation, to cut Nazi supply lines to the Allied front on the Gustav Line.
Auschwitz, present-day Poland. Primo Levi, a prisoner in the camp, manages to steal some cerium bars, which he knows well as a chemist, with which he makes lighters, which he then sells, exploiting cerium’s renowned ability to produce sparks when rubbed. This will allow him
Colossus goes into operation. It is the first electronic computer in history. The details will remain secret for decades. Tommy Flowers, its creator, died in 1998 without ever receiving due recognition for it, due to military secrecy until the early 21st century. Colossus weighs one
9:45 a.m.: 250 B-25s drop 500 tons of bombs on the Abbey of Monte Cassino; many of the civilians have left the abbey when Allied leaflets warning of the impending bombings were dropped, but some did not believe the warnings and remained; the works of
Monday, 1:40–5:30 PM. First bombing of Modena. In several waves, three formations of six bombers each. These were probably B-25 Mitchell squadrons, supported by P-51 Mustangs and P-38 Lightnings. The train station and the FIAT Grandi Motori factory were devastated, and the fruit market on
1:20 PM. Reggio Emilia. 109 Anglo-American bombers raze the Reggio Emilia plant, where military aircraft are manufactured. There are 261 dead and 256 injured, almost all civilians.
Jean Tatlock (Oppenheimer’s former lover) is found dead by suicide in her apartment. Her father finds her, but before notifying the FBI, he lights a bonfire in the fireplace and methodically burns much of his daughter’s correspondence and photos for four hours.
Signal Intelligence: The Luftwaffe, under the Red code, began using a new, previously unused reflector. It was called the Unkehrwalze Dora (UKD) by the Germans, and it posed a potentially devastating problem for the British at Bletchley Park. Fortunately for the British, the Germans adopted
Mauthausen, Austria. As transports intensified (mostly of “political” prisoners) from across Europe, convoys of deportees arrested during the strikes of March 1944 arrived in Italy. On March 11, a convoy arrived with 597 deportees from Tuscany, Piedmont, and Lombardy; on March 16, 563 deportees from
Bombing of major German cities: 20,200 aircraft, 1,167 destroyed, 12,000 airmen killed
Bohr arrives at Los Alamos. Here he shows the drawing made by Heisenberg two years earlier. This sketch is thought to contain direct information on German nuclear projects. It is clarified that it is a reactor, but there are fears that the Germans are ahead
U.S. Marines land on the small (3km x 0.7km) but strategic and heavily defended atoll of Tarawa; the Japanese defended them for 72 hours, after which they took control of the important airstrip: it was the first step in the “small steps” strategy toward the
Oppenheimer brings to Los Alamos the famous Princeton mathematician John Von Neumann, who calculates that a plutonium bomb design based on implosion can work, at least in theory.
Thanks to English intervention, Bohr manages to reach London: he is given false personal details.
Italy. Bombing of Potenza and surrounding areas. Rumors spread that the young Rocco Petrone was leading the attack, deliberately delaying the release of the bombs to avoid his hometown of Sasso di Castalda. This wasn’t true: at the time, Rocco Petrone was stationed at West
Peak of the Battle of Kursk: Near the village of Prokhorovka, about 350 German tanks are destroyed.
Yugoslavia. Winston Churchill, who initially sympathized with the Chetniks, after intercepting Enigma communications, realizes they are very close to the Italians, and decides to openly support Tito’s communist partisans, whom he considers more reliable. After the war, Tito will reject the alliance with Stalin’s USSR,
Yugoslavia. During Operation Schwarz against the Chetniks, the Germans entered Italian Montenegro and Herzegovina. Thousands of Chetniks were disarmed, and entire units of Communist partisans were also surrounded. On June 22nd in particular, an Enigma decryption system reached Bletchley Park, revealing that 583 Germans and
Adolf Hitler, just before the Battle of Kursk, confirms that an independent Russian army would never be created, and that the Russians serve Germany only as a labor force. He fails to understand that the only option is for the population to move, and so
Stalingrad. Paulus reports that the last forces are enclosed within a 300-meter radius around Red Square.
10:30 a.m. Nikola Tesla dies in his sleep in his Manhattan hotel room. He was 86. Sculptor Hugo Gernsback is hired to collect a death mask of the inventor. Eleanor Roosevelt immediately writes a letter of condolence. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia reads a
Nikola Tesla (Cyrillic: Никола Тесла) (Smiljan, July 10, 1856 – New York, January 7, 1943) died alone and poor in New York. A Serbian physicist, inventor, and engineer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1891, Tesla is best known for his revolutionary work and
Enrico Fermi and his team of scientists built the first atomic pile (with a graphite moderator to slow down neutrons) at the University of Chicago; the experiment took place under the west side of Stagg Field stadium.
War serves as a breeding ground for countless technological inventions. The new world order is emerging: USA-USSR.
The Anglo-American SOE (Special Operation Executives) special forces, in collaboration with the two main Greek resistance groups (communists and republicans), blow up a railway bridge in Greece that was used to supply Rommel’s Nazi troops (Afrikakorps) in North Africa.
Stalingrad. 10:00 AM. The southern arm of the pincer movement begins to close. 1,200 tanks, 17,000 artillery pieces, 120 Katyushas, and 1,200 aircraft are already involved. The Romanians cannot sustain the attack.
Stalingrad. 5:25 a.m. General Schmidt is awakened: Soviet artillery is unleashing a inferno of fire on the Romanian positions. The closing of the pincer movement, the northern arm, has begun.
The US Army purchases the Los Alamos school (Site Y) which will be the first laboratory settlement of the Manhattan Project
El Alamein, Egypt. 9:30 PM. A thousand British guns open fire on the Italian-German positions. Montgomery, after giving the order, goes to bed. Then 1,100 tanks and 220,000 men of the Eighth Army move forward, preceded by the Highland band, who in checkered kilts play
Between the Don and the Volga, Southern Russia. Field Marshal von Weichs writes to von Paulus to quickly seize the railway carrying American military supplies, the Stalingrad-Voroponovo-Gumrak. Only a few days earlier, the Third Motorized Division, seizing Station 564, seized a very long freight train
Russia. Rostov falls to the Germans, opening the gates of the Caucasus to them. The Führer’s grand strategic plan, after all, seems to be coming true: two gigantic German troop movements from the Caucasus and Egypt meet in the Persian Gulf. The British, moreover, do
El Alamein, Egypt. Rommel still has 42 panzers and 50 Italian tanks. The British have over 100 tanks recently arrived from Great Britain. On July 21, Rommel launches another tank offensive and manages to gain the upper hand after two hours of furious fighting. 87
El Alamein, Egypt. British commander Auchinleck, realizing that the enemy’s weak link was the Italians, attacked and overwhelmed the Trento and Trieste divisions.
Libya. Rommel and Bastico’s combined German-Italian army overwhelms the fortified British defenses of Mersa Matruh. Three thousand prisoners are captured, vehicles, warehouses, and fuel depots remain intact, as well as a thousand liberated Italian and German prisoners.
Tobruk falls, Rommel takes 32,000 British prisoners and is appointed Field Marshal by Hitler
Tobruk, Libya. 9:00 a.m. Italian artillery must suspend fire to avoid hitting their own advancing troops. The besieged surrender en masse. Endless columns of smiling soldiers shout: “The war is over!” The last to surrender are the Scottish Camerons. Thirty-three thousand prisoners are taken prisoner,
Prague. Operation Anthropoid. Jozef Gabčík and Czech Jan Kubiš, who carried out the attack, are hunted by the Gestapo and SS. 750 SS men besiege the church where the two paratroopers, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, are besieged along with other members of the SOE.
British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill approves rules under which his phone calls to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt will be censored by specialized personnel. In his case, this will be Ruth Ive.
Peenemünde, northern Germany, on the Baltic Sea. A first prototype of the A-4 rocket (Aggregat-4—later called the V-2 Vergeltungswaffe-2) exploded upon launch. The second prototype also failed. All this while Adolf Hitler in Berlin was raising expectations of these weapons to turn the tide of
Lavrentii Beria, head of the NKVD, informs Stalin of the news received from the spy Klaus Fuchs at Los Alamos. Stalin then decides to begin a project for the Russian atomic bomb.
The British intercept Japanese diplomatic messages at their embassy in London, ordering them to burn their code books and prepare to leave the embassy.