On the morning of August 29, 1940, amidst the ferocious Battle of Britain that roared in the
skies, a select group of men, handpicked by Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
boarded an ocean liner and departed the country. At that moment, this British team
on board the vessel represented the last glimmer of hope for a beleaguered Europe.
Comprising the United Kingdom’s foremost civilian and military
scientists, the group embarked on a journey to Washington, DC,
in an attempt to turn the tide of the war, which had been heavily favoring Nazi Germany until then.
Officially designated the British Technical and Scientific Mission,
the men informally referred to it as the Tizard Mission, named after their leader,
Sir Henry Tizard, the chairman of Britain's Aeronautical Research Committee.
Their objective was to share Britain’s latest military technological breakthroughs with the
hesitant American government in exchange for access to the United State’s vast industrial
capacity, thus facilitating the production of weapons derived from the research.
Among the many secrets transported across the Atlantic was a critical
piece of hardware invented only months prior. As several historians have noted,
the Tizard Mission helped bring incredibly valuable cargo to the shores of America...
Eureka!
Following the surrender of France in June of 1940, Great Britain stood as virtually
the only nation in Europe not under Nazi control. Consequently, the country was
grappling with the growing might of the Nazi German forces across the English Channel.
Throughout British territory, citizens endured nightly bombardments from the Luftwaffe.
These relentless Blitz attacks, coupled with the nation's rapidly dwindling resources,
were pushing its infrastructure to the brink.
Bereft of significant allies, Britain found itself in a precarious position.
Realizing that it would not be long before Britain's production capabilities would soon be
outmatched by Germany and the countries under Nazi control, particularly in the field of electronics,
English chemist and inventor Henry Tizard devised an ingenious plan.
Already a distinguished scientist, Tizard had played a critical role in developing
Britain's first radar defense system in the 1930s,
along with other scientific innovations designed to gain an edge over the Nazi war machine.
Tizard understood that Britain could not prevail without the research and production capacity
of the North American continent, especially if the United States did not enter the war.
Seeing immense potential in a technological exchange with the United States as a means
to acquire cutting-edge advancements and secure a powerful potential ally,
Tizard boldly proposed to newly-elected Prime Minister Winston Churchill that Britain should
share its wartime secrets in exchange for research and mass production capabilities.
Groundwork
Initially, Churchill and most of his senior staff were hesitant to divulge
the nation’s most treasured military secrets. However,
the harrowing outcome of the Battle of Dunkirk, coupled with the escalating
Blitz attacks, forced the Prime Minister to acknowledge the dire state Britain was in.
Recognizing that the potential risks of revealing Britain's top technological secrets
were worth the consequences of an allied America, Churchill approved the mission.
After his change of heart, the Prime Minister became personally involved in the exchange,
directly reaching out to American President Theodore Roosevelt regarding
the prospect of a mission being sent to the US for this purpose.
Across the Atlantic, Roosevelt was eager to extend all possible support to Great Britain,
fully aware that the chances of a successful
American invasion to liberate Europe would slim against the formidable German forces.
Nevertheless, not everyone in America saw it that way.
Bound by neutrality and reluctance to become embroiled in the war,
a majority of US citizens, unwilling to endure the hardships faced by Europeans,
harbored strong isolationist sentiments.
The Journey
In July, Churchill commissioned a small task force comprising both civilian and military
scientists to travel to the United States and facilitate a technology exchange between America,
Great Britain, and Canada in what would later become known as the Tizard Mission.
Under the strictest secrecy, Churchill assembled a team of six senior military scientists with
extensive operational experience to help him gather all technical secrets with potential
military applications. This same group would then transport the documents across the Atlantic Ocean.
As August drew to a close, Tizard flew to the United States to make preliminary arrangements,
with the team following by ship a few weeks later.
Although the voyage across the Atlantic took just over a week, it was undoubtedly one
of the most harrowing trips any of these battle-hardened men had ever undertaken.
At the time, German U-boats were engaged in unrestricted submarine warfare,
traversing the Atlantic in packs with the sole intent of sinking British ships and their crews.
Amongst the valuable cargo in the ship was an inconspicuous small metal trunk. Inside,
it held nothing less than Britain's military secrets and the last hope for liberating Europe.
However, the most prized treasure crossing the Atlantic was a prototype of a device
called a cavity magnetron. Invented only a few months earlier by two scientists in Birmingham,
this compact vacuum tube generated radar microwaves,
crucial for enhancing the power and precision of radar systems.
Both Churchill and Tizard hoped that sharing the cavity magnetron
would catalyze an agreement for its large-scale production on American soil.
The Tizard Mission
On September 6, 1940, the six-member team touched down on Canadian soil and
reconvened in Washington, DC six days later, bearing their invaluable cargo.
By then, Henry Tizard, the visionary behind this crucial mission, had already spent nearly
a month establishing the eponymous headquarters at the Shoreham Hotel.
The American and British teams held numerous meetings following a standard office schedule,
complete with a staff of two secretaries from the Canadian National Research Council,
to exchange blueprints and technological expertise on their latest innovations.
The British shared their knowledge of new rockets, plastic explosives, sonar,
and gyroscopic gunsights, while the United States
team demonstrated their equipment at the Naval Research Laboratory in Anacostia.
On September 19, members of Tizard’s team met with Doctor Alfred Loomis
of the National Defense Research Committee, the American faction
tasked with coordinating and conducting scientific research for military purposes.
During their meeting, the British presented the Americans with all their information on
the coveted cavity magnetron. The groundbreaking prototype astonished
the Americans to such an extent that both parties agreed to collaborate further.
This partnership would later enhance the magnetron's capabilities, as well
as other wartime technologies, such as the proximity fuse.
Meetings between American and British science and military personnel continued for weeks,
with Tizard and his team traveling between Washington to New York,
New Jersey, Boston, and even to the West Coast in California to share their insights.
For their brief stays, the men carried only the documents required for each meeting,
while the metal trunk remained securely locked and under armed escort at the British Embassy.
Point of Contention
While most meetings proceeded smoothly, two areas of contention lingered between
the three nations. One involved the Norden bombsight, an American-made design used by
aircraft to drop bombs accurately, which Britain urgently sought to acquire. The
other focused on jet propulsion, a technology then under intensive development in Britain.
Initially, American military commanders recommended that President Roosevelt withhold
all information concerning the bombsight, fearing it could fall into German hands.
If reverse-engineered by the Nazis, this technology could potentially enable the
Reich to triumph over the Americans, even before their entry into the war.
For their part, British engineers were concerned that their research on jet propulsion,
which they deemed to be of longer-term significance, would not offer an immediate
military advantage if the United States were to join the conflict. Sharing this secret could
ultimately cost Britain a competitive edge in the postwar economy and beyond.
As a result, only general details were exchanged during the Tizard Mission for these two projects.
Legacy
After numerous exhausting meetings with their American counterparts,
Tizard and his team returned to England on October 8.
A mere month later, the first mass production order of magnetrons followed.
By early 1941, individual aircraft were fitted with airborne radar instruments,
paving the way for Allied control of the European skies in the subsequent years.
According to John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
during the Obama presidency: [QUOTE] "The cavity magnetron allowed the miniaturization of radar,
tipping the balance against U boats in the battle in the Atlantic [...] It also led to the proximity
fuse, enabling precision of anti-aircraft fire and dramatically reducing the threat posed by Japanese
planes to allied ships in the Pacific; the design of Whittle's jet engine; and somewhat less
well-known countermeasures against German radar. I think anyone who has studied the Second World
War understands the Allied edge in many of these technologies played in the outcome of the war."
The mission also contributed to the development of jet engines and atomic bombs.
Despite their bouts of disagreement,
America’s entry into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
swiftly dissolved nearly all remaining reluctance to exchange technical knowledge.
The Tizard mission was hailed as an overwhelming success for both countries, as it was not merely
a delivery of documents and technology samples. Instead, the meetings marked the beginning of
a series of complex bureaucratic exchanges between Britain, its Commonwealth, and the
United States that involved military personnel, research labs, academics, and industrialists.
According to Dr. Vernon Gibson, a former chief scientific adviser from the United
Kingdom Ministry of Defense, the Tizard Mission was a desperate act
of trust that sowed the seeds for future victory and collaboration.
To this day, the 1940 event is seen as one of the pivotal
events in forging the now-famous wartime Anglo-American alliance.
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