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Man I love this stuff, I could eat it up with a spoon.
I remember being on a tour bus in D.C. some years ago, where the driver would quiz the tourists , then if they gave the correct answer, sound a noisy klaxon.
He slowed down and pointed to a statue, saying, "Who's that guy, and what were his last words?"
I waited for an American to pipe up, but no one did, the driver said, "All done, give up?"
I raised my hand, and when the driver saw me in his mirror, he said, "Hey, it's the limey, whaddya say pal?"
I said, "Going by the rope around his ankles, I think it's Nathan Hale, and he said, I regret I have only one life to give for my country."
He sounded the klaxon and said, "You Americans should be ashamed, this goddam redcoat knows more than you!"
What major technology transfer from the U.K. to the U.S. in 1940 significantly helped the Allies win WWII?
This transfer did not involve the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project) project directly nor any code-breaking activities.
One historian labeled the device easily carried by one man and handed over to the Americans for development "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
Man I love this stuff, I could eat it up with a spoon.
I remember being on a tour bus in D.C. some years ago, where the driver would quiz the tourists , then if they gave the correct answer, sound a noisy klaxon.
He slowed down and pointed to a statue, saying, "Who's that guy, and what were his last words?"
I waited for an American to pipe up, but no one did, the driver said, "All done, give up?"
I raised my hand, and when the driver saw me in his mirror, he said, "Hey, it's the limey, whaddya say pal?"
I said, "Going by the rope around his ankles, I think it's Nathan Hale, and he said, I regret I have only one life to give for my country."
He sounded the klaxon and said, "You Americans should be ashamed, this goddam redcoat knows more than you!"
When I toured London several decades on a bus tour led by a licensed guild guide, the guide made a point of ridiculing George Washington because he ordered the hanging of Major John Andre instead of affording him a firing squad, the "gentleman's death" requested by Andre. Andre has a monument in Hero's Corner at Westminster Abbey.
After the tour of Westminster Abbey, I took exception with the guide about his obvious attempt to ridicule George Washington.
I pointed out that according to the conventions of the time, spies were hanged, and Washington could not make an exception for Andre after the British had caused revulsion on the American side by hanging Nathan Hale early in the war.
I pointed out to the guide that Washington was pro-British as President. Despite essential French support during the Revolutionary War, Washington refused to accede to the wishes of his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and ally the U.S. with France at the onset of French and British warfare following the French Revolution.
<<The war in Europe had strained French relations with the Americans, theoretically allied to France since 1778, when the old regime entered the American War of Independence. The United States, however, declared its neutrality in 1793: its armed forces were tiny and the British were the young republic’s most important trading partner. Moreover, President George Washington was angered by the over-zealous French ambassador, Edmond Genêt, who armed privateers to sail from American ports against British shipping and who tried to whip up American public support for France. Yet the Americans also had grievances against the British: they harassed American shipping as they tried to throttle French commerce and seized sailors whom they suspected of desertion from the Royal Navy. The two countries nearly slid into war, until both sides pulled back from the brink in November 1794, when they resolved their differences in the Jay Treaty (named for the American diplomat involved), which effectively tore up the Franco-American alliance. The aggrieved French immediately launched privateering raids against American merchantmen: by June 1797, they had carried off some 316 ships. Although the two republics never formally declared war, they did exchange plenty of shots in anger on the high seas. An American effort at negotiation fell apart when it was learned in April 1798 that the slippery French Foreign Minister, Charles-Maurice Talleyrand, had tried to extract a bribe from the US envoys, who were approached by three agents known only as ‘XYZ’. The quasi-war raged on.>>
I also pointed out to the licensed guide, that it's very possible that the U.S. wouldn't have emerged as a successful nation let alone a world power without the leadership of Washington. A Canadian-like U.S., or a fractured confederation of individual states, perhaps limited to the eastern U.S., may not have been able to aid the U.K. decisively in the 20th century's world wars.
I believe London's licensed guides follow a pre-approved script. I wonder if they still criticize Washington with American tourists for ordering the hanging of Major Andre.
This transfer did not involve the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project) project directly nor any code-breaking activities.
One historian labeled the device easily carried by one man and handed over to the Americans for development "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
The device given to the U.S. by the U.K. in 1940 was a revolutionary resonant cavity magnetron that enabled the building of the world's first microwave (UHF) radar devices. These powerful and compact radar sets could be installed on planes to detect at night planes, boats, even U-boat periscopes.
<<Because France had just fallen to the Nazis and Britain had no money to develop the magnetron on a massive scale, Churchill agreed that Sir Henry Tizard should offer the magnetron to the Americans in exchange for their financial and industrial help (the Tizard Mission). An early 10 kW version, built in England by the General Electric Company Research Laboratories, Wembley, London (not to be confused with the similarly named American company General Electric), was given to the US government in September 1940. The British magnetron was a thousand times more powerful than the best American transmitter at the time and produced accurate pulses.[28] [Emphasis added.] At the time the most powerful equivalent microwave producer available in the US (a klystron) had a power of only ten watts. The cavity magnetron was widely used during World War II in microwave radar equipment and is often credited with giving Allied radar a considerable performance advantage over German and Japanese radars, thus directly influencing the outcome of the war. It was later described by American historian James Phinney Baxter III as "[t]he most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores".[29]
The Bell Telephone Laboratories made a producible version from the magnetron delivered to America by the Tizard Mission, and before the end of 1940, the Radiation Laboratory had been set up on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop various types of radar using the magnetron. By early 1941, portable centimetric airborne radars were being tested in American and British aircraft.
<<Every time you warm something in a oven, you use a device that helped change the course of history during World War II: the cavity magnetron tube. Because it can produce large amounts of power very efficiently, the cavity magnetron helped scientists and engineers in Great Britain, the U.S, and other countries to build compact, efficient radar sets that could spot enemy planes, ships, and even submarine periscopes miles away in the dark. When thousands of these sets were installed on land, at sea, and in aircraft, they made a critical difference in many battles throughout the war.>>
Shortly after this breakthrough, Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt agreed that the two nations would pool their technical secrets and jointly develop many urgently needed warfare technologies. At the initiation of this exchange in the late summer of 1940, the Tizard Mission brought to America one of the first of the new magnetrons. On October 6, Edward George Bowen, a key developer of RDF at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) and a member of the mission, demonstrated this magnetron, producing some 15,000 watts (15 kW) of power at 10-centimeter wavelength (3.9-inch). (Microwave components usually are designated in wavelength, rather than frequency.)
American researchers and officials were amazed at the magnetron, and the NDRC immediately started plans for manufacturing and incorporating these devices. Alfred Lee Loomis, who headed the NDRC Microwave Committee, led in establishing the Radiation Laboratory at MIT as a joint Anglo-American effort for microwave research and developing systems using the new magnetron.>>
What American technology transfer to the U.K. in the 1950s revolutionized the Royal Navy?
After WWII, the U.K. and the U.S. resumed separate development of weapon systems.
This changed in the late 1950s when the U.S. transferred one of its most important military technologies to the Brits, over the objections of one of the most famed of American admirals.
1958 U.S.-U.K. Mutual Defence Agreement; HMS Dreadnought
Quote:
Originally Posted by WRnative
After WWII, the U.K. and the U.S. resumed separate development of weapon systems.
This changed in the late 1950s when the U.S. transferred one of its most important military technologies to the Brits, over the objections of one of the most famed of American admirals.
The 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement once again established a sharing agreement between the U.S. and the U.K. in nuclear weapons technology. The program included the transfer of an entire nuclear propulsion plant to the UK to power its first nuclear submarine.
This little known treaty, renewed for 10-year periods, helps cement the "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K.
It laid the basis for the subsequent Nassau Agreement, in which the U.S. transferred Polaris submarine technology to the U.K., in what was referred to by the Brits as "almost the bargain of the century," but in the scope of history it's likely dwarfed by the gift of resonant cavity magnetron from the U.K. to the U.S. in 1940 (see post 64). The U.S. development of microwave radar technology not only saved many Allied lives during WWII and likely shortened the war considerably; e.g., the resulting UHF radar sets were a critical element in the U.S./U.K. effort to eliminate the Nazi U-boat threat. The technologies inspired by UHF radar development created many commercial industries, including indirectly the semiconductor industry.
The Nassau Agreement was implemented by the Polaris Sales Agreement in 1963, which has been modified to permit the U.K. to purchase Trident missile technology.
When I toured London several decades on a bus tour led by a licensed guild guide, the guide made a point of ridiculing George Washington because he ordered the hanging of Major John Andre instead of affording him a firing squad, the "gentleman's death" requested by Andre. Andre has a monument in Hero's Corner at Westminster Abbey.
After the tour of Westminster Abbey, I took exception with the guide about his obvious attempt to ridicule George Washington.
I pointed out that according to the conventions of the time, spies were hanged, and Washington could not make an exception for Andre after the British had caused revulsion on the American side by hanging Nathan Hale early in the war.
.
The reason Andre received the full treatment as a spy when he was executed was because the Brits decided against the one thing which would have saved Andre's life entirely. Washington agreed to turn Andre back over to the Brits unharmed....if they would hand Benedict Arnold back to the Continental army. Washington deliberately made the threat of hanging rather than shooting Arnold to increase the leverage on the Brits to comply. When they didn't, Washington had no choice but to hang Andre because otherwise he would have been exposed as someone who made hollow threats.
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What major technology transfer from the U.K. to the U.S. in 1940 significantly helped the Allies win WWII?
