Book ID: CBB898086688

12 Seconds of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon (2020)

unapi

Holmes, Jamie (Author)


Houghton Mifflin Harcourt


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 384
Language: English

The riveting story of the American scientists, tinkerers, and nerds who solved one of the biggest puzzles of World War II—and developed one of the most powerful weapons of the war.​12 Seconds of Silence is the remarkable, lost story of how a rag tag group of American scientists overcame one of the toughest problems of World War II: Shooting things out of the sky.Working in a secretive organization known as Section T, a team of physicists, engineers, and everyday Joes and Janes created one of the world’s first “smart weapons”—the proximity fuse. The tiny gadget allowed an artillery shell to “know” when to explode to bring down an aircraft. Against overwhelming odds and in a race against time, mustering every scrap of resource, ingenuity, and insight, the scientists of Section T would eventually save countless lives, rescue the city of London from the onslaught of a Nazi superweapon, and help bring about the Axis defeat. A holy grail sought after by Allied and Axis powers alike, the fuse ranks with the atomic bomb as one of the most revolutionary technologies of the Second World War. Until now, its tale was largely untold.For fans of Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre, set amidst the fog of espionage, dueling spies, and the dawn of an age when science would determine the fate of the world, 12 Seconds of Silence is a tribute to the extraordinary wartime mobilization of American science and the ultimate can-do story.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB898086688/

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Authors & Contributors
Bridger, Sarah
Baxter, Colin F.
Olson, Steve
Nick Hall
Giovanni, Marco di
Slade, Joseph W.
Concepts
Science and war; science and the military
World War II
Physics
Weapons
Military technology
Scientists
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
Places
United States
Great Britain
Japan
Italy
Hungary
Germany
Institutions
Strategic Defense Initiative
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Hanford Nuclear Site (Washington)
Tuxedo Park (N.Y.)
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