Frederick
Lindemann was born in Baden-Baden in 1886. He was educated at the
University of Berlin and at the Sorbonne, where he carried out research
into the problems of atomic heat that confirmed the theories first
put forward by Albert Einstein.
In 1911 he constructed a special calorimeter that measured specific
heats at very low temperatures.
In 1914
Lindemann joined the Royal Flying
Corps and was appointed director of its Experimental Physics
Station at Farnborough. He was the first to develop the mathematical
theory of aircraft spin and this was put into practice in air combat.
After the
war Lindemann was appointed professor of experimental philosophy at
Oxford University and director of the Clarendon
laboratory.
Lindemann,
a close friend of Winston Churchill, became
the British governments leading scientific adviser during the Second
World War. He controversially advocated the policy of area bombing
of civilian populations. In 1942 Churchill appointed him paymaster-general
and he held the post until the end of the war.
In 1945
he returned to his post at Oxford University
and the Clarendon laboratory. He continued to advise the government
on nuclear research and in 1956 he was created the Viscount of Cherwell.
Frederick Lindemann, who created the Atomic Energy Authority, died
in 1957.
(1)
Herbert
Morrison, An Autobiography
(1960)
The friendship between Churchill and Professor
Frederick Lindemann was a remarkable one. Churchill did not permit
friendship lightly. Indeed, though he had thousands of acquaintances,
his real friends during the war were few.
He was
a tallish man, who paradoxically attracted attention by the quietness
with which he moved. There was never any bluster, never any
excitement. His mind had a complete control over his emotions. His
voice is difficult to describe, but was quite unique. There was an
accent, but not definably mid-European. The tone was high-pitched,
but it was not squeaky or effeminate. He often invited me to have
a chat with him at Christ Church, Oxford, and I gained the impression
that his reputation in Oxford generally was merely fair by the high
academic standards of the University. Some of his critics were really
his self-confessed enemies, and he was certainly capable of arousing
hostility, but what was more useful he was able to feel quite unworried
about the fact. His defeat when he had stood for parliament for the
University seat seemingly did not affect him at all.
He was an ascetic: bachelor,
vegetarian, teetotaller and non-smoker - traits which contrasted violently
with those of his mentor Churchill. Perhaps this contrast in personality
was a reason for their liking for one another, which transcended anything
involved in the usefulness of one to the other. I do not think I am
exaggerating in saying that the Prof would have died for Winston,
and Winston would have resigned his office sooner than dispense with
the Prof's services.
(2)
Robert Boothby, Boothby:
Recollections of a Rebel (1978)
I soon came to the conclusion that the policy of area bombing
of Germany, then being pursued mainly by Wellington bombers, was not
paying off, because the expenditure of our resources and, still more,
of our skilled manpower, was far greater than the results achieved.
Too many of our bombs were dropped in fields. German arms production
was not being seriously interfered with. The best that could be said
for it was that a considerable number of Goering's fighter aircraft,
which might have been sent to other fronts, had to be kept in Germany.
The truth is that in those days the instruments for accurate navigation
did not exist. There were high hopes of one gadget, which I did not
begin to understand; and which was brought to us one day in a brand-new
Wellington bomber. All the navigators in the squadron went up to see
how it worked. Five minutes after take-off, a wing fell off the plane,
and they were all killed.
Early in
1942, Lindemann, by then a member of the Cabinet, circulated his famous
paper on strategic bombing. This said that if it was concentrated
entirely on German working class houses, and 'military objectives'
as such were forgotten, it would be possible to destroy fifty per
cent of all the houses in the larger towns of Germany quite soon.
Charming! The paper was strongly opposed by the scientists, headed
by Sir Henry Tizard and Professor Blackett. Tizard calculated that
Lindemann's estimate was five times too high, and Blackett that it
was six times too high. But Lindemann was Churchill's man; and Lindemann
prevailed. After the war the bombing survey revealed that his estimate
was ten times too high.
The story
of the Lindemann-Tizard controversy has been well told by C. P. Snow
in his book Science and Government; and I have not seen it
seriously contradicted. But one thing remains to be said. I think
the scientists underestimated the psychological effect of our bombing
policy not upon the German but upon the British people. They themselves
were under heavy bombardment; and between 1941 and 1944 bombing was
the only method by which we could directly hit back. I am sure that
it gave a tremendous boost to British morale; and that, to this extent
at least, the thousands of brave and skilled young men in Bomber Command
did not give their lives in vain.
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