Author:
Baxter, Colin F., 1942- author.
ImprintLexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2018]
Descriptionx, 204 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Note:Lord Beaverbrook, RDX, and the Ministry of Supply -- The vexed question of RDX supply -- Torpex and the air war -- RDX and the Army Ordnance Department -- RDX and the Army air forces -- The battle for RDX production -- Canada and RDX -- The Wexler Bend Pilot Plant -- The great Holston Ordnance Works -- Torpex and the Battle of the Atlantic -- 1945 and the atomic bomb -- The aftermath.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-196) and index.
Note:"During the early years of World War II, American ships crossing the Atlantic with oil and supplies were virtually defenseless against German U-boats. Bombs and torpedoes fitted with TNT barely made a dent in the tough steel plating that covered the hulls of Axis submarines and ships. Then, seemingly overnight, a top-secret, $100 million plant appeared near Kingsport, Tennessee, night, a top-secret, $100 million plant appeared near Kingsport, Tennessee, manufacturing a sugar-whit substance called Research Department Explosive (code name RDX). Behind thirty-eight miles of fencing, thousands of men and women synthesized nearly 20,000 tons of RDX each month. Twice as deadly as TNT and overshadowed only by the atomic bomb, this ordnance proved to be pivotal in the Battle of the Atlantic and directly contributed to the Allied victory in the Second World War. In The Secret History of RDX, Colin F. Boxter documents the journey of the super-explosive from conceptualization at Woolwich Arsenal in England to mass production at Holston Ordance Works in east Tennessee. He examines the debates between RDX advocates and their opponents and explores the use of the explosive in the bomber war over Germany, in the navel war in the Atlantic, and as a key element in the trigger device of the atomic bomb. Drawing on archival records and interviews with individuals who worked at the Kingsport "powder plant" from 1942 to 1945, he illuminates both the explosive's military significance and its impact on the lives of ordinary Americans involved in the war industry." --Book jacket.
Note:Recommended in Resources for College Libraries
