Название: The Secret History of RDX: The Super-Explosive That Helped Win World War II
Автор: Colin F. Baxter
Издательство: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813175283
Год: 2018
Формат: PDF
Страниц: 215
Размер: 9,5 МБ
Язык: Английский
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, manufacturing a sugar-white substance called Research Department Explosive (code name RDX). Behind thirty-eight miles of fencing, thousands of men and women synthesized 23,000 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 WWII.