They Said No Shell Could Think - Until America's Secret Fuze Proved Them Wrong

Описание: In the summer of nineteen forty, German engineers declared the proximity fuze physically impossible after a decade of failed research across more than thirty programs. Just three years later, American physicist Merle Tuve and his team at the Applied Physics Laboratory delivered over twenty two million working fuzes that transformed the outcome of World War Two. This documentary reveals the incredible story of how scientists solved seemingly impossible engineering challenges, developing miniature vacuum tubes that survived twenty thousand g's of acceleration and batteries that armed themselves when fired from naval guns. From the first combat kill aboard USS Helena near Guadalcanal to the devastating effectiveness against kamikaze attacks at Okinawa, from stopping V1 flying bombs over London to breaking the German offensive at the Battle of the Bulge, the proximity fuze became one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war. Discover how American manufacturing mobilized eighty seven firms and thousands of women workers to produce this revolutionary weapon, why German forces captured twenty thousand intact fuzes yet never understood what they had, and how General Patton declared the funny fuze won the Battle of the Bulge. This is the forgotten story of the secret weapon that helped win World War Two.

SOURCES AND REFERENCES

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory - Official History
https://www.jhuapl.edu/about/history

APL Technical Digest - APL and the VT Fuze
https://www.jhuapl.edu/Content/techdi...

U.S. Naval Institute - The Other Secret Weapon of World War II
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-...

U.S. Naval Institute - Tiny Miracle The Proximity Fuze
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-...

HistoryNet - The Allies Billion Dollar Secret The Proximity Fuze
https://www.historynet.com/proximity-...

NavWeaps - Crosley Secret War Effort The Proximity Fuze
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/te...

Defense Media Network - The Creation of the Proximity Fuze
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/s...

Warfare History Network - The Proximity Fuse The Gunners Dream
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/art...

World War II Database - VT Radio Proximity Munitions Fuze
https://ww2db.com/weapon.php?q=382

National Academy of Sciences - Merle Antony Tuve Biographical Memoir
https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/...

Carnegie Institution for Science - Section T Proximity Fuze Records
https://archivesspace.carnegiescience...

National Air and Space Museum - Proximity Fuze Collection
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection...