One of the three good samples had contained an adequate parts-per-million ratio, and the last two, on spectrographic and chemical analysis, proved to be very desirable. The next question was: Were the samples truly representative of the pile they were taken from, or were they a fluke?
This problem was magnified greatly because of the enormous quantities of uraninite ore required to produce even minute quantities of pure uranium 235. There was, so far as anyone knew, less than 0.000001 pound of the stuff in all the world. Some scientists believed that as little as an ounce of pure U-235 would be enough to make up the critical mass of an atomic fission bomb. But others, just as knowledgeable, said the minimum figure would have to be at least a hundred pounds. Thus, to determine how many thousands of tons were going to be necessary to produce as much as fifty pounds of uranium, it was necessary to have refinable quantities. In laboratory terms, that meant a minimum of five tons. For now. And of course much more later, if things went the way everyone hoped they would. As of December 12, 1941, the German government had informed the Belgian government that under the terms of the armistice agreement between them, the export of copper and other strategic minerals and ores from Belgian colonies to the United States of America was no longer permitted. And all other exports would henceforth be reviewed to make sure they would not accrue to the enemy’s benefit.
Worrying about how to smuggle several hundred tons of ore out of the middle of darkest Africa would, however, have to wait. The job now was to determine if the Katanga ore was what was needed, and the way to do that was to get five tons of it to the United States. And the way to do that, Donovan decided, was to fly into Katanga and get it. “You’re working on flying the stuff out, then. Is that right, Bill?”
Roosevelt said.
THE SECRET WARRIORS 8 el “Yes, Sir,” Donovan said. “How are you going to do it?” Donovan was a little annoyed with Roosevelt’s interest in details. It was, in a way, flattering, but it took time. He was often saying to his subordinates that of all the shortages that interfered with the war effort, the greatest was time. There simply wasn’t enough time to do what had to be done. The few minutes it would take to tell the President how he planned to get the uraninite ore from the Belgian Congo would have to come from the total time Roosevelt was able to give him. He would have much preferred to spend this talking about other things. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the Commander in Chief, he reminded himself, and could not therefore be told to stop wasting time with unimportant questions. “You remember the young man who came to dinner with Jim Whittaker?” he asked. “Canidy? Something like that?”
“Richard Canidy,” Donovan said.
“Ex-Flying Tiger, and more important now, an MIT-trained aeronautical engineer.”
“I’m a little confused. Isn’t he the chap you sent to North Africa after t mining engineer and Admiral Whatsisname? “That, too,” Donovan said, impressed but not really surprised that Roosevelt had called that detail from his memory.
“At the moment, he’s at Chesly’s house on the Jersey shore, trying to keep the admiral happy and away from newspaper reporters. But he’s also working on this. “How is he working on this)” “He has been provided with the details-weight and distance, I mean, not what has to be hauled or where the stuff is. And he has been told to recommend a way-in absolute secrecy-to move that much weight that far.
He’s been getting a lot of help from Pan American Airways.”
“Why not the Air Corps?” Donovan was very much aware that he had just walked out on thin ice. Pan American Airways beyond question had greater experience in long-distance transoceanic flight that anyone else-including the Army Air Corps. But their greatest expert in this area was Colonel Charles A.
Lindbergh, “Lucky Lindy,” the first man to fly the Atlantic solo the great American hero who had not long before enraged Roosevelt and a large number of other important people by announcing that in his professional judgment the German Luftwaffe looked invincible.