| Reference number | PB/4/9 |
| Previous numbers | D.148-D.160 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Chiefs of Staff Sub-Committee On Future Weapons |
| Date | 1945 |
| Description | The Committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Tizard to report on future technical developments in weapons of war. Atomic weapons were excluded from its terms of reference.
Members of the Committee were: John Desmond Bernal, P.M.S. Blackett, C.D. Ellis and G.P. Thomson. The Committee reported in June 1945, and in October 1945 a revision was initiated by the Joint technical Warfare Committee of the Chiefs of Staff Committee 'in the light of later knowledge about atomic energy' (see D.161-183).
Items D.149-157 contain reports, discussion papers and ideas contributed by members of the Committee or by others on various specialised areas relevant to the Committee's work. Blackett retained and annotated copies of these papers, and also prepared his own notes or the Committee's report (D.158-160) in which he marshalled and presented some of the material.
The papers are preceded (D.148) by an undated draft by Blackett on a similar topic, probably written in 1942, in response to a Note from the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound. Blackett's draft, though incomplete, shows his interest in future weapons and the allocation of defence spending at a considerably earlier date than the setting-up of the Sub-Committee. |
| Access status | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | Name | Dates |
| NA8040 | Bernal; John Desmond (1901 - 1971) | 1901 - 1971 |