1939 were the time when the USA entered the war, but, it had begun long before.
* Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931
* Italy invaded Ethiopia beginning in 1935
* Nazi Germany signed a treaty with Fascist Italy in 1936 creating the Rome-Berlin Axis
*Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign a pact in 1936
*Eight months later Japan invades China. Then one wonders why Japan and China has tensions. But, China never entered WWII.
So, the story is plausible. It makes sense. The world was breaking out in war in ways that threatened populations. I am quite sure the scientists making it as far as Great Britain wanted to be removed from the potential of wiping out life. Physicists were running from the aggressors. They have had to had an indication of the use of their own genius.
American scientists, (click here and be sure watch the video of 2 minutes and 43 seconds) many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe, took steps in 1939 to organize a project to exploit the newly recognized fission process for military purposes. The first contact with the government was made by G.B. Pegram of Columbia University (click here), who arranged a conference between Enrico Fermi and the Navy Department in March 1939. In the summer of 1939, Albert Einstein was persuaded by his fellow scientists to use his influence and present the military potential of an uncontrolled fission chain reaction to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In February 1940, $6,000 was made available to start research under the supervision of a committee headed by L.J. Briggs, director of the National Bureau of Standards....
