Edit: ah yes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36812285 (July 2023)
Freeman Dyson had great respect for Blackett saying that Bomber Command would not let Blackett anywhere near the place because he could and would speak facts to them about their failing policies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pVG3nYrXbE&list=PLVV0r6CmEs...
"We had absolutely no communication with Blackett, and that was clearly not accidental, because Blackett had started Operations Research in the Navy and been extremely successful and done all sorts of good things for the Navy, and then it spread from there to Coastal Command, where they also did very well. In both places they were highly critical of what Bomber Command was doing. Blackett, of course, was a man of great character and he had no hesitations in speaking the truth, no matter how unpleasant the truth might be. And in Bomber Command it was totally different and it was clear that people of Blackett's calibre were just not going to get their nose in the door..."
(Contents: Introduction, by Harold Wright; Philosophy, by R.B. Braithwaite; Mathematics, by M.H.A. Newman; The craft of experimental physics, by P.M.S. Blackett; Chemistry, by C.P. Snow; Physiological research, by R.K. Matthews; Biology, by C.H. Waddington; History, by R.E. Balfour; The study of the classics at Cambridge, by B.L. Hallward; English literature, by F.L. Lucas)
There's a saga behind this - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37364619 if anyone's interested...
