Untimely Designs

by gerald hall

  “Do you think that Hitler will honor this treaty that he made with Stalin, Sir?”

  “I just don’t know. Politics makes for some very strange bedfellows. Up to the day that Ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov signed that treaty, I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that Hitler and Stalin would not be satisfied until they literally had their hands wrapped each other’s throat. We will just have to wait and see what happens next.”

  Harold Cavill’s Home

  Derby, Western Australia

  April 28, 1940

  In the weeks after the British intervention into Norway, Harold read with great interest from his office about how the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious had made it back safely to port after participating in the Norwegian campaign. In the previous timeline, the aircraft carrier and her two destroyer escorts had been caught by the German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and sunk with great loss of life. This time, her escort had been reinforced by a cruiser and two more destroyers. Even though the two German capital ships vastly outgunned Glorious’ escort, they bought enough time for the carrier to launch her Skua dive-bombers and Swordfish torpedo bombers. The aircraft inflicted enough damage to force the German force to retreat and saved not only the Glorious but also most of her escorts.

  Harold saw the continued survival of Glorious as a vindication of his efforts with Churchill to increase the number of the Royal Navy’s escorts and cruisers. Because of this, there were enough ships available to escort Glorious to Scapa Flow. It turned out rather less favorably for Glorious’ captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes because he had actually requested that his ship return early to Scapa Flow in order to press charges against this air wing commander. Instead, Captain D'Oyly-Hughes found himself under investigation because of his failure to have a combat air patrol airborne in time to spot Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. A CAP would have prevented his group from taking the damage that it received and possibly could have resulted in the sinking of the German force

  Captain D'Oyly-Hughes’ failure cost the Royal Navy a valuable destroyer and significant damage to a cruiser. These losses could have easily been preventable too.

  Finally, peacetime leadership practices were beginning to end in the Royal Navy under the pressure of the war. Officers like Captain D'Oyly-Hughes would begin to lose their commands to younger officers who understood the needs of the nation rather than simply thinking of their own career and were simply much more competent.

  Harold Cavill’s Home Office

  Derby, Western Australia

  May 8, 1940

  Harold was sitting down after a long day at work and reading from a large package of papers that had arrived a few days earlier via airmail. He had requested updates from the international news reports that his newspapers received as soon as they arrived. While he was reading, Dorothy and the kids came in after a long trip of running errands in town. The children immediately scrambled towards the hobby room near their bedrooms. Dorothy walked over to Harold after putting away her purchases.

  “Anything interesting with the latest news, Sweetheart?” Dorothy asked while looking over Harold’s shoulder and giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

  “I’m afraid so. The news reports from the front lines in France are mirroring what happened in the other version of history.”

  “You did say that the French were placing far too much confidence in their Maginot Line fortifications to defend them against Germany, Harold.”

  “Yes, Dear. Unfortunately, the French chose to fight this war based on the tactics of the last war. I guess that they simply aren’t prepared for the sort of conflict that the Germans are about to unleash upon them. The British are a little more prepared, but they simply don’t have the number of troops and tanks at this time to stop the German Army.”

  “My father told me before he died that in the Great War, the front lines barely moved at all after the first few months. They just sat in muddy trenches that no one wanted to get out of because of the machine guns and snipers on the other side.”

  “Maybe what we have already accomplished to strengthen the Commonwealth military and deter the Germans from employing the blitzkrieg against Western Europe and England. That would certainly prevent much of what happened in the timeline that I came from, Sweetheart.”

  “I don’t know, Harold. If what you said before is correct, it is only a matter of time before Hitler truly attacks to the West. I know that you have already done much to improve England’s military. You have also helped significantly improve things in the Pacific. But maybe it won’t be enough. You may have to pull some more ‘tricks’ out of that little computer of yours to help our side in this war.”

  “Lord, I hope not. Who knows what else might happen as a result of me introducing too much technology from the future into this timeline. We still have to be very careful about this.”

  “But Harold, we have to do whatever we can to prevent these evil men now from winning now, don’t we?”

  “Yes, of course. But we still have to think of the future survival of all mankind. In the future that I came from, the Allies won the war against the Axis but created the circumstances for the extinction of mankind less than a century later. We have to stop that from happening too.”

  “Harold, you have a lot of things in your special room that could help change the world for the better, I’m sure.”

  “Maybe they would or maybe they would make things worse as people gain technologies that they abuse to make the world even more dangerous.”

  “How can you be so sure, Sweetheart?” Dorothy innocently asked.

  “Because I have known one hundred and twenty more years of history that unfortunately has had numerous examples where one technological development or another has been abused to the detriment of many people. We must be very careful about what we do. I cannot claim to have even remotely enough wisdom to be able to predict the long term impact of introducing the technology that we have access to. So, I have to err on the side of caution.”

  “I understand.” Dorothy replied, though not really believing her words. Dorothy only saw that Harold had the tools available from the future to help England and the Commonwealth quickly defeat the Axis. In her mind, to hell with the long term consequences.

  Harold Cavill’s Home

  Derby, Western Australia

  11 May, 1940

  Harold drove up hastily shortly after noon from his factory office. Dorothy had spent the day at home with the children, especially since Sarah was sick with an infection. He had a grim look on his face when he walked in the front door.

  “What’s wrong, Harold? Did something happen in town again?”

  “No, Dorothy. The Germans have attacked France and the Low Countries on the ground and in the air. It appears that the main blitzkrieg against the Allies has started as of yesterday.”

  “Can we do anything about it, Harold?”

  “Not at the moment. Let’s see how Churchill does with the improvements with the Royal Navy that we helped him implement now that he is the new Prime Minister for England.”

  “When did that happen?”

  “Yesterday. I learned about it from a telegraph that Winston sent me last night. He is certainly going to have his hands full out there. However, if they can keep the supply lines open in the Atlantic with fewer losses of shipping, the British should be able to keep the Germans at bay much more easily. If the RAF adopts the Dragonfly fighter to supplement their Spitfires and Hurricanes, then the toll that the RAF will inflict in the skies over London and other British cities will decimate the Luftwaffe’s bombers. That alone will save many innocent lives in England. ”

  “How long will it be before we can tell?”

  “A few months perhaps. It will take a little time to ramp up production of the Dragonfly. Fortunately, it is already in production for the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm as well as here since Miles Brothers worked out all of the problems with the original prototype. I am preparing my factories here and in England to assi
st when the decision is made. At least, we are still not introducing any really new technology into the war at this point.”

  “If things are that dire, perhaps you should consider giving our side just a wee bit more of an advantage from your future so that we can save the lives of our boys and protect our friends.”

  “I hope that I won’t need to resort to that. Even the Dragonfly fighter-bomber that Miles Brothers is building is basically the same design that was proposed at the beginning of the war. I simply suggested a few refinements that were still well within the state of the art for this time. Then I provided the necessary financing to bring the design to market.

  We are also not bringing HMAS Melbourne out of the shadows until I am absolutely certain that it is needed. It certainly has a number of design features that are ahead of their time. I don’t want anyone trying to replicate those features for quite a while still. But if we do need her, I want her to have a decisive edge in her effectiveness.

  As for everything else that I am currently designing or building, they are all well within the technology levels of this era still. That is vitally important if we don’t want to introduce other unanticipated problems in the future.”

  “Such as the name for the fighter that Miles Brothers designed for us?” Dorothy wryly noted.

  “That was not all that difficult for us to solve. When I learned that de Havilland had another aircraft in service that was also named Dragonfly, I simply bought the rights to the name.

  Of course, this will also serve nicely to confuse the Germans whenever they hear something about a Dragonfly. They will not know if the aircraft is a de Havilland design or one of mine, at least not immediately.”

  “That is true. Hopefully, these ships and aircraft will help us win this terrible war before too many innocent lives are lost.”

  “I hope so too, both now and in the future.”

  Harold Cavill’s Home

  Derby, Western Australia

  21 May, 1940

  “Things are not going well in Europe, Dorothy. Those fools in Paris are still not moving troops quickly enough towards the Ardennes to cut off the German spearhead. Don’t they realize how overextended the German front line commanders like Rommel and Manstein are right now? The RAF is providing better air support than before. But unless the French do something decisive soon, the Germans are going to sweep around and cut them to ribbons.” Harold angrily said after reading the latest news reports from England and France.

  “At least the leaders at home in England are realizing the gravity of the situation now. Britain is calling for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of troops from all over the Commonwealth now. It sounds like a full mobilization of the territorial reserves as well.” Dorothy noted as she read the newspaper from Sydney. She worried as heard the sounds of the children playing out in the front yard and wondered if the war would eventually threaten them as well.

  “Australia will certainly be sending thousands of troops to help in the fight against the Nazis. While many of our boys going out there will be volunteers, the rest will be conscripts. I doubt very seriously that they will be sending many aborigine troops with them though. A lot of the whites still can’t stand the thought of serving alongside someone with dark skin. As a result, our militia will likely be staying right here to defend Derby and the areas around it.”

  “That is good. But will our aborigines be enough to stop the Japanese from invading here? You told me that the Japanese captured much of China and Southeast Asia before the Americans started to exert enough force. Then it took years to slowly drive the Japanese back. Even so, the battles were very costly in terms of lives lost. That was before the Americans decided to use the atomic bomb according to your files.

  But will the Americans even be able to help us if the Japanese invade us here, Harold?”

  “I don’t know the answer to your last question, Dorothy. The Americans may not even become nearly as involved in the war as before. In any event, the actions of the Americans in this conflict set the stage for the final war, even if the Americans thought that they were trying to preserve the peace with their large military and thousands of nuclear weapons. So some things will have to change, including the role of America in the war.”

  “Won’t that risk the Axis winning the war?”

  “Not if I can help it without making things worse by introducing the wrong technologies at the wrong time.”

  “What sort of world will we leave our children and grandchildren then?”

  “Hopefully, a much safer and saner one. Speaking of our children, how are they doing? Perhaps, more importantly, what have they been doing?” Harold asked with a little smile after pulling down a reference book from one of his bookshelves.

  “They have been busy in the hobby room with their schoolwork for the last couple of hours. They are always asking about you though. You don’t get to see very much of them with everything that is going on, you know.”

  “Dear, that seems to be a common theme in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I’m afraid.”

  Just then a little red-haired girl walked to Harold while he sat reading at his chair.

  “Hi, Daddy. What are you doing?” Eight year old Judith asked, her head slightly cocked to one side.

  “I am reading one of my big books, Sweetheart.”

  “I love reading too. We have lots of books here to read, but most of them are too high on the shelves for me to get to yet.” Judith said with a slight frown of disappointment.

  A few moments later, two seven year old twin strawberry-blonde girls, followed closely by their four year old baby brother, came racing into the room.

  “Daddy!!!” yelled Sarah, Beatrice and James, all at the same time.

  “I have a question for you, especially the girls. How do you like your new bicycles?”

  “We all love them!” Sarah quickly said.

  “I’m very pleased. I have a factory constructed five years ago that made all of your bicycles. I want to make the very best bicycles in the world too.”

  Dorothy chuckled for a moment.

  “I still find it fascinating that you had a bicycle factory built with all of the other industries that you are involved in, Sweetheart. I’m sure that you didn’t have it constructed just to make children’s bicycles.”

  “Of course, not. The factory also makes the finest bicycles and tricycles in the world for adults as well. They even use pneumatic tires that seal their own leaks so that they won’t go flat. They also use the Simplex derailleur that allows the rider to shift gears while riding.”

  “Harold, something tells me that this is going to lead to something much more than mere transportation for people who can’t afford to buy an automobile.” Dorothy noted before bending over and giving Harold a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “We will just have to wait and see how things develop, Dorothy.” Harold replied with a smile.

  After all, how could a simple bicycle cause any problems at all in the future? Besides, Harold made a nice profit off of each bicycle sold. His workers could make hundreds of bicycles a month too.

  Of course, some of the bicycles were sold to Japan. They impressed more than a few people there, some of whom wore uniforms.

  Chapter Three:

  XIX Panzer Corps Field Headquarters

  Arras, France

  May 22. 1940

  “You performed very well during the battle at the River Meuse in addition to the subsequent battles at Avesnes and Cateau.” General Heinz Guderian told his subordinate General Erwin Rommel.

  “I must give all credit to my men. They all performed outstandingly in battle.”

  “Indeed, you should give them credit, those that came with you. You were extremely lucky, Erwin. You had perhaps only a third of your division that came up with you during that daring thrust into Cateau. Had the enemy been ready for battle, they could have cut you off and annihilated you.” Guderian sternly noted.

  “Jawohr, Herr G
eneral.”

  “Of course, fortune does favor the bold, doesn’t it? That is why you received the Knight’s Cross.” Guderian smiled.

  “Jawohr, Herr General. It certainly does.” A relieved Rommel answered back with a small smile.

  “We have had a minor setback at Arras in spite of the poor leadership exhibited by most of our opponents. Occasionally, we do find a ram amongst the sheep. However, we can still drive through the French and Englanders all the way to the Channel.” General Guderian noted.

  “Yes, but our eighty-eight millimeter Flak guns were able to eventually deal with the enemy tanks quite adequately at Arras, even if our own Panzers did not have adequate guns for the job. But our standard anti-tank guns also had problems dealing with the Englanders’ Matilda infantry tanks because of their heavy armor. That is a serious shortcoming that we will have to deal with soon if we are going to have continued success against such tanks. ”

  “I’m sure that we will find a solution for these Matilda’s soon enough. But the Englanders do not have nearly the number of tanks in their Expeditionary Force as the French. Yet, the French do not seem to understand the need to mass their armored forces into effective offensive units. They simply parcel their tanks out as individuals to support their infantry.”

  “When we see a French tank, we simply focus the fire of an entire platoon of our Panzers on it. The enemy tank does not last very long afterwards.”

  “On paper, the French have a powerful tank force with many well-armed and armored vehicles. Based on my observations however, none of this is true. We field a far more effective force that reacts faster to the situation with our radio communications being a key element. Of course, if our commanders get in the way of our Panzers with incessant orders to stop our attacks, our radio communications to headquarters can sometimes become…….unreliable. ” Guderian said with a sly smile.