Untimely Designs

by gerald hall

  The Italians may outnumber us, but we have better equipment and far better soldiers, even including the Australians.” The general said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Clearly, General Wavell did not think very highly of the Australian Army or its leaders. But he needed every man that he could get in order to defeat the Nazis and their Italian Fascist allies.

  Imperial Military Headquarters

  Tokyo, Japan

  December 5, 1940

  Prime Minister Hideki Tojo sat at the head of the table as the nominal ‘first among equals’ while the other Prime Ministers sat along the sides of the conference table. Numerous other senior officials sat on benches along the walls.

  “The situation with the American embargo of oil in combination with its other harsh economic sanctions has become completely intolerable. We must prepare to act to seize control of the assets necessary to ensure the survival of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Tojo declared.

  “But you are talking of declaring war upon a nation whose size and population alone completely dwarf that of our own nation. This does not even take into consideration the incredible industrial potential that America has available.” Teiichi Suzuki, president of the powerful Planning Board.

  “We must take aggressive measures or find ourselves strangled. We had hoped that with the French capitulation in Europe to our German allies that we would be able to easily move into and take control of the French colonies in Indochina.

  But the British somehow managed to convince the French to first deploy a pair of their most modern capital ships and two squadrons of supporting warships to Haiphong Harbor. Then those same French forces decided to ‘mutiny’ against the Vichy government and ally themselves with the British. So now, we have a formidable force preventing us from directly accessing the oil fields of Java.”

  “There is still America to deal with. Their president continues to meddle in our affairs. His efforts are also preventing us from achieving our goals in Asia.”

  “The Americans still are divided about whether or not to go to war. They are a people who pretend to be very warlike and celebrate their war heroes. Yet pacifists dominate its politics. I know that Taishō Yamamoto has devised a plan to strike their forward deployed naval forces at Pearl Harbor. But that action brings with it terrible risks. If our carrier strike force is detected before reaching its target, the element of surprise will be lost. The bulk of our naval forces could be cut off and destroyed far from home waters.

  The Yamamoto plan also has another risk. Right now, few of the American people are interested in going to war. Their political leaders will be hard-pressed to find support for the expenditures to bring their mighty industrial machine to bear. Even now, most of their focus is on Germany and the danger to England. If we strike so far close to the American mainland, we risk becoming the focus of the Americans’ anger.

  However, if we limit our conflict with America to areas in the Western Pacific like Guam and the Philippine Islands, the risks are much lower for us. Then we drive south and conquer Southeast Asia. We will still have secured access to the Sumatran oil fields with our subsequent strikes southwest against British, Dutch, French and Australian forces by the time that we decide to strike against the Americans.

  Of course, we must ensure that we show the American people that their leaders in Washington have left Japan no choice. Then the eyes of the American people will be elsewhere, especially when Germany declares war upon America as part of our agreement with them and Italy. The Americans will be far more interested in what happens in Europe than in events in East Asia.

  If the American Pacific Fleet chooses to try to intervene in the Philippines, we will employ our existing plans to attrite the American force with submarines, aircraft and nighttime torpedo attacks from our lighter warships. Then we will send out our powerful battleship fleet to utterly destroy the tattered remains of the American Pacific Fleet. They will not want to risk sending another fleet after shedding the blood of so many of their young men in vain.” Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai, Prime Minister of Japan confidently explained.

  “What about the French battle cruisers at Haiphong and the British capital ships at Singapore? They will surely be a threat to our southern flank.” Tojo asked.

  “We will detach our Kongo class fast battleships from Battleship Division 3 along with the aircraft carriers; Ryujo, Zuiho, Hosho and Shoho; the heavy cruisers from Cruiser Divisions 6 and 5 as well as whatever supporting ships are available to deal with the enemy naval forces. Our ships will be supported by land-based aircraft flying out of southern China whenever possible. The French, British, Dutch and Australians together cannot hope to match that force. The rest of the Combined Fleet will prepare to meet the American Pacific Fleet when they come to rescue their countrymen in the Philippines. Very few of the American sailors will survive to remember the experience, to be sure.” Admiral Yonai told the rest of the War Cabinet.

  “It is a gamble detaching all of the Kongo’s to fight the English and French. This will strip protection of Combined Fleet’s main aircraft carrier force of all of our fastest capital ships. In any event, it will take us at least six months to prepare for the invasion of the Philippines and the American occupied islands in the Western Pacific, Sir.” Admiral Kantarō Suzuki noted. He was also the Marine Minister as well as Military Councilor.

  “We will then keep our carriers further in the rear to ensure that they will not be threatened. I would suggest that you begin immediately with your preparations for war against both enemy forces. We cannot wait any longer. Roosevelt’s trade sanctions against us are already beginning to adversely impact our economy and our war efforts in China. We need the resources of Southeast Asia and the surrounding area for the benefit of the Japanese people.” Prime Minister Tojo ordered before making one more comment.

  “In any event, our German and Italian allies will tie up so much of the British naval strength that once the currently deployed ships are destroyed, no reinforcements will be available. Are there any objections remaining?”

  No one spoke up in response to Tojo’s question.

  “It is settled. We will destroy the Americans and British in the Pacific and force them to accept Japan’s rightful place in the world, especially in our sphere of influence throughout eastern Asia. We will also have access to all of the oil and other raw materials that we need to keep our economy running. In spite of Taishō Yamamoto’s fears, we will also able to defeat anything that the Americans build later to fight us.”

  “How long will it require for the preparations for combat operations against the Americans and the British?”

  “We have committed a considerable amount of our resources in the Chinese theatre of operations. It will take time to assemble enough fuel and munitions for operations against the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. There is also the issue of the completion of fleet aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku as well as the battleship Yamato. It would be strongly preferred that we wait until they is ready for combat operations to ensure that we overwhelm the American Pacific Fleet’s battle line and carrier force coming to relieve their troops in the Philippines.

  We will need to work up all of our carriers sufficiently before engaging the Americans. This will require us waiting until late next year, unfortunately.”

  “So ka. Some things cannot be avoided obviously. The matter is settled then. The operation is approved for the end of next year.” Tojo finally said.

  Suzuki quickly stood up and bowed before replying.

  “Yes, Sir. We will immediately issue the necessary orders to begin preparations. Long live the Emperor!”

  “Hai!” Everyone in the room enthusiastically replied in unison.

  Harold Cavill’s Office

  Derby, Western Australia

  February 19, 1941

  “Harold, we just received a telegram from the commander of Free French forces in French Indochina. He wants to know if we could produce some artillery pieces for his men.�
� Dorothy told him. She was working in the office today, even with their four young children running around under foot.

  “It pleases me to see that there is still a little bit of Napoleon there among the French officers. Bonaparte certainly loved his artillery. We will have to let him know that we would be happy to sign a contract to produce some cannon for him. I hope that 105mm field guns would be satisfactory. The French will have to give us specifications, of course.”

  “I wonder if you have anything already in that ‘little box’ of yours, Sweetheart?” Dorothy asked after ensuring that no one was within listening distance.

  Harold thought for a few moments before responding.

  “I know that our Ordnance Works can build artillery up to 105mm caliber. We even have a new 105mm gun-howitzer design with a significantly longer barrel for longer range and the ability to engage armored vehicles with direct fire. We can also use this weapon as a coastal defense weapon. The question is what we can do to make each artillery piece do the work of several weapons. That way, the French can be more effective against the Japanese. It would also provide us with something else that we can offer to the Australian Army to improve its effectiveness as well.”

  “Can you combine them with something else that you make in one of your factories to make the guns even more effective?”

  Harold thought for a few moments and took a mental inventory of all of the different products that his companies manufactured. Then he started to pull out some documents from one of the file cabinets in his office.

  After a few minutes of research, Harold quickly pulled out some paper and began to draw up some rough sketches. When he was finished, he got up and showed them to Dorothy.

  “You are putting your new gun on a truck?”

  “Roughly said, that’s true. But there is a lot more to it than just that. We can stretch the chassis of our largest truck design and add a third drive axle in the rear as well as running a drive axle to the front axle. That will give the vehicle considerably better cross-country mobility. That way, the vehicle can easily operate off of established roads. We can probably even design removable rubber tracks that can be placed over the rear drive wheels to further lower ground-pressure. That would help even more in driving on soft ground. We can also add armor and a gun turret from the Echidna medium tank onto the same basic chassis to make the vehicle into a very effective armored car. Such an armored car could be used by armored cavalry units and would have an effective anti-tank capability.”

  Looking around to see if any adults were within hearing distance before continuing, Harold then explained.

  “A lot of the newest vehicle-mounted artillery pieces in my time were built on wheeled chassis. They were a lot faster and less expensive than the artillery pieces that had been mounted on a tracked chassis. We can’t build anything as sophisticated as those vehicles. But we can still do a lot of the same things with the current technology however.

  We should be able to also add some light armor protection to the vehicle cab, especially if we place the cab over the engine compartment to reduce the vehicle’s overall length. That way, we can protect the gun crew from artillery fragments and small arms fire.

  The vehicle won’t be able to carry a lot of ammunition itself. But we can have ammunition trucks travelling with each gun, perhaps even using a modified version of the same chassis. The gun-truck could also tow an ammunition trailer if necessary. The guns could then stay in action for extended battles. But by putting the gun on the truck itself instead of towing the gun, we can get the weapon in and out of action much faster. That makes it a lot safer for the gun crews since it will be a lot harder for the enemy gunners to fire rounds back at them.

  In other words, a gun crew can travel very quickly, get into position to fire their howitzer and quickly leave a lot faster than with a towed artillery piece. This also would allow each gun to do the work of three or four guns. We can probably do the same arrangement with our heavy twelve-centimeter mortar on the back of a lighter truck as well.

  I will have to check with Eric Poole on this to be certain, but I don’t think that we will be able to able to accurately fire the gun while the vehicle is just on its wheels. We would have to add some sort of stabilizing system with hydraulically-extended steel jacks that would support the vehicle during firing. They can still be lowered and raised pretty quickly.”

  “Harold, it amazes me sometimes about the ideas that you come up with.” Dorothy said.

  “Well, I was trained to be an engineer. So designing equipment comes to me naturally. Plus, I have the knowledge of more than a hundred years of advances to draw upon as well. I just have to be careful about what advances that I use.”

  “So when are you going to start building these ‘gun-trucks’?”

  “I will have to meet with Eric and my people at our Tractor factory to iron out some details. I’m sure that they can build the vehicles though.

  Once we get the first few vehicles constructed and any design problems solved, then we can demonstrate them to the Army. But the first battery of vehicles will get their field-testing here with the Derby militia. Even if the Australian Army doesn’t buy our new self-propelled howitzers, I will leave them in service with our militia. I want our militia to be the best-equipped military force in the entire continent, just in case something bad happens.”

  “I wonder how many of our militia will actually show up if the Japanese do decide to attack here, Sweetheart? We always have so much personnel turnover at our factories, especially among the aborigines.”

  “I planned for that a long time ago, Dorothy. We have always hired and trained about forty percent more employees than what we actually needed, especially with the aborigines. They are not nearly as willing, as a people, to grind away at a job for days and years at a time. So, I knew that the aborigine workers would get bored, from time to time, with their jobs and would simply leave to go on ‘walkabout’. Most of them would eventually come back, of course.”

  “So you would always keep a reserve of trained workers available to fill those gaps.”

  “Yes, I did. It always cost me extra money constantly feeding new workers through the training programs and the unavoidable delays in production as we trained new workers to fill in. But I knew this was the nature of the workforce that I employed.

  In the long run, I ended up producing more with such a large force of workers to draw upon when necessary though.”

  “Do you think that it will be the same way with the militia though, Sweetheart?”

  “I believe that the aborigines will all return back as quickly as possible in the event of an attack. They would not only see it as a threat to their land, but also an opportunity for the men to have a chance to be fearsome warriors once again.”

  “Only this time, they will have a lot better weapons to fight with.”

  “The only bad part about this situation are the people in our own country who do not trust our aborigine friends with those weapons, or for that matter, with anything else.”

  “I trust that you are right. After all, the aborigines believe that you are the man from the gods who can foretell the future. They trust you in ways that they trust no other white man, I know.”

  “It is with that trust and their help that I hope to save the future for all humanity, Dorothy.”

  Chapter Five:

  20th Armored Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, Australian Expeditionary Force

  Western Desert, Libya

  February 25, 1942

  Artillery from both sides thundered as the Australian tankers prepared to go on the attack just west of Tobruk. The tank battalion was a mix of old captured Italian M13/40’s and new armored vehicles that had been shipped to the front lines from Australia via Alexandria, Egypt.

  The crew of one of the new Cavil Tractor Work’s Echidna medium tanks was making final preparations for battle. The tank’s name, ‘Jubilee’, was emblazoned on the side of her turret next to the stenciled image of a kan
garoo. The four-man crew continued to load ammunition and supplies in spite of the occasional nearby explosion of artillery.

  “So now they are calling us the Twentieth Armored Brigade, eh?” Corporal Andrew Harper asked while loading the last armor-piercing round for his tank’s six-pounder main gun through the tank’s back hatch. Andrew was from Perth and was the tank’s gunner.

  “At least privately the officers are. I think that for everyone else, we are still being called an infantry brigade. It is something about not wanting the Jerry’s and the Italians to know that we have these tanks now.” Private Steven Coale answered back from within the tank. Steven was from Brisbane and served as the tank’s loader as well as its radio operator.

  “They will know soon enough once we get going. Do you think that the Jerry’s will have any 88’s out there?” Private Aiden Dalton, Jubilee’s driver, asked while bringing up a case of machine gun ammunition for the weapon mounted on the tank’s left fender before climbing onto the tank and into his driver’s hatchway. Aiden was a volunteer from Sydney and had been driving a lorry before the start of the war.

  “I certainly hope not. If they do, this run will be all too short and exciting. I do not want to have to bail out of another brewed up tank again in this lifetime, I’ll have you know.” Sergeant Matthew Ryan, Jubilee’s commander, said as he walked back from a supply lorry with a case of rations and water. Jubilee was Matthew’s third tank. The Adelaide native already had two cruiser’s shot out from under him by German guns.

  “This is still the best tank that I have ever been in, even better than the Panzers that the Jerry’s use.” Matthew continued as he stowed away the last of the supplies. Some went inside the rear of the tank while the rest was tossed into containers that had been welded onto the sides of Jubilee’s turret and hull at the factory.