yesterdays war

by gerald hall

  responses. But I personally believe that they will agree to your latest proposal, Mister Cavill.” ‘Of course, they would.’ Harold silently said to themselves. At least half of the companies on the

  list badly needed a lifeline to get themselves back into the technological lead. Their owners must have

  borrowed heavily to be able to get in on the group’s investment bid in the hopes of hitching their star to

  Harold’s successful business. Harold wanted very badly to be able to incorporate technological

  advancements to be able to forward his agenda. But how much would be too much? Westland Aircraft was already of significant interest to Harold because of their Westland

  Whirlwind fighter-bomber that they would produce during the early years of the war. Harold was certain

  that this particular aircraft could be re-engined with the Pratt & Whitney Twin-Wasp that he was already

  procuring the production license for. That would solve many of the Whirlwind’s flaws and give Harold an

  aircraft that he could produce for both the RAF and the RAAF.

  Harold had already started building a small aircraft design bureau of his own, complete with

  several aeronautical and mechanical engineers. He was even building a small wind tunnel to them to use

  in their work. Harold wanted to give his engineers all of the tools that they would need to design state of

  the art aircraft for him. But for now, the other aircraft firms’ expertise would be invaluable. Petter LTD could also be an asset with Harold’s own plans to build an advanced line of diesel

  engines for land and naval use. Petter LTD was already well established as a diesel engine manufacturer

  in England. A partnership with the company would give Harold sufficient cover for incorporating

  advanced diesel engine concepts into his new production engines.

  Harold made a note to himself to see if any of these new investors were involved in the

  manufacture of steam power plants. Such an association could provide the opportunity to offer highpressure steam turbine plants for new Royal Navy warship designs. Certainly, incorporating lighter,

  more powerful and efficient power plants to the various Royal Navy classes, both old and new, would

  improve the combat effectiveness of these warships. This will be needed when the Second World War

  would began in less than eight more years.

  Chapter Sixteen: Derby Hospital

  Derby, Western Australia December 4, 1932

  Harold found himself in a familiar situation, waiting at the hospital’s front desk while Dorothy was in labor in the delivery room. Only this time, he was holding Judith while he waited. The hospital now was actually a couple of attached buildings larger since Judith’s birth. Harold had paid for them to be constructed so that there would be room for a delivery room and half a dozen more private hospital beds. Judith was back home with the babysitter.

  This time, it took a lot longer before the doctor came out of the delivery room to tell Harold the news.

  “Is everyone alright?” a worried Harold quickly asked.

  “Yes, Mister Cavill. Your wife and daughters are all healthy.” Doctor Phillips said with a smile.

  “Daughters?” A surprised Harold asked.

  “Yes, of course. You and Dorothy now have a pair of new baby girls. From what I can tell, the little darlings are as identical as two infants can possibly be.”

  “Can I go in and see them?”

  “Of course. I will warn you that your wife is pretty tired. The delivery of twins was quite taxing upon her. For a little while, I was afraid that I was going to have to go in and do a caesarian section. But things worked out for a natural delivery for both babies.” The doctor explained.

  “Thank you, Doctor.” Harold said before being led to the room where Dorothy and the babies were.

  Dorothy was propped in bed with the babies when Harold walked in. Dorothy smiled wearily when she saw Harold though.

  “Hi, Sweetheart. We had an unexpected extra passenger arrive today. Aren’t both of them wonderful?”

  “Yes, Dear. All three of you are beautiful.” Harold said as he leaned over and gave Dorothy a kiss.

  “Can I hold one of them?” Harold asked.

  “Of course.”

  Harold picked up one of the baby girls and held her in his arms, smiling as only a proud father can.

  “I wasn’t expecting twins, much less identical twins. What are we going to name them, Dorothy?”

  “We hadn’t exactly settled on a name before. As I remember, we were debating between Sarah and Beatrice.”

  “Well, since we have two babies now, why don’t we use both names? Let’s name this one Sarah Elizabeth and the other one Beatrice Caroline. I seem to remember that you have some relatives with those names. What do you think?” Harold asked.

  “Those names sounds perfect, Harold.” Dorothy said with a smile of delight.

  “We better go let Doctor Phillips know so that she can fill out the birth certificates then. Of course, I think that we are going to spend years just trying to tell Sarah and Beatrice apart from one other, especially if they decide not to cooperate. I can’t tell them apart even now.” Harold laughed.

  “It’s a good thing that we are having the house expanded. Maybe I should tell the workers to go ahead and add another couple of bedrooms just in case?”

  “That’s probably a good idea. The doctor said that I was still in very good physical condition. I could easily have more babies if we want them.”

  “Whoa there, Dorothy. One thing at a time. I’m still in a little bit of shock over you having twins. That will give us three girls to deal with now. I have a feeling that we are going to have our hands full before long.

  For now, I better go outside and let folks know the good news. I think that we already have a couple of hundred people standing outside of the hospital waiting to hear how you and the babies are doing. I know that they will be very happy though, as am I.”

  Harold walked out of the hospital front door and was shocked to see over a thousand people now standing there.

  “I just wanted to let everyone know that Dorothy is doing well as are our two new baby daughters. Thank you all for your support and prayers.” Harold called out to the waiting crowd that was a mix of both whites and aborigines.

  A huge cheer rang out from the crowd as tears rolled down Harold’s cheeks. He was finally having the family that he never got to have in his own time.

  But Harold continued to think about the changes that he needed to make in history. What kind of a world would his and Dorothy’s children inherit after Harold was done? Will he even have any greatgrandchildren when the year 2040 arrives?

  Only the future will tell.

  Cavill Aeronautics

  Derby, Western Australia August 4, 1933

  Albert Wright was busy at his drafting table in his office when his new employer Harold Cavill walked into the headquarters building of Cavill Aeronautics, the latest of Harold’s business ventures. Albert had been working as an aeronautic engineer with Boeing less than six months earlier. But Harold had hired him in addition to several other engineers from Boeing, Douglas, Curtiss-Wright and Lockheed Aircraft Company. Now, Albert was running a brand new aircraft manufacturer for one of Australia’s wealthiest and most mysterious men.

  “Hello, Albert. I trust that you are finding your new office adequate for your needs.” Harold said with a friendly smile while shaking Albert’s hand.

  “Yes, Mister Cavill. Of course, we could always use more trained engineers and draftsmen. We have been working on your initial ideas for a commercial airliner. The drawings that you had provided to us have been very helpful, of course. We just started using the new wind tunnel for the first time. It is absolutely first rate.”

  “I am working on getting you more people to help. First, we have to get them through the training that they needed to become draftsmen
. Otherwise, I will have to recruit additional personnel from outside of the country.”

  “Any additional help that you can give us will certainly be welcome.”

  “I’m sure. In any event, I have a new project for you and your team, Albert. This aircraft that I want needs to be a real world beater. I have some ideas for it already.”

  “What do you want us to design for you?”

  “I want a very large, long-range passenger and cargo flying boat that can carry more and fly further than anything else out there. The new aircraft is to use the Pratt & Whitney Twin-Wasp radial engine since I have already purchased the manufacturing license for that engine. The aircraft needs to be able to carry as many as one hundred and twenty passengers or up to fifteen tons of cargo.

  As usual, I have a few sketches.” Harold explained while opening up a large cardboard tube that he had brought with him.

  Harold began to pull out a series of large-scale drawings and lay them out on a nearby table. The drawings showed a variety of images of a large six-engine seaplane with three vertical stabilizers. The fuselage of the seaplane had floatation sponsons located on the lower fuselage sides and stabilizing floats on the wings that retracted into the wingtips. One of the images even showed the front of the nose opening up to allow bulk cargo to be loaded and unloaded directly through it. In fact, the nose door looked large enough to drive an entire vehicle through it.

  “That is quite a remarkable looking aircraft, Mister Cavill. You have so much detail in these drawings as well. Are you sure that you weren’t trained as an aeronautical engineer? Albert asked.

  “I’ve dabbled in a lot of different disciplines over the years. Engineering skills usually apply over a fairly wide range of arenas. But I have to leave the detail work to the specialists like yourself.”

  Harold then began to lay out the performance requirements for the proposed aircraft including such things as range, payload, speed and takeoff run.”

  “This is going to be a very impressive aircraft if I am able to make it to do everything that you want, Mister Cavill.”

  “Oh, I am quite certain that you can. There is one other thing that I want you to consider when designing this aircraft. It will have to be very adaptable for a potential military mission as well. That will require that the wings and other structures be very damage tolerant. The wings will also need to be capable of having two or three hardpoints fitted to carry and drop bombs and torpedoes under each wing. There will have to be provisions for a heavy defensive armament to protect the aircraft from enemy fighter aircraft. It would probably be a good idea for two of those hardpoints be capable of carrying drop tanks for additional fuel storage as well.” Harold explained.

  “I’m definitely going to have my work cut out for me then. Mister Cavill.”

  Harold smiled before responding. He knew that the aircraft depicted in the illustrations combined many of the features of the German Blohm und Voss BV 222, Consolidated PBY Catalina, Boeing 314 Clipper, Kawanishi H8K3 and other 1930’s to early 1940’s era flying boats. He was absolutely sure that such an aircraft could not only be built, but that it would achieve everything that he wanted. That belief was reflected in Harold’s final comments before leaving Albert’s office

  “I have complete confidence that you will be able to accomplish all of my requirements, Albert. Good luck. I look forward to seeing your final design.”

  After Harold left, an impressed and slightly frustrated Albert quietly said to himself, hands on his hips.

  “It’s not like you left me all that much more to do except to draw out a couple of thousand engineering blueprints, Mister Cavill. I guess that will be keeping me and my people busy for a while until his next new idea comes along.”

  Harold left the Cavill Aeronautics building and headed towards his truck. But before he got inside, Harold turned around at the rapidly growing complex. The headquarters building was rapidly being surrounded by a variety of other new buildings. A building containing wind tunnel for the testing of aircraft models and components was almost complete. Three other buildings for component design and manufacture were also rapidly nearly completion.

  The real heavy manufacturing and assembly for the aircraft being designed here would occur several kilometers away inside one of the newly excavated caverns. All but the largest aircraft designs could be built in their entirety inside the cavern. Harold knew that larger designs like the proposed flying boat would have to have their final assembly done outside of the cavern. For that purpose, half a dozen large sheet metal buildings would soon be constructed.

  These buildings would also serve in a second role as hangars for the new airstrip that had just started construction near the underground aircraft factory. Rock from the excavation would be incorporated into the concrete surface of the main landing strip. Harold had purchased all of the land in that area so that he would have sufficient room for expansion. This would include more than enough room for additional hangars and aircraft parking aprons.

  To transport subcomponents to the underground assembly plant, another rail spur was being laid towards it. This joined the growing rail network to other facilities that Harold had under construction on the outskirts of Derby. Harold actually was projecting that the rail lines that he had started constructing along the western Australian coastline would eventually even link Derby with both Darwin in the north and Perth in the southwest.

  The rail lines had already passed the towns of Lagrange and Fitzroy Crossing. Within another year, Harold hoped to reach Port Hedland and Wyndham. This would greatly facilitate the movement of personnel, raw materials and processed goods for Harold’s various enterprises. It would also allow Harold to place a lot less reliance upon ships coming into King South and its radical tides to bring in material.

  Cutting down on ship traffic going through the King Sound served another purpose for Harold. This allowed for greater security for the various naval construction projects that were being undertaken there. These projects would certainly be very important during the war to come.

  Cavill Shipyards Design Office Derby, Western Australia June 9, 1934

  “We have had to make the design larger than the Royal Navy’s current C and D class destroyers. But with modern high-pressure steam propulsion units, this destroyer will be able to carry all of the equipment needed, be more than fast enough for fleet actions and have an adequate operational radius for escort duties.

  Even though my new destroyer design will have guns that are slightly lighter in caliber than our current twelve centimeter quick-firing guns, the superior rate of fire for its guns will permit the ship exceed any existing or proposed Royal Navy destroyer in overall firepower. The design uses dualpurpose high-angle gun mounts that permit the warship to significantly increase its anti-aircraft defenses as well.

  We will also have a larger number of torpedo tubes than the C and D classes or any of the proposed future Royal Navy destroyer designs. That will give us a tremendous punch against enemy surface vessels.

  If necessary, we can exchange some weapons on my yard’s destroyer design for other equipment in a short period of time to adapt the ship for a particular mission. For example, we could remove some depth charge throwers in exchange for additional light anti-aircraft guns if the threat demands it for a given area of operations. In any event, the design’s standard anti-aircraft armament will be quite formidable.” Alexander explained to Harold when the latter dropped by the shipyard for a quick visit.

  “Very good. I can accept that. But what about the other issues that you alluded to earlier?” Harold asked.

  “I don’t know if you are going to be able to produce enough of the Mark III four point five-inch

  gun twin gun mounts to be able to equip all of these other destroyers that you believe we will need to

  build. The information that I just received from your ordnance works indicates that they cannot produce

  the Mark III guns at all. Where else are we going to get them, Sir?<
br />
  Harold thought for a few moments before responding. The British Mark XVI four inch guns and

  Mark XIX twin gun mounts were designed at about this time according to history. But it would take a

  couple of years before they would be in service. He would have to take a chance and prepare for their

  introduction into service ahead of time. The fact that the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy both use

  substantial numbers of four-inch guns already should help cover the interjection of slightly newer

  technology without raising too much suspicion.

  “Melbournepushed our capacity as it is to give her the full complement of guns and turrets. We

  were forced to purchase the guns themselves from England for her. My Ordnance Works can build

  lighter guns at a much faster rate with our current facilities, however.” Harold noted. “That still doesn’t help our people at the shipyard, I’m afraid. We can’t build these ships under

  the current design without having the specified weapons available for completion, Sir.” “I want you to create a new variant of your destroyer design that uses four twin four-inch high

  angle gun mounts. I believe that if we increase the number of guns available, we can overwhelm enemy

  ships by sheer volume of fire. Those same guns, combined with multiple light automatic cannons and

  quadruple pom-poms, will enable the ship to fend off even the most determined aerial attacks. It will be

  necessary to fit two high angle gun controllers to provide adequate direction for the guns notably. We should also fit two or even three quadruple torpedo tube mounts to give the ship a

  devastating torpedo salvo. This will make up for the lighter damage inflicted individually by the smaller

  caliber main guns when the destroyer is engaging enemy cruisers or capital ships.“ Harold told his chief

  naval architect.

  “You will need a hull at least as large as aTribal, if not larger, to fit all of this in, Mister Cavill.

  This will especially be the case if you continue to use a steam turbo-electric drive like with the other