yesterdays war

by gerald hall

  “Winston, I was thinking about something during the flight here. My flying boat service could be very useful to the British government in a lot of ways. We’ve already started carrying mail on all of my Cavalier flights. In fact, the flight that I came in on transported nearly a ton of mail for the Australian Postmaster General in addition to some high value parcels. I would like to offer my service to Her Majesty’s Government for the clandestine transportation of important documents and parcels.

  I would imagine that the government typically uses ships to send documents to the various parts of the British Empire, correct?”

  “Yes, that is true. Of course, we don’t announce which ships are carrying special documents. But the ship’s lockbox is usually quite secure.”

  “In peacetime, I’m sure that it is. Wartime would be a completely different matter though. Of course, a ship would take far longer to get to India or Singapore than one of my flying boats. There are certainly occasions where a document that cannot be transmitted via telegraph for a variety of reasons due to its sensitive nature. But that document needs to arrive at its destination in a rapid and secure manner.

  This is where my flying boats would solve certain problems. They are able to reach their destination quickly. They would also be very difficult to intercept. I also have a lightweight strongbox incorporated in each aircraft for high-value items to be stored inside of.”

  “Could an adversary be able to engage one of your flying boats with an armed aircraft?” Churchill asked after lighting a cigar.

  “They could try. But I have incorporated certainly features to make that more difficult. This includes accommodations for twin Lewis machine guns in flexible mounts on either side of the Cavalier’s fuselage in my current production aircraft. Additional machine guns could be added in time of war as needed.”

  “So you have designed the Cavalier to have a wartime mission in addition to its current civilian purpose?”

  “Yes. The existing Cavaliers can easily be modified for missions like submarine hunting or the transport of raiding parties behind enemy lines. The design can be modified so that new production aircraft can have additional defensive and offensive armaments as well as other military-related equipment installed on the production line. The Cavalier design will also soon be built with more powerful Wright Cyclone radial engines to give the aircraft even more payload capability.”

  “This is all very interesting. I have read that Short Brothers is also building a large flying boat for much the same civilian purposes in order to meet an Air Ministry requirement. But the Short design is not nearly as large and long-ranged as your aircraft. I will certainly bear in mind what you have proposed. I’m sure that I know someone in the Home Office or with the War Ministry who would be very interested in contracting your services, Harold.”

  “Thank you. I’m sure that the use of my flying boats will save the British government a considerable amount of problems in the long run. By their very nature, they are more secure than sending sensitive documents on a ship because of an airplane’s speed and difficulty in interception. ”

  Harold knew that if the British government did use his services that it would change quite a few things in the future. Simply avoiding the debacle of the cargo ship SSAutomedon’scapture by the disguised German raiderAtlantisin November 1940 alone would be critical to a string of historical events. That ill-fated British cargo ship contained numerous sensitive War Ministry documents that told the Axis the strengths and weaknesses of Commonwealth defenses in Southeast Asia. The revelation of this information would lead to some very profound changes in history. These changes included preventing the loss of the British base at Singapore as well as the Japanese surprise carrier strike on Pearl Harbor.

  “I can certainly see the possibilities, Harold. The only problem that I can readily foresee would be a reluctance to allow a non-British aircraft to transport such materiel, even if it belonged to a Commonwealth nation. But I will certainly argue that your aircraft is far superior for the mission already.”

  “Thank you, Winston. Do you want to see the inside of the Cavalier?”

  “Of course.” Churchill said before quickly extinguishing his cigar and walking up the walkway from the pier into the massive flying boat. They spent the next two hours walking through the aircraft while Harold described every detail of the Cavalier. Finally, Churchill took his leave and headed back to his residence while Harold rode back in a rented Hackney to his hotel where Dorothy and the children were already waiting.

  “I’m glad to see that you and the children are back, Dorothy. I trust that your trip went well?” Harold asked with a tired smile.

  “Yes. We had an excellent time although the children started to get tired after a few hours. We took an earlier train back here. They are all in the other room fast asleep now. How did things go with Mister Churchill?”

  “I believe that they went quite well. The suggestions that I made through him have certainly reached the right people and are making some considerable effect. I hope and pray that it will be enough to counter the Germans and the rest of the Axis powers in a few years.”

  “What if it isn’t, Harold?”

  “That is why we are doing so much work back in Australia. We will have to be able to hold back the Japanese for at least a while until we can get more support from England. The Americans will be fighting in the Pacific too. But they probably won’t be as motivated as before to resort to extreme measures. The last thing that humanity needs is for the Americans or anyone else to begin a nuclear weapons program as a result of this conflict.

  It would be far better for the war to last a bit longer and the Japanese strangled into submission by a blockade than to have those damned bombs built and used against them or anyone else.” Harold said with an anger that Dorothy could clearly feel.”

  “What about the Germans? Could they build these terrible bombs also?” Dorothy asked.

  “They were unable to successfully build an atomic bomb before. But we can also take certain measures to ensure that either the necessary materials or the technical expertise will be denied to the Nazis this time as well. Mister Churchill does have quite a passion for unconventional measures, even including assassinations, if necessary. The deaths of certain key scientific personnel can destroy a highly technical project just as surely as a thousand bombs on a factory.”

  “I hope that we can be successful without any more bloodshed than absolutely necessary. I saw many of the men who had returned from the Great War. Even many of them who had never been wounded had this terrible haunted look in their eyes. It was painful to see that in those gallant men.”

  “I know. That is what war has always done to people throughout history. All of our technological marvels didn’t save the young men and women who fought in my future from those same horrors either.” Harold sadly replied.

  “Well, on a much lighter note. How long before we head back home to Australia, Sweetheart? I think that the kids are ready to get back home to some sunshine. I have to admit that I rather prefer the warmer weather myself even though I grew up here in England and Scotland.” Dorothy asked after pausing for a moment.

  “Our plane is due to leave London in three days. Within a week, we will be back home doing what we love most, my dear.”

  The trip back to Derby was uneventful for Harold and his family after a final few days in England. They were all exhausted and slept through most of the flight onboard the huge Cavalier flying boat. Even Dorothy chose not to spend any time at the controls of the Cavalier on the way home.

  The badly needed rest that Harold got immediately proved to be a benefit for him. He had to immediately go back to work upon his arrival at his office. There was already a stack of reports and other documents waiting on his desk for review.

  “Oh, how I hate paperwork.” Harold groaned, longing for the days of email correspondence and electronic spreadsheets as he poured over each sheet of paper.

  But not everything was bad
news for Harold. Not only had construction work been completed upon the two flight-deck liners, but there was already an American shipping company, the Alaska Steamship Company, that had offered a bid for both of the vessels. They could not use the ships for the routes between Alaska and the lower 48 states due to the 1920 Jones Act. But the Alaska Syndicate, that owned the shipping line, wanted to branch out into transpacific routes in addition to their domestic shipping routes. With the failing fortunes of the Dollar Steamship Line, the Alaska Syndicate saw an opportunity to take over the other firm’s routes as well as establish routes between Alaska, Canada and Mexico. In spite of the restrictions of the Jones Act, the Alaska Syndicate wanted Harold’s ships.

  The Jones Act prohibited shipping between American ports on foreign-built hulls. The aircraft onboard the liners would allow the transfer of limited numbers of passengers and cargo from American coastal cities in route while still remaining compliant with the Jones Act. The Alaska Syndicate had requested information on the two liners months before Harold and his family left for England. Obviously, the Syndicate was very impressed by how fast, safe, fuel efficient and cost competitive, Harold’s ships were.

  The Alaska Syndicate’s bid for the two liners was more than acceptable. It also came at a time where Harold’s companies badly needed additional cash income for his expansion plans. It was an incredible gamble on Harold’s part to build the liners without having a customer already for them. But it proved to be worthwhile in the long run.

  In designing and building the flight deck liners, the groundwork had been laid for the construction of new aircraft carriers based heavily upon the flight deck liner. That had been Harold’s intent from the beginning as well.

  Harold also saw another trend that pleased him. There were continued improvements in production and productivity. This meant that he could afford to pay higher wages to his employees and continue with the other work that was benefiting the community. These same improvements meant that Harold would be able to produce more materiel from his factories when it would be most needed in a few years.

  Harold thought of the well-stocked storefronts in Derby’s produce stores that he saw as he drove in from the port. The bounty from the farms that Harold created not only added to his financial bottom line, but also assured that no one in the area would go hungry. The farms continued to produce more each year, especially as the irrigation system was expanded. The water going to the farms came from the reservoirs created by a pair of small hydroelectric dams.

  Much of Harold’s work has been extraordinarily fruitful, including in ways that he would have never anticipated when he stepped through the time portal eighteen years earlier.

  The good news for Harold continued as the first drawings from the Miles brothers arrived via airmail at Harold’s shipyard office about two weeks after Harold returned to Australia. As soon as Harold saw them, he closely inspected them and the accompanying documents. An excited smile quickly appeared on his face.

  He quickly ran out of the office, got into his motor car and sped to the local telegraph office. Once there, he immediately composed a message to the Miles brothers and had it sent.

  The message read: ‘Have received your package. Design approved. Begin immediate production of prototype. Please advise when your first successful test flight has been completed and document the results. I would like for the new fighter aircraft to be named the Dragonfly. Many thanks, Harold Cavill.’.

  Chapter Nineteen: Royal Navy Admiralty Headquarters Portsmouth, UK

  May 19, 1936

  “Even when Winston Churchill isn’t the First Lord of the Admiralty, he continues to meddle in naval affairs.” First Sea Lord Admiral Ernle Chatfield complained to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet; Admiral Roger Backhouse.

  “Perhaps so, but he has consistently supported us throughout the years. I have talked with him several times myself over the past few months regarding naval matters.” Admiral Backhouse replied.

  “So what has the former First Lord of the Admiralty told you? I know that has always been infatuated with whatever latest technological wonder that presents itself.” The First Sea Lord growled.

  “Mister Churchill is convinced that the Japanese are not going to stay with the fourteen-inch limit for new battleship main caliber guns. Of course, if the Japanese invoke the escalator clause, the Americans will immediately follow suit and mount sixteen-inch guns on their new battleships. So, any work that we do now developing battleships armed only with the smaller caliber guns will either be a waste of valuable funding and time or will leave us with ships that are significantly less powerful than their contemporaries.”

  “We already have sixteen-inch guns in service withRodneyandNelson. Why not just use those?” Admiral Chatfield noted.

  “You have seen the results of those guns in service. Mister Churchill somehow got ahold of the official reports on the performance ofNelson’smain battery. Her guns performed significantly under expectations and have a far shorter barrel life than what was predicted as well.

  Mister Churchill is pushing for us to go back to our standard fifteen-inch Mark I gun or preferably the lighter Mark II that has already been designed by our ordnance people but not put into production. He believes that if we used those guns in three triple turrets, we would have more than adequate firepower while saving significant tonnage that could be applied to protection, speed and antiaircraft defenses.

  He is also proposing that we abandon the new Mark I dual-purpose gun that is under development for the new battleship class. Churchill also is strongly urging that we also use the same secondary battery for the new battleships that is planned to be installed onRenownand several of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. In fact, he wants the same secondary battery to be standardized on all of our capital ships includingTiger.”

  “That will cost us a tremendous amount of funding.”

  “Mister Churchill seems to have a solution for that as well. He had accountants look at the costs of the new ships and guns. He presented the results of their research. It appears that the funding saved by the elimination of further development of the fourteen-inch gun and the new dual-purpose Mark I secondary battery gun would save several million pounds. Churchill then brought up how the logistical savings with standardization around the fifteen-inch Mark II gun and the secondary battery of BD Mark II mounts planned forRenownand theQueen Elizabeth-class refits would pay for all of his proposals.”

  “Yes, funding is always a major concern. If Churchill has managed to find a way to pay for all this, money isn’t the only concern. What about the threat from enemy cruisers and destroyers attempting to close in for torpedo attacks? Will those lighter guns be adequate? That is why we moved from four-inch to six-inch secondary guns in the first place, as I recall.”

  “Churchill is convinced that air attack will be a far greater threat to our warships in the nearfuture. He specifically noted how the Americans’ Billy Mitchell had already shown that aircraft can even sink a dreadnought. ”

  The First Sea Lord snorted indignantly.

  “Yes, they sank an old German dreadnought at anchor. But it wasn’t manned, didn’t have its watertight doors closed and wasn’t maneuvering like a warship in a real battle would, not to mention no one was shooting at those American bombers when they came in to drop their bombs.”

  “Ernle, I think that you just made a large part of Churchill’s point for him, I’m afraid. He wants us to significantly improve our ships’ antiaircraft defenses. With better antiaircraft guns, it would be much harder for an enemy bomber to hit our ships with bombs or aerial-launched torpedoes because of our ships being able to shoot back more effectively. Churchill is asserting that the new Mark I’s with their heavier guns will simply not be able to achieve the rate of fire needed to drive off enemy air attacks, much less what the designers have claimed.

  Churchill also has recommended that we sell one or more of ourRevengeclass to the Chilean Navy to help pay for all of these programs. He
believes that they will not be particularly useful in a future war due to their slow speed. He has also suggested that we transfer two of the remaining Revengeclass ships to replace HMSCenturionand HMSIron Dukeas our target ship and training ship respectively.”

  “That would mean giving up ships armed with fifteen-inch guns though.”

  “Old ships, yes. But if we give Churchill everything that he is recommending, we will end up with a lot more fifteen-inch guns in the fleet on much more modern platforms. We can also take the turrets from the oldRevengeclass vessels and put them on monitors to supplement our shore bombardment capabilities.”

  “You do have a point there, Roger. What are you going to do?”

  “I recommend that the Royal Navy go forward with Churchill’s proposals. This includes his idea to build at least eight dedicated antiaircraft cruisers based on theArethusahull. These ships would be primarily armed with six of the same BD Mark II mounts that are going onto the reconstructed capital ships. These new cruisers would provide additional antiaircraft fire in support of the fleet as well as serving as flotilla leaders for destroyer formations.”

  “They won’t be much help against enemy cruisers with such light caliber main guns.”

  “Hopefully, they won’t ever have to face an enemy cruiser by themselves. The intent is they will always be working in conjunction with other Royal Navy or Commonwealth warships. The other warships with their larger caliber main guns will be dealing with the enemy warships while these antiaircraft cruisers fend off the bombers. However, these anti-aircraft cruisers will also be armed with torpedoes for fleet actions if necessary.

  Churchill has also endorsed our call for more cruiser construction as well. These would be an additional six ships armed with six-inch guns of theEdinburgh-class. They would help us greatly in covering our trade routes and convoys against raiders.”