by gerald hall
“Do those aborigines work for you?”
“Yes, Commander. They do. They are also part of our local militia that helps defend our facilities here in Derby.”
“They are not armed with our standard Enfield rifles, I see. What is it that they are carrying?”
“These are our new automatic rifles. We call them the CR-1. I met a gun collector a few years ago who had an example of a Russian Fedorov Avtomat automatic rifle. I was fascinated with the concept. So I asked to borrow the weapon for a while. Then I had one of my American engineers take a look at the rifle to see if he could improve upon it.
He designed a selective fire weapon that used the same Japanese Arisaka six-point-five millimeter ammunition. The rifle uses a short-stroke gas piston to operate the action and has a twenty-inch long barrel. We wanted to use the Arisaka ammunition cartridge for two reasons. The first reason is because it gives us decent range while still being very controllable during automatic fire. It’s like having several additional machine guns in an infantry squad.
The second reason is because we can use captured Japanese ammunition if necessary. We do prefer our own version of the ammunition since we use a modern spritzer bullet design that is more accurate and has a longer effective range however. The rifle uses a twenty-five round detachable box magazine. My militia troops each carry six ammunition magazines in pouches and one in the weapon itself as part of their basic load.”
“That is a lot of ammunition for each man to carry. Will we be able to keep up supplying such a large amount of ammunition? We are usually very concerned about that sort of thing.”
“Yes, I’m sure that we can. After all, we think nothing of firing hundreds of tons of artillery ammunition on a daily basis, isn’t that so? So what is a few tons of additional rifle ammunition fired each day, if it makes our soldiers much more effective?”
Commander Sampson wasn’t an infantryman, but he quickly understood the logic behind Harold’s explanation.
One other thing that Harold did not mention to Commander Sampson was that the vest that each militiaman wore was made of ballistic nylon and had pockets in the front and back for steel armor inserts. While not greatly exceeding the technological state of the art for that time, Harold was still providing his people with much better protection and capabilities than the soldiers of practically every other army in the world.
“Do you really trust these aborigines with this much firepower?” A concerned Commander Sampson asked.
“Of course, I do. The people who work for me here are extremely hardworking and trustworthy. I have even been contacted by French Engineer General Louis Kahn concerning my employees. The French want to borrow some of my workers to help his people repairing some of his warships based out of Haiphong. ” Harold answered.
It was still frustrating that after all of this time there were still people in Australia who looked down upon Harold’s aborigine workers even after all that the aborigines have accomplished. But the results could not be denied by any but the most vehement racists.
Cavill Ordnance Works
Derby, Western Australia
June 11, 1942
Harold went out to the firing range behind some of the Ordnance Works facilities. It was set up to fire heavy weapons at a variety of targets into an open area of the Outback. Harold quickly saw one of his chief weapons designers, Eric Poole standing near several new vehicles.
One of the weapons that he saw was obviously of a new design mounted on the back of a heavy six-wheel armored truck. He was struck by how well thought out the design was. The Gatling gun had five barrels that were each nearly two meters in length. The barrels were integrated with a reinforcing shroud around the muzzles. The gun was located in the center of the mount. On the right side, there was a gunner’s seat and optical sighting system. On the left side, was a large ammunition box with a feed chute running from it to the weapon’s breach mechanism.
“So this is the first one, Eric?”
“No. This is actually the third prototype. The first two are being prepared for mounting on one of your new destroyers in place of a pair of Bofors mounts. Most of the destroyer’s Oerlikons will also be removed as part of the conversion.”
“That’s pretty ambitious, Eric. I take it that you have a good reason for so much confidence. I have been so busy with my other projects that I haven’t had a chance to look in on you in a while.”
“I’ve got the gun set up for a live fire demonstration. All we have to drive it outside of town to the gunnery range. But first, I want to show you something else as well.” Eric said before motioning towards two aborigine workers to go to another warehouse in the Ordnance Works factory complex. A couple of minutes later, they drove out in a truck towing a larger antiaircraft gun on a trailer.
“I have your six-pounder antiaircraft gun ready as well. I have it temporarily mounted on a towed chassis for ground testing. The next step will be installing it on the stern gun mount for one of our torpedo boats.”
“You definitely have been busy, Eric.”
“It helped a lot when you basically doubled my workforce within twelve months of asking me to come up with these designs. After that, how could I possibly let you down, Sir?”
“Well, let’s go out to the range and see how well these new guns fire, shall we?” Harold asked.
“I thought that you would never ask.” A smiling Eric answered before hopping into the passenger seat of the armored truck. Harold rode in his personal truck as he followed behind the other two large trucks.
The company firing range had firing positions already set up. It only took a few minutes after the group arrived to get the guns ready for firing.
“I want to fire the Gatling gun first. I called ahead to the airfield. They are going to be flying an aircraft over the target range with a target banner being towed behind it.”
“Great. Just make sure that your gunner doesn’t shoot the towing aircraft first.” Harold joked.
“I certainly hope not. I’m going to be the gunner.” Eric replied with a laugh before climbing into the gunner’s seat.
A couple of minutes later, Harold could hear the drone of an aircraft engine in the distance. He was soon able to see the plane approaching with a large white banner being towed in the air behind it.
“The firing range is hot!” Eric yelled out, indicating that the gun was about to be fired at the aerial target banner.
The Gatling gun traversed, tracking the banner for a couple of seconds before a loud sound like a monster chainsaw filled the air. A stream of white tracers raced into the air, quickly shredding the target banner in an instant.
Eric declared the range safe then got out of the Gatling’s gunner’s seat. He then walked over to the second firing point. The aborigine workers had just finished setting up the six-pounder on its firing stands in preparation for its demonstration.
“I’m going to fire a few rounds at one of our ground target hulks. I don’t have a suitable aerial target for this gun available at the moment.” Eric explained before waving to the crew at the six-pounder.
A couple of minutes later, the gun’s long barrel traversed down and to the right before unleashing a barrage of over twenty rounds at a target hulk in the distance. The total burst took less than ten seconds to fire.
Harold looked at the target in the distance through a set of binoculars that he normally kept in his truck. He was very pleased to see that the target hulk had been turned to scrap metal by the impact of the high velocity shells.
“You’ve done an excellent job with these two projects from what I can tell. I am curious about one thing. What round does the Gatling gun use, Eric? The rate of fire from it was certainly very impressive, I must say.” Harold asked after the firing demonstration was over.
“It uses the Hotchkiss twenty-five by one-sixty-three millimeter automatic cannon round. At the gun’s maximum rate of fire, I can shoot over fifty rounds a second also.”
“Why did you choose a twenty-five millimeter
round?”
“We already use the Hotchkiss round for the main guns on our light scout tanks. Also, both the Japanese and the French use the Hotchkiss round for their anti-aircraft guns. So we can share ammunition supply with the French when necessary. In an emergency, we can also use captured stocks of Japanese ammunition, just as we already do with ammunition for the automatic rifles that we currently field.
The twenty-five millimeter round is also more powerful than the twenty millimeter rounds that were generally available. That means better knockdown power against enemy aircraft and light surface targets as well.”
“That is a very sensible choice, Eric. I know how much that the logisticians hate having to add another caliber to their inventories. But if we can share ammunition with our allies and steal it from our enemies, then it will definitely be worthwhile. Plus, I have a new friend of mine who just might find another interesting application for your new Gatling gun as well.”
“Does that new friend happen to be called ‘Pappy’?’ Eric asked with a sly smile. He knew about the American pilot’s obsession with adding more and more firepower into the noses of light and medium bomber aircraft to increase their ability to hit the Japanese with a devastating blow.
Harold smiled back. “I think that you already know the answer to that question, Eric. I want you to know that you have done an excellent job with both of these weapons. I am looking forward to getting both of them into service as quickly as possible. I’m sure that the commanders of the Australian military will quickly approve of them once they see the same demonstration that you showed me.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Tell me something, Eric. Can the six-pounder antiaircraft gun still fire our standard tank rounds?”
“Of course. It uses the same chamber and barrel as the tank gun still. Why do you ask?”
“Because I want it to be able to engage all kinds of ground targets when necessary. So you will need to make sure that ballistic tables are prepared for the troops with that ammunition as well as ensuring that the ground mounts have the appropriate direct-fire sights.”
“That should be easy enough to do, Sir. I think that you will also be pleased to learn that production on the new seventeen-pounder tank guns has now begun. The tractor factory has already started mounting them on our stretched Mark II Medium tank chassis.”
“That is great news. I have been getting numerous requests from the British Army, the Australian Army and especially General Patton from the new American Army Volunteer Group. They all want tanks with more firepower and protection for their armored units. They have all seen the reports of advanced new German and Japanese tanks and want to be ready for them. The Germans obviously had to upgrade their own armor after dealing with the Soviets’ massive armor formations. However, the new Japanese tanks are probably far less of the threat even to our previous tank design.” Harold explained.
“We will give them what we can. Our production capabilities are still pretty limited here.”
“I know. We are going to need some help if we are going to supply all of the equipment that we are being asked for. Fortunately, it looks like we might be able to get some of that help soon.”
Cavill Aviation Experimental Hangar
Derby, Western Australia
June 28, 1942
Harold drove up to one of the four underground hangars that had been excavated near the Derby Airfield during the past five years. These bomb-resistant hangars mostly housed Dragonfly and Whirlwind-R fighters for the defense of the Derby area. This particular hangar was exclusively used by Cavill Aviation for the storage, maintenance and assembly of its latest aircraft designs. The underground location meant that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to get a detailed look at the latest designs being built by Harold’s aircraft division.
Harold entered the hangar through the personnel door and initially stopped to look around. This hanger used one of the larger excavations in order to provide enough space for even twin-engine transports and bombers to be stored inside the chamber. Indeed, a pair of prototype twin-engine transports were located near the entrance of the hangar. It was remarkable to Harold just how closely these particular aircraft resembled transport designs built by both the Americans and the Germans of the era with their twin tail booms and their boxy fuselages.
As Harold continued into the underground hangar, the workers there warmly greeted him. The people who worked for Harold in his various industries were very diverse in their origins. There were white Australians, aborigines, American and German expatriates, all working side by side.
Harold only had to walk a little further before he saw a new twin-engine bomber undergoing modification. As soon as Pappy Gunn saw who was coming, he immediately stopped what he was working on and came over to Harold.
“Good morning, Mister Cavill. I’m glad to see you again.” A smiling Pappy said as he shook Harold’s hand.
“Thank you. I’m glad to see you hard at work. You have been a tremendous help to us here, Pappy. Tell me, how are Polly and your kids doing now?”
“They’re all doing fine. I think that they have finally gained back about all of the weight that they lost while in that damned Japanese concentration camp. I wish that we could have gotten all of our people out of there.”
“I wish that we could have too. Doubtlessly, things are getting worse in the camps for the people who are still there.” Harold sadly replied.
“Just like you, I’m doing all that I can to help us free everyone in the Philippines from those Jap bastards. After she got home, Polly told me a lot of terrible stories about what happened after the Japanese invasion.”
As Pappy spoke, Harold could see the growing anger in Pappy’s eyes. Harold already had a very good idea of the horrors inflicted upon Americans and Filipinos alike at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation based on his computer’s historical records.
Harold quickly changed the subject.
“So what are you working on right now, Pappy?”
All it took was the mention of aircraft and Pappy’s heart was back in its natural environment. Aircraft and flying were always Pappy’s first loves. Talking about aircraft always brought a special joy to Pappy as a result.
“Well, Sir. This is that new prototype bomber that your aircraft factory just finished. It’s not quite as big as one of those North American Mitchell’s, but it is a sweet airplane for sure. It will be a good low-level bomber and torpedo bomber as it is. However, if we are going to really hurt the Japs, we need something that can strafe the hell out of shipping and airfields.”
The bomber did look a lot like an early model B-25 Mitchell, all the way down to the twin tails and the twin fifty-caliber machine guns in the dorsal turret. One major difference was that the pilot and co-pilot sat closer to the nose in a heavily glazed and streamlined forward fuselage. The B-25 had an airline style cockpit that sat back further from the nose.
“I was planning on seeing how many Browning fifty-caliber machine guns that we could pack in the lower part of the nose here. But then someone told me about this big Gatling gun of yours.” Pappy said with a hint of delight in his voice.
“Yes, my ordnance works designed it for shipboard antiaircraft use, but we now also mount it on the back of a large truck as well. The cannon uses the twenty-five millimeter Hotchkiss round. That’s a pretty decent round with the right application.”
“I agree completely, Sir. I’ve already started looking at what it would take to mount your cannon into this airplane. It will take a bit of redesigning of the nose, including moving the nose landing gear over to one side a little bit so that the recoil will still be on the aircraft centerline. But I think that I can stick one of those Gatling guns right up under where the pilots sit. It would also be easy to put a big ammunition drum right into the bomb bay. You should still have enough payload left to hang a torpedo under the belly, maybe even a few bombs or rockets under the wings too.
With that combination, you co
uld tear the hell out of any Jap transport or destroyer. Those Japanese cruisers probably would not enjoy getting strafed by one of these birds either.”
“That sounds pretty impressive. I will see if we can get one of those guns over to you so that you can look at it. Obviously, it will take a bit more work to convert this bomber here to what you are thinking of.”
“That’s true, Sir. Maybe you can get one or two of the folks who designed this bird to come here and see what they can do to help?”
“I’ll do that, Pappy.”
“Thank you. Polly and I are also wondering if you and your family might like to meet for dinner sometime. It would be nice to have a normal meal after all that has happened. We also want to show your appreciation for helping get my family out of that damned camp.” Pappy replied with a sort of sad smile.
“Pappy, you don’t know just how much I appreciate the work that you are doing out here already.” Harold said with a sad smile of his own while thinking about the billions that died nearly a hundred years in the future.
With all of the work that Harold had done over the past twenty-four years, he still couldn’t be sure if he had made any real difference at all. But Harold still knew that he had to keep trying.
Kriegsmarine Headquarters
Berlin, Germany
June 31, 1942
The commander of the Kriegsmarine was meeting with Hitler’s Minister for War Production at one of the headquarters conference rooms. The meeting concerning the Kriegsmarine’s current needs was not going as either would have preferred though.
“We simply cannot afford to send any more heavy warships out without providing them with air cover.” Admiral Raeder admitted.
“What about the Luftwaffe? Surely they can provide us with long-range aviation assets. Goering continues to trumpet the Luftwaffe as being the masters of the air.” Albert Speer asked.
“That fat fool couldn’t even manage to control the air over England even though the Luftwaffe vastly outnumbered the Englanders’ Royal Air Force. Then there was the debacle over Dunkirk where another one of Goering’s boasts went up in smoke. Goering convinced the Fuhrer to let the Luftwaffe destroy the troops on the beach rather than waste Wehrmacht troops fighting on the ground. The Englanders still managed to retrieve more than a hundred thousand of their troops in addition to thousands of French and other enemy personnel right under the noses of the Luftwaffe.